Messages

Just avoid PPPoE - that is true whether or not you are using LMCE.

I strongly disagree here. If you use your DSL as a router, then you get only a private IP at your LMCE core which means you'll have a more complex setup if you want to have some services on the core (And especially SIP for VOIP is very pesky with private IPs). I use PPPoE on the core, which essentially means I can configure everyything at the core and don't have to bother with yet another configuration setup at the DSL router I vote for PPPoE support in LMCE (see bug report at http://www.linuxmce.com/mantis/view.php?id=3558).

In the end my core runs an empty X screen with just the LMCE control GUI.

that's what the dedicated core should do.

Sorry, maybe that was misleading. I think the goal was to have a dedicated core without X at all.

Thank you all for the hints you gave. In the end this proved way to complicated for me so I dropped it...

Still I think having two internal interfaces would make sense, especially if one is a wlan device acting as an access point. Well, I might try it again if I can configure this from the web in LMCE 8.10. 

I tried this also, but had no luck. As far as I know the the LMCE Core booter is a GUI program. In the end my core runs an empty X screen with just the LMCE control GUI.

If the new interface is at 192.168.81.1 and the DHCP is serving on 192.168.80.XXX then its addresses won't work on the new segment or will they? I thought the new port would be in the same segment and just increasing the thoughput. This is a little different.

How could I bring it into the same segment? That would be also ok for me, and I think would make configuration much easier. I assigned a new network, because this is the only way I thought it would work.

I'll try the other DHCP hints later on. Thanks for the hints.

I had the same problem with PPPoE and had to do the manual configuration. I also filed a bug report in Mantis on http://www.linuxmce.com/mantis/view.php?id=3558, but it seems to be low on the developer's priorities.

[Media]

I agree that LinuxMCE is complex - but for your purposes, it's simply not the right solution. If all you want is a media center, look at Mythbuntu or similar - LinuxMCE only comes into its own when your circumstances match the intended use, with the home automation and multiple extenders.

As for the documentation - it's open source. Help document the trial and error you went through so others have a better experience.

I think there's still a valid point. First, LMCE is called Linux Media Center Edition, and not Linux Home Automation and Entertainment System. So, no wonder people get attracted to it and then they discover these advanced features commonly not known in Multimedia Systems.

I personally like LMCE, but I'd also would like to have an option to turn off all the things in the UI that I don't need right now,  but I might use in the future. So the question is still: Why are there elements in the UI that aren't configured yet?

Kind regards
/Sven

Thank you, chrisbirkinshaw, for getting this discussion in the right direction.

While I also sense a lot of potential in LMCE, I'm often taken back by some harsh replies I read here in the forums. I hope this discussion will make LMCE evolve much better into "real" usability!

So, I spent my Sunday playing around, and I made some progress. First, switching the interfaces was really easy - I just renamed the new eth2 to old eth0 in /etc/iftab and LMCE had no problems with the new interface. I'm still surprised about the other comment about udev rules for changing interface names. While know this working perfectly on my other client box running plain Kubuntu 7.10, my LMCE core only uses iftab.

Now, how to get the other interface as a second internal network? I configured eth2 manually in /etc/network/interfaces to to become 192.168.81.1. It took me quite a lot of time to figure out that I also had to update the firewall to make it usable. The following helped:
iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.81.0/24 -j ACCEPT

With that, the connection was up, but I can use it only if I configure the client's IP manually. I don't know how to get DHCP working. I added a new section in /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf on core

subnet 192.168.81.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    range 192.168.81.10 192.168.81.40;
}

But this didn't do the trick. Anyone knows about DHCP to give me a hint?

I don't want to swap interfaces - I want to add another internal interface, and here the admin site doesn't seem to help.

But the udev rules is a good starting point. Except that LMCE doesn't seem to use them for Interface names. Looking around, it seems LMCE still uses /etc/iftab for this. Is this going to change in 710?

Hi,

I've added a new (faster) Interface on the core, and I want to change the internal one. It used to be eth0, but now it's eth2. How can I change that on the web page? Even better, how can I have both networks configured as internal networks?

Say something like this: eth0 - 192.168.80.x; eth2: 192.168.81.x - both should be served as the internal ones. Any advice?

I've also in the process of using LMCE as my home server. I had serious problems with LMCE replacing my DSL home box and using instead ppp0 as the external interface. It works now, but not officially (See Bug report http://www.linuxmce.com/mantis/view.php?id=3558). Basically I had to configure iptables masquerading and DynDNS manually.

Now I'm struggling with LMCE as a SAMBA server. Unfortunately, there seems to be a design flaw with LMCE's [home] share, as basically I can see every private file from all other users. I've filed a bug report at http://www.linuxmce.com/mantis/view.php?id=3788.

There's also a problem with the apt-sources. LMCE doesn't use the official Ubuntu repositories, so I ran into dependency problems (because some later security updates weren't there). I had to manually install these .deb packages. The most prominent example was my attempt to install the fglrx ATi driver.

Otherwise I've setup Subversion and Amule without any problems.

Hi,

I've set up a dedicated core with two password-protected users, "dukat" and "trine".

When I connect to the core via a regular PC, I can see four shares: home, public, dukat, and trine.
So user "dukat" should not be able to see "trine"'s files. But there's also the "home" export on the core and as the share level in smb.con on the core is set to "user", every valid Pluto user can access this. And here he gains access to all home folders on the core. Not only can "dukat" access "trine"'s private files (under /home/user_2) but also access all home directories of all system users that might have been created outside of Pluto! What's the home export for anyway? Does LinuxMCE use it? Otherwise it should be disabled.

Is this behaviour intended? I hardly can believe that, so I would call this a serious security bug. Maybe my configuration is messed up, in case here's my core's smb.conf:

Code Select Expand


## @FileType: Pluto Sectioned Config File ##
## @Version: 1 ##
## @KeepSections: ##
## @RemoveSections: ##

[global]
## BEGIN : Domain and Hostname

        workgroup = LinuxMCE
        server string = dcerouter
        netbios name = dcerouter

## END : Domain and Hostname
        smb ports = 139
        log level = 2
        invalid users = root
        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        max log size = 1000
        syslog = 0
        encrypt passwords = true
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY
        dns proxy = no
        passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
        passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n .
        username map = /etc/samba/usermap.txt
        unix extensions = yes
        security = user

[public]
        comment = public files
        browseable = yes
        writable = yes
        create mask = 0777
        directory mask = 0777
        path = /home/public/data
        public = no
        follow symlinks = yes
        wide links = yes

[home]
        comment = shared home files
        browsable = yes
        writable = yes
        path = /home
        public = no
        guest ok = no
        force user = root
        force group = public
        create mask = 0774
        directory mask = 0775
        inherit acls = yes
        inherit uid = yes
        inherit owner = yes
        inherit permissions = yes


## BEGIN : User Shares


                [dukat]
                comment = dukat's private files
                browseable = yes
                writable = yes
                create mask = 0770
                directory mask = 0770
                path = /home/user_1
                public = no


                [trine]
                comment = trine's private files
                browseable = yes
                writable = yes
                create mask = 0770
                directory mask = 0770
                path = /home/user_2
                public = no

## END : User Shares


## BEGIN : InternalStorageDevices

## END : InternalStorageDevices


Found it myself :-)

Just added
/usr/pluto/bin Startup_CoreHybrid.sh into /etc/rc.local and I got it working. The name of the startup script was a bit misleading, though.

Anybody knows what to modify to get at least the graphical core autostart back to working?