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I gave up on this whole thing for a few months until recently.  The fiire guys remotely "fixed up" my core, but I don't even know what they did.  It took them a few tries before it finally appears to work.  I've had the fiire station basically working for a couple months now.  I'm just starting to get it into regular use.  Today I fired up my other MD which took a few reboots, but eventually booted to the orbiter screen!  This is a via based ebox fanless, diskless box.  It shows up using the same fiire station template and boots up ok.

I can watch youtube videos fine with sound etc.  However, I can't play any audio or video files on this MD. 

On my fiire station, I can play all the dvds ripped by my core, but I can't play any of my videos on file - mpg, avi, etc.  I have the restricted drivers installed, but the videos are seriously distorted.  The sound comes through ok, but the video is all messed up.  Ironically, I can play all my mp3 files ripped separately, but I have problems playing the audio files ripped by my core.  Although it does not seem to be every file.

I still like linuxmce, but it's quite a struggle - especially since I don't have a lot of time to spend on this :-(.  I really like this project.  Is there any commercial interest to invest in active development?  Or is this entirely developed on spare time?

Thanks man!  Can I ask you another related question?  I now have two diskless MDs sortof running, but each has different problems playing media.  My hybrid can play all the same media fine.  In short, I'm thinking I need to update my media players and codecs to the latest for the right release.  Is the 7.10 dvd install the latest 7.10 packages?  Or should I get updates from ubuntu gutsy?  Or should I use debian - etch?  Should I change the players that are being used?  It seems xine is being used for everything.

thanks in advance
Andrew

Here's my core's
deb file:/usr/pluto/deb-cache/ ./ 
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-security  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ ./ 
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ replacements_ubuntu  main
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ replacements_debian  main
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ 20dev_ubuntu  main

none of the linuxmce.com repositories can be found, ever.  What should I do?  Where should these point?

Here's my MD's

deb file:/usr/pluto/deb-cache/ sarge  main
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-security  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates  main restricted multiverse universe
deb http://linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ ./ 
deb http://deb.linuxmce.com/ubuntu/ replacements_debian  main
deb http://deb.plutohome.com/debian/ sarge  main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.plutohome.com/debian/ 20dev_debian  main


Again the deb.plutohome.com repos do not work ever.  What should I do?  Should I just assume the only source of pluto/linuxmce packages is from the deb-cache?

thanks in advance
Andrew

I had the same problems and I wasn't able to fix it until one of the fiire support guys had access to my core.  I could not get him to tell me what he did :-(.  See if the fiire guys can help - try CJ.

My diskless MD was working ok until I clicked on KDE Desktop in the lmce UI.  It took me to a kde login screen but I do not have credentials for the md.  I tried to ssh to the MD from the core, but my ssh keys are hosed up so I cannot get in without a password there either.

Once you go to the KDE desktop, how do you get back to the lmce UI?  My core is a hybrid and it works quite differently b/c when I click on kde desktop I go straight to an already running kde desktop.

BTW, if I reboot the MD, it just goes back to the KDE login.  Any suggestions? 

Thanks in advance
Andrew

I downloaded fiire's archives for their hardware and followed their instructions, but it still didn't work.

OK, so I got my wall mount fiire station and reinstalled my core  - this time from cds to preserve some disk partitions containing media.  Clean install.  Then I put the 3 files from fiire in /usr/pluto/install/via and then pxe booted the fiire station.  It didn't complete the boot.  I'm pretty sure it loaded the kernel over tftp b/c you see the message "Loading default/vmlinuz.......", "Loading initramfs....." followed by a bunch of things including what looks like network setup - gives the device the following permanent address etc.  192.168.80.2.

I checked in the admin website and the media director shows up and even has two kernels both with a via/xxx path - one is debian and the other is kubuntu.  I tried setting it to use ubunutu - hoping that would mean kubuntu - but still same results.

Help, please
How do I even debug this?  PXE booting should be pretty easy to get a base os running.

Thanks
Andrew

NXServer is a very fast remote desktop (free) product - way faster than X or VNC.  Since my core is in a closet, I'd like remote access and since I'm a lame *nix user, I like my GUIs.  For this same reason, I find Webmin is a great linux administration tool.  Unfortunately startup scripts and the like don't work with pluto/mce (until we make it more of a kubuntu add-on).

Anyway, I recently reinstalled again and did not put NX or webmin on.  I am trying to keep it as vanilla as possible. 

I've had my hybrid core get all messed up twice  - see http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=5341.msg31259#msg31259

Does anyone know if there's a problem with running NXServer?  I know the MCE Launcher does NOT work from a remote NX session and neither does the cd installer.  Both times I hosed up my core I tried running the launcher remotely.

How bout webmin?  The only thing I can think of is that I reconfigured samba to appear on my workgroup - but I doubt that would cause this kind of problem.  Any suggestions before I reinstall and cause yet another fu?

thanks in advance
Andrew

Kewl - I suppose this would make sense that somewhere between downloading the kernel and booting properly the NIC driver will be reloaded by the downloaded kernel.  But this is a realtek 8100B which is pretty common.  I will follow your link to see if this resolves this problem.

Another thing that may actually suggest something else is the problem is that I created a kubuntu 7.10 usb flash drive boot and it seemed to hang during boot.  The usb drive worked on other machines.  Then I made an ubuntu 8.04 image on the usb drive and it works with the md hardware.  While I try out your suggestion, if anything else comes to mind, feel free to shout.  Unfortunately I have to reinstall my core from zero, again.


Anyone know if webmin or NXServer causes a problem with MCE?

Thanks
Andrew

Thanks, but my MD is a via which I believe is i386 compatible. 

Apparently this is a reproducible bug!

I completely reinstalled 7.10 rc2 using the dvddl.  Note the first time this happened I had installed the same release from CDs.  Once installed, I added the latest webmin and the free NXServer.  I changed the samba config to work with my lan.  I added firewall rules to allow some local service on my lan - I have two subnets  -the core is connected to both and provides firewall/routing between.  The "external" subnet is NAT'd, firewalled, routed to my internet connection.

The only other thing I did was try to use the core to deploy a diskless MD connected on the protected 192.168.80 network.  Best I could achieve thus far was that the MD gets an IP, downloads the kernel, gets a MD identifier, does a pre-mount script then attempts to run Diskless_Setup.sh which returns a "Diskless Setup Failed" message on the MD which appears to halt.

Before I blast this and repave it, would anyone like to see some logs etc. for debugging?

I did reinstall (from dl dvd) so it was pretty quick.  But then my sound card config got hosed up again  - but I'll worry about that later.  Now the core comes up ok and when I rebuild the MD I do in fact get a directory under /usr/pluto/diskless - hurray!  But it still does not work :-(.  The MD still barfs when it tries to run Diskless_Setup.sh reporting "Diskless Setup Failed".

Anyone have some tips how to debug this?  Any logs I should look at?  The other alternative is to try putting my own distro on a usb flash drive.  Suggestions welcome.

BTW, I really like the hardware - small, low power, quiet, and a decent price for the performance http://www.wdlsystems.com/modperl/view_services.cgi?r=detail&prod_num=1EBX48T&aisle_id=1016
"VIA Eden Esther 1.2GHz processor, 512MB DDR2, MPEG4/WMV9 decoding accelerator, 1x EIDE, 1x 10/100 LAN, 1x PS/2 K/B, 1x PS/2 Mouse, 2x USB 2.0 Ports (One in front), TV-out/S-Video (no VGA). Use with EmbedDisk horizontal left RoHS"

I tried using the fiire station via drivers - but that didn't seem to work.  Although I think it's failing before we even get to the drivers.  Anyone who knows the PXE boot sequence for pluto?
thanks in advance

p.s. sorry for the duplicate posting - seems two problems converged after one forced the reinstall of the core

Andrew

Is there a cd installation for MD?  I ran through both dvd and cd installs more times than I'd like to admit - but I did not see any options for a MD.  Did I misunderstand you?

I did reinstall (from dl dvd) so it was pretty quick.  But then my sound card config got hosed up again  - but I'll worry about that later.  Now the core comes up ok and when I rebuild the MD I do in fact get a directory under /usr/pluto/diskless - hurray!  But it still does not work :-(.  The MD still barfs when it tries to run Diskless_Setup.sh reporting "Diskless Setup Failed". 

Anyone have some tips how to debug this?  Any logs I should look at?  The other alternative is to try putting my own distro on a usb flash drive.  Suggestions welcome.

BTW, I really like the hardware - small, low power, quiet, and a decent price for the performance http://www.wdlsystems.com/modperl/view_services.cgi?r=detail&prod_num=1EBX48T&aisle_id=1016
"VIA Eden Esther 1.2GHz processor, 512MB DDR2, MPEG4/WMV9 decoding accelerator, 1x EIDE, 1x 10/100 LAN, 1x PS/2 K/B, 1x PS/2 Mouse, 2x USB 2.0 Ports (One in front), TV-out/S-Video (no VGA). Use with EmbedDisk horizontal left RoHS"

I tried using the fiire station via drivers - but that didn't seem to work.  Although I think it's failing before we even get to the drivers.  Anyone who knows the PXE boot sequence for pluto?
thanks in advance

Andrew