Messages

1

Installation issues / Re: dhcp not working properly?

« on: March 23, 2013, 11:27:30 pm »

The lease file on my core also contains 127.0.0.1, but I have no problems.

My LinuxMCE core is running a DNS server (bind), which was installed by LinuxMCE by default; it allows me to use a hostnames like dcerouter in my browser to access the webadmin.
So the 127.0.0.1 in your lease file is probably not coming from your ISP, and it should not be the root cause of your problems.

Are you sure the clients on your internal network also have 127.0.0.1 as their DNS server? In my setup they have 192.168.80.1, i.e. the core as their DNS resolver. (My MDs have static configurations and have 192.168.80.1 in their /etc/resolv.conf, and "ipconfig /all" on my windows machine also shows 192.168.80.1 as the DNS server.)

If your MDs and other machines have 127.0.0.1, then there is something truly messed up with your (DHCP server) config on your core.
If they have 192.168.80.1 then there is likely a problem with bind on your core; check if it is installed and running.
I think the latter case is more likely.

Having said that, if you want to prevent the 127.0.0.1 from appearing in the leases file, you could try removing the "prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;" from your /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf file. Note: I have not tested this, and I don't know what other problems this might cause.

2

Installation issues / LG 42LS570S & ZOTAC IONITX-A-U N330

« on: March 12, 2013, 10:24:23 pm »

I recently got a new TV and hooked it up to my MD, had a few problems with it, which I thought I should document here in case somebody else has the same problems.

First of all, I have to say that I did not keep detailed notes, so I can only say for certain what my solutions are, not how I got there, or what in between steps I took in which order.
Anyway...

The AVWizard did not detect the TV as a Full HD TV. I could select 1080, but only the upper left quarter of the screen was visible (stretched to fill the whole screen). I selected 720p in the AVWizard and corrected the problem manually by adding a Modeline to the xorg.conf file:

Code: [Select]

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    Option         "DPMS"
        Modeline        "1920x1080" 148.50 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 11
25 +hsync +vsync
        HorizSync       30-83
        VertRefresh     58-62
EndSection
And updating the resolution of the orbiter via the WebAdmin and regenerating it.

Other than that everything seemed to work out of the box, until I noticed that the TV had to be on before the MD booted. Otherwise the X server would detect no screens and stop there.
It turns out that the X server asks the TV for some information, but if the TV does not respond (because it is turned off), then it stops with the "No Screens Detected" message. The solution for this I found at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1851330&page=2 (Though in my case the TV was connected to DFP-1.)

Note: Adding the ConnectedMonitor option was enough to get the MD going and displaying an image, but the CustomEDID option was needed to ensure that I also had sound. The EDID file I used is attached to this post.
I noticed the LinuxMCE config scripts can add the ConnectedMonitor field to the xorg config file automatically. I'll see if I can make a patch for this. However, adding the EDID file would be trickier, I'd need help from a more experienced developer for that.

Then there is sound. For some reason no audio cards are detected. (I think this broke somewhere during an update, since I did have sound after the original AV wizard run.)
The asound.conf and xine.conf files referred to "plughw:,3" instead of "plughw:0,3" as before. I'm not sure why. For now I just updated the files by re-inserting the missing zero and setting the sound configuration to "M" (manual) via the webadmin so it doesn't get updated to the wrong value each time.

So everything seems to work fine now.

A minor thing: My MCE remote does not seem to be able to learn the On/Off, Vol Up and Vol Down commands of the LG remote. So I currently need two remotes to operate my MD. I'm still trying to find a work-around for that.

The TV has a LAN port and can be controlled via that. There are some efforts (by other people) to reverse engineer the protocol from the LG smart phone app. If this works I could add support for it to LinuxMCE. However, I as far as I can tell (at least for my model) the LAN port can not be used to turn the TV on. (A major drawback I think)

The TV does not have a serial port for control like other LG TVs, but according to http://www.lgrs232.com/ connecting an ATEN USB to serial converter could work (LG does not document for which TVs this works). I ordered one of those converters and I'll see if I can use that to control the TV with the existing LG TV template from LinuxMCE.

3

Users / Re: Important notice on main page

« on: January 06, 2013, 01:36:21 am »

Excellent. Congratulations.

4

Users / Re: DAY/NIGHT = Time or 'timeframe'?

« on: November 26, 2012, 12:14:58 pm »

Under Advanced, Configuration, Scenarios there is under "Scenarios for Event Handlers" the Sunset and Sunrise events.
I use the Sunset event to close my window shutters, works perfectly.
However, I haven't tried making such an event myself, or one that is specific for the the day of the week or something.

5

Users / Re: Funding Drive: ZWave Door Locks

« on: September 24, 2012, 10:39:48 am »

Ok, money was sent.

6

Users / Re: Funding Drive: ZWave Door Locks

« on: September 23, 2012, 01:19:30 pm »

I'll pledge E25,- for the z-wave doorbel.

7

Users / Re: proliphix nt150

« on: September 15, 2012, 02:49:46 pm »

The documentation for command #278 (Set Temperature) has the following description for its parameter:
"Can be absolute, like 20, 18, etc., or relative, like +2, -2, etc.  The temperature is always in degrees celsius, and the application is expected to convert to Fahrenheit if necesssary."
Based on that description I made the driver such that it always uses Celcius as input and output.

I assume there is some option to make LinuxMCE convert all the things that are in Celcius back into Farenheit, but since I use Celcius where I live, I have not needed it so far.

The conversion functions you saw are because the Proliphix thermostat uses Farenheit in its interface.
You could replace the functions decifarhenheit_to_celcius, decifarhenheit_to_decicelcius and celcius_to_decifarhenheit in the Private Methods to not convert anymore (except to do the multiplication/division by 10). In that  case the interface should provide values in Farenheit.
But that might lead to strange results with other parts of LinuxMCE that expect the interface to behave according to its specification (and use Celcius instead).

8

Users / Re: proliphix nt150

« on: September 13, 2012, 09:21:02 am »

@posde: The batch number is -292. I updated the Trac ticket (http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/1547)

@iberium: It looks like you are missing the device data for username (114) and password (115). Since those were not in the template they did not get added to your device. There is probably some trick to add it manually, but I don't know it by heart.

9

Users / Re: proliphix nt150

« on: August 28, 2012, 07:52:07 pm »

I'm not quite sure. This is the first, and so far only, driver I wrote for LinuxMCE.
But I just did a SQL diff and it didn't show any of my changes, so that should mean the changes are in the data base.

Try doing a sqlCVS update from your webadmin. It's under Advanced->sqlCVS. The changes I did were under "dce", I'm not sure which one, just use "check all".

10

Users / Re: proliphix nt150

« on: August 21, 2012, 08:17:16 pm »

I created a trac ticket and did a checkin of sqlCVS:
http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/1547
If one of the devs would be so kind as to verify it and check it in, I would appreciate it.

EDIT: Just out of curiousity, is there a way to test this change on someone else's system (like iberium's) without first checking it in in the main database?

11

Users / Re: proliphix nt150

« on: August 21, 2012, 12:55:48 pm »

Hang on, you added it manually?

I currently do not have access to my home system, but this is what I remember having to do manually to get it to work:
- "Controlled by" should be set to CORE, otherwise the device will not even start, this might be the problem you are facing. (Also, if this is the case and you try to view the log you get a message that the log - does not exist).
- The MAC address and IP address were not filled in automatically, had to do that manually (got some error message about "conn_" not existing in the log file).
- The TCP port was not present in the device data (I think this also got me the "conn_" error, but the TCP port was mentioned somewhere earlier in the log)
- The username and password were not present in the device data (The log showed some error on some line involving this device data, 142 and 143 IIRC)

Also check if the "Disable" field of the device is set. Whenever an error is encountered that LinuxMCE cannot recover, it disables the device. So fixing the above only helps if you also enable the device again (and do a Quick reload of the DCERouter).

Eventually I just fixed the device template, removed the device and had it auto-detected correctly. I'll see if I can make a patch this evening, that might be easier than doing all of this.

12

Users / Re: proliphix nt150

« on: August 19, 2012, 09:04:23 pm »

I don't think LinuxMCE automatically generates any default climate scenarios (at least 0810 and 1004 didn't do that for me with my Proliphix thermostat).

What I did, personally, is make some scenarios that set the temperature to a certain level. I have three; 18C, 21C and Auto. I added them to all the rooms, since my thermostat controls the temperature for the whole house.

Furthermore I made some events to react to the changing of the house mode, when I leave the temperature is set to a low value and when I come back the thermostat is set to follow its normal program.

BTW to "follow the normal program" a little update of the driver is needed; I added it to the thermostat's "On" command. The version currently in the database just starts with the set-point it left off if it receives an On command. If others are intersted I'll put that in a patch.

Also, are you running 0810 or 1004? I installed 1004 today, but it had problems auto-detecting the thermostat. It seemed like part of the device template was missing. So I'll probably have to make a driver patch anyway.

13

Users / Re: Duwi 05443 z-wave wall mounted transmitter problems

« on: April 21, 2012, 05:11:07 pm »

I now have http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ZME_06443. Same hardware as the Duewi, but new firmware.
With this new firmware the LinuxMCE core receives device On/Off events from the controller.

Yay

14

Users / Re: Myth, VDR, or no TV at all...

« on: March 26, 2012, 09:28:14 pm »

MythTV with a Hauppauge PVR-500

15

Users / Re: New User Question

« on: January 10, 2012, 09:18:59 pm »

It is possible, provided you can get the HD signal into your computer and a way for your computer to switch the channels on the HD receiver.
How do you do that? I'm not 100% sure, but I guess you need the hardware mentioned in Aviator's answer

Note: I don't have a HD receiver, but I do have two TVs, each connected (only) to a Media Director PC, and a third computer in my wiring closet connected to the analog TV cable via a Hauppage PVR-500; works perfectly, I can watch live TV on any of the TV screens in my house.