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[cochinada]

[This was split by JimH from the thread about the White Screen Problem due to mesa ]

I cannot fix this bug.
Theater View is still blank, even after an Ubuntu reinstallation keeping the same version, because older ones don't have supported repositories anymore.
This sucks as I cannot use my MC right now like it was intended in Theater View.

[Awesome Donkey]

So we're clear here, which version of Ubuntu are you using?

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS should still work with the installJRMC script. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS would too (as would the latest Ubuntu 22.10) but chances are those two may ship with newer Mesa updates which cause the white screen in MC's theater view. And there *is* a chance that the newer Mesa updates have been backported to Ubuntu 20.04 but someone would have to comment on that one. The installJRMC script won't work with Ubuntu 20.10, as that one's end-of-life as mentioned above. For the best chance at avoiding this issue, I'd use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, not Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and certainly not Ubuntu 20.10.

[cochinada]

The same like I said. 22.04.2 LTS

[Awesome Donkey]

The same like I said. 22.04.2 LTS

That one is likely too new and likely uses the newer (and broken for you) Mesa. You should probably use Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS instead.

https://releases.ubuntu.com/focal/

[cochinada]

That one is likely too new and likely ships with newer (broken for you) Mesa. You should use Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS instead.

I can't. It doesn't have repositories anymore as I said. I need to install at least openssh and even with 21.10 I couldn't. Older versions are pretty much useless.

[lepa]

"Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (long-term support) is here with enterprise-class stability, resiliency and even better security. As an LTS release, it will be supported by Canonical until 2025." 21.10 isn't LTS version

[cochinada]

"Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (long-term support) is here with enterprise-class stability, resiliency and even better security. As an LTS release, it will be supported by Canonical until 2025." 21.10 isn't LTS version

Where can I get a trusty ISO?
One more question. During the installation there is a check box saying something like "download updates during the installation". Should I check it or not?

I'm downloading 20.04.5 LTS from here:
https://ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads

In which folder should I copy my license "Media Center30 Master-573001.mjr"?
I made the mistake of entering the registration code by hand and received an email saying "... There are 9 restores remaining at this time."

[BryanC]

The master branch of installJRMC will automatically install the latest mjr file in your downloads or documents directory, or you can specify a path using --restorefile /path/to/file.mjr. You can also install it manually using mediacenter30 /RestoreFromFile /path/to/file.mjr

[cochinada]

Thanks.
So, MC is installed again and registered.
Bad news is that Theater View is not working also with this Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS on my PC.
This time, instead of a white screen, I momentarily see some thumbnails even but after a couple of seconds the screen turns black.

This last 1s or 2s...


and then pitch black screen...

I also don't understand why there are no items to display as I added to Theater View Settings the same Library items I defined in standard View.

EDIT:

I've rebooted my PC and I have some improvements.

1st I can see already almost what I expected but still there is some flickering on the screen.
It alternates with a steady picture with total black and even showing icons outside of the screen:




There is also a bug in Standard View.
This is what is shown correctly the 1st time MC starts:


This is how it shows after returning from the "erratic" Theater View.
As you can see, MC now occupies the whole screen, covering the dock of Ubuntu and even cutting the 1st letters on the left side:

[cochinada]

Hello,

Any solution for this? Proposal? Comments? Anything?

[Awesome Donkey]

Honestly, you may have to wait until Ubuntu pushes a newer Mesa with *hopefully* a fix. I base that assumption on another user who uses Arch Linux (which ships with the latest versions of apps and dependencies like Mesa unlike Ubuntu which ships with a slightly older versions) and Mesa and doesn't have this issue. Maybe they'll fix it with whatever Mesa version they ship in 23.04, which I believe comes out next month in April.

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas. You could try Linux Mint (but seeing as they're based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS it likely ships a newer Mesa) or Debian Bullseye and see if that works. But it's a bit of a shot in the dark either way and no guarantee whatsoever.

[cochinada]

Honestly, you may have to wait until Ubuntu pushes a newer Mesa with *hopefully* a fix. I base that assumption on another user who uses Arch Linux (which ships with the latest versions of apps and dependencies like Mesa unlike Ubuntu which ships with a slightly older versions) and Mesa and doesn't have this issue. Maybe they'll fix it with whatever Mesa version they ship in 23.04, which I believe comes out next month in April.

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas. You could try Linux Mint (but seeing as they're based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS it likely ships a newer Mesa) or Debian Bullseye and see if that works. But it's a bit of a shot in the dark either way and no guarantee whatsoever.

 

What if I install this "Arch Linux"? If it is guaranteed it works I'll give it a try if it's also open source. I'm not very keen waiting until April or God knows when for a fix that may never come and in the meanwhile not being able to use MC.

[Awesome Donkey]

Arch Linux is for advanced users, who can install without any sort of GUI using commands from the terminal, which I would not recommend. The alternatives are EndeavourOS or Manjaro, which are distros based on Arch Linux, but honestly Arch and its distros isn't for the faint of heart, at all, and is a completely different beast compared to Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Go for it if you want (or if you're masochistic, lol), and if you do good luck, you'd need it.

Debian is the one I'd try using first, as that's the only Linux OS that JRiver officially supports.

[cochinada]

Arch Linux is for advanced users, who can install without any sort of GUI using commands from the terminal, which I would not recommend. The alternatives are EndeavourOS or Manjaro, which are distros based on Arch Linux, but honestly Arch and its distros isn't for the faint of heart, at all. Go for it if you want, and if you do good luck, you'd need it.

I'm not an advanced user. Quite the opposite to be honest. Isn't anyone here, not advanced like me, who's using some kind of Linux and doesn't have this issue? Or is everyone having this same issue and are all waiting for a fix that may never come?

[Awesome Donkey]

Isn't anyone here, not advanced like me, who's using some kind of Linux and doesn't have this issue? Or is everyone having this same issue and are all waiting for a fix that may never come?

From what I've seen, at least two users (yourself included) has reported this issue. It seems to have worked previously, but stopped working after Ubuntu pushed system updates (e.g. Mesa). I just tried theater view in Media Center 30.0.67 on Fedora and it works fine there.

I'm going to guess this is going to come down to type of graphics is being used and perhaps the OS being used. In my case, I have a dedicated AMD GPU when using Fedora, whereas you (and possibly the other users) is using Intel integrated graphics (iGPU) on Ubuntu. If that's the case (and assuming theater view works for Nvidia GPU users) it'd be likely correct to assume a) the issue is Intel iGPU related and b) the issue lies with Mesa, which it did previously work until Ubuntu pushed Mesa updates that broke it and c) perhaps only happens with Ubuntu and its derivatives. This last one may be a shot in the dark though, if it doesn't work with the newest Mesa on a non-Ubuntu/non-Debian OS then maybe it's a) a bug in Mesa in relation to Intel iGPUs (and/or OpenGL) or b) Mesa removed support for something that Intel iGPUs (and theater view) requires.

[cochinada]

From what I've seen, at least two users (yourself included) has reported this issue. It seems to have worked previously, but stopped working after Ubuntu pushed system updates (e.g. Mesa). I just tried theater view in Media Center 30.0.67 on Fedora and it works fine there.

I'm going to guess this is going to come down to type of graphics is being used and perhaps the OS being used. In my case, I have a dedicated AMD GPU when using Fedora, whereas you (and possibly the other users) is using Intel integrated graphics (iGPU) on Ubuntu. If that's the case (and assuming theater view works for Nvidia GPU users) it'd be likely correct to assume a) the issue is Intel iGPU related and b) the issue lies with Mesa, which it did previously work until Ubuntu pushed Mesa updates that broke it and c) perhaps only happens with Ubuntu and its derivatives.

OK, What you say makes total sense but then the inevitable question:
As I cannot/will not forfit using my integrated graphics due to the particular topology of my HTPC that was optimized for incredibly low power requirements and doesn't even have any fan, what is the best solution right now?

[Awesome Donkey]

As I cannot/will not forfit using my integrated graphics due to the particular topology of my HTPC that was optimized for incredibly low power requirements and doesn't even have any fan, what is the best solution right now?

Either wait for a Mesa update and hope that fixes it, or maybe give Debian a go and see if it works there but there's no guarantee.

[cochinada]

Either wait for a Mesa update and hope that fixes it, or maybe give Debian a go and see if it works there but there's no guarantee.

OK, I'll try installing Debian. Anything that I should know about this OS? Is it similar to Ubuntu or do I need to learn a new set of weird commands, namely for installing openssh and Mediacenter?

I've just noticed that 'debian-11.6.0-amd64-ne.iso' is only about 400MB!
For sure this Linux misses a lot of things or does it? Does it have at least a GUI?

[Awesome Donkey]

Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it should be fairly similar and the installJRMC script works there.

It's a netinstall ISO, meaning during install you pick what you want to install and it downloads and installs it, it doesn't bundle most packages like other distros do nor does it boot to a live OS (it's an installer only). The only gotcha with Debian is you likely will need to install sudo and add your user account to the sudoers file. This video should help with that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk1RSryy5Ls

[cochinada]

Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it should be fairly similar and the installJRMC script works there.

It's a netinstall ISO, meaning during install you pick what you want to install and it downloads and installs it, it doesn't bundle most packages like other distros do nor does it boot to a live OS (it's an installer only). The only gotcha with Debian is you likely will need to install sudo and add your user account to the sudoers file. This video should help with that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk1RSryy5Ls

OK, thanks. I'll try it tomorrow as it is already late here. Something tells me I'm going to have my work cut out... 

[cochinada]

Hello,

Debian is installed but I got this Error at the end of installing MC:

joaquim@joaquim-HTPC:~/Downloads$ ./installJRMC
Starting installJRMC
To enable debugging output, use --debug or -d
[sudo] password for joaquim:
Using MC version 30.0.67 determined by containerized package manager
To override, use --mcversion
Installing JRiver Media Center from remote repository
JRiver Media Center installed successfully from repo
Error: Please install firewall-cmd or ufw to open firewall ports
joaquim@joaquim-HTPC:~/Downloads$

Do I need to do something as it suggests? If so, what exactly?

One more thing...
I restored the library from the backup but I saved the backup without thumbnails and now there aren't any.
How can I force MC to rebuid all thumbnails? It used to be a function for that but I cannot find it anymore

I just found this on some release notes:
7. Changed: Rebuilding the thumbnail on a library server client will make a rebuild request to the server so it won't just return the same cached thumbnail (testing appreciated).

[mwillems]

One more thing...
I restored the library from the backup but I saved the backup without thumbnails and now there aren't any.
How can I force MC to rebuid all thumbnails? It used to be a function for that but I cannot find it anymore

I just found this on some release notes:
7. Changed: Rebuilding the thumbnail on a library server client will make a rebuild request to the server so it won't just return the same cached thumbnail (testing appreciated).

The command "Build Missing Thumbnails" is under Options-->Tree & View-->Thumbnails and will build all thumbnails.  One thing I've found very helpful in my JRiver journey is the search box at the bottom of the Options menu.  It's very helpful for finding an option you know is there but can't quite find, and I wish more programs had a search box for settings like that.

[JimH]

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Thumbnails

[cochinada]

Thanks! BTW, I never noticed that option of a search box. Nice to know.

I have also very good news, specially for anyone that was also affected by the famous Blank Theater View bug.
After installing Debian, it's gone!

I still have a lot of work ahead though, as basically I'm building my Library from scratch.

Does anyone know it this Error below affects JRiver somehow? Do I need to open any ports for JRiver?

"JRiver Media Center installed successfully from repo
Error: Please install firewall-cmd or ufw to open firewall ports"

[Awesome Donkey]

"JRiver Media Center installed successfully from repo
Error: Please install firewall-cmd or ufw to open firewall ports"

I don't believe that error affects using Media Center in any negative way. But if you really want to install it, then sudo apt install firewalld in a terminal then rerun the InstallJRMC script. Otherwise you can probably ignore it.

[cochinada]

I don't believe that error affects using Media Center in any negative way. But if you really want to install it, then sudo apt install firewalld in a terminal then rerun the InstallJRMC script. Otherwise you can probably ignore it.

OK, then I'll probably ignore it. I was just thinking if MC could be limited for instance to display lyrics or even images when playing music.

[BryanC]

Opening the firewall ports is only necessary for Media Network or VNC services, it otherwise doesn't affect the function of MC.