Hi
Am complete newbie to Linux and Linux MCE. Managed to install LinuxMCE version1.0 on Kubuntu 6.10 as per install manual on website. Chose core option. All installed ok. PC boots into dcerouter ok. DHCP working to all XP machines - all ok.
Installed Kubuntu 7.04 to new pc. PC Spec Asus M2n-VM-DH with Athlon X2 2800 CPU, Saphire X1650 GPU, 1Gb RAM, Hauppauge HVR-1300 & 250GB Samsung SATA HDD.
Installed LinuxMCE 1.1 beta 2 as per web instructions. This detects LinuxMCE core, select current DHCP allocated IP address then freezes on next window with message use existing orbiter to continue. Truble is I don't have an orbiter (that I know of).

Is there any issue with running 1.0 core with 1.1b2 media director. Or any help on what causes install to freeze?
Can post logs if needed.

The problem here is two fold;

Firstly a dedicated Core needs an Orbiter to 'announce' the addition of a new MD to... you don't have one. Secondly intermixing 1.0 & 1.1 is not a good idea at all.

So I would suggest that you always install a Hybrid Core and not intermix the two releases at all.

[NIC has two IP addresses.]

All our Core's are single NIC now... and we have no problems with that config under lmce at all. It works fine... no different to the way it did under Pluto in fact.

How exactly is that configured?

It seems to me I should be able to do at least 1 of 2 setups for Single NIC setup:

NIC has two IP addresses.
Main router is 192.168.1.1 which has DHCP disabled. LMCE runs static 192.168.1.10 to connect to the router (and thus internet) and static 192.168.80.1 to serve DHCP and gateway for other systems on the network, routing traffic to 192.168.1.1 router. This doubles the traffic on the NIC as data comes in on the .80.x network and leaves the same port bound for the .1.x network. The main router would have to have an entry for the .80.x network if port forwarding was required on client machines. It's also possible the main router config tool only allows forwarding to addresses on the .1.x network, regardless of manual routing table entries (Linksys stock firmware, for example).
This seems to be the default for LMCE, or am I wrong?

LMCE for DHCP only, no routing.
Main router is 192.168.1.1 with DHCP disabled. LMCE runs static 192.168.1.10 to serve as DHCP server. DHCP packets setup clients to use 192.168.1.1 as default gateway but to network boot from 192.168.1.10. All computers are still on the .1.x network, so no considerations need to be made from the main router perspective for things like port forwarding.
This is how I would prefer and intend to setup and seems to be the most sensible setup for a single NIC system.

During the install I told it my network base was 192.168.1 and it immediately assigned a second IP to the NIC of 192.168.1.1, causing a conflict with my main router. It seems I need to manually configure the network to set it up as I want.

Here is how we setup all our Pluto/lmce systems;

The Hybrid/Core has a single NIC. Physically the Hybrid/Core is connected to the LAN port of a Wireless AP/Router the other MD's are also connected to LAN ports on the Wireless AP/Router. The broadband is connected to the WAN port on the Wireless AP/Router.

The Hybrid/Core is configured with its Internal LAN in the IP address range 192.168.80.2 to 80.128 for MD's and 80.129 to 80.240 for none MD devices. The Hybrid/Core is on the fixed address of 192.168.80.1. The External WAN side address the Hybrid/Core is set to a fixed address of 192.168.20.99 and its gateway address is set to 192.168.20.1 (which is the Wireless AP/Router)

We have several Core's setup this way and it wirks fine. Hope this helps

Andrew

I have noticed that I get a slow response when I connect my laptops via WiFi to the core. I can "repair "the connection and even though it seems that the repair has failed it actually works, but slow. I have a D-Link router w/ DHCP off (and its the actual hardware firewall) and two d-link access points and I get the same results from all of them. My laptop is setup with a default IP adress that it grabs when I first start and gets replaced after the repair attempt. All indications are that LMCE's DHCP server is slow or delayed in its response.

Your setup should work fine. I think there is an errant setting in the DHCP server or the wireless to wired to DHCP server's additional latency is the problem. We need an expert to tell us what to look at.

We use Netgear WGR614v6's on our Hybrid/Core's and they are the router and the AP combined. We have a WAN connection coming into the Netgear's WAN port (in your case it would be from your cable modem) and the Hybrid/Core is connected to one of the LAN ports. In another config we have some devices connected directly to the LAN ports on the Netgear and then others connected via a 2nd Netgear router (no wireless). In both cases the Hybrid/Core is the DHCP server. Both for wired and WiFi connected devices get their addresses quickly and we have not seen any sluggishness at all in DHCP response.

I just discovered today that I'm not able to acquire an IP address from the core DHCP server using the wireless card in my laptop.  I'm able to acquire an IP just fine if I use the physical ethernet connnect.  Here's my setup:

Cable Modem ->Wireless Router (DHCP disabled) ->DCERouter (DHCP server)       
                                                                   ->VOIP Modem (wired connection)
                                                                   ->Laptop (wired)                       
                                                                   ->Laptop (wireless)     

The DCERouter(core) has a single NIC card.  The Laptop and VOIP modem can acquire IPs in the 192.168.80.xxx range just fine.  When I disconnect the ethernet cable on the laptop, it can see the wireless router just fine, but it can't acquire and IP from the core.  Should this setup work or am I missing something?

Hmmm... must be caused by the config on either your Wireless AP or your wireless card. We use wireless devices all the time with our lmce systems and they have always worked completely reliably for us.

Is your Wireless AP configure correctly?

Andrew

I would like to see support for other Linux distributions because I can't even get Kubuntu 7.04 to install on my fairly run-of-the-mill Intel Pentium D system with a 945P chipset. Yes, I am going to say something over in the Ubuntu forums about this, but now I can't even try Linux MCE because the Ubuntu team apparently forgot to test their product on more than one type of system.

Why does LinuxMCE require Kubuntu/Ubuntu/whatever?

Hi there,

We have several Hybrid/Core's running on various 945 class motherboards... including and Intel i945P & Intel D945Gnt and
we have not found a 945 that failed yet. How does the failure manifest itself?

Andrew

There is a problem in the design of Pluto/LinuxMCE in that while you can install a CORE, you need an orbiter in order to add diskless MDs.  The best way to do this is to install it as a Hybrid initially.  That being said, you should see your diskless MD successfully boot from your core and print a message on its monitor saying it has announced itself to the core.  Do you have a dual network card configuration? You said DHCP is working with the other xp machines.  Are they connected to your secondary network port on your core?

This is a problem I agree. We always install our Core's as Hybrid/Cores so that we avoid this problem. There really is not much overhead at all and it gives you a lot of additional flexibility down the line.

I think that selecting UI2 shouldn't even be an option for install. It seems that too many are reporting problems with it, so it would make sense to default to UI1 and allow the user to try UI2 after a successful install.

I tend to agree. UI2 places many more demands on your graphics card/chipset and this can cause enormous problems if you have no experience with either Pluto or lmce. I think choosing UI1 initially is a good idea and having this the default would also be sensible.

ok....i'm getting a low disk space message now. just started when i added a md (diskless boot). the core has plenty o' space...i checked. what do i need to do? i'm freakin out here! ....not really.

report from hd:

Filesystem    Type    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1     ext3    227G  130G   86G  61% /
varrun       tmpfs    506M  292K  506M   1% /var/run
varlock      tmpfs    506M     0  506M   0% /var/lock
procbususb   usbfs    506M   96K  506M   1% /proc/bus/usb
udev         tmpfs    506M   96K  506M   1% /dev
devshm       tmpfs    506M     0  506M   0% /dev/shm
lrm          tmpfs    506M   33M  473M   7% /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volat

thanks

It looks like this is a false alert based on your df output above. We had a somewhat similar situation recently and apparently the lmce team know of this false disk space reporting. One thing to keep your eye on though is that if you create a pxe booted MD and then delete in Web Admin Devices->Media Directors it does not get removed completely and it is possible if you do not monitor this that you could have GB's of space not getting freed up. Just check in /usr/pluto/diskless/ and make sure that the device ID for your 'deleted' MD's is not there... if it is delete the directory to recover the disk space.

Same problem here. The mouse speed is just fine, until I start the media station. After that it just gets too slow. This must be the right speed for low resolution screens. Should be configurable, I guess.

It seems that lmce must run a script when you start the media station that resets these setting to some defaults. I guess this is a hangover from the Pluto releases where there was know kde desktop giving easy access to these settings.

Cleary now they should either be left alone by lmce and then the user can set them easily using the standard kde desktop features or some ability to set these defaults needs to be provided in the lmce manager app.

Hi,
after I start the media station, the keyboard repeat stops working. What I mean is, I have to press the delete key for every character I want to delete, instead of leaving the key pressed.

How can I handle this?

thanks

Set it in System Settings -> Keyboard & Mouse

However lmce seems to keep resetting back to 'off' !!!!

Right now as I understand it, the only way to have a media director is to have it net boot from the core.  I'm curious about the 15 minutes you're talking about.  Originally, the core has to create an O/S image for the MD, but once that happens, later boots are very quick.  The image loads over the network in less than a minute (considerably less in my case).

With lmce1.1b2 all you need to do to create a non pxe booted MD (ie one that does not boot from the Core you have already installed)  is to install the installer on the Kubuntu 7.04 machine you want to create as an MD and then run the installer. Make sure that this machine is on the same net (and has an IP  issued by the Cores dhcp) as the core and the installer will recognise that you already have an existing working Core and will offer you the option to install as a standalone MD... just say yes and your on your way! We have several MD setup this way and they work great (in fact the Kubuntu machine i am using to write this is such a machine)

Hope this is of some help

Andrew

Bobpaul....

SWEET!!!

nuf said.

Dan

That is a nice idea... but quite a complex process (although probably easy once you have the setup working)

An alternative that we use that is much simpler (but less flexible) is to use partimage to image the boot partition;

Use partimage to image a clean Kubuntu 7.04 install then install lmce and once you are happy with it do another partimage of the combined Kubuntu 7.04 + lmce. Now you have the possibility to reinstate your lmce installation if something goes wrong and get it back up and working as well as it was when you partimaged it. Alternatively you can use the Kubuntu 7.04 partimage file to quickly get back to a clean base install of the OS and either install lmce1.1b2 again... or maybe b3 when that arrives!

Regards

Andrew

Now it's stuck at:

* Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf                [ OK ]
* Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local)    [ OK ]
* Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf                      _

This has not reached [ OK ] yet. Could my problem be related to Samba?

Do the following if on a Hybrid Core with a kde desktop;

Type Ctrl + Alt + 1 (ie hold them all down at the same time)

Then login using your username & password

Now navigate to the /etc/init.d directory by typing the following;

cd /etc/init.d/ <type return>

Now rename the file kdm.saved to kdm by typing;

sudo mv kdm.saved kdm <type return>
Enter your password at the prompt <type return>

now you need to reboot

Now when your system comes back up login and then you should either go straight to the KDE desktop or straight into the linux-mce Orbiter

....However is the machine that your experiencing this problem on is a PXE booted MM then this usually indicates that there is a problem with your xorg.conf and your video hardware is not being correctly configured and the xserver can't load. It then comes down to what your video hardware is as what you need to do to fix the problem.

Hopefully the above is helpful

Andrew

Well here in the UK we can easily record 20+ DVB-T standard digital terrestrial TV channels concurrently while watching 2-3 channels live and or playing a ripped DVD. Our Cores are typically 3Ghz Celeron's with 512mb-1Gb RAM and are typically based on i945 class motherboards. With this kind of level of activity at the core we typically see less than 30% processor usage. Obviously recording 30+ channels concurrently is not a likely scenario in normal domestic usage... but it gives you some metric on the capacity to load up a system.

Hope this helps

Andrew

Not sure what part of the planet you are from HugoLP, but in the US a satellite card won't work with our only 2 (small dish) satellite providers.  Not yet anyway, and not in Linux for some time I'm sure.

Sargenthp, you won't have any problems with most modern drives and 4 tuners simultaneously recording.  2 PVR-500s work just fine in standalone MythTV.  Actually I have 4 HD streams recording at the same time, that is probably as close to maximizing disk I/O as you can get without constant recording "blips"; every once in a while during fast moving scenes I do get "blips" when all 4 were recording at the same time.

What you will have problems with is how fast the system fills up

-Chad

Hmmm... i have asked the same question of the developers. Unfortunately the answer is... there is no 'un-install' capability at present in lmce. I can understand why that might be as the roots of the lmce project are Pluto and since Pluto treated the hardware as essentially a 'blackbox' an uninstall capability was not seen as in anyway important. However now with lmce the scenario is different and of course at present an un-install capability would make testing the installer and another beta so much easier than it is at present.

Anyway we'll have to live without un-install for the time being I am afraid.

Andrew

I've reinstalled the Kubuntu way too many times... is there any way to uninstall linuxmce?
what all needs to be removed in order to do a fresh install on the same OS?
SQL Database, Myth Database?

I've tried re-installing on top, that's bad...

Thanks ahead of time,

Dan