need help

[samsung]

I've been trying to solve the issues i'm having my own, but i obviously need help guys. i will be greatfull for any help because i have sought answers from the wiki and searching the forums. I have reinstalled 8.10 at least 10 times due to various problems.  I am unable to use my wireless router, spa 3102, or boot any MD's.  thus far i have tried connecting an md directly to the core. the md's are not being automatically created and do not show up as devices. i was able to get online on the core, but still tried switching etho interfaces in the admin site. i tried swaping the cables.  i tried removing knetmanager from the core startup.  i tried creating md's because i was still getting to the rebooting in 5 secs post i saw mentioned in another post which prompted me to remove the knetworkmanager.  all of the macs for the devices show up on the admin site.  im lost, i guess its a dchp networking problem  any diagnosis? 

[huh]

Three things-

1) It seems that all that's ever posted is how people have a lot of problems with LMCE or that XX system is better and offers more.   Judging from your Sep 2009 join date and the problems you're having, I just want you to know that once you get the system up and running it is amazing.  The possibilities and the conversations you will likely have about what your system can do are probably beyond your wildest dreams- at least they were for me.

2) I too was having that 5 second reboot problem- it seems that something happened in one of the latest alphas that caused this... 

I have found that if you run the command:

/usr/pluto/bin/startup-script.sh

on your core- either by directly interacting with your core or- as I have done- from putty on a windoze box, that will fix that error.

3) As for the online issue- my MDs are not able to access the internet (but the core can, as you describe) until I hit the "update" button from the admin pages.  From your post, you're familiar with the admin pages/site- so if you go to "Advanced" -> "Network" -> "Network settings" at the bottom of the page will be a "Update" button next to the "Reset" button.  Click this once and you will probably find you can connect to the internet- I am posting from a computer that I just did the above to get connected.  I think about every time you do a reload or regen of the core you will have to do this.  Just a note- it is vital that you have 2 nics in your core and that eth0 is connected to your WAN and eth1 is connected to your LAN.

HTH

[samsung]

Three things-

1) It seems that all that's ever posted is how people have a lot of problems with LinuxMCE or that XX system is better and offers more.   Judging from your Sep 2009 join date and the problems you're having, I just want you to know that once you get the system up and running it is amazing.  The possibilities and the conversations you will likely have about what your system can do are probably beyond your wildest dreams- at least they were for me.

2) I too was having that 5 second reboot problem- it seems that something happened in one of the latest alphas that caused this... 

I have found that if you run the command:

/usr/pluto/bin/startup-script.sh

on your core- either by directly interacting with your core or- as I have done- from putty on a windoze box, that will fix that error.

3) As for the online issue- my MDs are not able to access the internet (but the core can, as you describe) until I hit the "update" button from the admin pages.  From your post, you're familiar with the admin pages/site- so if you go to "Advanced" -> "Network" -> "Network settings" at the bottom of the page will be a "Update" button next to the "Reset" button.  Click this once and you will probably find you can connect to the internet- I am posting from a computer that I just did the above to get connected.  I think about every time you do a reload or regen of the core you will have to do this.  Just a note- it is vital that you have 2 nics in your core and that eth0 is connected to your WAN and eth1 is connected to your LAN.

HTH

oh no, don't get me wrong at all. I love lmce already. I'm not a complainer, i've just run out of things to try to get things working.  everything connected to my switch is not working, including my wireless router.  i have tried the
/usr/pluto/bin/startup-script.sh which worked to get one md booted, but did not get anything connect to said switch working.  after using
/usr/pluto/bin/startup-script.sh followed by a reboot of the core....it now leads to the boot hanging at "loading lmce" and then black screen, so i had to a reinstall again. 

[samsung]

similar problem http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8974.0 i guess

[maverick0815]

/usr/pluto/bin/startup-script.sh followed by a reboot of the core.

Do I understand it correctly, that you use the script and then reboot the core...or does the script cause the reboot on your core?
I am asking this, because if the script causes the reboot, then I guess your install is really fubar.
If you do a reboot after that script, then you're making a mistake, because as I understand it, the script either starts or restarts some processes (like dhcp) which didn't start or crashed during bootup.
In my experience, after I started the script, I didn't have to go to the network-settings anymore to get internet-connection on my clients...actually starting the script after reboot should be the only thing you need to do to get you going...then depending on the hardware of your md's they should be setting up and work without too much trouble.

[wierdbeard65]

This may, or may not, be relevant to you (or others who come across this thread in their quest for a working system).

BUT

If you only have one switch on your internal network, or you have several, but they don't in any way form a loop, then switch off Spanning Tree, or enable a feature that goes by various names on different switches (Fast Port, Uplink Fast etc.)

If this helps, great, if not, sorry for wasting your time...

The issue I have experienced (not just with MCE but in my life as a Networking professional and trainer) is as follows...

In order to prevent bridging loops, we have Spanning Tree Protocol. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say, that whenever the state of a port on a switch changes, it blocks all traffic for a period of time whilst it makes sure that the port won't form a bridging loop.

Back in the days of Hubs, this wasn't a problem and even when direct switch attaching of devices first started, the issue didn't occur. Now, however, as machines have got faster, it causes problems. What happens is that the machine boots and brings up it's network card. The switch sees this as a state change on the port and blocks traffic. In the meantime, the device has done it's DHCP request, timed out, given up and, depending on the nature of the device and it's OS, given itself an APIPA address (Windoze amongst others) or simply refused to boot (PXE).

Trust me, I've seen this countless times (including on my MCE system as I build it!) and unless you are likely to have a bridging loop (with 1 switch, you won't have ) then switching off STP will cause no harm.

[samsung]

Thanks fellas, with the help i got from all you and a little more tinkering i've gotten my MD's going and my wireless router going.  Dont mean to be a annoying pr!ck, but i have one last thing to solve. I am able to play all my media, audio and video on the core, all my media show up on the md's, but nothing plays after selecting the media and selecting play. I've tried both md's and no go.  any ideas? 

[_if_]

Thanks fellas, with the help i got from all you and a little more tinkering i've gotten my MD's going and my wireless router going.  Dont mean to be a annoying pr!ck, but i have one last thing to solve. I am able to play all my media, audio and video on the core, all my media show up on the md's, but nothing plays after selecting the media and selecting play. I've tried both md's and no go.  any ideas? 

is libdvdcss installed for the MDs?

greetz
IF

[colinjones]

what actually happens when you select media to play on an MD? Does it appear to try to start playing, and then just stop? Or does it give an error message?

Either way, you probably need to start reviewing your log files. Ones to start with are the DCERouter log on the core (in /var/log/pluto) try tail -f /var/log/pluto/DCERouter.log or whatever the spelling is to monitor the log realtime as you try to play media - you should see the DCE messages being passed and mediaplugin setting up the media stream. Also monitor the xine log on the MD.. this is the more important one.. you need to find out what that log is called based on the device number and it is probably easier to monitor it by sshing into the core and tail -f /usr/pluto/diskless/##/var/log/pluto/??_blahblahh.log

where ## is the device number of your MD and ?? is the device number of the xineplayer device on the MD and blahblah is the rest of the log file name! This should indicate it receiving DCE messages telling it to play a media stream... and then perhaps an error message telling you why it couldn't. Possibly as simple as it couldn't find the file/path because the media mounts and symlinks are screwed up in some way... but we need to see those log entries first before we can start troubleshooting why it can't play.

Also, care to explain what was wrong with your network to begin with? It could be useful to others.

[samsung]

sorry for the delayed response, went away for few days. media plays fine on core. What happens when trying to play media on a md is I go through the normal steps and select play, upon doing so, it goes to a black screen if its a video file.  If i select a video on UI1 i can bring up the onscreen remote like normal, but it will show a black screen.  at that point, bringing up the onscreen remote is useless to exit media and i have to select home.  As for audio files, after selection it will return to the file menu on the onscreen menu, but will appear to be preparing to play on a windows orbiter.  here is one of the logs.
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.891      Received Message from 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to 51 (OnScreen Orbiter / Home Theater), type 1 id 741 Command:Goto Screen, retry none, parameters: <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.891        Parameter 10(ID):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.891        Parameter 159(PK_Screen): 140 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.891        Parameter 251(Interruption): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.891        Parameter 252(Turn On): 1 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.891        Parameter 253(Queue): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:49.938      HaveMoreInQueue: position 0, size: 1, result 0 <0x828bdb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.938      Received Message from 24 (Xine Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to 54 (Xine Player / Home Theater), type 1 id 38 Command:Stop Media, retry none, parameters: <0xa00f8b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.938        Parameter 41(StreamID): 1004 <0xa00f8b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.938        Parameter 42(MediaPosition):  <0xa00f8b90>
01   10/11/09 21:32:49.939      debug_stream_end Media_Plugin::StreamEnded ID 1004/0x7cf67a08 delete 1 auto resume 1 resume:  <0x828bdb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:49.939      Media_Plugin::StreamEnded() no auto resume EK_Users=1 AND Description<>'START' AND FK_File=281 AND IsAutoResume=1 <0x828bdb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.940      Event #20 has no handlers <0xa9afcb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.940      Received Message from 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to -1001 (unknown / ), type 2 id 20 Event:Stopped Watching Media, retry none, parameters: <0xa9afcb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 27(PK_Room): 15 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940      Received Message from 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to 51 (OnScreen Orbiter / Home Theater), type 1 id 242 Command:Set Now Playing, retry none, parameters: <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 3(PK_DesignObj):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 5(Value To Assign):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 9(Text):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 29(PK_MediaType): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 41(StreamID): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 48(Value): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 50(Name):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 103(List PK Device):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.940        Parameter 120(Retransmit): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.941      Received Message from 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to 54 (Xine Player / Home Theater), type 1 id 193 Command:Off, retry none, parameters: <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.941        Parameter 97(PK_Pipe): -1 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.941      Received Message from 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to 49 (Generic PC as MD / Home Theater), type 1 id 192 Command:On, retry none, parameters: <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.941        Parameter 97(PK_Pipe): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:49.941        Parameter 98(PK_Device_Pipes):  <0xa9afcb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:49.941      The target device 49 (routed to 49) has not registered. <0xb6d64b90>
01   10/11/09 21:32:49.940      debug_stream_end MediaStream::~MediaStream c1 1004/0x7cf67a08 <0x828bdb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.951      Event #12 has no handlers <0x828bdb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.951      Received Message from 54 (Xine Player / Home Theater) to -1001 (unknown / ), type 2 id 12 Event:Playback Completed, retry none, parameters: <0x828bdb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.951        Parameter 4(MRL): /home/public/data/videos/WDC_WD10EAVS-00D (sdg1)-CORE [59]/10,000 B.C. CAM XViD-prevail [btarena.org].avi <0x828bdb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.951        Parameter 9(Stream ID): 1004 <0x828bdb90>
07   10/11/09 21:32:49.951        Parameter 37(With Errors): 1 <0x828bdb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220      Received Message from 51 (OnScreen Orbiter / Home Theater) to 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous), type 1 id 74 Command:Bind to Media Remote, retry none, parameters: <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 2(PK_Device):  <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 3(PK_DesignObj):  <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 8(On/Off): 1 <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 39(Options):  <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 45(PK_EntertainArea): 3 <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 63(PK_Text_Synopsis):  <0x6d6e0b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.220        Parameter 159(PK_Screen): 140 <0x6d6e0b90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:50.220      Attempt to bind to a remote in an entertainment area with no media stream <0x8e8d5b90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.221      Received Message from 10 (Media Plug-in / Miscellaneous) to 51 (OnScreen Orbiter / Home Theater), type 1 id 242 Command:Set Now Playing, retry none, parameters: <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 3(PK_DesignObj):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 5(Value To Assign):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 9(Text):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 29(PK_MediaType): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 41(StreamID): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 48(Value): 0 <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 50(Name):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 103(List PK Device):  <0xa9afcb90>
08   10/11/09 21:32:50.230        Parameter 120(Retransmit): 1 <0xa9afcb90>
 

[samsung]

here's the xine log

05   10/11/09 8:07:53.537      Going to rotate logs... <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 8:11:34.604      Going to rotate logs... <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.058      Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() called for id 1004 filename: /home/public/data/videos/WDC_WD10EAVS-00D (sdg1)-CORE [59]/10,000 B.C. CAM XViD-prevail [btarena.org].avi () <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.059      Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() stopping PSS <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.060      Xine_Stream_Factory::GetStream streamID is 0 <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.101      I'm unable to initialize m_pXine's 'xv' video driver. Falling to 'xshm'. <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.122      I'm unable to initialize m_pXine's 'auto' audio driver. <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.127      Stream audio/video initialization failed <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.127      Cannot create new stream with ID=1004 <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.127      Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() stream is NULL, aborting - init failure? <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.128      Xine_Player::CMD_Stop_Media() with corresponding stream id 1004 (nil). <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:32:51.128      Xine_Player::CMD_Stop_Media() stream is NULL, aborting - init failure? <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.025      Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() called for id 1005 filename: /home/public/data/audio/WDC_WD10EAVS-00D (sdg1)-CORE [59]/soca 2009/Festival Time.mp3 () <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.026      Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() stopping PSS <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.026      Xine_Stream_Factory::GetStream streamID is 0 <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.060      I'm unable to initialize m_pXine's 'xv' video driver. Falling to 'xshm'. <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.071      I'm unable to initialize m_pXine's 'auto' audio driver. <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.079      Stream audio/video initialization failed <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.079      Cannot create new stream with ID=1005 <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.079      Xine_Player::CMD_Play_Media() stream is NULL, aborting - init failure? <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.083      Xine_Player::CMD_Stop_Media() with corresponding stream id 1005 (nil). <0xb6cffb90>
05   10/11/09 21:47:25.083      Xine_Player::CMD_Stop_Media() stream is NULL, aborting - init failure? <0xb6cffb90>

[colinjones]

Well there's plenty of errors!

The DCERouter seems to believe that your MD device is not registered "The target device 49 (routed to 49) has not registered." I don't know if this is a normal error message, but the device definitely should be registered - look in your web admin under the Devices Tree and navigate to the MD device. In the right hand pane the device details will appear. At the bottom of the first block just above Save/Cancel there will be  a text line "Registered:" this should say Yes.

Perhaps this could be effecting Xine and causing the other errors? In the Xine log it is indicating several issues not being able to initialise various drivers or streams... not sure what is causing this but perhaps the MD hasn't registered properly?

[samsung]

Well there's plenty of errors!

The DCERouter seems to believe that your MD device is not registered "The target device 49 (routed to 49) has not registered." I don't know if this is a normal error message, but the device definitely should be registered - look in your web admin under the Devices Tree and navigate to the MD device. In the right hand pane the device details will appear. At the bottom of the first block just above Save/Cancel there will be  a text line "Registered:" this should say Yes.

Perhaps this could be effecting Xine and causing the other errors? In the Xine log it is indicating several issues not being able to initialise various drivers or streams... not sure what is causing this but perhaps the MD hasn't registered properly?

It says no, it is not registered. why would it not register properly?

[colinjones]

No idea - but I imagine that LMCE can't send the start media commands to the MD because it believes it and all its children devices are offline.

Could be something wrong with the MD, or even with DCE devices registering with the core - you are using the stardard network topology described in http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Network_Setup ?

You could try rebooting the MD whilst you are tail -f 'ing the DCE router log and watch for the registration events

[Zaerc]

...
-f 'ing the DCE router log and watch for the registration events

How rude!