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[Awesome Donkey]

Is it new Media Center time? Yes! This tutorial aims to aid users into setting up JRiver Media Center 27 onto computers running the following Debian-based GNU/Linux operating systems/distributions/variants (others listed here *may* work, but your mileage may vary!);

Debian
Ubuntu
Linux Mint

Recommended distros/versions:

Debian 10.x Buster
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla
Linux Mint 20 Ulyana


Ubuntu Studio and Linux Mint Debian Edition have not and likely will not be tested! Again, your mileage with those may vary. There will likely be issues with running Ubuntu versions prior to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as Media Center 27 requires Debian Buster. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS simply is too old and very likely won't work with Media Center 27.

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 27 for Linux is developed on Debian Buster - support for distros other than Debian Buster, e.g. like Ubuntu and Linux Mint are not officially supported by JRiver!
- This tutorial will focus on the operating systems above, any others you're on your own with.
- This *should* also apply to Ubuntu/Mint derivatives like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint (MATE), Linux Mint (Xfce), elementaryOS, 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/Linux Mint!


Step 1 - Add the JRiver APT Repository:

The APT repository is required to install Media Center 27 and keep Media Center 27 updated with every new release. There's three available repositories; Latest, Stable and Beta. Decide for yourself which one you want to use. Choose and use only either the latest or stable repo - you *can* use the beta repo alongside either the stable or latest repos!

NOTE: You can run the beta repo alongside either the latest or stable repos if desired (for beta testing, etc.). Don't try to use both the latest and stable repos at the same time - only choose and use one of them!

First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the Terminal in your Linux distro's search feature) 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 the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory. Also, you can pick which repository you want to use (Latest, Stable or Beta - choose only one!) so either type one the following commands or copy and paste the command in and press Enter;


Media Center 27 (Latest) Repository:

This repository is using the latest up-to-date release of Media Center 27. There *may* be instability issues! NOTE: I'd personally recommend using the latest repo unless you're intending to run a "stable" system (e.g. HTPC or a Raspberry Pi).

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter27.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter27.list

Media Center 27 (Stable) Repository:

This repository is using the latest stable release of Media Center 27. It may be out-of-date compared to the Latest repository and is updated every few months (so you might have to wait for bug fixes), however these builds have been thoroughly tested and are considered stable.

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/stable/mediacenter/mediacenter27.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter27.list
Media Center 27 (Beta) Repository:

This repository is for beta builds - not intended for users who prefer stability! These builds are likely buggy, may crash, etc. But this repo can be used alongside either the stable or latest repos!

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/beta/mediacenter/mediacenter27.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter27beta.list
That's it! Now we can install Media Center 27...

Step 2 - Installing Media Center 27:

Finally, we're going to install Media Center 27! First, 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
You can now install Media Center 27 by opening 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 mediacenter27
If 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 mediacenter27 musepack-tools vorbis-tools
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Just press Y (or Enter) when it asks this... however, if you receive an error like;

Code: [Select]

dependency problems prevent configuration of mediacenter27:
 mediacenter27 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 27 in Ubuntu/Mint/etc! Enjoy Media Center!

NOTE: You can start Media Center either go into the GNOME menu, Xfce menu, Unity dash, KDE menu, LXDE menu, Cinnamon menu, MATE menu, etc. and search for Media Center 27 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]

mediacenter27
Now, we're going to cover installing the license for those who have purchased in step 3!

[Awesome Donkey]

Step 4 - Installing A Media Center 27 Linux License Or Master License:

This portion of the tutorial will explain how to manually install your purchased license (either Linux license or Master license) in Media Center 27. Thanks for purchasing a license and supporting the development!

First, make sure MC27 is closed and either download the .mjr by either restoring the license here or if you just purchased a Media Center 27 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]

mediacenter27 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center27 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]

mediacenter27 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center27 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]

mediacenter27 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center27 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
If you do not encounter an error while restoring your license from the file, open Media Center 27 up then go to the Help menu > Registration Info... - if it's registered, congratulations, your MC27 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 27 on your Ubuntu/Linux Mint machine! The next step will aid you in keeping Media Center 27 up-to-date.


Step 5 - Updating Media Center 27:

Okay, so you've got Media Center 27 installed and you might be wondering "how do I keep MC27 up-to-date?". Well, there's several different ways available to accomplish this.

The overall best way is to use your Linux distro's update manager app and check for updates that way. It *should* pick up on them (you may need to open the update manager app and hit the Refresh or Reload button to have it check for updates manually and reload the list). However, if all else fails how else can you check for updates and update Media Center 27 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. If you don't regularly check for updates in your Linux distro's update manager app, then it's HIGHLY recommended to run this command once a week - not just for MC27 updates but for keeping up with the latest patches for vulnerabilities and various other potential security concerns.

Other ways to update Media Center 27? Well, if you Have Synaptic Package Manager installed you can update your system from there as well. So, you've got options for updating Media Center and your operating system!

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

[Awesome Donkey]

Get Thread Priorities Working:

Media Center 27 will automatically set this up for you now! So there should be nothing to do here.



Get Pulseaudio Output Working:

If desired, you can also output using Pulseaudio - keep in mind though that ALSA output 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 Debian 8+/Ubuntu 14.04+/Linux Mint 17+ 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 Debian Jessie/Stretch/Buster 64-bit, Ubuntu 15.04+ 64-bit and Linux Mint 17+ 64-bit!

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!



Uninstall/Remove Media Center (And All Files):

Okay, first, you'll need to open a Terminal window (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the Terminal in your Linux distro's search feature) and either type the following commands one-by-one or copy and paste the commands in one-by-one and press Enter (you *may* be prompted for your password);

Step 1 - Uninstall Media Center from the Terminal:

To Uninstall Media Center 23:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter23
To Uninstall Media Center 24:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter24
To Uninstall Media Center 25:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter25
To Uninstall Media Center 26:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter26
To Uninstall Media Center 27:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter27
Of course if you're using a version older than Media Center 23, just substitute the version number in the command in the Terminal.

Step 2 - Remove The Media Center APT repository .list File(s):

Hopefully you didn't close the Terminal window, because you'll need it again for this next part! We need to remove the Media Center repo .list file(s) from the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory. The easiest way to do this is from the Terminal, so with the Terminal open choose the command(s) below that you need...

To Remove Media Center 23's .list Latest/Stable Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list
To Remove Media Center 24's .list Latest/Stable Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter24.list
To Remove Media Center 25's .list Latest/Stable Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter25.list
To Remove Media Center 26's .list Latest/Stable Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter26.list
To Remove Media Center 27's .list Latest/Stable Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter27.list

Now, if you're using the beta repository for any installed Media Center versions, use these commands in the Terminal as well...


To Remove Media Center 23's .list Beta Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23beta.list
To Remove Media Center 24's .list Beta Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter24beta.list
To Remove Media Center 25's .list Beta Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter25beta.list
To Remove Media Center 26's .list Beta Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter26beta.list
To Remove Media Center 27's .list Beta Repository File:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter27beta.list
Again if you're using a version older than Media Center 23, just substitute the version number in the command in the Terminal.

Step 3 - Remove Media Center's Settings Folder(s):

You can leave them if you want, especially if you need to reinstall the older Media Center version, but if you want to remove the older Media Center folders you'll need the Terminal again, and use these command(s) for the older Media Center versions that were installed...

To Remove Media Center 23's Settings Folder:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 23'
To Remove Media Center 24's Settings Folder:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 24'
To Remove Media Center 25's Settings Folder:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 25'
To Remove Media Center 26's Settings Folder:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 26'
To Remove Media Center 27's Settings Folder:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 27'
Yes, again, if you're using a version older than Media Center 23, just substitute the version number in the command in the Terminal.

And that should do it, removing all traces of previous Media Center versions.



Adding Additional Skins In Media Center 27:

Media Center 27 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 (GNOME) skin, a Arc Theme skin, a Mint-X Cinnamon skin, a Elementary OS skin and others. 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 27 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 27. If you don't see your skin listed, then the skin probably wasn't installed correctly.



Q&A:

Q: Do I need to remove older Media Center versions to install Media Center 27?

A: Nope! If you desire, you can keep older versions of Media Center installed alongside the current version. But if you're going to use only the newest version of Media Center with the Media Network feature, I'd recommend going into the older Media Center's Options > Media Network and disabling Media Network, as it *could* clash with the newer Media Center version running. I'd also recommend if you run Media Center at startup of your Linux distro to go into the older Media Center's Options > Startup and making sure the startup option is set to Nothing. From there you can set the newer Media Center to start at your Linux distro's startup.


Q: Can I uninstall/remove older Media Center versions if I don't need them anymore?

A: Yes you can! Just follow the uninstall/remove portion of the tutorial above for the older Media Center version(s) you have and want to remove.


Q: I'm running into an issue doing this, help!

A: Okay... take a deep breath and try going through the tutorial again, triple checking each step. However if you still have issues, please post a reply below!



Tutorial changelog:

1.0 (09/15/2020): New Media Center is in the air! Media Center 27 tutorial for Ubuntu/Mint/etc. is up!

[bahamot]

Followed the instructions when installed MC27 to my Linux Mint installation. If I have to reinstall the Linux Mint 20.0, can I just backup the "~/.jrivier" folder to restore MC27 registration info later on?

[Awesome Donkey]

Yes and no. It depends, you *might* be able to restore the registration part but more than likely you'll have to restore your license if you do this.

[erviv]

Is there still a need to add the frame buffer lines to config.txt? I see in your comment in MC instructions that it may still be heeded. I have been running without it, and just now added it in. Can’t say as I notice anything different.

[Awesome Donkey]

It probably goes without saying, but MC27 works fine with Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla.