Installing HADesigner

HADesigner allows user interfaces to be manipulated in an existing LinuxMCE installation. However its install process is not immediately intuitive.

For those who already know what they're doing

The instructions must be performed on a Windows machine, preferrably one running Windows 2000 or later.

1. Install the Microsoft .NET Framework, version 1.1 Download Link
2. Install the Microsoft .NET ODBC Data Provider Download Link
3. Install the MyODBC Adaptor Download Link
4. Add a grant to allow your HADesigner box to access your Core, make up a username and password.... (USE mysql; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pluto_main.* TO odbcuser@192.168.80.xxx IDENTIFIED BY 'odbcpassword'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;)
5. While installing the myodbc adaptor, use the odbcuser and odbcpassword you specified in the GRANT to test the connection from the installer and make sure it works correctly.
6. Create a System DSN using the ODBC Administrator, called linuxmce, using the odbcuser and password you specified above, and use pluto_main as the database. (This is under "Control Panel" -> "Administrative Tools" -> "Data Sources (ODBC)" You may need to enable the "Classic" view in the explorer shell for the "Control Panel" "folder")
7. Copy the files from /usr/pluto/orbiter/skins to C:\PlutoSkins on your HADesigner box. This is so that you can see the skin graphics correctly, as they are only stored with relative paths within the database.
8. Download and unpack the HADesigner ZIP. Download Link, decompress it into some directory, say "C:\HADesigner".
9. Launch HADesigner, and in the configuration dialogue box that appears, enter the following information:
   • Skins Directory: C:\PlutoSkins
   • Database Connection: dsn=linuxmce

With all of this done, the HADesigner should now work.

If you run HADESigner after following these steps and it is trying to connect to the local machine instead of the core for the database, you must edit the registry to correct a wrong entry that somehow got inserted. The steps are as follows:

1. Run regedit from the run option on you windows machine
2. Go to the following hive:

        Comupter\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pluto\OrbiterDesigner

Once in that hive, edit the ConnectionKey to correct the dababase login. Your data should look something similar to the following, only instead of the odbcuser and odbcpassword, replace with yours created above:

        driver={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};server=dcerouter;uid=odbcuser;password=odbcpassword;database=pluto_main;

Now HADESigner should find your correct database and work properly.