Messages

16

Feature requests & roadmap / Development and maintenance, backwards compatibility, git branches. etc

« on: November 24, 2018, 09:24:06 am »

Hello

After taking the plunge and trying to build LinuxMCE after being a consumer for too long. One of the things I notice is the problem of keeping backward compatibility while working on newer Ubuntu branches.

Would it be feasible to add some branches in git like ubuntu-14.04, ubuntu-16.04, ubuntu-18.04 for example, to allow maintenance on these older Ubuntu versions without holding up current developments?

I know some things have do be done by conditionals in the code for each branch and there is the database to consider but some things in the code repo can only be done with another branch from what I can tell.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Cheers.

17

Users / Re: Adding zwave lights

« on: November 13, 2018, 03:22:46 am »

Good you got it working.

Would like to add to what Garbui mentioned, the first time I added a zwave plus device a while back, a hardwired plug, I was amazed to see how it fixed the connection issues with other devices because it acts as a repeater. I've added a few more devices since then and the network seems fine so wholeheartedly agree adding more devices are better, even one if it can act as a repeater in the mesh.

USB cable are a lot cheaper though, it's good to see how issues like this can be tackled in multiple ways, didn't know having a second controller was at all possible.

Cheers.

18

Users / Re: Adding zwave lights

« on: October 30, 2018, 01:24:59 pm »

Well it looks like the controller is working and the devices are there but the red don't look good.

Shouldn't need to reboot if you killall ZWave, think I tried something like that before but ZWave died so rebooted to make sure, maybe I sent it the wrong signal. thanks for the tip pointman87.

19

Users / Re: disk md

« on: October 27, 2018, 03:35:30 pm »

Yes a few things have changed from under, I should be careful because saying easy fix nearly always ends up a lot of workarounds.

The network setting not being in /etc/network/interfaces is a quick fix on the MD really, just 2 lines in the file. Though doing this for a lot of MD is impractical IMHO. Looking at the problem for a little while, I think it could be patched in the mkr_postinst.sh because there should be a network up when the package is installed, so inserting the interface for the currently default route is one way to work around it.

Not had a chance to look at the firstboot scripts in length yet, I assume they are for when the machine boots next and doing the setup for the MD.  On the next boot the network has gone so I assume postinst is the only place to do it, even though it feels like a bit of a hack.

I have a patch to do this in the postinst anyway but not tested it yet, going off topic here my time has been spent working on some extra build scripts for LinuxMCE to provision a bare machine into a LinuxMCE development environment and produce various container/vm images. I did this so allows me to test the current patches I have submitted and try to start developing some features I would like to have, ok dreaming a lot here

I nearly didn't see the post on the next page about a new wiki page but I started on one locally anyway, the workarounds for network maybe should have a new ticket on gitlab rather than being in the wiki if this can be fixed in the code, I don't mind doing both.

Thanks for support.

20

Users / Re: Adding zwave lights

« on: October 23, 2018, 02:41:39 pm »

That's it!

I have the same, the lights are controlled by the parent ZWave device here.

Here is a paste of one of my lights in Wizard > Devices > Lights

(some dimmer)
Device #: 170
Device Template #: 38
Controlled by: ZWave

In the LMCE web admin and the top menu Automation > Advanced ZWave will show more info.

Sometimes in the past I have had to delete all those devices you pasted after messing around to force re-reading, then remove the usb stick and rebooted. you will have to add everything again but if things go crazy that is a sure fire way to start over after resetting all the devices but only do that as a last resort. Things work for me here now so I haven't done that for a while, sometimes it takes some time for Zwave settings to stick I think I just had to keep trying until I got it working.

Edit: if you want lots of info you can also do this

tail -f /var/log/pluto/${your_parent_ZWave_device_number}_ZWave.log

Or connect to the screen session that is running for the device; screen -ls
that can be of great help in finding problems.

21

Developers / Trouble pushing to Gitlab in my userspace repo

« on: October 22, 2018, 04:33:36 am »

Hello

Sorry to be a pain.

I have made a test repo in my userspace on the Gitlab, I tried pushing a few test commits to it to see about getting started but  it looks like they are not showing up. The first two commits seemed to push fine from the command line but nothing is showing up when I look at the repo through Gitlab. I tried even making a commit through the web using Gitlab but the commit I made creating a new file did not complete saying the branch diverged. Do I need to commit on a branch other than master or something, or do I need elevated privileges - I am currently a Reporter.

Not sure what to do now any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Gav

Edit: The repo here should have two commits https://git.linuxmce.org/Gavlee/test
The reason I did a new repo and not a fork: I am in the middle of writing a wrapper around the buildscripts to try to make building LinuxMCE on foreign operating system easier. A new repo looks like the easiest and less invasive way to do it that is all.

Edit 2: The commits I made in the test repo are now visible, so thank you very much for the privilege and sorry for the bother.

22

Users / Re: Adding zwave lights

« on: October 22, 2018, 03:35:37 am »

Hello

I have the same Z-wave stick.

From trial and error and off the top of my head, the way i include devices is take the stick out of the host computer, go to the device one wishes to include, press the button on the stick until it flashes indicating inclusion mode, put the light or other device into inclusion mode. Once the devices are included the usb stick should flash more rapidly telling that the inclusion was successful.

If this is a light, some lights do not have an inclusion button. With this all I did was fit the light but before turning it on, bring the usb stick to the light you want to include, put the stick into include mode then turn the light on. This should include the device.

Sometimes I have had trouble including devices or things get messed up. if you have problems, try excluding all the devices first, by this i mean put the controller and device into exclusion mode, this is a long press and hold on the remote and it should flash differently, the same process above for inclusion but excluding the device and start over again including them. Most devices are different on how they are included/excluded so check the manual of each device for more details. My last light didn't come with any so I had to figure it out..

A last resort is resetting the controller from the "Soft reset controller" in the Advanced ZWave page of the lmce admin. then deleting the ZWave devices. Note that this doesn't automatically exclude the devices, lights, sensors that have been included so those devices need to be excluded even after a reset of the controller

So if you have any problems I would try excluding the devices first and starting over. If the device has been used with a previous controller, try excluding it with that first and including with the new one.

I have reset the controller before this will remove all the devices the stick remembers, but the devices seem to remember and you also have to exclude them first. Remember to quick reload router.. Sometimes you will need to reboot if there is a problem and ZWave gets stuck.

Sure someone with better knowledge will chime in

HTH
Gav

EDIT: I knew I had something wrong. The part about Soft reset isn't right, I had to enter a specially crafted command to send to the device which did a hard reset but I cannot remember that off hand. Still the exclusion or reset of other devices needs to be done.

23

Users / Re: disk md

« on: October 20, 2018, 02:30:05 am »

OK. Great.

I guess this is a little old and confusing http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Unsupported_Disked_MD

Can I make a new page Disked_MD or ?

I know disked MD process works because I have one running right now but I think there are a few little bugs in the deb package post install scripts. Networking doesn't come up which kind of stops everything but I think there is an easy fix

Thanks for the confirmation.

EDIT: maybe off topic here but because networking doesn't come up on the disked MD but I would like to know whether network manager is supposed to be disabled (NM has some features that could be good on MD) or to do the config in /etc/network/interfaces. The problem is the interfaces file only contains config for the loopback, not any LAN, and if NM is disabled there is no network at all.

24

Users / Re: disk md

« on: October 18, 2018, 03:21:20 pm »

Hello

Sorry to hijack your thread.

Is it documented somewhere how to install a disked MD?

I have installed disked MD before many times on different things eventually but would like to get the install process clear in case I'm doing it wrong, I can't find concrete docs on it but follow instructions phenigma provided like for arm but instead installing on a i386 with lmce-disked-md-base for example.

Can you clarify this please?

Kind regards.

25

Users / Hello LinuxMCE

« on: October 16, 2018, 12:03:14 pm »

Hello to all of LinuxMCE.

I've never been active in many forums but I thought I would introduce myself after being a happy LinuxMCE user for a long time.

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has made the project possible, I was blown away by the video all those years ago and have been hooked ever since.

I never had to post on the forum because I felt I didn't know enough about the project to provide any assistance, any problem I have ever had was easily fixed by searching the forum or wiki to find a solution, which has led me to learn a little about the system over time.

Anyway, thanks to all for such a great project. I am still blown away by what LinuxMCE can do even after ten years.

Cheers.