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[Awesome Donkey]

This tutorial aims to aid users into setting up JRiver Media Center 22 onto computers running the following Linux operating systems;

Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus
Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS Xenial Xerus
Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS Trusty Tahr
Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Elementary OS 0.4 Loki

Ubuntu Studio and Linux Mint Debian Edition have not and likely won't be tested! Your mileage may vary.

NOTE: This tutorial does borrow ideas and parts done by InflatableMouse and his excellent Debian Wheezy tutorial found here, so please thank him.

Before we continue, please note the following;

- Media Center 22 for Linux is developed on Debian Wheezy 32-bit and Debian Jessie 64-bit - support for distros other than Wheezy 32-bit and Jessie 64-bit, like Ubuntu, Mint and Elementary OS are not officially supported!
- This tutorial will focus on the operating systems above, any others you're on your own with.
- This *should* also apply to Ubuntu/Mint/Elementary OS derivatives like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Linux Mint (MATE), Linux Mint (Xfce), etc. However, extra steps may be required!
- Before installing, please read the outstanding issues topic! Many of the issues noted for Debian also apply to Ubuntu/Mint!


Step 1 - Add the JRiver APT Repository:

The APT repository is required to install Media Center 22 and keep Media Center 22 updated with every new release. There's three available repositories; Stable, Latest and Beta. Decide for yourself which one you want to use - descriptions of each are below. Choose and use only one repository!

First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the Terminal in your desktop environment) and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

wget -q "http://dist.jriver.com/mediacenter@jriver.com.gpg.key" -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Next, with the Terminal still open, we need to download and add the correct mediacenter.list file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ depending if you're using 32-bit or 64-bit. If you're using ARM, look at the ARM repository found in this topic. Also, you can pick which repository you want to use (Stable, Latest or Beta - choose only one!) so either type one the following commands or copy and paste the command in and press Enter;

Media Center 22 (Stable) Repository:

This repository is using the latest stable release of Media Center 22 and is currently the default repository that should be used. It may be out-of-date compared to the Latest repository, however these builds have been thoroughly tested and are considered stable.

If you're using 64-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/stable/mediacenter/mediacenter22jessie.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
Or...

If you're using 32-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/stable/mediacenter/mediacenter22.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list

Media Center 22 (Latest) Repository:

This repository is using the latest up-to-date release of Media Center 22. There *may* be instability issues!

If you're using 64-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter22jessie.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
Or...

If you're using 32-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter22.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list

Media Center 22 (Beta) Repository:

This repository is for beta builds - not intended for users who prefer stability! These builds are likely buggy, may crash, etc.

If you're using 64-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/beta/mediacenter/mediacenter22jessie.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
Or...

If you're using 32-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.:

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/beta/mediacenter/mediacenter22.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
Finally, we need to reload the packages list, so with the Terminal still open either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter;

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update
That's it! Proceed to step 2!


Step 2 - Installing Media Center 22:

It's finally time to install Media Center 22! First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the Terminal in your desktop environment) or re-use the Terminal from the previous step. Next either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install mediacenter22
During this process it should say something along the following;

Code: [Select]

The following extra packages will be installed:
  lame libcue1 libreplaygain1 musepack-tools vorbis-tools
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lame libcue1 libreplaygain1 mediacenter22 musepack-tools vorbis-tools
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
However, if you receive an error like;

Code: [Select]

dependency problems prevent configuration of mediacenter22:
 mediacenter22 depends on ....
This means all dependencies have not been met. Don't fret, this can usually be taken care of by using the following command in the Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter;

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install -f
It'll show you the missing dependencies, after looking them over just press enter to install them. Now assuming all dependencies are met, you've been successful at installing Media Center 22 in Ubuntu/Mint/Elementary OS! However, I recommend rebooting since this will allow MC to load up fonts correctly - otherwise if you run MC without rebooting first, fonts may look pretty horrendous!

Now, after rebooting you can start Media Center either go into the Unity dash, Mint menu, etc. and search for Media Center 22 or you can run it from the Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter;

Code: [Select]

mediacenter22
Now, we're going to cover installing the license for those who have purchased in step 3!

[Awesome Donkey]

Step 3 - Installing A Media Center 22 Linux License Or Master License:

This portion of the tutorial will explain how to manually install your purchased license (either Linux licence or Master licence) in Media Center 22. Thanks for purchasing a license and supporting the development!

First, make sure MC22 is closed and either download the .mjr by either restoring the license here or if you just purchased a Media Center 22 Linux or Master license, then use the .mjr file downloaded with your purchase. After downloading your license file, open a Terminal and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

If you're using a Linux license:

Code: [Select]

mediacenter22 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center22 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
NOTE: Replace the X's and Y's with the correct numbers from your specific .mjr file AND adjust the path to your file.

If you're using a Master license:

Code: [Select]

mediacenter22 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center22 Master-YYYYYY.mjr"
NOTE: Replace the X's and Y's with the correct numbers from your specific .mjr file AND adjust the path to your file.

If your code is located in the default downloads directory, the following command should work (remember to replace the X's and Y's with the correct numbers and change Linux to Master if you're using a Master license!);

Code: [Select]

mediacenter22 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center22 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
If you do not encounter an error while restoring your license from the file, open Media Center 22 up then go to the Help menu > Registration Info... - if it's registered, congratulations, your MC22 for Linux is now registered!

Additional information and discussion regarding licenses can be found in this topic.

Once you're done, you should be ready to go! Congratulations, you've successfully installed Media Center 22 on your Ubuntu/Linux Mint machine! The next step will aid you in keeping Media Center 22 up-to-date.


Step 4 - Updating Media Center 22:

Okay, so you've got Media Center 22 installed and you might be wondering "how do I keep MC 22 up-to-date?". Well, there's several different ways available to accomplish this.

The easiest method to check for updates and update Media Center 22 if an update is available? Simple! Just open a Terminal and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Let the command run and it should prompt you with a list of updates for your Linux distribution of choice. Just type Y (or yes) and the system should be updated. It's HIGHLY recommended to run this command once a week - not just for MC 22 updates but for keeping up with the latest patches for vulnerabilities and various other potential security concerns.

The other ways to update Media Center 22? Well, if you Have Synaptic Package Manager installed you can update your system from there as well. Or you can just use the built-in update manager, if one is available for your Linux distro of choice!

Okay, what's next? The next post contains various information and tips you may find handy. Enjoy!

[Awesome Donkey]

Get Pulseaudio Output Working:

If desired, you can also output using Pulseaudio - keep in mind though that ALSA is bit-perfect. I'd highly recommend sticking with ALSA instead of Pulseaudio since Pulseaudio requires resampling to one sample rate, but if you wish to use Pulseaudio for whatever reason you'll need to set it up...

Pulseaudio *should* work out-of-the-box on Ubuntu 14.04+/Linux Mint 17+ 64-bit however if you want to cover all your bases on getting Pulseaudio working try the following commands in a Terminal by either typing the following command or copying and pasting the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install libasound2-plugins
NOTE: You don't need to use this command in Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet 64-bit and above!

Just open Media Center up, go to Tools > Options > Audio > click the Device settings... button and select pulse as the output device but keep in mind you may need to specify the default output device Pulseaudio uses via the pavucontrol utility.



Setting Default Pulseaudio Device Via PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol):

When trying to use the Pulseaudio output in Media Center, you might find yourself with this type of error when trying to play music...



This means the correct output device for Pulseaudio isn't being used, thus why this error is encountered. Fortunately, there's a way to fix this. Open up a Terminal window and either type the following command or copy and paste the command in and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
After installing, either start PulseAudio Volume Control by typing pavucontrol into the Terminal or by typing in Pulseaudio into the Unity dash until you see PulseAudio Volume Control. Once open, you'll want to go to the Configuration tab like seen here;



Notice how there's multiple output devices listed here? As seen above, what I want to use as the default is my Schiit Modi 2 Uber aka USB Modi Device. In this example, to set this card up I setup the Configuration tab to the following...



And take a look at the Output Devices tab now. See how it's using the USB Modi Device as the default device?



Please setup your device(s) accordingly for your own needs! And if desired setup your input devices via the Input Devices tab! If everything looks good, try playing music through Pulse again in Media Center. If sound works, congrats, you have working sound via Pulse!



How To Remove Media Center 20 and Media Center 21:

If you've updated from Media Center 20 and/or Media Center 21 to Media Center 22, you might find yourself with several versions of Media Center installed. If you don't want multiple versions of Media Center installed, you can remove the old Media Center.

Step 1: Backup your library and settings. Read the wiki article on how to backup your library and settings.

Step 2: Open a Terminal and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter20
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter21
Step 3 (Optional): If you want to completely remove Media Center 20's files, with the Terminal open and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 20'
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 21'
And...

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 20'
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 21'
Step 4 (Optional): If you want to remove the old mediacenter20.list and/or mediacenter21.list file from the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory;

For Media Center 20:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter20.list
For Media Center 21:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter21.list
If all goes well, your Media Center 20/21 installation(s) should be removed.



How To Remove Media Center 22:

If you don't like Media Center 22 or it's the wrong fit for you, you can easily remove it!

Step 1: Open a Terminal and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter22
Step 2 (Optional): If you want to completely remove Media Center 22's files, with the Terminal open and input the following (you *may* be prompted for your password - answer yes when it prompts!);

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 22'
And...

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 22'
Step 3 (Optional): If you want to remove the mediacenter22.list file from the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory;

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
If all goes well, your Media Center 22 installation should be completely removed.



Adding Additional Skins In Media Center 22:

Media Center 22 for Linux supports additional skins, like the Windows and Mac builds. I've created Linux-based skins (based on the excellent Modern Cards) with a Adwaita skin for GNOME 3 (the default theme is Adwaita), a Ubuntu Ambiance skin, a Arc Theme skin, a Mint-X Cinnamon skin and a Elementary OS skin. You can find them in this topic.

Now the easiest way to add skins is by doing the following; open the Home folder (using the native file manager on your distro), pressing CTRL+H to show the hidden files then going to the .jriver folder. From there open the Media Center 22 folder and you're met with multiple folders, including a Skins folder. Open Skins then Standard View and the folders inside contain the additional skins. Just drag and drop the skin you want to add (make sure you drag and drop the extracted skin folder from the Skins/Standard View directory inside the downloaded skin's archive) and change the skin within Media Center 22. If you don't see your skin listed, then the skin probably wasn't installed correctly.



Tutorial changelog:

1.0 (07/15/2016): First version of the Ubuntu/Linux Mint tutorial for Media Center 22!
1.1 (07/18/2016): Improved removal instructions for MC20, MC21 and MC22.
1.2 (09/10/2016): Elementary OS added!
1.3 (11-28-2016): Added all kinds of stuff!

[JimH]

Thanks, A.D.

[Awesome Donkey]

Added Elementary OS to the tutorial!

[st1]

I would mind having this fix reminder found by   wellywu  to help fixing the missing USB dac from sound menu with ubuntu fix package.
If this bug comes to many users I do not know but for me it was showstopper to use 16.04

post #20
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,105553.msg734674.html#msg734674

bug was listed here
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fwupd/+bug/1574079

I finally have 16.04, JRiver 22  and  a working connection further to DAC.
After the fix I turned back the install  developer  packages  menu by removing the (x) and jriver 22 l works with 16.04.

[Awesome Donkey]

I would mind having this fix reminder found by   wellywu  to help fixing the missing USB dac from sound menu with ubuntu fix package.
If this bug comes to many users I do not know but for me it was showstopper to use 16.04

Has the fixed package(s) not been pushed out of xenial-proposed yet? I'd assume it'd be fixed in 16.04 stable by now.

[st1]

It was not that simple I thought with the linked information by enabling temporarily the developer packages.   It worked for a while, but now jriver does not even start.

I take my words back.  JRiver window  screen had such record icons that were kind of pixels distorted and very bad looking icons where the icon edges were not ok.  Also running the auto import was very slow even though with  ssds installed. Very strange.  But the original voice problem is solved and usb driver seems to be ok and dac driver to select  is visible .

[st1]

automatic jriver 32mb update    22.0.26  came today. no idea what was in the fix, but now system works again and starts screamingly fast. The icon distortions is still visible   .    Thanks !

edit  problem is back and crashes.  any hints how to run problem report ?


edit2 24.09.2016   
- here the "fix"
- do not use ubuntu 16.04  and try to update that ,  but install latest  fresh 16.04.1
- usb audio works then  without problems  and  sound settings can find high end usb  dac in case driver in kernel included
- install jriver 22   as instructed in this thread
- MC  works
- will now install all ubuntu updates and see if MC  still works atfer that

edit3  07.10.2016
ended up trying ubuntu studio 64bit for jriver linux and it seems to  load less cpu and cooler run time temperatures and better benchmark index.
First some problems but now after few ubuntu and jriver updates  this feels very good alternative.
Ubuntu studio 16.04.1 installation needs  installing updates during installation and then no installer crash
core load levels are balanced meaning that studio os version os is quite  good.

[Awesome Donkey]

automatic jriver 32mb update    22.0.26  came today. no idea what was in the fix, but now system works again and starts screamingly fast. The icon distortions is still visible   .    Thanks !

If you read the release topics for i386 (32-bit)/AMD64 (64-bit)/ARM pinned to the top of this forum section, you'll see the changelog(s). Not seeing any icon distortion in my main Ubuntu install or any other of my Linux VMs.

[bob]

I've been seeing system lockups on my test 16.04.1 system when playing video.
It turns out that noveau doesn't seem to work properly even with MC's pretty simple video playback.

So I went to try and install the nvidia driver for my video card, a  GT 640 and now X is basically unusable.

If I try to load the driver to see if it's working (modprobe nvidia) I get an nvidia_370 unknown symbol or parameter.
The kernel is the stock 4.4.0-38-generic

Anyone want to help me get this going?

[Awesome Donkey]

How did you try to install the Nvidia driver? Using the one from Nvidia's website?

I suggest using this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

[bob]

How did you try to install the Nvidia driver? Using the one from Nvidia's website?

I suggest using this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

I tried the website, then backed that out and tried the PPA you listed above. No joy.


Edit: worked for 14.04 on the same machine. I guess I have to mess with it some more.

[Awesome Donkey]

This might also help: http://askubuntu.com/questions/760997/how-to-recover-from-a-nvidia-fail-on-ubuntu-16-04

I've broken X many times in the past with both Nvidia and AMD proprietary drivers. Usually if I can't fix/reverse it, I'll just reinstall the distro I'm using. Ubuntu 16.10 out in two weeks!

Still, I can't wait to try out Wayland/Mir and replace X for good... if it's ever released (in Mir's case, at least). Nvidia driver support for Wayland and Mir, as far as I still know, is pretty abysmal at best.

[Awesome Donkey]

Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak came out today, and boy doing a clean install was an adventure for me. I had to use nomodeset it to install and boot for the first time so I could install the Nvidia proprietary drivers for my 970 or else it'd just black screen of death on me. 16.04 works fine for me out of the box with no issues with install or first boot (or any boot, really). It's also pretty messed up in my VMware VM right now as well (had to disable 3d graphics for it to even boot).

I'd suggest avoiding this one for now and sticking with 16.04 LTS. Personally, I'm considering going back to Arch Linux.

[astromo]

Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak came out today, and boy doing a clean install was an adventure for me. I had to use nomodeset it to install and boot for the first time so I could install the Nvidia proprietary drivers for my 970 or else it'd just black screen of death on me. 16.04 works fine for me out of the box with no issues with install or first boot (or any boot, really). It's also pretty messed up in my VMware VM right now as well (had to disable 3d graphics for it to even boot).

I'd suggest avoiding this one for now and sticking with 16.04 LTS. Personally, I'm considering going back to Arch Linux.

Thanks for that. Useful to gain the experience without the pain.

[Awesome Donkey]

If you guys want a skin for your common desktop environment of choice (GNOME's Adwaita, Linux Mint's Cinnamon Mint-X, Ubuntu's Ambiance, Elementary OS' theme, Arc Theme, etc.) check out this topic: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,106397.0.html

[Awesome Donkey]

Linux Mint 18.1 Serena has been tested, and MC22 works great on it!

[Awesome Donkey]

Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus (final beta) has been tested, and it works fine. I assume the final will too, which is great!

[bob]

Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus (final beta) has been tested, and it works fine. I assume the final will too, which is great!

Thanks for the update!

[Awesome Donkey]

Ubuntu 17.04 final is out, and as expected MC works fine when using the instructions above. Also tested Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 (Since Canonical is punting Unity and going back to GNOME) and it works fine there too.

[bob]

Ubuntu 17.04 final is out, and as expected MC works fine when using the instructions above. Also tested Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 (Since Canonical is punting Unity and going back to GNOME) and it works fine there too.

Interesting, Unity is going. I should probably install this on my test machine. What is the stock kernel release in use on it?

[Awesome Donkey]

Interesting, Unity is going. I should probably install this on my test machine. What is the stock kernel release in use on it?

Yep, they're going back to GNOME. The stock kernel for 17.04 is 4.10.

[bob]

Yep, they're going back to GNOME. The stock kernel for 17.04 is 4.10.

The in place upgrade of 16.10 doesn't seem to work for me.
I've tried all of the methods from the ubuntu website. It says it can't find a new release.

[Awesome Donkey]

I manually upgraded by downloading the .iso from their main website and putting it on a USB drive.

Of course, things break when upgrading Ubuntu releases (big surprise there, *rolls eyes*). So I ended up doing a clean install of Ubuntu GNOME, which worked great (and am typing from right now).

I've even got a Unity-esk type of setup using the Dash To Dock GNOME extension (plus a few others) - it's looking great!

[pepar]

I had been having keyboard lag issues .. entering all of the lines into terminal listed in post #1 .. so I simply installed MC22 from the file on my desktop. It installed fine, noted all dependencies were met and worked fine as well.

Is there some functionality I won't have from skipping all the repository stuff?

Jeff

[mrpro]

FYI: I have been using JRiver with Ubuntu Studio ever since the first beta of the Linux version came out. Currently I am using Media Center 22.0.102 with Ubuntu Studio 16.04LTS.

I have always followed these instructions in "Setup JRiver Media Center 22 In Ubuntu/Linux Mint/Elementary OS", and all commands and installs have always worked, as have the repositories.

[pepar]

After nothing but woe, I gave up yesterday on setting up a Linux VM (with JRiver) in unRAID.  I have a few Intel i3 NUC lying around and will use that as my always-on-JRiver Library Server.  So what if I am limited by Gigabit Ethernet?  I can get on with life!

Do you have a Linux GUI to recommend that is simple and needs very little resources?  I was heading toward Mint/Cinnamon, but Cinnamon is fancier than I need.  I guess I will use Debian for the distro.  This little box, as well as the clients I attach to my A/V systems, will only run JRiver.

Jeff

[Awesome Donkey]

If you're wanting something that uses little resources, I'd give Xfce (or Xubuntu) a look.

[pepar]

Thanks, XFCE is one of the desktop choices in the Debian install package.

[elpeefan]

Trying new installation on fresh copy of Linux Mint 18.1. Repository add wget -q "http://dist.jriver.com/mediacenter@jriver.com.gpg.key" -O- | sudo apt-key add - workes fine. Then, sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/stable/mediacenter/mediacenter22jessie.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list. Both entries pasted into Terminal and executed w/o errors. For Step 2, I get error "E. unable to locate package mediacenter 22". I presume it's looking for the download, but there is no link for it. Is there some FTP command to get the download?

[Awesome Donkey]

Did you do sudo apt-get update after the second command?