Messages

1

Users / Re: What is better ZWave or X10?

« on: November 25, 2008, 03:17:15 am »

Actually zwave is just RF.... x10 is just powerline... and insteon is rf and powerline...

While I was considering my automation options a while back, having tried x10 in the past and not seeing the problems people have had, I still decided to go with zwave.  I found x10 was hit or miss based on your wiring.... and Insteon while more reliable, I heard people having device failure after a year of use.  I chose zwave because I found absolutely nobody saying anything bad about zwave, having over half the lights converted over to zwave now... I'm happy I did.

2

Users / Re: Learn about networking (hard and software)

« on: November 23, 2008, 07:27:31 pm »

Well, this is more information then you need to get LMCE running... but a quick book search turns up this link
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=Aq0IPzq4XZEC&dq=idiot's+guide+to+networking&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=MLqJFN_nna&sig=smWmzaiv0g5oG-qzsYvTRnNedok&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA359,M1
which is the 'idiots guide to networking', should have a good explanation of how things work.

As for getting LMCE up and running it should be as simple as.... plug 1 cable into the core's network port, the other end into your switch.  plug a second cable into the core's second network port, and the other end into your dsl/cable modem.

Then to add a media director, plug 1 end of the network cable to the media director, and the other end into the switch.  And thats about it in most cases.  If you have more network devices / computers you plug 1 end into your device/computer and the other end into the switch.  Basically everyone connects to the switch with the exception of your internet connection from the core.


[Internet Modem] <-----> [Core port 1][Core port 2] <-----> [Switch] <------> [Media director]


Good luck with the reading.

3

Users / Re: Learn about networking (hard and software)

« on: November 22, 2008, 07:49:41 pm »

Well there are plenty of guides out there on the internet that will teach you about networking, And you do got something to learn to wire your house up and learn about ethernet cables and cable speeds, cat-5, cat-6... 10/100/1000 mbit stuff.... But on the software side .... for LMCE it is recommended you let the system do the assigning of ips, subnet masks, QoS, etc automatically.

So aside from setting up the internet connection part of your LMCE set up (ip address,subnetmask, gatway), and even this part is mostly plug-and-play with most ISP's (via DHCP), there isn't much to tinker with without breaking something. It's great to know/learn this stuff, but its not recommended you experiment with learning this stuff on your LMCE box.

In most situations, configuring the networking portion of LMCE is as simple as..... placing 2 Network cards in your Core/Hybrid, connecting 1 cable to ethernet card 1 to your DSL/Cable modem, the other cable to ethernet card 2 -> a network switch/hub, then placing any other networking devices such as computers from their network card -> switch hub.  And thats surprisingly it, in most scenarios.

Try also looking in the user setup's section of the wiki, some people have drawn diagrams of their setup which may include the networking portion of how they connected their devices.  Also take a look at http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Wiring_Considerations for network cabling suggestions.


 

4

Installation issues / Re: Complete newby with configuration problems

« on: November 22, 2008, 07:31:49 pm »

1. This is probably an option in your bios for throttling, usually tied with smart fan or cool n quiet options..... and seeing how this is a laptop, its on by default to save battery... start doing something beefy and see if it ramps up....
2. This might take some manual intervention to get the correct modeline support for the display... it has an ati video chipset, which at least for the 7.10 release always seems to be a challenge in one form or another
3. Hanging, well I did a quick google and found people having problems with ubuntu and this machine, some were booting with noapic kernel argument, some were disabling the internal network card... You might need a newer kernel to support this hardware.  With everyone setting up linuxmce systems its best to stick to known good hardware.  The 710 LMCE is built off of kubuntu 7.10 which is a year old.  A new version that includes updated drivers is in the works, but not ready.  My suggestion is to find an older pc to test on or wait for the next version of LMCE.
4. Not sure what to say here...
5. Where did you copy the mp3s/jpg's to ?

I hope this helps.

And BTW running LMCE on a laptop as a core/hybrid is not really recommended.  LMCE shines in more of a .... dedicated backend server + clients (media directors) + orbiters (handheld controls) + home automation   type setup... not really as a single pc media center / watch dvds / listen to mp3s..... It can work like that but if thats all you intend to do there are probably better products more suited towards that thing.

Try finding an old p4 desktop machine to test LMCE on ... a buddy of mine picked a 2ghz p4 machine up off ebay a week ago for 30$ shipped.

5

Users / Re: Media Director SD

« on: November 21, 2008, 05:51:37 am »

Oh wow, they're gone off newegg....  Few other places too! .... Hmm... there's 1 on ebay at the moment...

I guess they discontinued them, and they're selling the motherboards, what a shame its a nice looking case/package.

Taking another look at ebay the guy selling them says 'More than 10 available ' in Quantity, get em before their extinct!

6

Users / Re: Media Director SD

« on: November 18, 2008, 05:49:07 pm »

The MSI Media Live is great, it looks nice, just slap a processor and ram in it, enable the boot rom option on the bios... plug it in and turn it on.... just patience while its building the image and 1 quick reload on the core and its up and running.... 1 minor tweak to the web interface to get the lcd running.

Definitely a viable option.  I know newegg carries them.... Don't buy from provantage though.

7

Installation issues / Re: xbmc and linux mce

« on: November 18, 2008, 07:18:38 am »

It probably wouldn't take much to modify the cromwell bios to tftp a bootloader so it can netboot.... but getting decent performance out of it as you said will be a task... linux on xbox was kinda slow last time I ran it...

8

Installation issues / Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64

« on: November 18, 2008, 07:14:55 am »

When you say it remains i386 in the web site, you mean even after the rebuild and after rebooting the MD? The MD says AMD64 whereas the website is still saying i386?

If so, then it is i386 - the MD saying AMD64 during the boot is a furfy - it is just indicating that the hardware is 64 bit, however the image being sent to it is 32 bit and selects that mode when it starts.... sounds like you have a different problem.

This is what I would suspect also.  I would suggest watching closely to the last messages on the screen before it reboots to figure out whats oopsing....

9

Users / Re: Turn on/off using a remote control

« on: November 18, 2008, 07:13:52 am »

I think he means using a remote to turn on and off the pc (media director).

10

Developers / Re: ATI Radeon 9600

« on: November 17, 2008, 05:16:09 am »

Maybe 810 will be nicer to ati cards, but after battling with my ati 2600hd pro card trying to get it to work properly for awhile, I scrapped it and found an old nvidia 5950 that ... sadly, even being a million years older, works 10x better with linuxmce....

My best advice would be to do the same, I had the same quirks, I was always so close to getting it to behave properly...  I'm glad I just ripped it out and got an old nvidia card for now...

11

Users / Re: Any VPN experiences out there?

« on: November 16, 2008, 12:00:06 am »

I use openvpn on a few boxes, but not on my lmce setup (not yet anyhow)... it should install really easy and there is a windows client and osx client....

Speed and reliability is good.

12

Installation issues / Re: MD always tries to boot as AMD64

« on: November 15, 2008, 11:49:03 pm »

Thats odd, if you manually changed the md in the admin to i386 instead of amd64, did update, then rebuild image ..... it should be using i386.

So how far does the md boot ?

13

Installation issues / Re: ScreenSaver repeats constantly the same images

« on: November 15, 2008, 06:22:25 pm »

Maybe it got stuck on a bad image or something...

Try logging into the admin web page, going to Files & Media -> Screensaver

Are you running the Flickr script ?  The default path for the Flickr images is '/home/public/data/pictures/flickr/'

if you are, disable flickr, check the path, and re-enable, maybe click remove too to clear out the images

When you moved the files, did you do them as root ? maybe the script is running as the linuxmce user and cannot read the pictures

check the user / perms on the dir that the screensaver is set to

14

Users / Re: dhcp-server failed to start after replacing internal nic

« on: November 10, 2008, 05:43:08 pm »

try searching for tg3 in the logs or 'dmesg | grep -i tg3' or 'eth0' 'eth1' ... basically make sure the nic is being recognized....

Its possible that the driver is outdated for your card thus giving the error because no nic was loaded...

Another problem could be since you swapped nic's it changed the eth0/eth1/eth2 numbering and dhcp-server is set to listen on eth0 (or 1) and the new nic you added enumerated as eth2 or something...

check the 'ifconfig' command ... and see what nic the dhcp-server is listening on

15

Users / Re: How to have a motion detector turn on a light for a few minutes, then off

« on: November 10, 2008, 05:34:48 pm »

You guys mind adding this one to the wiki with better instructions / screenshots ?(custom device template, respond to events.... DCERouter Delay command...)

Once hari is finished helping me add support for these HSM100's (z-wave) sensors I'll be trying to do the same thing, and I'm sure others find this info useful as well.... Motion, turn light on, turn light off after a x minute delay.... maybe even advanced config /caveat's with house security modes, or time of day (or luminosity since the hsm100's report light level when support has been added).

Much appreciated.