Topics

61

Users / Control devices via IR Transceiver (UIRT) - multiroom?

« on: February 23, 2010, 11:15:32 pm »

I have setup new LinuxMCE hybrid system and would like to make it control my other devices in living room. Could you please suggest what IR Transceiver (UIRT) to buy or even diy making is not out of the question.

I looked all over the wiki and is i quite lacking in info for IR Transceivers

Any European shops to buy IR Transceiver (UIRT) ?

How to control devices via IR in other rooms in the flat?

62

Users / Dimming LED and CFL light bulbs?

« on: February 20, 2010, 11:08:45 pm »

We use only CFS lights in our whole flat because we like to use green technologies and save energy, but we would also like to have dimmed light some time.

Is it possible to dim LED and CFL light bulbs? How? Are there some special ZWave dimmer switches? Is ti possible to use ordinary dimmer and modify it somehow? Or just use ordinary incandescent light bulbs?

63

Users / My first home automation project (zwave)

« on: February 08, 2010, 12:05:17 am »

Hi, I have been wanting to automate my home with LinuxMCE ever since I saw LinuxMCE demo 2 years ago. I have build a nice Hybrid PC and now I'm confident to take the next step - automating my home.

I would like to make a demo in my flat so that I can call people over and demo how LinuxMCE can do automation and security.

I looked at different solutions and choose ZWave because it looks like most promising automation system, not too expensive, with nice selection of different modules, wireless (big plus because lots of people don't want to install new wires)... I don't know enough about KNX system but it seams like a more expensive solution and with less support in LinuxMCE.

What do you recommend I do for demo that would make people want to tryout LinuxMCE also for their home?

I'm thinking about ordering these components:
zwave usb controler - http://www.zwave4u.com/products/en/Z-Wave-Controller/PC-Adapter/USB-Adapter-with-Battery.html
light switch - http://www.zwave4u.com/products/en/Switches-and-Dimmers/HomePro-Single-Wall-Switch.html
2x movement sensor - http://www.techstyleuk.co.uk/index_files/sp103.htm
door sensor - http://www.techstyleuk.co.uk/index_files/sm103.htm

If I'm not mistaken all of these zwave devices are compatible with each other and work with LinuxMCE, right?

With door sensor I can have alarm and security system if PIN isn't entered after opening the door, and also if movement is detected after security alarm is armed.

With door sensor + light switch + movement sensor I can turn on the light when doors are opened.

What other demo do you recommend I setup? Most people I know aren't that much interested in multimedia aspect, but would be interested in security + automation so if you have any ideas please share them.

If you have suggestion of some other zwave device that I could buy that would make a nice demo please suggest it.

What features of LinuxMCE people you now find most interesting?

64

Installation issues / LinuxMCE 8.10 beta install issues - Nvidia vdpau fail :(

« on: November 29, 2009, 12:24:15 pm »

Hi, I installed LinuxMCE 8.10 three times yesterday. First time I messed things up by manually trying to install .deb packages by not using install script on desktop.

All three times Kubuntu installed without problems. Second time after install I updated the system and installed NVidia 180 driver via proprietary driver tool and then started the LinuxMCE install.

Third time right after Kubuntu install I started LinuxMCE install without previously installing NVidia driver or doing the update of the system.

Both times I got into same issue. After the install of all packages system needed to be restarted, I did that. After restart I got a screen showing white flashing text with statuses of things that system was doing - what packages are being installed, etc...

But after some time I just got blank screen and saw no system activity, hdd wasn't working and cpu wasn't loaded... I could only start a VT via CTRL-ALT-F1 and work from there, VT7 was just "frozen".

After ispecting I saw that apt-get got stuck... I would get messages:
package nvidia-180-libvdpau failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/libvdpau.so.1', which is also in package nvidia-glx-180

I managed to fix the issue via: sudo apt-get remove nvidia-glx-180

After that installing package nvidia-180-libvdpau still fails:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-180-libvdpau
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  nvidia-settings
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  nvidia-180-libvdpau
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/758kB of archives.
After this operation, 1552kB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  nvidia-180-libvdpau
Authentication warning overridden.
(Reading database ... 157574 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking nvidia-180-libvdpau (from .../nvidia-180-libvdpau_180.53-0ubuntu1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/nvidia-180-libvdpau_180.53-0ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/libvdpau.so.1', which is also in package libvdpau0
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/nvidia-180-libvdpau_180.53-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Any ideas? Is this a know LinuxMCE 8.10 bug?

UPDATE: found this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-180/+bug/460717

UPDATE 2: Now everytime I restart the LinuxMCE Core I get the same issue. There is somwhere a script that tries to install nvidia-180-libvdpau package but that kills apt-get and makes is impossible to install any other package after that. So I need to manually remove nvidia-glx-180 package every time I do a reboot How can I fix this?

65

Feature requests & roadmap / Zigbee Pro - The automation standard?

« on: May 26, 2009, 09:04:11 am »

http://www.cepro.com/article/has_home_automation_standard_finally_arrived_zigbee_pro_with_control4_as_an/

Have you heard about Zigbee Pro?

As they say:
"ZigBee aims to win the home automation-standards race, and the initial surge is about six weeks away, according to Eric Smith, CTO of Control4.

Control4 is a home-control manufacturer that claims roughly 1 million installed ZigBee nodes, including light dimmers, keypads, thermostats, controllers and universal remotes."

So is there any chance to see Zigbee Pro in LinuxMCE?

What is your oppinion about Zigbee Pro?

66

Users / MythTV 0.22 and VDPAU

« on: March 23, 2009, 11:47:46 am »

I have read [1] that new MythTV 0.22 will have automatically support for VDPAU. Will new version of LinuxMCE 8.10 have MythTV 0.22 and so automatically support for VDPAU?

[1] http://mythtvnews.com/2009/01/15/three-things-to-look-forward-to-in-mythtv-022/

Cheers,
Valent.

67

Users / 10x times faster opengl performance :)

« on: March 19, 2009, 09:16:02 pm »

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Nvidia_Card_Tweaks_For_Better_MythTV_and_UI_Performance

Tips from this wiki article just gave me boost from 60 fps to 510fps when running glxgears !

Hope this helps others also. Thank to whoever wrote that article!

68

Users / play HD video on slow hardware via VDPAU...

« on: March 16, 2009, 12:36:09 am »

Hi, if you haven't seen some previous threads that this will be a nice surprise for you. If you have issues playing HD video because you have too slow CPU there is a way to accelerate and offload the task of decoding HD video to graphics card (it has to be NVidia chip). This method is know as VDPAU.

You also need MPlayer with appropriate patch and latest NVidia 180.xx drivers.

I tried this compile guide:
http://blog.avirtualhome.com/2009/02/10/compile-mplayer-with-vdpau-support-on-ubuntu/

But still after compiling MPlayer I have no support for VDPAU

Here is how I tried it:
1st step: Install latest NVidia nv driver (this isn't covered by this guide)

2nd step compile mplayer with support for VDPAU:
wget ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/vdpau/mplayer-vdpau-3532130.tar.bz2
tar xvjf mplayer-vdpau-3532130.tar.bz2
cd mplayer-vdpau-3532130/
./checkout-patch-build.sh
cp mplayer-vdpau/mplayer ../
cd ..
wget http://samples.mplayerhq.hu.nyud.net/V-codecs/h264/nature_704x576_25Hz_1500kbits.h264
wget http://samples.mplayerhq.hu.nyud.net/V-codecs/WVC1/FlightSimX_720p60_51_15Mbps.wmv

now to play test video:
./mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau nature_704x576_25Hz_1500kbits.h264

mine mplayer fails

and when I check to see what video output drives it supports there is no mention of VDPAU

./mplayer -vo help
MPlayer dev-SVN-r28348-4.1.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
CPU: Unknown CPU Typ (Family: 6, Model: 10, Stepping: 0)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE
Available video output drivers:
   sdl   SDL YUV/RGB/BGR renderer (SDL v1.1.7+ only!)
   fbdev   Framebuffer Device
   fbdev2   Framebuffer Device
   v4l2   V4L2 MPEG Video Decoder Output
   cvidix   console VIDIX
   null   Null video output
   mpegpes   MPEG-PES to DVB card
   yuv4mpeg   yuv4mpeg output for mjpegtools
   tga   Targa output
   pnm   PPM/PGM/PGMYUV file
   md5sum   md5sum of each frame


Any ideas?

69

Compatible Products & Services / Z-Wave european web shop?

« on: March 11, 2009, 02:49:03 pm »

Hi, I would like to automate lighting and also setup security for my apartment using Z-Wave devices.

Where in Europe can I get affordable Z-Wave light switches, door and PIR sensors, dimmers, etc...
I looked on ebay and there are no Chinese Z-Wave devices, too bad, because they usually have really good prices and ship free of cost to any country!

Where do you buy your stuff? I'm in Croatia so if there are some dealers in Slovenia, Italy or Hungary I can also go there...

Cheers,
Valent.

70

Users / still no luck with LinuxMCE :(

« on: December 02, 2008, 09:37:33 pm »

I have tried 4 graphic cards and I still have no luck with UI2

I had these
Matrox G450 - worked great for SD movies, only UI1 :
ATI 9600 - worked also with HD movies, only UI1
NVidia GeForce Ti4200 - UI1 only
NVidia GeForce 7300 - won't start X unless using vesa driver

I have now Nvidia 7300 with latest nvidia drivers when X start to load monitor just goes to stand by, everything works because I can still login through ssh and ping the LinuxMCE  - so it is not frozen.

Please help me because I'm going nuts... I guess I have been spoiled by Fedora and not needing to go through these tedious tasks of mangling xorg.conf...

Here is my xorg.conf s below so please yell if you see something obviously wrong
http://fpaste.org/paste/1276

and also yell if you see error messages in this X.org log file that would point to some obvious error:
part1: http://fpaste.org/paste/1277
part2: http://fpaste.org/paste/1278

Thank you in advance,
Valent.

71

Users / Anybody using NVidia Geforce TI 4200

« on: November 25, 2008, 12:07:07 am »

Please tell me how you made Nvidia GeForce 4200 Ti to work because I'm having issues using this graphic card
I install latest nvidia drivers and switch from "nv" to "nvidia" driver and then X fails to start

I have LCD 1280x1024 display. Here is my xorg.conf - http://fpaste.org/paste/768

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers,
Valent.

72

Developers / ATI Radeon 9600

« on: November 17, 2008, 04:54:05 am »

Hi,
I tested ATI Radeon 9600 but have no luck with it because. I installed latest fglrx drivers and LinuxMCE UI still doesn't work with it (except the simple UI).

When testing video capabilities of video card with this guide:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Graphics_Test
Masking works but when I try compositing video testing app just crashes.

I made new wiki entry:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ATI_Radeon-9600-AGP

Is there a hope of getting this video card working with UI2?

Chould I report a bug? Troubleshoot some more (how)? Give up?

Is there any hope this card will work better in new LinuxMCE 0810?

Any tips/tricks appreciated.

73

Users / core drops ssh, ping and webmin connections! why?

« on: November 04, 2008, 10:22:15 pm »

Hi, I need to connect via ssh to my core but I cant. I tried pinging it and I get no reply. I have ktorrent running with web interface and can only connect it from core not from other laptop in my LAN. Why?

Core has two LAN cards;
eth0 - 10.10.1.1/24 that has nothing connected to it and has DHCP service ready to assing IP adreses
eth1 - 192.168.5.5 - the IP it how automatically from ADSL modem/router that it  is connected to.

I have other laptop (192.168.5.7) connected to same ADSL router but over over wireless.

When I ping laptop from core I get the response, when I ping core from the laptop I get no response.

I start ssh on core and on the laptop, and I can connect from core to laptop but I can't connect from laptop to core.

I tried deleting all iptables firewall rules with:
iptables --flush
iptables --table nat --flush
iptables --delete-chain
iptables --table nat --delete-chain

but I still can't ping or connect via ssh to core from my local LAN.

How can I fix this?

Cheers,
Valent.

74

Users / Got my LinuxMCE running, but...

« on: October 25, 2008, 07:26:41 pm »

Hi,
I installed LinuxMCE from DVD to 80GB disk and I have separate 3x1TB drives in Raid+LVM+Luks setup for media.

I'm really impressed with LinuxMCE so far but I got a few issues that I didn't solve by looking in wiki and searching through older posts.

1. apt-get update breaks because of bad entries in sources.list. Can somebody please give me the working sources.list file. This one breaks becase deb.linuxmce.com doesn't exist.

2. How can I start xterm without going to KDE and starting it there? I would like to switch between xterm and LMCE UI, is that possible? How? I know I can use vt1 but I would like to stay in vt7 (gui)

3. I have Gigabyte gc-ptv-taf (http://allanon.nvg.org/gc-ptv-taf/) that uses saa7134 module and I think I have loaded it up with correct options in /etc/modprobe.d/options (card=81 tuner=54) but I still don't see it in media director menue in web wizard. How can I make sure that this card is working and how to make LinuxMCE work with it?

I hope I can help out with your project, because I have linux experience and love this project, but I need first to get it working myself

Cheers from Croatia,
Valent.

75

Installation issues / LinuxMCE with Raid-5 and LVM?

« on: July 01, 2008, 10:06:34 am »

Hi is it possible to install LinuxMCE on partition with Raid-5 (3 hard drives) and also use LVM for future expansion?
I'm about to install my first LinuxMCE and I would like to have a more advances setup so I hope there is a way to do this.

Cheers,
Valent.