Messages

1

Developers / Re: Link Aggregation in LMCE

« on: August 21, 2015, 12:06:14 am »

Being my first project involving true development for LMCE and not just testing or basic feature troubleshooting the research type legwork I am referring to is a better understand of key concepts you all know second hand.  UDEV, modprobe, install order etc are all things I will want to look at before I brush up on bash and dig down to rough in something that not just works but makes sense at every level.

I'm still looking at a few weeks or more until I am ready to begin initial testing and hacking something in to test it manually.  I may be ignorant or unrealistically hopeful but I believe with available information from different sources I can get it working with direct manipulation after installation and my challenge will be in making it sharable as something other than a dirty hack.   Another first for me would be ensuring that any needed packages are available in supported repos and that I understand that process in detail.

You've all been very supportive and helpful so far.  I hope that my desire to understand this process better before I dive in and get stuck shows I appreciate it.

2

Developers / Re: Link Aggregation in LMCE

« on: August 18, 2015, 01:57:48 am »

Thanks.

I like the scope of your plans and projects for more options around network configurations.  Once I've laid out my available time and rebuilt some of my systems to begin testing I'll certainly be in touch with you.

In the mean-time I'll be studying ubuntu network installations as I assume we build after and off of those.  I'll be verifying LAG support packages which I believe should be already present and then looking over lmce usage and needs that your very familiar with in v14.  This gives me some research work before my above proposed implementation strategy.

3

Developers / Re: Link Aggregation in LMCE

« on: August 17, 2015, 11:57:46 am »

Noted, thank you.

I've been reading through some network config issues with the v12 & v14 installers and experienced some odd behaviour myself.  As my project is a future addition and his work appears to be more bug related I don't see much need in collaboration at this point but will appreciate his assistance when I get user ready.

4

Developers / Re: Link Aggregation in LMCE

« on: August 16, 2015, 08:01:41 am »

Time allowance.

Things have been hectic at work for me lately which have spilled over into my weekends when I wanted to work on this.  Second smaller hurdle for me has been hardware.  I really missed the advice of developers and long time users years ago when selecting hardware.  I come from gaming machine builds which tend to prefer the higher watt multicore cpu which have noise and heat issues I wouldn't have with "adequate" hardware.  I'll want to completely rebuild my core and two MDs to set up this test bench.  I'll also be ordering core SSD which will ensure by bottleneck is network related and highlight improvements LAG provides.

What I will need help on once I have manually configured my ifconfig and lmce network settings is guidance and information.  I'll want to lead this project (otherwise it would be posted in feature request) but my coding is week and my understanding of lmce install order is as well. 

I know the dev channel in IRC is available, I plan to use it a lot once I know what the final config settings need to look like, and I know what the current installer does when multiple eth options.  That info will direct my questions to the devs on the best way to add it to lmce.

The options I see at this planning point would be:

During initial install screens, a eth scan is performed and the user configures ports.  This would allow 10/100 onboard ports to be assigned as eth0 (external) to avoid issues later.  I would also have auto and manual advanced settings if eth2+ is detected.

A web-admin add-on that could be used for after installation additions or corrections to setup defined port usage.

A graphical network map feature similar to av-wizard which would guide users to proper network building and tuning.  Statically assigning wireless access point IP address so their web interfaces can be accessed,etc.

I predict 1-2 months at this point.

5

Developers / Link Aggregation in LMCE

« on: July 29, 2015, 03:15:27 am »

I would like to open a discussion topic on a feature I am interesting in developing and testing for LMCE.  This project is something I could tinker with and do development work on at a bench while the bulk of my system remains in storage.  Before I dive in however I would like to pose some function questions to those much more experienced than I to feel out what the usefulness of this would be in the LMCE network, ie. are performance improvements expected or is this a neat trial with no true benefit other than saying I did it.

Basic idea:  Provide manual configuration options to get network port aggregation working on the core.  A configuration on the web-admin for after install upgrades with manual port bonding or auto-magic detection scripts for installation that would assign bonds between NICs.

Limited initial support hardware:  dual pci-e NIC, quad pci-e NIC,  possible later add support for multiple single inexpensive PCI NICs

Concept:  In a PXE boot environment with all IO routing to and from the core, a 10/100/1000 is understood to be a minimum requirement.  From my understanding of LAG, the gigabit transmission is then split among all nodes pulling and requesting data at once limiting each connected node to a fraction of the 1000mb/s.  Two MDs would get 500mb/s each, four would get 250mb/s each.. etc.  By adding support for two (or more) gigabit NICs working as a bonded eth1 on our cores, network bottlenecks during peak traffic conditions could get closer to the 1000mb/s data per node after the switch.

Network boost, Minimal expense:  LAG would be beneficial between the core and the switch(s) only in my opinion and would require support for additional hardware on the core + extra ethernet cable to the switch.  Single lines from the switch out to MDs would not be needed or beneficial.

Developer/Network Architect Input:  Above is what works well on paper and depending on which article you read is either the greatest networking throughput gain ever or a lab experiment for a rookie Cisco student with no real benefit.

In our networks:

Are there peak transmission times where all MDs want data and we feel our cores cant provide it fast enough?
      Are MD boots done sequentially or all at once? 
      When streaming media from SAS on the core is IO bottlenecked?
     
Is LAG believed to be a feature worth testing and developing for LMCE 14.04 and later releases?
 
*Regarding LAG with switch redundancy:  Although it adds some complexity there is also the multiple bonded NICs going to multiple switches for redundancy in network topography.  I see less usefulness here in our networks but could also experiment with this easy enough.

6

Users / Re: NAS - FreeNAS, LMCE or something else?

« on: August 05, 2014, 07:43:32 pm »

I've ran FreeNas, NAS4free and another called "OpenMediaVault" on a networked RAID machine. 

FreeNAS - compared to NAS4free the system requirements are slightly higher but does offer ZFS and other powerful features.  I ran this off a 4gig thumb drive and didn't have to waste a drive bay on a system hdd.

NAS4free - worked better for me and allowed me to experiment with different formats like JFS for mythtv.  I do not believe this offered ZFS but I could be wrong.  I used a hardware managed RAID 5 array via IDE PCIX card and a software controlled RAID 5 via SATA PCIX card.  -- hardware controller limited array size, software controller got around that.

OpenMediaVault - IMO the best user interface.  I was also able to have the NAS watching my UPS via RS232 and other standard features like transmission.   

7

Users / Re: Video File Format

« on: April 11, 2014, 08:44:07 pm »

Haven't dropped this project yet.  I haven't had much time to do anything LMCE related lately.

I have spent some time off and on reading up on this, attempting various replacement config files and am now learning what these various settings better to write one that works for LMCE and its media players and capabilities.  For anyone else poking around with this here is the basics.

Enable transcoding = no by default
- change to yes

File extension open-with instructions = matroska is not included by default
- matroska open with _____ ( i would assume xine but I will try others if needed)

MIME type (?) = .mkv is not understood as matroska for instructions further down the config file

* Where I currently am *
- .mkv does not exist in the MIMI type section where the other file formats are present
- early on in the config file there are MIME type rules for things such as .avi = (name) .mp4 = (name)
- later in the transcoding section, (name) is assigned to a transcoding software instead of file type.  Perhaps these MIMEs were grouped early on to save repetition later on? 

8

Users / Media attributes display priority

« on: March 23, 2014, 07:29:44 pm »

Looking for possible solutions for a simple issue.  Technically a feature request as I imagine it may take some work, but wanted to check here in users section to see if there is already a method.

When adding media attributes to video files I use TMDB, a great add to the web-admin and a welcome change to the Amazon attribute finder.

So many attributes are added however that the synopsis of the movie does not display when a video thumbnail is pulled up.  Movies manually tagged or tagged using Amazon with fewer attributes (director & 2-3 performers) will display the synopsis.

- Is there a method of displaying all attributes without starting the video and then navigating to attributes>more in UI2?
- Could attributes be prioritized to display before others?

9

Users / Re: Video File Format

« on: March 21, 2014, 07:12:32 am »

Slowly poking away at changes to the config.xml, changing as few lines as possible in hopes of adding .mkv and not breaking anything else.

Because this config file is generated by mediatomb, what is the best way for me to share a patch?  My thought currently is a executable script that runs (and restarts mediatomb) after it's installation.  Could someone help me with permissions on that and upload/submit procedures when complete?

10

Users / Re: Video File Format

« on: March 11, 2014, 06:04:57 pm »

Thanks for the input.  I guess it's time to reassemble the NAS. 

Question on .mkv and PS3 playback.  I have setup PSMS on windows machines and been able to playback .mkv files.  To access my LMCE media through my PS3 I am using LinuxMCE via MediaTomb which does not show .mkv titles.  Is there another method or is that something that needs to be implemented?   

11

Users / Video File Format

« on: March 06, 2014, 09:02:23 pm »

Wondering what other users have found to be a good video file format in regards to quality vs. disk size. 

When I only had 100 or so movies, most of my collection was ripped DVDs in .dvd format which based on their size (4.7gb +) were pretty accurate copies of the original disk.  Quality was great imo and the special features included on disk were nice to have.

Now that my collection is near 1,000 movies I have noticed a large difference in quality using .mp4 and .mkv files which average 700mb - 1.5gb.  I have animated movies for the kids compressed down to 250mb in .mkv where quality is not critical but for other videos where I intent to watch with HD surround audio and want better picture I am looking for recommendations. 

12

Users / Haven't posted a thank you in a while

« on: March 01, 2014, 04:36:04 pm »

The title should be pretty straightforward.

It's been quite a few (five?) years since I started using LMCE in one form or another.  Even with frustrations I've experienced at times I really appreciate all the work that has and still goes into making this so enjoyable for users like me.  Next weekend I will be setting up a Hybrid for my parents who have until now enjoyed accessing my media through a PS3 and will really benefit from at minimum the ease of access UI2 offers.  Perhaps in time they will also enjoy the additional features that makes LMCE a total home solution and not just a media player.

Thank you to the developers, donators, testers and users who have posted feedback.   

13

Users / Re: Syracruse area, car/rv aficionado anyone?

« on: March 01, 2014, 04:26:00 pm »

Is this request still open Posde?  I moved away from Syracuse years ago but still have a few friends there I could ask to check out a few on a weekend, sending you back select photographs etc.

14

Users / Re: Is anyone using the Game Player?

« on: February 24, 2014, 09:59:43 pm »

Still using the game player daily.  Mostly SMS titles but guests use all the various systems from time to time.  Cover art works fine.  I've added art to the systems themselves which gives a really cool look when GAMES is first selected.  It reminds me of my old game hardware collection.

I never did figure out the issue I had with my various gamepads and had to bandaid the problem by removing orbiter control. 

Gamepad functions and navigates the onscreen orbiter
Game is selected.
Gamepad functions as a game controller but does not cease navigating the onscreen orbiter
button __  makes onscreen character jump, but also brings up the onscreen orbiter overlay.  possibly closing the game out or opening submenus during gameplay.

Bandaid was removing the mapped orbiter control buttons in web-admin.  I then use the game system options menu to map system control only.

15

Users / Re: Orbiter Clock

« on: February 04, 2014, 01:56:52 am »

Very specific reply thank you.  I was reading about the UPDATE command but hadn't caught the second SELECT * FROM StyleVariation and had no idea before now PK and FK was primary and foreign key. 

600 was a guess, after UPDATE SET I will regen and try a few different values.  Once I have a clean look I will update my first post in this thread for other users who want the clock in 800 X 600.