46
Users / Re: Art thumbnails resolution
« on: August 09, 2007, 08:09:47 am »
In the RC1 they were 75x75. In the 0704 release they should now be 256x256 with anti-aliasing and look good (see them in /home/mediapics)
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47
Installation issues / Re: Yet another issue...
« on: August 08, 2007, 04:03:08 am »
The download instructions indicate that neither cd is bootable. If you use the dual cd option, you boot off the kubuntu live cd to install kubuntu, adn then lmce on top of it. The quick install dvd is bootable, since it has both kubuntu and lmce on one disk and installs everything at once. The dvd is much easier to use (think 20 minute installation with 3 keystrokes, vs 2+ hours installation). And the dvd is pretty much bulletproof. *but* it's a 4gb download.
48
Users / Re: Good remote for LinuxMCE?
« on: July 29, 2007, 05:55:00 am »
Fiire sent me a couple pre-production prototypes which I've been using. I believe it uses the same plastic molds as the Windows remote, but i know the firmware and what's inside is just for LinuxMCE. Everytime I reported problems they had to swap out the boards and chips inside the remote. I'm doing a new demo video and will use it in their so you can see how it works; it doesn't work at all like the Windows remote.
49
Users / Re: Can I buy LinuxMCE products?
« on: July 29, 2007, 05:51:17 am »
Pluto said I could import all the pages from their wiki to provide a starting point, which I did, and just bulk replaced "Pluto" with "LinuxMCE". That page you mention must be some legacy stuff from Pluto that doesn't apply to LinuxMCE. LinuxMCE has no commercial ties, nor any official hardware.
50
Developers / Re: How to download and build LinuxMCE?
« on: July 29, 2007, 05:47:11 am »
Hi,
Sorry for not responding. I have been working on this day and night, and it takes soooo much time to respond to the forums that I wouldn't get any work done. The 1.1 release is done. As far as why I haven't been around to build a community... I started with the intention of building a FOSS community around this. However, after the 1.0 release I was inundated with problems and issues; literally hundreds of emails every day. I tried to work with some volunteers from the community, but there was so much time spent coordinating with them that I had no time to code, and it didn't prove too fruitful, and with the volume of emails I was getting, it was hard to even pick out who was serious, and I got frustrated by some flakes who were just looking for direct tech support more than to contribute. So, given the number of hours in the day and the amount of effort I realized it will take to build a FOSS community, my choices were to spend time working on building a community, which I figured would be hard to do since there were so many problems reported, or just bury my head in the code and try to fix everything. It was a no-win situation, but I chose to pass on the forums/emails/etc. and just code every moment I could. Once this next release is out and I see that LinuxMCE is stable, I intend to shift focus back to the community.
As far as the lack of sources... I started with an svn in sourceforge and my own build server. But it takes around 8 hours to build, and it was a huge task just trying to merge back in Pluto's changes that I was losing a lot of time. So even before the 1.0 release I asked if I could use their svn and one of their build servers, since it would benefit them too to have my fixes in their code. They agreed. As soon as the release 1.1 is done and I can breath, I'll release a new set of sources. There's no conspiracy and no attempt to be secretive, I just haven't had the time. I'm still up in the air about whether it's best to completely fork the code from Pluto. For FOSS/community reasons I want to, particularly because of their license, but until there's much of a community it's a lot of extra effort and it's easier to use theirs.
The Pluto license is an obstacle. It hasn't been my immediate concern because it doesn't really effect anything I'm doing or prevent me from releasing LinuxMCE. But it will need to be addressed eventually to get support from the community. Everything I've been doing is intended to be GPL, although 90% of my work is in scripts and other stuff to get it integrated, and I haven't taken the time to put copyrights or licenses on any of them, so I guess one could argue they're complete free and public domain with no license at all.
As far as Fiire goes, there are many companies that contacted me around the 1.0 release and said they're going to start shipping LinuxMCE products. Fiire did seem the most serious. They sent me a lot of equipment (pre-production prototypes of everything on their site) to be sure whatever fixes I made worked on their stuff. They also donated an HD camcorder so I could shoot a new demo video, and hired a few people to work on getting the 1.1 (now dubbed 0704) release out. AMD also provided some generous support, including helping get a new demo video done that is light years better than the original one I'm kind of embarrassed about. I think Fiire's got all the equipment in stock and ready to ship, but they're waiting for this next release to start shipping. I'm not sure why the site is live now, because I know they're not going to ship anything before this next release. I think they just figured nobody knew about it. There are other companies out there that said they'll also sell LMCE boxes once this release is out, although Fiire had that gyro remote custom made for LinuxMCE. Next week I promised to have this release out, and I assume then they'll officially announce it and go live, though I've just been focused on coding and haven't been following closely. I know they intend to get DVD's of LinuxMCE mastered and hand them out at Linux World (I won't be there).
Ok. Back to coding...
Sorry for not responding. I have been working on this day and night, and it takes soooo much time to respond to the forums that I wouldn't get any work done. The 1.1 release is done. As far as why I haven't been around to build a community... I started with the intention of building a FOSS community around this. However, after the 1.0 release I was inundated with problems and issues; literally hundreds of emails every day. I tried to work with some volunteers from the community, but there was so much time spent coordinating with them that I had no time to code, and it didn't prove too fruitful, and with the volume of emails I was getting, it was hard to even pick out who was serious, and I got frustrated by some flakes who were just looking for direct tech support more than to contribute. So, given the number of hours in the day and the amount of effort I realized it will take to build a FOSS community, my choices were to spend time working on building a community, which I figured would be hard to do since there were so many problems reported, or just bury my head in the code and try to fix everything. It was a no-win situation, but I chose to pass on the forums/emails/etc. and just code every moment I could. Once this next release is out and I see that LinuxMCE is stable, I intend to shift focus back to the community.
As far as the lack of sources... I started with an svn in sourceforge and my own build server. But it takes around 8 hours to build, and it was a huge task just trying to merge back in Pluto's changes that I was losing a lot of time. So even before the 1.0 release I asked if I could use their svn and one of their build servers, since it would benefit them too to have my fixes in their code. They agreed. As soon as the release 1.1 is done and I can breath, I'll release a new set of sources. There's no conspiracy and no attempt to be secretive, I just haven't had the time. I'm still up in the air about whether it's best to completely fork the code from Pluto. For FOSS/community reasons I want to, particularly because of their license, but until there's much of a community it's a lot of extra effort and it's easier to use theirs.
The Pluto license is an obstacle. It hasn't been my immediate concern because it doesn't really effect anything I'm doing or prevent me from releasing LinuxMCE. But it will need to be addressed eventually to get support from the community. Everything I've been doing is intended to be GPL, although 90% of my work is in scripts and other stuff to get it integrated, and I haven't taken the time to put copyrights or licenses on any of them, so I guess one could argue they're complete free and public domain with no license at all.
As far as Fiire goes, there are many companies that contacted me around the 1.0 release and said they're going to start shipping LinuxMCE products. Fiire did seem the most serious. They sent me a lot of equipment (pre-production prototypes of everything on their site) to be sure whatever fixes I made worked on their stuff. They also donated an HD camcorder so I could shoot a new demo video, and hired a few people to work on getting the 1.1 (now dubbed 0704) release out. AMD also provided some generous support, including helping get a new demo video done that is light years better than the original one I'm kind of embarrassed about. I think Fiire's got all the equipment in stock and ready to ship, but they're waiting for this next release to start shipping. I'm not sure why the site is live now, because I know they're not going to ship anything before this next release. I think they just figured nobody knew about it. There are other companies out there that said they'll also sell LMCE boxes once this release is out, although Fiire had that gyro remote custom made for LinuxMCE. Next week I promised to have this release out, and I assume then they'll officially announce it and go live, though I've just been focused on coding and haven't been following closely. I know they intend to get DVD's of LinuxMCE mastered and hand them out at Linux World (I won't be there).
Ok. Back to coding...
51
Users / Re: LinuxMCE 0704 RC1 Released
« on: July 28, 2007, 02:34:36 pm »
I'm going to do a change-log and post the sources next week when the final one is released. There is a new update mechanism. And also a backup/restore. The beta 1/2 and RC1 won't likely cleanly upgrade because all upgrades will assume you're starting with the final release as a base. the beta 1/2 and rc1 are for tests to confirm it's all ok. but once the release is out, it will keep updating itself. This has been tested a lot.
52
Users / Re: LinuxMCE 0704 RC1 Released
« on: July 28, 2007, 02:30:45 pm »
>> but is that version jump really necessary? What's the point in trailing the ubuntu versions when the goal is to run on other distro's as well? ... Or do we have a marketting department as well now?
No marketing
The most common problem with the beta 1/2 was that people were installing it on the wrong Ubuntu version. So I figured syncing the versions would be better and make it clearer that this only works with 0704, and the next release for Kubuntu will be 0710, etc. As far as other distros, what I was thinking of doing was making all the versions trail the respective distros. So the Kubuntu version could be KU-0704 and KU-0710. If, in June, there's a release for, say SuSe 20, then the LinuxMCE that goes with it would be LinuxMCE SU-20.
This isn't ideal. But since LinuxMCE is an add-on and not yet included in the distros, I was trying to find a way to prevent people from using the wrong version of LinuxMCE for their distro, or using the LinuxMCE for Kubuntu on Fedora, etc. Any other suggestions are welcome.
You're right, though, that 1.0 shouldn't have been 1.0, and should have been a 0.9 or something.
No marketing
The most common problem with the beta 1/2 was that people were installing it on the wrong Ubuntu version. So I figured syncing the versions would be better and make it clearer that this only works with 0704, and the next release for Kubuntu will be 0710, etc. As far as other distros, what I was thinking of doing was making all the versions trail the respective distros. So the Kubuntu version could be KU-0704 and KU-0710. If, in June, there's a release for, say SuSe 20, then the LinuxMCE that goes with it would be LinuxMCE SU-20.This isn't ideal. But since LinuxMCE is an add-on and not yet included in the distros, I was trying to find a way to prevent people from using the wrong version of LinuxMCE for their distro, or using the LinuxMCE for Kubuntu on Fedora, etc. Any other suggestions are welcome.
You're right, though, that 1.0 shouldn't have been 1.0, and should have been a 0.9 or something.
53
Users / Re: LinuxMCE focus for the future?
« on: June 05, 2007, 03:31:13 pm »
The smarthome features will still be developed, but like with any project, the development efforts go where the demand is greatest, which right now is the media. My main focus right now is improving the TV / PVR because that's a big complaint. The home control stuff is actually very simple compared to the rest.
54
Users / Re: Any solutions for disappearing mythtv frontend?
« on: April 10, 2007, 08:13:59 am »
This is really bizarre. It happens a lot to me too, but I can't figure out why. I don't know enough about myth. What happens is that the MythTV_Player, which is the LMCE program inherited from Pluto, is really just a wrapper that sends commands to the myth frontend in a socket. mythfrontend is just spawned like normal. This is not a modified version of myth in any way. If you tail DCERouter.log, you'll see the command Spawn Application is sent to App Server, which is the device that does the spawning. And, as someone pointed out, whenever app server spawns an application, that apps output is logged to Spawn_[pid]_[name].log. So, you should see the logged output for myth frontend.
Here are the things I've been looking into: apt-get install wmctrl and then use wmctrl (window manager control) to confirm that mythfrontend's window is active. As far as I can tell, it is, and the gray/black screen is actually the myth front end. One could also kill Orbiter (killall OrbiterGL or killall Orbiter) to see if someone Orbiter was hiding mythfrontend; note: when you kill Orbiter, it will automatically restart in about 10 seconds.
When the spawned mythfrontend process exits, App Server sends a commands back saying the spawned app terminated, and that's what causes lmce to know that tv is over. I'm going to be working at this more intensely as I'm trying to get lmce 1.1 out for feisty, and it fixes a ton of issues and has a new installation method.
Here are the things I've been looking into: apt-get install wmctrl and then use wmctrl (window manager control) to confirm that mythfrontend's window is active. As far as I can tell, it is, and the gray/black screen is actually the myth front end. One could also kill Orbiter (killall OrbiterGL or killall Orbiter) to see if someone Orbiter was hiding mythfrontend; note: when you kill Orbiter, it will automatically restart in about 10 seconds.
When the spawned mythfrontend process exits, App Server sends a commands back saying the spawned app terminated, and that's what causes lmce to know that tv is over. I'm going to be working at this more intensely as I'm trying to get lmce 1.1 out for feisty, and it fixes a ton of issues and has a new installation method.
55
Installation issues / Re: Lirc client
« on: April 03, 2007, 06:56:07 am »
When you plug it in, run TailDCERouter.sh in a console. You should see "Device Detected" events, and a blue popup on the screen. It should be added to teh table PnpQueue in pluto_main, and in there will be a reference to the device it added. If none of this happens, what's in your HAL log (/var/log/pluto/*HAL*) since that device is responsible for firing the events when usb is inserted/removed? What does lsusb show?
56
Installation issues / Re: Is it necessary to take over my sources.list?
« on: April 03, 2007, 06:53:34 am »
I agree this is too invasive. Because lmce has *soo* many dependencies, though, it was kind of needed to keep the packages from breaking.
57
Installation issues / Re: Any support for the HPV1600?
« on: April 03, 2007, 06:52:39 am »
sorry, no. it's vanilla mythtv.
58
Installation issues / Re: Mixed user interface *ui2 and ui1
« on: April 03, 2007, 06:52:19 am »
what room are you in? I mean on the main menu, look at the room button. you'll see this if you're in one room and controlling another, because then the room you're in displays a full-screen remote for the room you're controlling.
59
Installation issues / Re: Method to detect Media
« on: April 03, 2007, 06:50:24 am »
if you rename the files to .dvd then it works.
60
Installation issues / Re: Ideal Hardware for Presentation Server
« on: April 03, 2007, 06:49:32 am »
see my 'what to expect' wiki from the installation page.