How to install LinuxMCE as Media Director only

[thomasmathiesen]

Dear community,

I have been using a LinuxMCE setup for about a year now, and it works great! I've only one PC installed with core and media director.

My challenge is that I have installed a second PC with LinuxMCE (as I do not want to use it as a thin-client), and would like it to be a media director for the core that installed a year ago.

I read the wiki, and it says that it's best to install it as a hybrid and then you may later change it into a media director. However, there is no more information than that?

Can someone tell me (step-by-step), how I can connect my 2nd PC (now hybrid) to the core installed on the 1st PC (the old one)?

Cheers
/Thomas

[bulek]

Dear community,

I have been using a LinuxMCE setup for about a year now, and it works great! I've only one PC installed with core and media director.

My challenge is that I have installed a second PC with LinuxMCE (as I do not want to use it as a thin-client), and would like it to be a media director for the core that installed a year ago.

I read the wiki, and it says that it's best to install it as a hybrid and then you may later change it into a media director. However, there is no more information than that?

Can someone tell me (step-by-step), how I can connect my 2nd PC (now hybrid) to the core installed on the 1st PC (the old one)?

Cheers
/Thomas

you can use any PC as MD as long as you set it up to boot over PXE.... So reboot, set boot to network and off you go... you'll use your second PC as MD for the older core. But it won't run as Core, only as MD for the other.... When you want your core back, then just set it up NOT to boot over network and it will boot from local disk....

HTH,

regards,

Bulek.

[thomasmathiesen]

Hi Bulek,

Thanks for the update, but as I am not using LinuxMCE as my dhcp server, I'd prefer to not boot PXE.

Is it possible to install a media director locally or is netboot (PXE) required?

Cheers
/Thomas

[tschak909]

LinuxMCE must be your DHCP server, if you wish to use any network functionality, such as media directors, or plug and play of IP devices.

-Thom

[thomasmathiesen]

Hi Thom,

Thanks for the update. I'll see what I can do here. Working with two DHCP servers and a bit of mac filtering should be fine

[tschak909]

I applaud your determination. but please... do yourself a favour, and let LinuxMCE be the DHCP/Gateway/Firewall for the house.

we do a very good job of hardening things up, and a lot of things will just work out of the box.

-Thom

[thomasmathiesen]

Hi Thom,

Thanks. I am a Linux geek, so no worries. Got an pfsense box running as fw, and I really need qos for voip traffic. Linuxmce is great, but I'll let it handle media and not security for now.

If I am not wrong, I can setup my pfsense box to only server ip addresses to mac's that it's configured to. Then LinuxMCE can server the rest of the range. Shouldn't be a problem having two.

I have disabled the routing etc. on Linuxmce, so it's a pure client right now.

Cheers
/Thomas