It will be easy enough for me to undo my work around and apply any fix you come up with.  If you are chasing down an issue I can get you any of my logs you might need. 

I noticed that USB-gamepad(radar?) created two devices.  I left USB Gamepad alone as it says it controllers all other gamepads and was marked as one per PC.  The second item "USB Gamepad Remote" I marked as disabled, deleted configuration data and reloaded.

This gives me the desired effect of fast media searching via gyration remote (gy3101) and use of all gamepad buttons for gameplay without bringing up the menus.

I have on one of my media directors the following USB devices properly working.  I believe my issue may be with button mapping or with improper installation due to multiple gamepads being connected.

Gyration GY3101 USB remote dongle
USB Bluetooth Dongle (not currently paired with anything)
USB-UIRT 0038 - sending IR to Sony STR-K850 Receiver
Serial1 - connects to Sharp Aquos TV via RS-232

Connected a USB wired (GameStop branded) Xbox 360 controller.  I found the analogs to be far to sensitive for gameplay so I detached the gamepad and deleted the device.

A mistake was made here as I didn't reload router.

I then connected a "USB GAMEPAD" Gamers Factory model G60310A.
My issue now is that the gamepad behaves like a remote and I can not remap buttons in a fashion that does not bring up my onscreen UI.  While I imagine I could play Atari games that only need 1 command button, I am unable to play anything that requires a second.  "Jump" button bringing up the UI, etc.

I am willing to help any way that I can by either creating a specific template and PnP detection range for this model or experiment with usb_gamepad button mapping.  Meanwhile though I am looking to purchase a 2 or 3 button gamepad to enjoy the older systems that did not include analog joysticks and need of advanced features like accelerometers and 10+ triggers.  Would someone please recommend one, or an adapter I could use to connect any of my retro controllers via USB.  Quite literally I have over 30 different retro game systems with the original controllers in my personal collection.

Compared to other commonly available automation interfaces/comm methods.  Z-Wave for me has been absolutely stable, reliable and easy to set up.  I have however from time to time had similar issues with the Aeon-Labs Z-Stick acting strangely on a new install.  So much so once I almost tossed it out thinking I damaged it.  Below are some quick suggestions for that specific device.

Do not connect the USB stick until you reach the Sara Wizard. 
Do not connect the USB stick to any USB hubs,  even some USB 2.0 PCI cards have given me issues.
My best success with that piece has been using older USB 1.0 ports.

For inclusion of future devices I suggest getting a cheap Zwave controller.  Mine is battery powered and runs about $5-$10 on eBay.  To pair new devices I can leave the USB stick in my core and pair the new device in its permanent location.  After transferring the device information to my Z-Stick, I remove the controller from the devices list and put the batteries back in a recharger.

Finally, take this into consideration if you wish.  There is nothing wrong with 'testing something' under VMs.  Personally I love checking out the latest at distro watch and seeing what's new.  For automation though and something as complex as LMCE, it truly does make everything smoother and ultimately more satisfying to use dedicated hardware.  IMO.

Have you tried using any of the sorting mechanisms?

I have and under file name I can separate videos from collections.  My videos file location has no subfolders other than episodical containers I create.  This however I have not found a way to make the default view.  I do not believe that when in file directory view that further filtering is capable (only action, directed by, HD, etc) but I am not very experienced with tags and views.  The entire data grid plugin and media identifier is something I haven't looked at much.

QOrbiter btw was looking really nice last time I saw an update.  Just thought I would mention that again here.  I because I have used mine so long am partial to the iOS album view and the ability to "flip" the cover art onscreen and see the track listing.  As you experiment with views, menus and animations you might want to see if "something artistically inspired by, yet wholly your own creative work" would work with your UIs flow.

Thanks for the reply Thom.

In the meantime I think I will just tag these tv series as private so they will not show under other users orbiters.  This keeps the on-screen menus (in the living room) clean if I default the living room onscreen orbiter to another user.  The media is still there but a user change will be needed to bring it up. 

I am still quite confused by this terminology.  The living room MD has the green onboard audio connector going to my tv via 3.5 jack.  The other 5 jacks onboard are not connected to anything.

This MD also has 3 Sound Blaster PCI cards which each have four 3.5 jacks, also not connected to anything.

Is this a multi-channel analog setup?

Looking for a little assistance with tagging episodes under a single title in my on-screen video orbiters.

/home/public/data/video/931.25GB/Breaking Bad Season 1/

Is my file location where I have several .avi files.  To get each episode to show the Season 1 DVD cover art I applied the amazon tags recursively.  What I would prefer is to have the entire season show up in the primary videos data grid as a single entry that would expand when selected like a CD would with its track listing.

How have others tagged multi-episode grouped shows?  I 'acquired' these files so they are in .avi format.  I imagine that if I personally ripped them from a DVD box set then 3-4 episodes would show up as Season 1, Disc 1,  how could each DVD then be joined?

I have never been able to get HA Designer or its alternative to work, however I have been very successful in radically re-skinning the UI.  For my desktop orbiter I have a UI that within skinning limits resembles my iPhone interface.  The same piece of equipment in the game room has a themed UI from Portal the video game. 

Despite its complex workings the UI is assembled with pre-illustrated .png files.  If you want the Static UI Security button to look like Mickey Mouse when using the Ulta UI, then change that .png file with a 160 x 160 .png of him.  If you dont like the climate button and don't populate that horizonatal grid of buttons with your equipment then draw them transparent or put an illustration there to break up the look of the orbiter. 

My evenings have been pretty busy lately L3mce and last night when I finally made time my ISP went down.  Sorry about that.

After reinstalling with the latest snapshot and running your replacement utils.sh my video driver is properly loaded and I no longer resort to flgrx.  However since that fix I have completely lost audio and am following along with several threads about audio trying to discern what the issue is.  The original issue was sound on an MD jumping output ports randomly, there is no MD yet in this install and I have no sound output on the core. 

Because all of my media was on a separate drive I have nothing to loose by breaking this install a few times until I can report what the solution was.  I am still just very confused with the manual entries necessary now, in one thread I need to modify AlternateSoundCards (which doesnt exist), in another I need to create a virtual soundcard with child devices, etc. 

Physically the card says "Audigy" so in web-admin I input that under soundcard
KDE calls it a CA106 but that device template only appears to have 2 outs and 1 in, where my card has 3 out and 1 in?

The files that will be most useful for me to look for, and ultimately help L3top I believe are:

/etc/pluto.conf
/usr/pluto/bin/asound.conf
/usr/pluto/bin/alsa/?

Mid-reinstall with the snap listed above and I am still skipping av-wizard and going straight to orbiter/home wizard with Sarah.  It will be a while before I can hop on IRC but this is the ATI Radeon being recognized, and the flgrx driver loaded on its own.  Let me know what logs you might need.

I messed up somewhere else and didn't get the boot loader off the install USB and onto the HDD.  Let me burn to plastic and give you my results once I am booting normally.

I think we have covered about every angle on that ATI chip l3mce.  This is the SuperMicro machine I picked up with intentions of using as either a headless core or a NAS.  I can now use it as a fully functional hybrid after finding an old Audigy card with the odd PCI voltage notches.  To the best of my knowledge I have never gotten this system into AV Wizard, but from all of my (work?) testing dozens of machines I learned a few tricks to get around problems.  As much as I tried, true programing and coding never came to me so these are ugly hacks only and as I describe them you will see how frustratingly limited they are.  One thing I had to give up was having the hybrid Orbiter UI on a physical KVM switch because something as simple as not having the hybrid/core set as the active display will break it and require another reboot.


Fresh install (internet connection or not)
I am going to get a blue screen Failed to Setup X
From blue screen I go to tty2 and manually startx
root@dcerouter KDE desktop is where I end up with 2 items in my plasma panel "Desktop" and "New.pluto.xorg.conf"  ~exact name I can not recall
Rename that file to xorg.conf and move it to /etc/x11/xorg.conf
Manually enter the memorized settings I have for this Media Directory into web-admin otherwise the Xorg resolution is larger than the orbiter is drawn and I have the floating UI problem
Reboot and ignore as everything works better than could be expected... until...

Rebooting w/o an active internet connection is a gaurenteed Failed to Setup X situation.  No internet access = no Linuxmce unless I want to repeat the above
With internet on reboot or startup I see the message that xorg.conf is missing when it tries to use the Radeon Driver.  flgrx is used instead automagically (or as a result of my doing by the above)
Asking for help is also now more difficult because I have an odd installation that could in some way be causing all types of other issues nobody else would see. 

MD1 -
MSI P45 Neo, onboard Intel 7 channel audio (though I have always just plugged into the green 3.5mm jack and run that cable along with my DVI to HDMI cable) XFX GeForce 7600 GT Using the bottom DVI port which is DVI/HDMI-2 in setup wizard
Three PCI Sound Blaster Live! (5.1? cards) which have only been installed as 'could eventually use' for setting up squeeze players.
This machine we worked together on for a while as it refused to go into AV Wizard. What is more accurate now that I have installed/reinstalled/broke/.../... so many times is that it will go to AV Wizard on first boot but after that will refuse to ever again.  I have tried the ssh /usr/pluto/bin/RebootWithAVWizard.sh command and the onscreen orbiter command.



Questions:

The AlternateSC file is either a recent addition or something that previously didnt cause many issues so I am unfamiliar with it since my absence.  There is verbage in those threads that does not make much sense to me so I am quite lost on what to edit, where its located and what I want the outcome to be.  If anyonw could clarify these points for me I would be very grateful.

Is Multi-Channel audio and Multi-Soundcard the same option?
Are multiple sound cards required for running multiple Slim Device players? (linuxmce + squeeze[anything] pulls search hits for softsqueeze, squeezeslave, logitech media server, slim-devices, and about 30 others I cant recall offhand.  I just want to use use Slim Device Squeezebox Players/emulators)
Is alsamixer still being used?  I have edited and changed a lot of settings in the GUI version of this clicking unmute/mute and hoping it goes the right way.
It appears that xine player can rewrite the configuration files set up in AVwizard.  Where can I find a log of what application is using which system resource?  Using my pull out the cord and stick it back into each of the 10 green (analog?) and black (digital?) ports until I get sound works for announcements, and media.  It does not work for Asterisk calls or for MythTV, so I need a way to find out what they are trying to use.
TSCHAK beat it into my head that the best way to break LMCE is to think I know better and start to /mnt or assign things manually but while they are not in use (pending question 2 response) can I flag them as do not use, disabled, reserved, blacklisted?

 

As always, you are amazing.  Thank you.

The hybrid that doesn't want to go to AV Wizard is the onboard 8mb ATI rage xl.  Again, if it would benefit you I will post my pastebins but I am (like anyone should be with that chipset) happy to have it past failed-to-setup-X screen.  After some web admin adjustments and using the ?fglxr? driver it can play most non-hd movies. 

The XFX Nvidia 7600 GT that you think may handle audio out of the DVI port is one of my favorite budget cards.  I have several laying about I put into mid-range media PCs.  Any help you need testing them I will be happy to assist with.

[00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller]

ran update/upgrade on hybrid
ran update/upgrade on MD via ssh

Hybrid refused to rerun avwizard
MD ran avwizard but I did not encounter any new screens
- Selecteded onboard soundcard for audio (heard music, skipped digital test screens)
- From orbiter selected audio for that MD and pressed play, no sound
- Pulled and moved 3.5 jack until sound came out of speakers, found it on PCI SB#3 black plug

output of hybrid /etc/pluto.conf

# Pluto config file
MySqlHost = localhost
MySqlUser = root
MySqlPassword =
MySqlDBName = pluto_main
DCERouter = localhost
MySqlPort = 3306
DCERouterPort = 3450
PK_Device = 1
Activation_Code = 1111
PK_Installation = 1033786
PK_Users = 1
PK_Distro = 18
Display = 0
SharedDesktop = 1
OfflineMode = false
#<-mkr_b_videowizard_b->
UseVideoWizard = 1
#<-mkr_b_videowizard_e->
LogLevels = 1,5,7,8
#ImmediatelyFlushLog = 1
AutostartCore=1
AutostartMedia=1
FirstBoot = false
AVWizardOverride = 0
TimeZoneSet = 1
DesktopActivated = 1
LastSearchTokenUpdate=1360198406
PlutoVersion = 2.0.0.45.13020527164
Bookmark_Media = 4,5
DisableFirewall=1
DisableIPv6Firewall=1

output of /usr/pluto/diskless/moon43/etc/pluto.conf

OfflineMode = false
PlutoVersion = 2.0.0.45.13020527164
Vendor =
Display = 0
DCERouter = dcerouter
DCERouterPort = 3450
MySqlHost = dcerouter
MySqlUser = root
MySqlPassword =
MySqlDBName = pluto_main
PK_Device = 43
PK_Distro = 18
LogLevels = 1,5,7,8
AutostartCore = 0
AutostartMedia = 1
AVWizardOverride = 0
AVWizardDone = 1

FirstBoot = false
DesktopActivated = 1

No AlternateSC found in either file.

Here is a highlighted version of lspci (on MD) so you can see what cards are involved:

root@moon43:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 2
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 6
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller #1
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller #2
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] (rev a1)
02:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB363 SATA/IDE Controller (rev 03)
02:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB363 SATA/IDE Controller (rev 03)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
05:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
05:00.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 0a)
05:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
05:01.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 07)
05:02.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
05:02.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 06)
05:03.0 Communication controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. HCF 56k Data/Fax/Voice/Spkp Modem (rev 08)

I highlighted the video card in green as I know you have been working on GT cards support for audio with HDMI.  I don't know if that card is capable of it or not as its an older model but its worth noting I felt.

Since applying the stored image I haven't this issue.  Perhaps my most recent update/upgrade pulled down a bad audio setting?  I will continue to use it as is, and have the roommates play media around the house and see if it stays.

If working log files benefit you though I can still post it.