User Manual

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Hardware

Picking The Right Components

The Core

The most important component is the "Core." This is the main LinuxMCE server that runs all the applications. A good Pentium 4 with at least 80 GB of storage and two network cards (Gigabit ideally) is often sufficient. A high-end server with RAID-5 storage is best.

It is best to dedicate one PC as the Core server. You can put this computer somewhere out of the way and not connect a monitor to it. If there will be only one computer in your LinuxMCE system, that computer will be a "hybrid" Core server and media player. It will defnitiely require a connection to a TV.

Here are some possible Core server platforms.

Media Directors

Media Directors (MDs) are PCs with outputs to connect to a television (such as S-video or RCA jacks). Sound outputs to speakers, from a good sound card, is also important. The MDs play all your streaming music and video from the Core, from network attached storage (NAS), and from other MDs in your system. Output to a TV and speakers can create an awesome multimedia experience.

Here are some possible Media Director platforms.

Orbiters

Orbiters are high-tech remote controls. LinuxMCE provides for multiple orbiter options such as a generic PC, wireless tablet PC, PDAs, mobile phones running Symbian or Microsoft Mobile, or through a web interface accessible to any computer within your LinuxMCE network, or even from the Internet. (The web interface requires user authentication.)

Here are some possible Orbiter platforms.

Network Attached Storage

An alternative to having a lot of storage space in the Core PC itself is to store your files on a network attached storage (NAS) server. An example is the Buffalo Terastation, a 1.0 TeraByte RAID-5 hard drive for under US$1000. You can store large music and video collections this way. Your LinuxMCE system can also record TV shows (using MythTV) and video from your security cameras (using Motion). Both require lots of hard drive storage space.

Here are some possible NAS solutions.

Additional Devices

  • Home automation devices for controlling your lights
  • security cameras
  • a plasma screen TV
  • a streaming media music player such as the SlimDevices Squeezebox
  • an alarm system with a serial interface

These are examples of devices that require a controller device called a gc100. The gc100 allows these and other devices that communicate using a serial port (e.g. alarm panels) or an infrared port (e.g. a TV) to connect to the network and talk with your LinuxMCE Core.

Plug 'n' Play Capabilities

Once LinuxMCE is installed, you can treat it like an appliance -- plug it in, turn it on, and leave it alone. You don't even need to install any software on the media PCs that will be used as Media Directors. If these PCs are connected to the Core by wired Ethernet, they can usually be set to boot LinuxMCE from the Core server over the network whenever you want to use them as a Media Director. The rest of the time they can be used as a regular PC, using whatever operating system is on their hard drives.


The LinuxMCE Core must be the DHCP server for your LinuxMCE network so that it can offer the plug-and-play and network boot services. The Core server bridges your "external" home LAN and an "internal" LinuxMCE LAN. For this to work, it is recommended to have dual network cards -- one to connect to the "external" network (which can be your home LAN or simply your Internet connection), and one for the "internal" LinuxMCE network (to which all your LinuxMCE devices are connected). The LinuxMCE Core server effectively acts as DHCP server and firewall for the LinuxMCE network.

Note that you can easily have PCs outside of the LinuxMCE internal network, if you choose. Simply do not connect them to the LinuxMCE network. Alternatively, you can choose to have all PCs in your house be part of the LinuxMCE network. In this case the Core server provides DHCP and firewall services for you entire home LAN.

Wiring Considerations

The connection between the Core server and the Media Directors requires a significant amount of data transmission. It is recommended that a wired Ethernet be used between the Core and each Media Director.

Other devices which do not have as high data transmission requirements, such as PDAs used as Orbiter remote controls, can be used wirelessly through a wireless access point that is later connected to the LinuxMCE LAN.

Furthermore, wireless netbooting is not very easy. For this reason, a wired LAN is easiest and best for most users.

Additional Hardware Resources

Choosing hardware components can be difficult. There are multiple articles regarding hardware selection in the Hardware Category.

Also see:

Setting Up The Hardware

Using your own PCs

LinuxMCE is Linux-based. Sometimes drivers are not available for Linux as soon as they are for Windows. If you bought some new, exotic hardware there may not yet be drivers for Linux. Check out the Hardware Category first. Also check out linuxcompatible.org for a list of Linux-compatible hardware. As a last resort to find out if your hardware might work, post a message in the LinuxMCE forums.

Adding Additional Hardware

You can also put multiple cards in the Core, such as analog phone line interfaces (e.g. from www.digium.com), or analog video capture cards for surveillance cameras. You can put the PVR/satellite capture cards in the individual media PCs, or you can put them in the Core, which will enable sharing video throughout the house.

Bluetooth mobile phones can be used as remote controls by adding a USB Bluetooth Dongle to each Media Director (around $25). Each Media Director will report the signal strengths of each mobile phone (this is how the Core figures out what room you're in). Since all resources in the whole house are shared, you will be able to control any device in any room from anywhere -- as long as you're within Bluetooth range of a Media Director (within 10m, or 30feet).

You can also use low-cost network audio players, like the Squeeze Box, which can be placed anywhere in the system.

Orbiter remote controls not only include the Media Directors themselves (through the mouse and keyboard), but can also include infrared remotes, webpads, and even PDAs.

A Dedicated Core

Connects to a Dedicated Core

The Core is the central point of the LinuxMCE system and runs applications and daemons needed for the other devices to exchange data and commands. A dedicated Core controls all of the LinuxMCE components. In this LinuxMCE configuration, the user does not use the Core as a Media Director at all. Other PCs will need to be used as Media Directors in order to play movies, listen to music, and watch TV. This kind of setup is recommended when you have lot of extra devices, all of which will have full access to the Core's resources.

The Clean Core project is an ongoing effort to further reduce the resource consumption of the Core server.


A Dedicated Hybrid

Connections to a Hybrid Core

A "hybrid" is a PC that runs the "Core" software while also serving as a Media Director. This is often done with standalone LinuxMCE setups, with a single PC in the Home Entertainment Center. However, other Media Directors can still be added into the system later.

The Core server (and therefore a hybrid) generally requires more processing power, runs hotter, needs more cooling fans (and is therefore noisier), and is often a bigger PC than those used only as Media Directors. For many users it is less desirable to place such a PC in their Home Entertainment Center.

However, there are now multimedia-oriented PCs made with this in mind, that are quite suitable for use as hybrids.

A Media Director cannot run without first setting up a LinuxMCE Core (or hybrid) server.

Installation of Software Components

There are currently two methods of installation. The DVD installation requires a single installation disk. The CD method which requires 3 disks (one of which is the Kubuntu LiveCD), but offers more flexibility in installation.

DVD Installation

CD Installation

Setting Up LinuxMCE

Tell LinuxMCE About Your Home

Tell LinuxMCE about your home shows you how to use LinuxMCE to store information about the existing hardware in your home. In a few hours you can have your home hardware setup to be part of the LinuxMCE system -- a whole-house media server, home automation systems for your your lights and climate control, TV/Hi-Fi gear, a VOIP phone system, follow-me remote controls -- anything that you already have in your home. It's quick, painless, and non-technical.

Setting up your LinuxMCE system consists of 4 steps:

  • Providing some general information, such as what kind of network you have.
  • Specifying the devices in your home (lights, TVs, surveillance cameras, etc.).
  • Creating scenarios. A "scenario" is a group of commands, or tasks, you want executed when you touch a button. Each scenario you create will appear on the Orbiter remote controls as an option button.
  • Scenarios are generally organized into 5 categories: lighting, media, climate, security and telephone. You can create, for example, a lighting scenario called "Entertaining" which turns on all the lights in the house and in the front yard. A button labeled "Entertaining" will then appear on the Orbiters in the lighting section--touch it to activate the scenario. Any scenario can do anything. For example, just because the "Entertaining" scenario is a lighting scenario doesn't mean the scenario only affects lights. You can make the scenario also play some music, and maybe open the front gate. You can use the "Advanced, My Scenarios" menu option for low-level control over a scenario, to make it do whatever you want. However the Wizard includes pages that make it very easy to create scenarios. For example, when you add a lighting scenario with the Wizard, it lists all the lights in the house and lets you pick the ones you want to change with the scenario.
  • Creating event handlers. This is how you tell LinuxMCE you want it to do something in response to some event. For example, you may want LinuxMCE to turn on the Front Porch light when a motion detector is tripped. Or you want it to play a loud message on the TV when there is a security breach. Perhaps you would like to stop watering the lawn when it rains.

The developers have tried to automate has much of the set up as possible with several scripts and wizards. If the wizards are unable to customize your system the way you like it, then an admin page, accessible through the built-in web browser, is provided, for even more options.

  • To get started, read the Quick Start Guide
  • The appearance of LinuxMCE depends on your graphics card. Read Graphics Test for information on how to determine the capabilities of your current video card.

AVWizard

The Audio/Video Wizard is designed to allow for easy setup of the components (ranging from a simple monitor to an HCTV with composite inputs and outputs) to which a Media Director outputs the multimedia content that is streamed from the Core.

Setup Wizard

The setup wizard is an automated series of screens which allows the user to enter information about the devices that LinuxMCE will control. First you will be prompted to set up audio and video. When audio and video are properly setup you should see and hear a video. Following that you can choose one of two configuration screens: the House Setup Wizard or the Media Player Wizard.

House Setup Wizard

Media Player Wizard

Using LinuxMCE Admin Website

Although there are automated wizards to assist in setup, there are more options provided in the LinucxMCE Admin web page. The user can create and modify any and all devices that LinuxMCE can control through the Admin page, which is displayed in the integrated web browser available both on the Core/Hybrid and on every Media Director.

Scenarios, Events & Security

In the Scenarios page, add the scenarios, or buttons, you want for each room. For example:

  • A Lighting scenario in the Bedroom called 'Go to sleep' can dim the lights.
  • A Security scenario in the Living Room can view a camera.

When you do a 'quick reload router', DCERouter will automatically add Media Scenarios for each room which will include the media devices that are located there.

Your new scenarios will then be visible on the Orbiter remote controls after you regenerate.

Add Events to specify conditional events (such as turning on a light) when something else happens (a motion detector is tripped, the sun sets, etc.). This can be used for security. For example, you want to be notified (by VOIP, a message on a TV, etc.) when certain events happen in the house (motion detector is tripped). Settings will take effect next time you reboot or 'quick reload router'.

Configuring Myth TV

Most of the setup for MythTV is done automatically, but for more information take a look at the following link.

Upload Your Media

There will also be Microsoft Windows compatible network shares on the Core or Hybrid (uses Samba) . There is a "public" share for putting all files that the whole family can share--movies, music, etc. And there is a private share for each family member. To access these network shares in Windows, choose Start, Run, and type \\ plus the IP address of the Core or hybrid.

For example: \\192.168.80.1 Note that if you add new family members, their network share will not be available until after you reboot the Core/Hybrid. Once you copy your media into the appropriate folder, you can go into the LinuxMCE Admin Website, choose "Files & Media" and "Media Files Sync" to be sure your media is in the database, add attributes (artist, actor, etc.), and choose cover art.


General Usage Pages

Lights

Media

Controlling Equipment
Using Portable Media
Media Attributes

Climate

Telecom

Security

Advanced

Troubleshooting

This troubleshooting guide assumes some basic knowledge of Linux. In LinuxMCE, everything is a device. In the LinuxMCE Admin Website, you can choose Devices, to see a list of all the devices in your installation. We recommend you don't make changes here - you can break things! The top level device is usually a computer, either the core or a hybrid or an orbiter. All the logs for the devices on that computer are stored in /var/log/pluto. You can ssh in to the core using the root password you chose, and from there, you can ssh to all the media directors-shared keys were automatically setup.

All current activity is logged in the file that ends in ".log". At bootup, certain device logs are archived into /var/log/pluto/*.log.*.gz files

All DCE devices are running in separate screen sessions. Type "screen -ls" to see all active screen sessions, and "screen -r PID" where PID is the id you saw in the -ls list to attach to the screen session. There is not much for you to do or see though since all the output on stderr and stdout is going into the logs. DCERouter is running the same way on your core or hybrid.

At bootup, all the scripts listed in the LinuxMCE Admin Website under Boot Sequence are run. If any programs crash, a core dump file is put in /usr/pluto/coredump.

If you're a programmer, you can also check out our Programmer's Guide. If you want to learn about writing DCE Devices, see the DCE.

Other Items of Concern

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