GC100 + CM11 setup

[Zaerc]

Somehow I seem unable to setup my GC100 properly, even after using workarounds.  The CM11 works fine on both the core (with USB-serial cable) and a media director (with serial cable), right up to the point where I hook it up to the GC100's serial port.

Is there anyone around who has experience with this?

I have eventually added the gc100 successfully (or so it seems) to the LMCE system, tried both workarounds on the LMCE and Pluto gc100 wiki page.  They both seem to work fine and get the device added (the latter one leaves the device unlocked, which can be handy for testing).

I have set the parameters on the serial port to "4800 8N1" as listed among other places on the pluto gc100 page.  According to GCSupport aparently every browser but IE is broken (funny how I never noticed that before, not to mention ping being broken under linux as well, I mean come on).  Whether this broken firmware can ever be upgraded is anybodies guess (and I'm not desperate enough yet to email their techsupport), but I digress.

Meanwhile there is a new serial device on the core available in the web-admin: /dev/ttyS_84_0 it would seem to me that this has to be the serial port on the GC100 (which just happens to be device #84).  Now this is where things get confusing for me. 

When I reconfigure the CM11 in the web-admin to use that serial port (like I've done moving back and forth between the core and MD) it doesn't work anymore.  Then I noticed that the gc100 also has a "Com Port on PC" setting, so I tried setting that to /dev/ttyS_84_0 as well, which was accepted but with the same disappointing result.  I have no idea how this is supposed to work, but here is what baffles me: the /dev/ttyS_84_0 "device" is actually a symlink to /dev/null.  Any thoughts on this are more then welcome.

In the mean time I guess as a last resort I can put this device under my arm and go visit a windows-using friend, just to reconfigure it with IE (ffs).  Not that I expect much of that as the settings are reported what they should be, but just to rule that out and who knows...

PS. I got a GC100-06 with Firmware Version : 2.4-06 and a CM11A (w/opt. USB cable) for what it's worth.

[Zaerc]

Well I've set it up with IE, still no luck.  The only difference with firefox was that it didn't display the extra "zero" at the end of the input fields (konqueror also does not shows this), submitting the forms results unde IE in time-outs, just like the other browsers.  Anyway I configured it again, this time using IE, I can see that the settings are set in the pages (as before), the sensor input lights up when I trigger it and all (no surprises there), but not much else is happening.  So, so much for the IE story...

Found a little info on the pluto forum, which vaguely refers to the serial port: http://plutohome.com/support/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=2882 allthough it doesn't tell me much.

I was planning on adding more info to the wiki on this thing, but so far all I can add is that it doesn't work, even with the mentioned fixes.    Somebody must have had this device working at some time or another...

[Zaerc]

I guess I really am the only one using a gc-100 with linuxmce.  Found this in the /var/log/pluto/socat_ttyS_34_0.log:

Code: [Select]

2007/08/23 00:22:39 socat[29450] E error in option "echo": "0" or "1" required
2007/08/23 00:22:40 socat[29457] E error in option "echo": "0" or "1" required
2007/08/23 00:22:41 socat[29459] E error in option "echo": "0" or "1" required

So I changed this line:

Code: [Select]

socat -v TCP4:"$IP":"$Port" PTY,link="$Dev",echo=false,icanon=false,raw >>"/var/log/pluto/socat_$DevName".log 2>&1
into this line:

Code: [Select]

socat -v TCP4:"$IP":"$Port" PTY,link="$Dev",echo=0,icanon=0,raw >>"/var/log/pluto/socat_$DevName".log 2>&1

And what do you know? /dev/ttyS_34_0 is now a symlink to /dev/pts/19.  Time to hook up the CM11 again...

PS: the gc100 is device #34 on this installation, just in case anyone is wondering.

EDIT:

Now the CM11 works perfectly on the serial port of the gc100.

[caiman]

That's great, thanks for the info Zaerc, I'll try it out.
Sam

[Zaerc]

That's great, thanks for the info Zaerc, I'll try it out.
Sam

You're welcome, and thank you for getting me started with the gc100.  I'll add it properly to the wiki lateron.

And I just noticed I forgot to mention which file I modified: /usr/pluto/bin/gc100-serial-bridge.sh, the wiki now has a couple of simple commands to do this (and a reference to this here forum thread).

[marrandy]

According to GCSupport aparently every browser but IE is broken (funny how I never noticed that before, not to mention ping being broken under linux as well, I mean come on).  Whether this broken firmware can ever be upgraded is anybodies guess (and I'm not desperate enough yet to email their techsupport), but I digress.

As this thread started on the 20th August, 3-days after my post and your response on the 17th August ref the GC100-12 issues, I assume you tried to test your unit.

Ref - http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2121.0

But as I stated in my post, konqueror works.

As Gc didn't heed my suggestion to edit their email, I have provided a follow-up at the link above.

As always, confirm with support by email yourselves.  They could change their minds  ;-)

[Zaerc]

Well to be honest, I don't think the browser issue is really worth mentioning.  The forms timeout with all the browsers, in my experience, the only difference is that firefox shows the extra junk in the input fields.  In the end with a little persistence they all set the device up properly. 

To me it's not worth shipping the device overseas for, but it might just solve the MAC-address issue. 

[marrandy]

That's interesting.

Firefox 2.0.0.2
Opera 9.23 Build 660

They both hang and never actually update the settings on the GC100 (ie. close and reconnect shows the original settings).

Konqueror 3.5.7 actually does update the settings

Zaerc..are you seeing something different ?

What versions are you using.

Regards...Martin

[Zaerc]

Firefox, Konquerer and IE all seem to time-out after a form submission, but when I go back and forth to another page I see the settings have changed (and stuff works so I know they have changed).  I used the versions of Firefox and Konquerer that came with Kubuntu/LMCE, and an old version of Firefox 1.5.0.3 as well, I don't know what version of IE it was, probably the latest available for XP.

[PeteK]

Guys--

I just picked up a GC100 yesterday.  The firmware is now 3.0.  One of the items on the release notes says that this firmware fixes the problem with the firefox browser that you guys mentioned.  I  don't see a firmware updater on the web site.  Is there one available?

-Pete

[Zaerc]

I think the only option is to ship the device back to them so they can do the update.  But in all honesty I never bothered to contact them as it's not that big a deal for me.

Does the automatic setup of the device work again too, or is that still broken?

[PeteK]

I think the only option is to ship the device back to them so they can do the update.  But in all honesty I never bothered to contact them as it's not that big a deal for me.

Does the automatic setup of the device work again too, or is that still broken?

That's lame.  I haven't been able to plug it in and try it yet, but I'll let you know (and post to the wiki) if it works any differently with this firmware.  They've also added an announce message from the GC100 that includes type, IP, MAC address, etc.  This might be a good tool for autodetection of the GC100 to avoid the workaround listed in the wiki.  It looks like they set it to use DHCP by default, making it less of a pain to configure initially.

There are couple more interesting features listed in the release notes (which I got with the unit, I can't find them online after a brief search), including a whole new web interface and some new commands.  If someone wants to find out exactly what's required to update, it might prove useful to people here.

[Zaerc]

Sounds like you're going to have to do a manual installation (the wiki page has a link to the pluto wiki for that).  DHCP support sounds like a big improvement, but I'm affraid the support for setting up the device will have to be redone.  On the other hand, it was b0rked already, so what else is new?

[PeteK]

Well, at least it's job security.  Oh wait, I'm not getting paid for this 

[Zaerc]

Well, at least it's job security.  Oh wait, I'm not getting paid for this 

  Errmmm, neither am I 


Maybe the pluto people should get off their behinds and do their jobs, since they are.