Reconsidering Linuxmce

[nswint]

Ok,

Now that the kernel for linuxmce is more stable and I have a core2 duo to spare I'm reconsidering Linuxmce again. I have a few question below, but I will describe my setup below to give you an idea of what I'm doing and a simple diagram of my setup


I have a Micasaverde Vera so I'm excited about dce communication.

For Zwave I Have: Wayne Dalton Z-Wave Thermostat, Appliance controller for Fan in my server room, 3-In-1 Multi-sensor (Turns on Fan when temp on the gets to high and detects motion and brightness)
For X10 I Have: Tons of Motion Sensors, Light Switches/Dimmers, Appliance Modules,Lamp Modules and other Stuff
Security: DSC 5401 for DSC 832 Security Sensor, X10 Motion Sensors, Zwave Motion Sensor, Analog, Composite Security Camera, Wifi Video Cameras, Dedicated Modulated Security Channel
Media: 2 TB of Movies, Music, and Recorded TV, Roku Media Player, Logitech Squeezecenter, Firefly Media Server on the Nas
Tuners: Hauppauge PVR-350,Hdhomerun, 2 Hauppauge HVR-1600s, 2 Pinnacle HD Pro Sticks, 3 Pinnacle 800e PCI Tuners, Motorola DCT-3416 via firewire,Moto DCP501 Tuner controlled via serial (always modulated to Channel 122, pvr-350 tuned to channel 122 and serial controlled to change channel on tuner via mythtv)   

Storage: 2TB Promise Nas
Possible Core: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User:Nswint   Former Master Backend
Possible Media Directors: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User:Nswint  Slave Backends/Front End #2,#3
===============================================================================

Questions that I know have:

*Can I have text to speech(incoming calls/announcements) pause media directors/squeezeboxes playing, finish announcement, resume playing music?
*Can I accept voip calls over a bluetooth headset?
*Can I accept voip calls on a orbiter/voip phone and have sound piped to rooms and speakers of my choice? Also can other rooms/microphones/media directors/orbiters/voip phones conferenced in?
*Voip video chat over media directors with cameras?
*Can I import my current mythtv recording database? I don't care about the tuners, I can always readd them in the order and priority that I want.  I will mount my nas via nfs to access all the recorded tv shows.
*Is Linuxmce capable of all the conditions (date/time/dawn/dusk), and conditions I currently have in misterhouse? Like turning X10 controlled Christmas lights on after thanksgiving and before new years eve, and lights on/off at dusk.
*Can I turn off dhcp on the core, mount pxe images on my linksys router running dhcp via a nfs share on the core?  and then manaully configure the wifi cams, orbiters, squeezeboxes, hdhomerun?
Reason being. I've had one of the nics on the core conk out and I lost access to my entire lan.
*Remote access to the core from the outside?
*Has the firewall page on the core been updated?  It was very difficult to setup before
*Can you run on just one NIC instead of 2?


The setup that I dreamed of was this:
*Music, tv, movies always follow me with bluetooth or rfid proximity detection.
*I could take phone calls from anywhere. Music and movies would pause if a vip call my cell or one of the voip lines and simultaneously announce who the caller was.  If not a vip have the callerid overlayed on a mythtv live or recorded show or over a movie/video being watched on one of the media directors.
*When someone rang the doorbell; I could get a Picture in picture display of who was at the door and possibly speak to them if I chose to thru mic/speakers or an outdoor voip phone.
*Take the headache from visitors trying to figure out how to Switch inputs on my tv via my universal remote and watch live tv on a free tuner and not change the channels of the Comcast Box while it is recording.
*Queue up movies, kids tv, and select kids movies on the Roku players for my nephews to keep them occupied.


I can almost do what I need to do via mythtv, misterhouse, vera, and Squeezecenter except the text to speech announcements.  I can do partial whole house audio and video via the DCP501 because its  a dvd player, FM Radio, and Cable Tuner all in one.  Motorola would make a killing if they made a current hd model.

[b4rney]

Hi nswint,

Wow. Big post  ... but I think that might be the problem. I think most people, myself included, prefer to answer one question at a time, which might be why you've had no replies. Also, you obviously have a complex setup and no individual could answer everything you've asked.

Regarding the NIC ... I ran lmce for a while with one NIC and it limped along OK. As soon as I decided to work WITH the recommendations I had a much smoother ride. I recommend the two NIC setup and DHCP absolutely has to run on the core.

Sorry I can't help with the rest. Sounds like an amazing setup you've got.
Barney

[merkur2k]

I will take a stab at some of this.
Note that I have only used the media functions of LMCE and have only experimented a little with the voip features.

*Can I have text to speech(incoming calls/announcements) pause media directors/squeezeboxes playing, finish announcement, resume playing music?

I believe so, but I have not done this myself.

*Can I accept voip calls over a bluetooth headset?

As far as I know this is not possible *yet*.

*Can I accept voip calls on a orbiter/voip phone and have sound piped to rooms and speakers of my choice? Also can other rooms/microphones/media directors/orbiters/voip phones conferenced in?

I dont think there is any way to transfer a call once it has been initiated. That said any media playing in a room will be paused while a call is in progress on a phone associated with that room.

*Voip video chat over media directors with cameras?

There is no video conferencing yet.

*Can I import my current mythtv recording database? I don't care about the tuners, I can always readd them in the order and priority that I want.  I will mount my nas via nfs to access all the recorded tv shows.

Probably if you hacked at it enough. Of course UpdateMedia would find and index them properly itself if they were tagged appropriately.

*Is Linuxmce capable of all the conditions (date/time/dawn/dusk), and conditions I currently have in misterhouse? Like turning X10 controlled Christmas lights on after thanksgiving and before new years eve, and lights on/off at dusk.

As far as I know, yes.

*Can I turn off dhcp on the core, mount pxe images on my linksys router running dhcp via a nfs share on the core?  and then manaully configure the wifi cams, orbiters, squeezeboxes, hdhomerun? Reason being. I've had one of the nics on the core conk out and I lost access to my entire lan.

You probably could with enough hacking, but why?
Presumably you have a router somewhere that provides internet access. Did you somehow also manage to eliminate one of its network interfaces because it really only needs one anyway?

*Remote access to the core from the outside?

As with any network device that includes a firewall, access to specific ports and services can be allowed/blocked as needed.

*Has the firewall page on the core been updated?  It was very difficult to setup before

I dont find it any more difficult than any other firewall/router device out there.

*Can you run on just one NIC instead of 2?

Yes you can, but youre making things harder than they need to be this way.

It seems to me like you want the system to fit your exact view of how a home automation system should work and are unwilling to change your ideas even if they arent the best. The developers of this system have done things the way they have because in the end it makes for a better system. Things like having 2 nics and using the core for dhcp/pxe. It makes stuff like Plug n Play just work. Plug it in, turn it on. By removing the 2nd nic you end up removing these features as well, and making extra work for yourself. Is it really worth giving all that up just to *maybe* save 5 minutes of downtime and a $10 nic?
The short answer is: use the system how it was designed, youll end up with a much better experience.
The long answer is: its an open source system, if you dont like how it currently operates you can change it to fit whatever view of home automation you have.

[nswint]

Thanks for the responses to the overwhelming post.

I've just finished re-installing alpha2 on one of my spare servers.  I'm going at the setup on 2 nics.  I'm having some static routing and dns problems on my router once dhcp is turned off, working on that.

I'm documenting all of this on my blog below
http://shiksa.dyndns.org/~nswint/


I've updated my diagram for a bit more clarity.  I've been looking at tschak909's youtube videos and his setup is pretty much how I should be using mine with orbiters, squeezeboxes, and voip. I hope to get everything setup so I can use my Roku player on all my Media Directors.

[merkur2k]

your network diagram there is very confusing, and the blog entries seem to conflict with it. I just want to make sure its clear that things will work much better if ALL your network devices are on the internal network and that none of them are providing dhcp other than the core.
as for getting the blank screen instead of avwizard, have a look here: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/AVWizard specifically the section titled "What to do if A/V Wizard does not start".
Otherwise, remember that 0810 is not even beta status software yet, which means that there are bound to be severely broken things!

[tschak909]

yes, nswint, if you don't simplify that design and let LMCE handle it, I will find you and bitch slap you silly. You're thinking too bloody hard and making it too hard on yourself.

_STOP IT!_

-Thom

[colinjones]

your network diagram is very confusing, but appears to be your network _before_ installing LMCE....

Please look at this network diagram and configure your network like this - http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Network_Setup

[nswint]

Day 2.5 was pretty successful.  I figured out the kernel image problem and made ticket #122. 

The AVWizard appeared on my media director with the nvidia card by changing the card to standard/xv (even though I don't have sound at the moment).  The Ati card media director never even loaded X.


I have a couple of major milestones to cross and I replace my Misterhouse/Mythtv/Vera/Asterisk/Squeezecenter/Modulated TV Solution

• Live HD via Comcast to Linuxmce Overlay with automatic input switching like on the Linuxmce video from a few years back
  
• Adding my security system as a Generic Serial Device
• Importing my mythtv recordings database
• Figuring out how to get cover art for all my movies and mythtv recordings on my NAS
• Controlling my Roku Media Player via ip or ir and having it available from any Media Director
• Follow me audio/video on my media director and squeezeboxes.
• Testing voip calls on the media directors
• Linuxmce becoming a secondary controller to my Micasaverde

The diagram didn't change much other than there is now a core on the main switch.  The main connection to the broadband router has been severed and it is only available via the external interface.  I've added Belkin Wireless Access Point to the switch as well.  In the words of Belkin

The router can be configured to act strictly as an access point, bypassing all of the routing and firewall functions

Which was exactly what I was looking for; mac filtering, and wpa2 authentication and dhcp and dns is handled by the core.

It's a Belkin F5D7234-4 v3 for those who care and it's only $29 at Walmart.


I was using mythtv, two cable boxes, and 10 distributed tuners to accomplish what I really wanted with Linuxmce with just one cable box and maybe 4 tuners and a hdhomerun.  Yes I'm recording that much tv.   With Linuxmce I will be able to have guest to use the orbiters or future webpads to watch tv, listen to music without me doing alot of magic, input switching, and turning off the mythbackend so the cable box wouldn't change the current channel being watched every 2 hours or so.