Topics

1

Feature requests & roadmap / Attitude of COOPERATION.

« on: December 27, 2009, 10:23:00 am »

To begin with, I LOVE LINUXMCE.  PLEASE, do not take this as reason to get defensive, offensive, insulting, or expectant of me to do more than my current abilities would permit me to realistically do.  Take it for what it is:  CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, and SUGGESTION of a means to IMPROVE what I believe needs it, where I, PERSONALLY CANNOT write the code (or change the minds of man) to do so.  Believe me, when I'm ready and able, I WILL.

I, awhile back, described (albeit, maybe not very well) how LinuxMCE's Telecom system was broken, on a default install, and how I attempted to upgrade and/or repair it.  I succeeded in the end, and posted the info for documentations' sake (and of course, help if and from where it might be available, was welcome), but was CALLED A LIAR (AND SINCE, HAVE HELPED A FEW WHO HAD SIMILAR TROUBLES, with my findings).

As well, I've suggested ideas of adding the functionalities of Multi-WAN Routing, to the firewall / NAT setup.  MANY folks have asked about OpenVPN capabilities.  My own solution to both has, for quite some time been a (whether physical and seperate, or in virtual machine) system loaded with either pfSense or ZeroShell, that provided both, as there seemed to be nothing with an Ubuntu basis that provided completely.  Problem is, they're both troublesome / problematic, all the way around, in VM, and to dedicate an entire machine to either (with no real room for added features / services) seems a complete waste of a box, and the power to run it, particularly to my tight-wad wife (and wallet)...

As well, I've seen vague claims that LinuxMCE handles e-mail, but no sign that it actually does, and many requests on how to make it do so, with no real solutions...  The Addressbook is awfully difficult to use, the last I looked or heard, and doesn't integrate with much of anything, outside the LMCE system...

I'm not the only one who sees these issues, I hope.  It seems, however, that anytime ANYBODY speaks up about what might be improved, they're given the patent answer, "Either dev it yourself, or STFU and wait until we decide to get around to it..."

I COMPLETELY understand the idea that there are just a few dev's working on this project, and that they can only do so much, in the free time they have in life, and fault NOBODY for it.  However, the attitude I speak of has nearly (if not really) DRIVEN FOLKS AWAY.  I believe that, in and of itself, to be contrary to the very concepts that drive development / business / life forward.

I've RTFMed, and told the ID10Ts to do so, when I felt it appropriate.  Problem is, there's alot that's NOT IN THE FM.  Yet, this attitude still seems to be the main response from those capable of dev'ing / answering the questions for the rest of us, all too often.  Even some of the senior folks, been around since FAR BEFORE ME, have threatened to leave as a result...

Here's my response:  I AIN'T LEAVING.  YOU'LL NOT DRIVE ME AWAY.  I LOVE LINUXMCE, AND WHAT IT WILL DO FOR ME / MY FAMILY / MY CLIENTS.  YOU'LL LEAVE BEFORE I DO, I ASSURE YOU, and it'll be your own negativity that makes it so...  I just pray that I've learned enough to continue this project's improvement, when that happens...

Now, if I may offer a constructive idea, for cooperation with another project, that likely can use LMCE as much as LMCE can use them:

I've recently discovered eBox (http://www.ebox-platform.com), and believe that it might just be the answer to much of the lack in the LinuxMCE feature-set, as a home-server.  eBox  provides WORKING Print-, OpenLDAP-, OpenVPN-, and other such services, AND will replace the Multi-WAN, OpenVPN, etc. for which I've previously employed other, more flawed and limited solutions.

A cooperative such as this could also offer their project features that have been requested by some of their users, and all the other things we, as LMCE-Geeks have grown to love...

Any chance of a cooperative development tag-team?

2

Users / MythTV 0.23 / Trunk

« on: December 01, 2009, 01:51:24 am »

Just thought I'd add my experience:

I've got LinuxMCE 0810 (Hybrid + 5 MD's) running along-side a few working machines which must remain stable and connected.  These working machines have all been upgraded to Kubuntu Karmic, and thus, MythTV's database versions were off, and wouldn't play nice with the LinuxMCE Net.  As well, on our Android-Powered G1's, we've attempted to use nearly everything available for remote control of MythTV, and I seem to remember that we needed some new tweak on the frontends, for use of Mythmote.  There may have been other reasons as well, but these were the main ones that I remember...

I did some googling, and found that the Avenard repos that we're using, "release testing" were just a tad behind the DB version used by default in Karmic (or vice-versa), so changed it to "release testing trunk", and now all are in sync.

THE POINT:  The Avenard Repo's trunk versions of 0.23 are PLAYING NICE with LinuxMCE, and have given me no more trouble (with my cheap-a$$ capture cards and such...) than LinuxMCE normally has.  Might be worth looking into?

Loving the way 0810's been running, the last few weeks!!  Mega Thanx to all the folks making it happen!!

3

Feature requests & roadmap / Add SSHFS to the options for file server.

« on: November 16, 2009, 06:07:43 am »

I've set up my all-Ubuntu network with no file-sharing, for security, other than the default Samba/NFS shares set up by LinuxMCE (I simply haven't had the time to research disabling them).  We use SSHFS and AutoFS for all our file-sharing in the home.

I have set up SSHFS with AutoFS on my LMCE 0810 Hybrid, to a working 4 TB server that must remain stable and unchanged, where all my family's media is held.  However, I've searched these forums and wiki for the last few weeks, and cannot find ANY reference to how this might be done via the web-gui, and having just set it up manually, I've no idea whether the media sync will happen automatically.

All files in share are VISIBLE via the web-gui, but none have been added to DB as yet.

Is there any specific reason for not having SSHFS as one of the integrated options for file-shares?  Any ideas on how this might be easily accomplished?

4

Feature requests & roadmap / Multi-WAN, anyone??

« on: December 08, 2008, 04:24:54 am »

My current setup = 1x DSL modem (7M/856K) AND 1x Cable modem (6M/512K) -> pfSense (currently 2.0alpha) firewall / router, and set up for load-balancing and fail-over -> 4-port switch -> LMCE Hybrid -> a few MD's, VoIP router, etc...  As well, from the same switch, I run a PXE-Image server, primarily tasked with drive-imaging and bench-testing systems...

I can't imagine how lovely it would be, to be able to completely remove the pfSense system, and have LMCE handle my Multi-WAN routing, as pfSense does!

Any interest, here?  It's truly beautiful, to see 12M down / 1.2M up, COMPLETELY FLOODED by torrents, and make a nearly flawless VoIP call, at the same time!!

5

Users / Sync / Import of Evolution Contacts to LMCE Phone Book?

« on: November 06, 2008, 07:18:01 am »

OK, now that I've got VoIP running, I'm wondering how I might go about importing my Family's Evolution Contact lists into the LMCE Phone Book??

To begin with, I've got 4 different Contact lists within Evolution.  Of these, 1 is my own Personal, 1 is my Wife's Personal, 1 is my Business Common, and the last is my Backup...

The first 3 are sync'd via Syncevolution, to ScheduleWorld, and then to our Windows Mobile Pro 6.1 phones (Nicknamed WiMPs).  The 4th, Backup, is not sync'd anywhere.

I'd like, if possible, to have all of our contacts imported or sync'd into LMCE's Phone Book.  Anyone know if this is possible?  If so, how?  I can't find Evo, ScheduleWorld, or even WiMP sync/import methods, anywhere I've looked.  Could it really be so, that nobody else has found a need for any of these?

I've seen that it is possible to import MS Outlook contacts into LMCE, but our home has been MS-Free for several years (other than these new phones, for which we had no better options yet).

6

Users / Oops, tried to update MythTV...

« on: August 12, 2008, 07:17:05 pm »

Followed the instructions given here:  http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=1981.0

Did NOT use the svn build of Myth, but rather the newest release (0.21), as I wanted to stick with stable...

Anyhow, at the point of reinstalling the packages previously uninstalled, apt cannot find pluto-dcerouter, and as a result, my Hybrid is currently toast.

Anybody know where this package can be found, and what's going on with the repositories, that necessary packages such as this might not be available?

7

Users / MD's cannot rip DVD's, NOT a css issue...

« on: August 09, 2008, 11:04:56 pm »

Up until last few days, I could put DVD's into ANY of the Hybrid's or MDs' drives, and simultaneously rip them to our collection on Hybrid's 2x500G RAID0 array.  At this point, however, ONLY the Hybrid itself can rip...

Upon placing DVD's in any MD's drive, it begins play...  At this point, usually, pressing F7 (UI2) or left-click (UI1), selecting Copy Disk stops play, starts rip.  Now, however, F7 -> Copy just freezes the menu until rt-click takes you back to playback under UI2, and Copy Disk simply doesn't respond under UI1.

Using Manage Drives:  Each drive accurately reflects the inserted Media, but NONE of the buttons elicit ANY response, whether play, rip, or eject.

Have deleted disk drive devices, recreated images, even had one of my MD's deleted and recreated, all to no avail.  Core is x86_64, MD's are both 32 and 64, and I'm at a loss...

8

Users / T-Mobile @Home VoIP suggestions???

« on: August 03, 2008, 07:46:03 am »

Basically, for the express purpose of providing my LinuxMCE system a VoIP line (and save a ton of $$ on the landline...), we've been deal-hunting the VoIP providers for several weeks, now.

Just 2 weeks ago, coincidentally, T-Mobile gave us a coupla' Wings for free, and upon calling them to verify the activation, was told that I might be eligible for their Brand New VoIP service, as well!!

As of now, I have 13 more days to return the router, if it will not work as LinuxMCE needs.  However, I REALLY love the idea of keeping it, if it will!!

Service requires use of one of their routers, a Linksys WRTU54G-TM, which has 1 WAN, 4 10/100 LAN, and 2 RJ-11 ports, WiFi B/G, 2 Sim-Card Slots (1 per line), and voice quality is great.

Prior to receiving this new T-Mo VoIP gear, network looked like this:  DSL Modem -> External NIC Hybrid // Int NIC -> Linksys WRT310N -> rest of network

Currently, the network setup is such as this: DSL Modem -> WAN Port on T-Mo VoIP Router // LAN Port -> External NIC of LMCE Hybrid // Int NIC -> Linksys WRT310N -> rest of network, and, of course, we've got a 5.8Ghz cordless plugged into the RJ-11 port 1...

Now, I know that replacing my Draft-N MiMo / Gigabit with a G / 10/100 on the internal side of server would be somewhat self-defeating.  I also know that LMCE is designed to detect new devices on internal side, and attempt to auto-config.  Would it automatically detect / config new phone gear, with this?  Would I simply have to do some additional config?  Should the T-Mo gear remain on the external side?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated!!  It's too late to mess with it any more this eve, but I'll be playing with it all day tomorrow, and report back my findings!!

9

Installation issues / Cannot update media...

« on: October 15, 2007, 09:35:45 pm »

I know that similar issues are spoken of in other threads, but I do not believe that this is the same issue.

I set up my NAS box (using standard NFS shares), in LMCE, and it saw and started to import / list the media stored there.  During this process, I had to reboot the Hybrid.  Upon reboot, there was only ONE song in the audio list, nothing anywhere else.  I attempted to resynch from the admin interface, and UpdateMedia from CLI.  They both fail with the all-too-familiar:

Code: [Select]

01      10/15/07 12:42:50.248           Cannot find self in maplock! (0x80b47b4) (>2) alarm: AlarmManager.cpp:102  <0xb6af2b90>
ready to dump locks using logger: 0x80b4858
05      10/15/07 12:42:50.296           Dumping 1 locks <0xb6af2b90>
05      10/15/07 12:42:50.297           finished check for exceptions <0xb6af2b90>
05      10/15/07 12:42:50.297           OL: (0x80b47b4) (>1) alarm AlarmManager.cpp l:87 time: 12:42:50p (0 s) thread: 3064936144 Rel: Y Got: Y <0xb6af2b90>
As well, I've browsed the _media DB, and emptied it, in case that might have removed any possible corruption, but it hasn't helped...  there was a bunch of corrupted media on the NAS, so I've removed any and all that would not play or display correctly.

I don't know what else to do???

10

Installation issues / [FIXED] MD image creation broke orbiter on Hybrid...

« on: October 13, 2007, 08:11:26 pm »

I'm not sure just how or why, but upon creation of an MD image, the Hybrid's display seemed to go haywire, and upon reboot, the hybrid's orbiter dies for unknown reason...  However, the MD's orbiter worx fine (only UI1, due to video hardware limitations).

As well, another MD went thru installation seemingly successfully, and now boot hangs at an error about the nvidia module tainting the kernel...

All of this stuff happened basically simultaneously...

Anyone have any ideas?

11

Users / Finally getting there (was "Unsure, still, what's wrong)

« on: October 06, 2007, 06:58:40 am »

I love the idea of this project, and look forward to seeing it actually capable of doing it.  However, after nearly 2 weeks of hassles trying to get it to work as advertised, I've not yet gotten close.

My experiences are as follow:

Hybrid = 1.3G Duron / 768MB DDR / 4 internal HDD's, totalling over 100Gigs (400 more on NAS) / AGP Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT with 512MB DDR2 / 1 Pinnacle tv-capture card, more would have been added when it worked...

I struggled for the first several days with the DVD-install, which in the end, was just plain useless to me.  It would not allow for ANY installation of proprietary drivers for my video-card, and there were HUGE stability issues.

I did get the video drivers (Nvidia 100.14.19) installed after the fourth attempt by use of the CD's on a clean Kubuntu load, and finally had a working standalone media-box, until I actually tried to use it for ANYTHING.  I could only start ANY video playback ONCE, as with all subsequent attempts, all video was garbled and mis-colored horribly (from capture, from stored vid-file, anything), until I rebooted the hybrid.  This went on for a couple of days, and then seemed to ALMOST fix itself (but NOT due to updates, they came in immediately), as I can now start video of any format around 8-12 times before this happens...  I've since become aware of the bugs in this version of the driver, but it's working for now, so I will wait until they've fixed it...

I then, began attempts to build out MD's...  I started with my own HP Pav dv6423om (notebook) / 1.8G Turion 64 X2 / 2GB DDR2 / 160GB HDD / Ubuntu 7.04 w/ KDE...  Cannot get it to network-boot, as each attempt results in "Diskless Setup failed" error after just 30 seconds (yes, the hybrid is the ONLY DHCP server).  Installed the LMCE MD software, and it cannot make use of my local Nvidia drivers (Go 6150), nor does it attach the network-drives, most times...  I cannot get it to do much of anything...

Next was an older HP L2105CA / Turion 64 / 1GB DDR / 80GB HDD / ATI Xpress 200M / missing LCD-panel, uses external flat-panel 19"...  In the end, same error as the last...  Nothing recognizable in the logs, no other signs of what might have gone wrong.  Several other attempts have come to just as bad a situation, so I attempted to install Kubuntu and the MD software.  Didn't even try to install the video drivers, yet.  It actually worked!!!  Until it didn't...  Lasted about 10 minutes, X crashed, and a string of repeated errors about CIFS share error -6.    It seems quite similar, if not identical to this:  http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2706.0

All the way around, the install media, hardware, and such are all good.  I've researched each and every problem I come upon, until there's no more info to research...  I've done everything exactly as it is to be done (at least per the documentation available...), and it still will not work.  Still wrestling with it...