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[Gatherum]

So I finally decided to install Lubuntu 16.04 LTS on a separate partition in my living room HTPC SSD because while it handles Windows 10 Pro quite well for what it is, it is quite old. I have managed to get everything running okay, including MC23 via the stable repository, and intend to make this my permanent implementation on said machine by removing the Windows 10 installation; however, I am fairly new to Linux compared to Windows, and there are a few persistent issues which I imagine could be worked easily by someone with more knowledge. They are as follows:

• The stable repository yields MC 23.0.80 and my MC24 master licence does not work on it. Pretty self-explanatory. Will MC23 on Linux make it to 23.0.102 before months' end, or should I have just connected to the latest repo?
• I have the option to run MC at Linux start-up selected, but it does not do so. In fact, nothing runs at start-up/log-in. I want MC and VNC Server 5.3.3 to run at this time. Is there something else I must configure for this to happen?
• This machine is functioning as a client to another server in my bed room, and it successfully played back content I threw at it while it was running Windows 10 Pro at the same media network client settings (no audio conversion, video conversion to H.264-TS 720p AutoFPS); however, while audio plays just fine, video does so with some consistent jerkiness roughly every second, as if it's struggling to sync. This occurs in the background image transitions in theatre view Playing Now, as well. I have tried lowering/changing the conversion options and disabling and re-enabling VideoClock and hardware acceleration, but these appear to have no effect on the issue. Since this is not a problem on the Windows 10 installation, I presume that it might be a configuration issue on my part. Where should I start for troubleshooting? If it's important, I'm using the Nvidia proprietary drivers and ALSA.
• This is less important, but is it possible to restore a library exported from a Windows copy of MC to a Linux copy—for library settings and such?

Apart from these issues, this is looking quite promising. System runs much better all-around than it did running Windows 10 Pro, given that Lubuntu is suitably light-weight to accommodate it. I will probably upgrade the system at some point with hardware that can handle 1080p, but for now, I would really like to get these issues resolved and remove the Windows 10 boot so that it can be entirely automated (no OS selection at start-up and therefore, auto-log-in and start-up of MC, as well as VNC for remoting in and maintenance). Any guidance is appreciated.

This is unrelated to MC, but since installing the Nvidia proprietary drivers via the Proprietary Devices tab of the Software Updater, text in parts of some applications has become humongous, where-as that of some others has become too small to read. This presents a problem when a given application does not appear to have its own robust font settings, such as Chrome with regards to the text of its tabs and bookmarks bar, and the Nvidia X Server settings all-around. Why does this occur? Thankfully, MC looks normal.

[Awesome Donkey]

1. You have to use 23.0.102 from the latest repo to get the MC24 license to work with MC23. You should be able to override the stable repo file with the latest repo file, if desired.
2. On Linux, the MC startup options don't actually do anything. In fact, you have to set it up to start on boot with X manually - I believe there's a systemd service somebody posted that can do this, but I've never tried it or looked into it. You *may* be able to open the Startup Applications app in Ubuntu and set MC to autostart that way.
4. Yes, but if you're going to try importing the library itself (and not just the library settings, as you mentioned) remember file paths are different on Linux than on Windows (e.g. there's no drive letters, different mounting points depending on what you're trying to mount, etc.). You'll likely have to fix those using the Rename, Move, & Copy Files tool.

[mattkhan]

https://wiki.lxde.org/en/Autostart covers autostart on lxde

sounds like you might find https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,111506.0.html useful though

re the video playback, I recommend you test with a local file first to verify that the video system on the device is ok & then switch to testing streaming from the server

[Awesome Donkey]

It should also work when adding /usr/bin/mediacenter23 /MediaServer in the Startup Applications app in Ubuntu, I just checked it. Of course, /MediaServer being optional if you don't want the MC UI to launch at boot.

[Gatherum]

Okay, so I've solved issue #1 by switching to the latest repo temporarily to download MC23.0.102, applying the registration code, and switching back to the stable repo. With that in mind, will running apt-get update cause 23.0.80 to be installed over 23.0.102 again, or will it respect the higher version number?

I've also mostly solved issue #2 by way of mwillems' systemd instructions. System now runs both MC23 and RealVNC Server 5.3.3 at start-up/log-in. The latter is exhibiting some odd behaviour, though: It exits (crashes?) by itself every couple of minutes or so, before starting back up per the restart parameters.

Below is the code in my .service file. Is there something I should change?

Code: [Select]

[Unit]
     Description=RealVNC Server
     After=display-manager.service

  [Service]
     Type=forking
     Environment=DISPLAY=:0
     User=schmengie
     ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver-x11
     Restart=always
     RestartSec=10

  [Install]
     WantedBy=graphical.target

[Gatherum]

Okay, so I did some more digging and found that RealVNC actually includes realvnc-x11-systemd. So:

Code: [Select]

sudo systemctl disable realvnc-x11.service
sudo systemctl enable realvnc-x11-systemd.service
This enables RealVNC Server in Service Mode at start-up, effectively fixing the exit/crash problem.

Additionally, I tried playing back video again in MC23, and lo and behold, issue #3 seems to have fixed itself. No more egregious jerkiness. There are occasional rendering errors, like lines in panning shots, but they're fairly infrequent. Content is now watchable, to say the least.

I wonder if it had to do with upgrading to 23.0.102.

Either way, with that, all immediate concerns have been addressed and remedied. HTPC, as old as it is, is now running and playing back content like a champ via MC23, which is itself running at start-up in display view along-side VNC Server 5.3.3 which enables remote maintenance. Perfect.

I really appreciate the help, guys! Very happy with the new implementation!