Good day folks!

Having been thinking about this for quite some time (but not having the full understanding of the LMCE architecture to implement it) I think both camps could be satisfied with the concept of 'roles' for net-booted devices.  My thoughts were along the lines of:

• MD
• Workstation (or laptop)
• Workstation w/MD
• Workstation w/orbiter

...

/Mike

That would add 3-4x the necessary MD generation scripts, yielding 3-4x the possible points for breakdown/bugs.

• As for workstations, ... just install the OS of your choice. Why netboot? LinuxMCE will generally see shared drives it puts out (I think, anyway).
• For workstations with Orbiter, install the WinOrbiter in WinXP-7 or using Wine in Linux (or resurrect the dedicated Linux Orbiter code and hack/recompile it to be an installable app).
• For workstations with an MD, use VirtualBox to install a virtual machine MD.

What you're talking about would be easier with an Orbiter running on a desktop (in any one of several ways). LinuxMCE can make the media available to non LinuxMCE devices over the network, as a Samba share. You control other functions with an Orbiter... Even my own MD in a VM experiment is a bit over the top, a bit like running a TV tuner app on a desktop... Great for not doing productive work well multitasking, but really unnecessary, if you think about it.

Thom's got a point about not computing on a TV. Posde's got a point about, "so what?! So, just don't use it." Once the qOrbiter is done, it would make a lot of this moot, anyway.

Basic support is fine/great/all I'm looking for... Thanks. I'm not concerned with playback performance, or anything like that. This is an experiment only,... a way to provide a basic test bed for hacking, tinkering, dissecting, learning, etc. without screwing around with an installed system...

Thanks for the background info, Thom,... It helps to clarify a lot of things.

Just a couple of personal preferences, which turn to questions...

It's nice to have certain utilities/programs;

• A terminal window (preferably with translucency, so you can see underneath to web pages, PDFs, etc.)
• A graphical text editor (so you don't have to go out to a terminal & use vi or nano)
• A basic web browser
• A small handful of nice, native Linux games
• Some other native Linux apps (Skype?! etc?! ... depending on preferences)

Which brings up the questions;

• Will dumping the KDE desktop, entirely, affect any of this in any way? I assume not, since xfwm4 is being used, and could supply the necessary wm controls.
• Will editing xfwm4 preferences with the xfce settings manager allow a user to make any changes in appearance/behavior/etc in LinuxMCE? (Since xfwm4 is part of xfce)
• Would any/all native apps/games need a wrapper to be able to use inputs (games controllers, etc.)?
• Could a second X11 session (to run certain demanding apps/games) be started/stopped by the DCE router, by only listening for a particular keyboard combo, but passing all other inputs along to the X11 session and app? (just a theoretical question, for now)

It specifically uses the fbdev because the graphics is unknown in kvm. This limits the output to a few resolutions, as vesa driver has a known bug with kvm. kvm display is as good as it is going to get. The end.

Thanks,... not looking for great, just (minimally) functional for educational/playing around purposes.

I think I had switched the video resolution to vga,... so probably my fault. Good to know about it the using the fbdriver,... thanks again. It had stopped at trying to run the AV wizard,... But as I said, it's likely my fault. I was tired/went to bed rather than fiddling with it. 

[something]

I like the option to go to the desktop. Why? Because each PC in the household can function as a media director, and still have access to whatever computing needs need to be done.

My vote is with Posde on this...

Plus, realize that any apps that you use that are desktop oriented, like Hulu, the Firefox web interface (Web Admin Control) & game emulators will need at least a basic DE to display and/or operate properly. Ma=ny apps lack menu options to exit, and such, and rely on the DE for that.

Without at least something of a DE operating, you'll lose much of that. For example, if Firefox can't function properly (and I'm not saying it can't be made to, some other way), you're forced to use the Web admin on a non LinuxMCE machine attached to the internal network.

I agree that there's no need for a full fleshed out environment (word processing, desktop widgets, etc), but sometimes you need to use a program or utility. Of course, it could be possible to replace the existing UI with separate QT app components running on a slimmed down KDE desktop (not to say it should be).

I assume KDE was chosen to provide a full QT environment in the first place,... no?! Whether that was the reason, or some other, there is probably some underlying reason it was picked, because of something it provides.

There definitely should be some discussion on this. It IS possible to start a second X11 session on another console and run the desktop there, as an option (it is also a good way to run games that tax the system under a DE).

The installer had difficulty ID-ing the graphics in a KVM virtual machine (set to standard VGA). I haven't had time to work on it though, could be my VM setup is wrong. I'll start a new thread about it when I get a chance, over the weekend.

OOOOH,...

You's are so lucky,... I had my right F-U finger on "Enter."

JKing... I'm still jazzed about this, as is everybody. This is a big step.

Follow-up:

I'm downloading now. 1,200KB/sec,... thank the Lord!

Any-who...

I want to post a press-release statement to LXer (Linux news aggregation site) and also maybe PM Nixie-Pixel (Red-headed Gaming/Open-Source Video Blogger) on the Beta of LinuxMCE 1004 being released. Any objections??

Remember, I got ADHD... Act quick!

For the second part of my post,... I was actually thinking VM Core and VM MDs on the same physical machine isolated by the lack of bridging to the network...

I'll give it a try... It might present itself a nice experimental environment... Although, I may lose access to my HDhomeruns,... and burn out the CPU on my Toshiba i3 laptop...

Yes,... A full desktop resides within the MD netboot setup. Has, at least since 0810. (I dabbled until my Intel chipsets became too much a bar).

At this time I recommend leaving it... Not that your point isn't well taken, but there are useful utilities and programs that can be made (forced?!) to run on a full KDE capable system... Think; games, communication apps, games, social networking crap, ... and Oh Yeah! games.

That said,... To dump nepomuk, stingi and akonadi server like they were plutonium? Amen.

There can also stand to be MD tweaking, if one was inclined to do so,... Like, changing swappiness, optimizing network latency, etc. ... But that's a whole additional wish list... and requires a crapload of empirical testing (I'm up for it,... but not at this exact moment in my life).

Just so I can experience the 1004 beta nice-ness without nerfing my 1004 net install,... What happens if I create a VM Core inside an existing LinuxMCE system??? Will the new Core bug out or cause my existing Core to bug out?

Additionally: Hmmm,... This might be a prime case study for taking advantage of the fact that wireless VMs don't normally bridge to the existing network,... I smell a test setup maybe-how?!

Yes. There was a lot of multiplicity in the /var/cache/apt/archives directory we now delete.

Those trying 1004 for the first time, please be aware of the fact that on the snapshots, you do NOT need to run Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh as it is embedded. Network installs will still require it. From snap install you just have to plug an MD in and roll.

Is there any way to hack edit our 1004 net installs to add that feature?

Anyone mind if I update the main wiki page to reflect the change of status?


PS: Done,... There goes my ADHD again... The wiki now reflects the beta release status and the 1004 install page now references the beta release, gives the link to the releases and also still references the snapshots page info...

I think this is pin worthy news...

That looks fantastic! Truly. Great work!