Dianemo X86 is Transitioning to Ubuntu 14.04LTS **Update Available**

[totallymaxed]

Dianemo X86 Update to Ubuntu 14.04LTS

A new Era in Smart Home Technology

The a preliminary Updater for our new Dianemo X86 release for Ubuntu 14.04LTS is available now. The major changes in the 14.04LTS release are around security cameras and the overall hardware compatibility of the new kernel. Dianemo will be transitioning to Zoneminder + Cassandra for its IP security camera functionality (we suggest any existing users should familiarise themselves with Zoneminder in preparation).

The update will be free for existing Dianemo license holders - as usual. However new Dianemo 14.04 licenses will undergo a price increase once we ship 14.04 - to purchase at the existing price please order Dianemo x86 licenses now (you can then update to 14.04 for free).

Please contact; inquiries@ellipticalcurve.com if you have any questions or wish to place an order.

Best

Andy

[totallymaxed]

Hi there,

Just to clarify that the kmotion package will still be present in new, and updated, Ubuntu 14.04LTS installations after updating. So it is possible to retain your current Kmotion set-up if you want to and there is no requirement to switch to Zoneminder immediately. However we cannot guarantee that the kmotion package will be maintained, or included, in the future for more than 6 months after our 14.04LTS release. However this should provide you with plenty of time to move your system over to ZoneMinder.

All the best

Andy

[totallymaxed]

As with Kmotion, we have taken the approach with Zoneminder, that basic configuration etc will be supported as it is now directly inside Web Admin. But detailed configuration and setup, fine tuning and advanced features of Zoneminder are best handled in its native configuration pages. Therefore we will provide access to Zoneminders own configuration Web UI from inside Dianemo's Web Admin.

Best

Andy

[totallymaxed]

Here is a very brief update on our testing of Ubuntu 14.04LTS installs, and updates from 12.04LTS, for Dianemo X86;

Progress on testing updates is progressing well, with very few issues now remaining. So far we completed 45 updates from Dianemo on 12.04LTS and the last 7-8 have been clean & successful.

Clean installs of Dianemo on Ubuntu 14.04LTS are also reaching the end of pre-release testing. So far we have completed 27 clean installs and the last 5 have been successful.

We also have several Dianemo X86 systems that have been running continuously on 14.04LTS now for about 10 days without any major issues

We expect all test series to continue into next week. If no major issue appear we will likely release the new Dianemo X86 installer and update scripts by Fri next week.

Best

Andy

[totallymaxed]

If you are thinking of purchasing a Dianemo X86 License then you might want to look at our Dianemo X86 Basic license that is currently available for only $249 USD.

See here for details; http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8880.msg100221#msg100221

Once the Ubuntu 14.04LTS Update ships Dianemo Basic can be updated to 14.04LTS for FREE.

Dianemo X86 licenses will undergo a price increase when we launch support for Ubuntu 14.04LTS. We've released the Updater but we have some components like ZM integration with Dianemo events & viwing ZM cameras in Athena UI that are still not complete. Therefore the price increase will not happen until those are complete.

Best


Andy

[phenigma]

Hi Andy,

Since it is May already (when you're making this post) and you're asking for money for a specific product....  Do you have a more specific date for the end of your 'sale'?

Thanks,

J.

[totallymaxed]

Hi Andy,

Since it is May already (when you're making this post) and you're asking for money for a specific product....  Do you have a more specific date for the end of your 'sale'?

Thanks,

J.

Your confusing yourself again. This thread is about our imminent update for Dianemo X86 that takes it to Ubuntu 14.04LTS, from its current Ubuntu 12.04LTS base. We have numerous systems in final testing both in the field and in our testing lab too.

We expect to release our Ubuntu 14.04LTS updater for existing customers, and our installer for new customers late next week.

All the best

Andy

[Garbui]

Hi Andy,
I just purchased an Rpi2 preview licence but also currently run an x86 system that I've run from early Dianemo 710 times. Can you provide any update as to the development path / life of x86 platform and how Rpi is likely to diverge from it. I am particularly interested in the media server and control changes as the Dianemo approach has changed a lot in this area over the years to be focussed more on control over separate hardware devices (PVR, STBS etc,) rather than a server/client software based approach.

Thanks again
Garath

[totallymaxed]

Hi Andy,
I just purchased an Rpi2 preview licence but also currently run an x86 system that I've run from early Dianemo 710 times. Can you provide any update as to the development path / life of x86 platform and how Rpi is likely to diverge from it. I am particularly interested in the media server and control changes as the Dianemo approach has changed a lot in this area over the years to be focussed more on control over separate hardware devices (PVR, STBS etc,) rather than a server/client software based approach.

Thanks again
Garath

Hi Garath,

Dianemo X86 is under active development and there is really no change there at all. This week we will release our update to Ubuntu 14.04LTS for Dianemo X86 and that will incorporate a number of changes 'under the hood' but the biggest change will be our support for the Zoneminder IP security Camera server. We will run Zoneminder in parallel with Kmotion for some time but our future direction and efforts will be directed towards Zoneminder as it provides a much better environment for RTSP cameras, and can support more cameras with less load on the system. While its true to say we have not been updating our support for MythTV backend we do still support it in Dianemo (although it is not being actively developed).

We have also completely transitioned our audio side over to LMS (even when using MD's) and we use LMS's playlists, plugins and playlists etc. So that is an example of us actually developing and deepening our support for a media server.

We hope to develop Dianemo-Rpi2 into a very flexible, low energy, distributed system that will make customisation and development of add-ons much more accessible. Dianemo-Rpi2 will also be very compact in its hardware form factor obviously and that will open it up to applications that cannot be easily addressed by X86 hardware. Dianemo-Rpi2 will also support the Athena UI and will support many of the server functionalities supported in Dianemo X86 ie Zoneminder, LMS etc but they are likely to be installed on separate Rpi2's so that the load is not sitting on a single CPU.

I hope that provides a flavour of where both systems are going in the medium term at least.

All the best

Andy

[phenigma]

Hi Andrew,

Your confusing yourself again. This thread is about our imminent update for Dianemo X86 that takes it to Ubuntu 14.04LTS, from its current Ubuntu 12.04LTS base. We have numerous systems in final testing both in the field and in our testing lab too.

No, I am not confusing myself at all.  You specifically indicated that prices would be increasing once you released your 1404 update in May.  Your post was just 2 days from May and I was seeking clarification as to 'when' in May you would be releasing your update and, therefor, increasing your price.  A quote from your OP here:

The update will be free for existing Dianemo license holders - as usual. However new Dianemo 14.04 licenses will undergo a price increase once we ship 14.04 - to purchase at the existing price please order Dianemo x86 licenses now (you can then update to 14.04 for free).

We expect to release our Ubuntu 14.04LTS updater for existing customers, and our installer for new customers late next week.

All the best

Andy

Thank you for the clarification!  Much appreciated, and all the best to you as well Andrew.

Jason

[totallymaxed]

Hi Andrew,

No, I am not confusing myself at all.  You specifically indicated that prices would be increasing once you released your 1404 update in May.  Your post was just 2 days from May and I was seeking clarification as to 'when' in May you would be releasing your update and, therefor, increasing your price.  A quote from your OP here:
Thank you for the clarification!  Much appreciated, and all the best to you as well Andrew.

Jason

Jason - I expect our Dianemo X86 update to Ubuntu 14.04LTS to be available in the next few days for existing users at zero cost. When we release the update we will also release a new installer that will install Dianemo X86 for Ubuntu 14.04LTS on new systems, new licenses will ship with this going forwards. But as ever with software testing the update may get held back if any of our testers experience a last minute issues.

There will be a price increase for new X86 licenses after we ship the update - what that increase will be I don't know at this time. As soon as I do I will post that information here, which is what I said in my original post too.

All the best

Andy

[phenigma]

Hi Andrew,

Again, thankyou for additional clarification.  I was wondering when, as 'May' is a large timeframe.

-Jason

[Marie.O]

He said May, 8th - but the software made a out of it.

[phenigma]

posde, thank you.  Yes I do understand the delivery schedule, I did not intend to convey any misunderstanding.  I do understand when the update is expected.  Thank you both!

-Jason

[totallymaxed]

Hi there,

Firstly let me just reiterate; This thread is about Dianemo X86 and our update to Ubuntu 14.04LTS. This update, as is true for all previous updates, is completely FREE to anyone who has EVER purchased a Dianemo license. No exceptions or caveat’s - anyone with a license can get it.

Here is another quick update for everyone following this thread. As you probably know last week we asked if there were any volunteers who would like to test upgrading their current Dianemo installation to Ubuntu 14.04LTS.

A number of you stepped up to the plate and said yes - a very big thank you to anyone who did!

So where are we? Well the testing we are doing is all around the update process itself mostly, ironing out the wrinkles in the installer is where most of the remaining effort is needed. We have fully upgraded systems with all areas of the system working under 14.04LTS, but importantly these were at least in part, manually updated and 'tweaked' by hand to make them work. We're close, but as usual the last '10%' takes a disproportionate amount of the total effort.

As of right now this what we're working on;

- Diskless Create TBZ; This is needed for MD's. Due to some changes in bash this code is currently broken (we may have fixed this...test running currently)
- Zoneminder; The server part is working but the installer currently does not automatically install ZM. We don't have the Athena changes ready yet to access ZM cameras from the Orbiter. Adding cameras in Dianemo Web Admin is not integrated (but you can add them in ZM directly of course) and Camera events are not working inside Dianemo yet.
- Asterisk & FreePBX; Asterisk is working and gets installed but we need a new FreePBX deb and that is not ready yet.
- MythTV Backend; Working but needs some manual changes to Mythweb.conf

- As far as I know everything else is working - but there may still be obscure parts of the system that throw up some issues in the coming weeks. Below is a sample of SOME of the working components (picked pretty much at random);
- Networking, Firewall
- Remote Assistance
- Virtualised Audio & LMS
- MythTV Backend
- Athena UI
- Asterisk
- UPnP Video
- Kmotion
- iTunes Integration
- Insteon Support
- Zwave
- Lutron
- Device Templates
- Scenarios - auto & user generated
- Timed events


For the reckless and intrepid few...
As of today if you upgrade your Dianemo installation to Ubuntu 14.04LTS by using 'do-release-upgrade' and then run the Dianemo installer (**note I said Dianemo Installer**) your installation will get upgraded to Dianemo 1404. However currently you will hit all of the above issues and we simply cannot support you through the manual fixes needed. So please understand that you are on your own if you do this - unless you have volunteered and we have accepted your offer (this is important because we can only support a few volunteers simultaneously, so we need you to wait until we give you the go ahead please).

As soon as we have the wrinkles worked out I will let everyone know here - Thank you for your patience!

Best

Andy