0810 Web oorbiter - no buttons!!

[m3freak]

I followed the Wiki's step-by-step directions for building a Web Orbiter.  After the build was done, I did a quick reload of the core.  I browsed to the web oribiter from one of my PCs on the external network, and was presented with a mostly empty screen.  The only items on it were:

- text saying WebOrbiter Screen
- 5 buttons that said: Home Back Refresh Exit Logout (in that order)

I don't what I've done wrong.  I don't see anything obvious in the logs.  I'm not sure how to trouble shoot this.

What should I look at first?

[purps]

Not quite sure what you mean by "one of my PCs on the external network"; I'll assume you mean the internal network.

Check to see if you have a folder called "bits" in the directory "/usr/pluto/orbiter". If you don't, make one.

And don't forget to Full regen your orbiters before you reload.

Cheers,
Matt.

[m3freak]

Not quite sure what you mean by "one of my PCs on the external network"; I'll assume you mean the internal network.

My LinuxMCE network is separate from my PCs.  I'm not using my core as my gateway/firewall to the Internet: that job stays with my IPCop firewall.  This is what my network looks like:

internet ---- ipcop ----- switch ----- PC 1  (web orbiter)
                       |                 |
                       |               PC 2
                       |
                    Core
                   /   |   \
                 /     |     \
             MD   MD  Other LinuxMCE stuff
 
So, as far as LinuxMCE is concerned, my PCs are external.  Make sense?  I'm pretty sure I have a typical config, or at the very least, one that is recommended.

Check to see if you have a folder called "bits" in the directory "/usr/pluto/orbiter". If you don't, make one.

And don't forget to Full regen your orbiters before you reload.

Ok, I'll check.  I can't ssh to my core anymore, though I can bring up the wed admin page just fine.  I don't know why I randomly lose ssh access.  LinuxMCE is pretty much the most temperamental Linux distro I've ever used.

[m3freak]

Check to see if you have a folder called "bits" in the directory "/usr/pluto/orbiter". If you don't, make one.

And don't forget to Full regen your orbiters before you reload.

The dir is there, but it's empty.

I've always done a "full regen" followed by a quick reload of the core when working on the web orbiter definition.  But, I'm still not seeing any icons to click/touch/angrily wave my finger at.

[purps]

I'm sure there are people that are using that kind of network setup successfully, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is "recommended" - where did you get that information from? As far as I know, LMCE should always be the gateway/firewall to the Internet, and your LMCE devices should be on the internal network. Your network setup might be the cause of many of your problems.

There are sometimes issues to overcome, yes, the system is insanely complicated after all, but it needs to be to do what it can do, which is something that no other "distro" even comes close to. This does not make it temperamental; once it's set up and running correctly, I have found it to be very stable (as you'd expect from any Linux-based system). Also don't forget this is beta software we're talking about here.

Cheers,
Matt.

[purps]

The dir is there, but it's empty.

I've always done a "full regen" followed by a quick reload of the core when working on the web orbiter definition.  But, I'm still not seeing any icons to click/touch/angrily wave my finger at.

That's fine then; see my previous post

Get a computer/device on the LMCE internal network and see if it works that way. Why are you using an IPCop if you don't mind me asking? Won't LMCE serve the same purpose?

[m3freak]

I'm sure there are people that are using that kind of network setup successfully, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is "recommended" - where did you get that information from? As far as I know, LMCE should always be the gateway/firewall to the Internet, and your LMCE devices should be on the internal network. Your network setup might be the cause of many of your problems.

What?! It's in the wiki!! I'll have to find the page that mentions it.

In any case, what I'm doing should not in anyway affect the operation of LinuxMCE.  My current network may as well be the Internet - the Core won't know any different.

[purps]

What?! It's in the wiki!! I'll have to find the page that mentions it.

I would be interested in knowing which page it is, as maybe I have got this wrong. I would say it's OK for testing purposes, but seeing as you have got it things up and running now (mostly), then why not use your core as your gateway.

In any case, what I'm doing should not in anyway affect the operation of LinuxMCE.  My current network may as well be the Internet - the Core won't know any different.

But surely in your setup LMCE won't be providing the IPs to PC1 and PC2? Which is where you are trying to use the web orbiter from! I don't know, I'm no expert. I would try it on the LMCE internal network as I said, if only temporarily.

Cheers,
Matt.

[m3freak]

I would be interested in knowing which page it is, as maybe I have got this wrong. I would say it's OK for testing purposes, but seeing as you have got it things up and running now (mostly), then why not use your core as your gateway.

Because IPCop gives me a level of control over my network that LinuxMCE does not.  For example, I can have three separate internal networks.  I can put the wireless network in a different range, and prevent any wireless clients from accessing the wired network. Yes....I'm  being very cautious about my home network.

But surely in your setup LMCE won't be providing the IPs to PC1 and PC2? Which is where you are trying to use the web orbiter from! I don't know, I'm no expert. I would try it on the LMCE internal network as I said, if only temporarily.

Hmmm...maybe my understanding of the web orbiter is wrong then.  Does the web orbiter have to be on the internal network?  I thought it could be any device running a web browser.

[m3freak]

I'm also seeing these messages in the web orbiter log:

03-08-2011 13:43:26
Attempting to create socket on host 192.168.80.4 port 3461 ... OK.
socket_connect() failed.
Reason: (113) No route to host
Closing socket ... OK.

I didn't enter the IP when I created the Generic Web Orbiters, so it's being added automatically. What I don't understand is why.

Can I use the core's IP? 

[klovell]

I have the same network setup and from a network position my system works fine.  I would also agree that I get a certain level of control and logging from my firewall that I don't get from LMCE.  Also it's well known that your firewalls and routers are two devices that should be on it's own doing it's one specific task and nothing else.  That is a business level way of thinking and I completely understand and agree with LMCE handling firewall duty.  Although, if you have the budget and know how to spawn a separate firewall and/or router I recommend doing so.  If not, let LMCE do it.

Back to your issue m3.  Did you turn off the firewall on the core.  You can sit there and open up ports and create routes but since you have a firewall between you and the Internet I would disable the firewall on the core all together.  Also, I'm not sure I understand this log you posted.  Is 192.168.80.4 the IP address of your PC?  Here's the deal, make your life easy and assign a different IP range to the external network.  Keep the LMCE network in the 192.168.80.0 range!! So IPcop will provide addresses in the 192.168.25.0 range (external).  That could possible give your core an external ip address similar to 192.168.25.3, and your PC an IP address like 192.168.25.2.  To access the web orbiter from the PC type 192.168.25.3 in the address bar. 

Can you ping the core from the external network?  It sounds like you turned on remote access to the core on port 80 , which explains why you can get to web admin but not the orbiter or ssh.  Click on the firewall option under networking and disable IPV4 and 6 firewalls. 

[klovell]

Also, I don't believe our setup is the recommended setup.  You should be going from your modem/ONT > to the core > to a switch > all other nodes and MDs.

You're going to have to pay attention to what you're doing so you don't run into connection issues.  You'll have to create a port forwarding rule on ipcop to the external interface on your core for remote access (out side your house).  You'll have to manually create routes and port forward rules on the core if you want to hit a device on the LMCE network from the external network.  Unless you know what you're doing you may want to add your nas (if you have on) to the external interface and follow the wikki to add a nas on the external interface.  You can add 2 nics to your nas but if you're not careful you'll create a loop in your network bring the entire network down and maybe even locking up a few devices.  I already had one and I've found that adding a DNS server to external network helped a lot. 

I said it before but it's worth saying again, do not change the ip range of the LMCE network.  I can punch a wall just thinking about how much aggravation that caused me.

[m3freak]

Back to your issue m3.  Did you turn off the firewall on the core.  You can sit there and open up ports and create routes but since you have a firewall between you and the Internet I would disable the firewall on the core all together. 

I didn't actually disable the firewall from the web interface. I was using iptables directly (i.e. iptables -L), saw no rules active, and so assumed the firewall was off.  I've now disabled both IPv4 and IPv6 firewalls.

Also, I'm not sure I understand this log you posted.  Is 192.168.80.4 the IP address of your PC?

 

The 192.168.80.4 IP is the IP that LinuxMCE keeps assigning to the Generic Web Orbiter.  The Proxy Orbiter gets the IP 192.168.80.3.  I didn't input these - they get added automatically by LinuxMCE.

Here's the deal, make your life easy and assign a different IP range to the external network.  Keep the LMCE network in the 192.168.80.0 range!! So IPcop will provide addresses in the 192.168.25.0 range (external).  That could possible give your core an external ip address similar to 192.168.25.3, and your PC an IP address like 192.168.25.2.  To access the web orbiter from the PC type 192.168.25.3 in the address bar. 

[/quote]

Yep, I've already done this.  My IPCop firewall is handing out DHCP IPs in a different range.  My core has two NICs: it is getting its external IP from IPCop's DHCP sever.  The LinuxMCE network is in the default range of 192.168.80.0/24.  LinuxMCE is running its own DHCP sever here.

Hmm...I just realized my external PC network doesn't have a route to the internal LinuxMCE network.  I should add the route on my IPCop system.

Can you ping the core from the external network?  It sounds like you turned on remote access to the core on port 80 , which explains why you can get to web admin but not the orbiter or ssh.  Click on the firewall option under networking and disable IPV4 and 6 firewalls. 

Yes, I can ping the core.  The firewall is disabled now.

[klovell]

The 192.168.80.4 IP is the IP that LinuxMCE keeps assigning to the Generic Web Orbiter.  The Proxy Orbiter gets the IP 192.168.80.3.  I didn't input these - they get added automatically by LinuxMCE.

I don't know, someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think you configured the proxy orbiter correctly.  My web orbiters don't  have IP addresses assigned to them and they all work just fine.  Did you follow these instructions? http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Web_Orbiter_2.0

Don't forget rule number 1.

[m3freak]

I don't know, someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think you configured the proxy orbiter correctly.  My web orbiters don't  have IP addresses assigned to them and they all work just fine.  Did you follow these instructions? http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Web_Orbiter_2.0

Don't forget rule number 1.

I forgot rule number 1.  No, seriously....I forgot it.  RAM fail.  (this is where you laugh)

I did follow those instructions.  I'm recreating the web orbiter now.  I deleted the old one.  Let's see if things work out any differently now.