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[Awesome Donkey]

This tutorial aims to aid users into setting up JRiver Media Center 23 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
Elementary OS

Recommended distros/versions:

Debian 9.x Stretch
Debian 8.x Jessie
Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark
Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus
Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS Xenial Xerus
Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Elementary OS 0.4.1 Loki

Ubuntu Studio and Linux Mint Debian Edition have not and likely will not be tested! Again, your mileage with those 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 23 for Linux is developed on Debian Jessie - support for distros other than Debian Jessie, e.g. 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 0 - Debian Only - Adding yourself to the required groups:

NOTE: If you're indeed using Debian, you'll likely will need to install sudo and add your user account to the sudo group FIRST as explained in this tutorial before proceeding with this tutorial: http://milq.github.io/enable-sudo-user-account-debian/

This step is for Debian only - you can skip this step if you're using Ubuntu/Linux Mint/Elementary OS! Got sudo installed and your user account added to the sudo group already? If not, read the note above! If you do, let's begin then! By default on Debian user accounts aren't automatically added to the adm and audio groups upon creation of the account (like with the case of sudo). This is absolutely required if you're running Debian Wheezy, Debian Jessie and Debian Stretch! Okay, in a detailed nutshell we're going to set your user account as an administrator, add your user to the sudoers file and add your user to the audio group. Fortunately, all of this can done in just two simple steps! If for whatever reason you're using the root account on Debian or again you're using Ubuntu/Linux Mint/Elementary OS/etc., you may skip this step.

First, open a Terminal (by either pressing CTRL+ALT+T or by searching for the terminal in your desktop environment) then type the following command and press Enter. You WILL be prompted for the root password!

Code: [Select]

su
Next, either type the following command or copy and paste the command into the Terminal and press Enter. Be sure to change youruser to the name of your user account you chose when installing Debian!

Code: [Select]

usermod -a -G adm,audio youruser
If the command was successful, it's time to reboot the PC to make sure the changes above are applied properly. You can probably just log out of the account and log back in, but to be safe it's easier to just reboot the PC.

That's it! Proceed to step 1!


Step 1 - Add the JRiver APT Repository:

The APT repository is required to install Media Center 23 and keep Media Center 23 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 either the stable or latest repo - you *can* use the beta repo alongside either the stable or latest repos!

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 the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory. Also, you can pick which repository you want to use (Stable, Latest or Beta - choose either the stable or latest repos, but the beta repo can be ran alongside either one!) so either type one the following commands or copy and paste the command in and press Enter;


Media Center 23 (Stable) Repository:

This repository is using the latest stable release of Media Center 23 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.

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/stable/mediacenter/mediacenter23.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list

Media Center 23 (Latest) Repository:

This repository is using the latest up-to-date release of Media Center 23. There *may* be instability issues!

Code: [Select]

sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter23.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list

Media Center 23 (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/mediacenter23.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23beta.list

After picking the repo(s) you want to go with finally, we need to reload the packages list. 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 23:

It's finally time to install Media Center 23! 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 mediacenter23
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 mediacenter23 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 mediacenter23:
 mediacenter23 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 23 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 GNOME menu, Xfce menu, Unity dash, KDE menu, LXDE menu, Cinnamon menu, MATE menu, etc. and search for Media Center 23 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]

mediacenter23
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 23 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 23. Thanks for purchasing a license and supporting the development!

First, make sure MC23 is closed and either download the .mjr by either restoring the license here or if you just purchased a Media Center 23 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]

mediacenter23 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center23 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]

mediacenter23 /RestoreFromFile "Media Center23 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]

mediacenter23 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center23 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"
If you do not encounter an error while restoring your license from the file, open Media Center 23 up then go to the Help menu > Registration Info... - if it's registered, congratulations, your MC23 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 23 on your Ubuntu/Linux Mint machine! The next step will aid you in keeping Media Center 23 up-to-date.


Step 4 - Updating Media Center 23:

Okay, so you've got Media Center 23 installed and you might be wondering "how do I keep MC 23 up-to-date?". Well, there's several different ways available to accomplish this.

The easiest method to check for updates and update Media Center 23 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 23 updates but for keeping up with the latest patches for vulnerabilities and various other potential security concerns.

The other ways to update Media Center 23? 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 Thread Priorities Working:

On Windows, Media Center can set thread priorities and thus playback is prioritized but until now on Linux, this wasn't the case. Because of the lack of thread priorities on Linux, some issues could occur (e.g. pops/jumpy music playback when resampling to 4X DSD (aka DSD256). If you're encountering issues like this, this may be the solution for you! You need to be using Media Center 23.0.21 and above, as thread priorities have been implemented on Linux! Setting it up requires a couple extra steps to allow allow non-root users to be able to do this. Still want to try this? Okay, follow along (this is the easiest way to set it up)...

First, we need to make sure your user account on Linux is part of the audio group. If you're on Debian, you already did this as step 0 in the first post so you can skip this first part and move down to the second (editing limits.conf). However if you're on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, elementary OS or any of their derivatives you may still need to add yourself to this group. Okay, try the following command 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 usermod -a -G audio youruser
NOTE: Replace yourname with your Linux user account name you're logged into.

If you encounter no errors, you can move onto the next step!

Now, we need to edit limits.conf to allow non-root users to do this. So with the Terminal open try 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 gedit /etc/security/limits.conf
This will now open in the text editor. Scroll down to the bottom of this file and add the following;

Code: [Select]

@audio           -       rtprio          100
Save the file, then either logout or reboot the computer. To test this you can now open Media Center 23 and start playing music. When a Terminal window open while playing music in Media Center, you can either type or copy/paste the following command into the Terminal;

Code: [Select]

ps -T -eo pid,tid,class,rtprio,ni,pri,comm | grep mediacenter23
Now, if you see this as the output...

Code: [Select]

2946  2946 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
2946  2956 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
2946  2966 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
2946  2967 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
2946  2968 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
2946  2970 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
2946  2972 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
Something went wrong and thread priorities are not working. Re-read the tutorial and please try again!

However, if you see this as the output...

Code: [Select]

10059 10059 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
10059 11871 TS       -   0  19 mediacenter23
10059 11872 RR      56   -  96 mediacenter23
10059 11873 RR      46   -  86 mediacenter23
10059 11875 RR      99   - 139 mediacenter23
It's working! The RR      99 part is what we're looking for. Congrats, threaded priorities are working now!



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 64-bit, Ubuntu 15.04+ 64-bit, Linux Mint 17+ 64-bit and Elementary OS 0.4+ 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!



How To Remove Media Center 20, Media Center 21 and Media Center 22:

If you've updated from Media Center 20 and/or Media Center 21 and/or 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
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove mediacenter22
Step 3 (Optional): If you want to completely remove Media Center 20/21/22'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'
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '/usr/lib/jriver/Media Center 22'
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'
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 22'
Step 4 (Optional): If you want to remove the old mediacenter20.list and/or mediacenter21.list and/or mediacenter22.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
For Media Center 22:

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
If all goes well, your Media Center 20/21/22 installation(s) should be removed.



How To Remove Media Center 23:

If you don't like Media Center 23 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 mediacenter23
Step 2 (Optional): If you want to completely remove Media Center 23'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 23'
And...

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf '~/.jriver/Media Center 23'
Step 3 (Optional): If you want to remove the mediacenter23.list file from the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory;

Code: [Select]

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list
If all goes well, your Media Center 23 installation should be completely removed.



Adding Additional Skins In Media Center 23:

Media Center 23 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 23 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 23. If you don't see your skin listed, then the skin probably wasn't installed correctly.



Tutorial changelog:

1.0 (07/12/2017): Media Center 23 tutorial for Ubuntu/Mint/Elementary OS up and running!
1.1 (07/12/2017): Merged the Debian tutorial into this one!
1.2 (07/12/2017): Changed/added stuff, added the ARM repos for those running Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi. Keep in mind I don't own any Raspberry Pis or anything like that, so I can't actually test Raspbian.
1.3 (07/23/2017): Added a tutorial for getting thread priorities working on Linux.
1.4 (09/08/2017): Updated the repo lists to reflect that the latest and beta repos have been merged into one repo, instead of three repos each.
1.5 (09/11/2017): Stable repos got merged into one, updated tutorial and some wording - the minimum Debian version supported is Jessie!

[Awesome Donkey]

Off to the races! A couple things to note though;

- There's no builds in the stable repo yet (as MC23 is still early in development). Best to use the latest repo for the time being until a build is pushed to the stable repo.

- The Debian tutorial may be delayed for a bit. I still need to download Debian Stretch (2+ GB download - will take me at least 4 hours on my connection to download! *sad face who wants fiber gigabit*) and set it up in a virtual machine, however if you combine parts of this tutorial with the Debian Jessie for Media Center 22 tutorial, you'll likely get things set up just fine.

[JimH]

Thanks!

[Awesome Donkey]

Hmmm, I *could* just merge the Debian tutorial into this one, since the only difference is one extra step (adding yourself to the adm, sudo and audio groups).

EDIT: I think I will merge Debian into this one.

EDIT 2: Done. The ultimate Debian-based distro tutorial is complete. The tutorial (along with the Fedora tutorial) can probably be sticky'd!

[Awesome Donkey]

Man, looks like gaining su/root access on Debian Stretch is a PITA. Even after setting the root password during installation, you can't get su working without an authentication error.

Basically, you have to reboot to the GRUB bootloader screen (before it boots Debian) and press e to edit the kernel arguments. Scroll down to the line about linux (and has quiet added to the end). After quiet add the following;

Code: [Select]

init=/bin/bash
Then start up Debian by pressing F10. It'll load up to a terminal prompt, so now we'll need to mount the filesystem as read-write;

Code: [Select]

mount -o remount,rw /
Finally, type in this;

Code: [Select]

passwd root
This will set/change the root password. Reboot the computer and su will work now.

[mwillems]

Man, looks like gaining su/root access on Debian Stretch is a PITA. Even after setting the root password during installation, you can't get su working without an authentication error.

Basically, you have to reboot to the GRUB bootloader screen (before it boots Debian) and press e to edit the kernel arguments. Scroll down to the line about linux (and has quiet added to the end). After quiet add the following;

Code: [Select]

init=/bin/bash
Then start up Debian by pressing F10. It'll load up to a terminal prompt, so now we'll need to mount the filesystem as read-write;

Code: [Select]

mount -o remount,rw /
Finally, type in this;

Code: [Select]

passwd root
This will set/change the root password. Reboot the computer and su will work now.

Which installer did you use?  Were you using a live image by chance? Because they changed the way they make the live images for stretch and they've been pretty buggy this time around. 

I did an install yesterday with the netinstaller and didn't have any issues using su or changing the root password, and have done about four or five "normal" installs with the netinst iso, so that may be a safe bet (Assuming you didn't hit this issue with the netinst).

[Awesome Donkey]

Yep, live image indeed.

[Awesome Donkey]

Man, Stretch is buggy. The netinstaller worked get working around the su issue however there's APT problems in Stretch I haven't solved yet after enabling additional (e.g. updates) repos. Honestly this is one of the worst Debian stable releases that I've used thus far but hopefully they sort this stuff out soon.

Code: [Select]

W: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/dists/stretch/updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch-updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/Release.gpg: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
EDIT: Going to give up on Stretch for now. Too buggy for my liking.

[goldenriver99]

Master license of JRiver Media Center 22 can used for 23 ?

[Awesome Donkey]

Nope, requires a Media Center 23 master license.

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,110369.0.html

[JimH]

Master license of JRiver Media Center 22 can used for 23 ?

You can upgrade at a discount:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Upgrade

[Zhillsguy]

I am getting this error when running apt-get update using Mint 18.2, no public key available. Is this a known issue? I am running the latest 23 version.

Ign:1 http://packages.linuxmint.com sonya InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease             
Hit:3 http://packages.linuxmint.com sonya Release                             
Hit:4 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease                     
Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease                       
Get:7 http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter jessie InRelease [2,146 B]
Hit:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease         
Hit:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease
Ign:7 http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter jessie InRelease
Fetched 2,146 B in 0s (2,673 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter jessie InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY C30B25C6077765D5
W: The repository 'http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter jessie InRelease' is not signed.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure( 8 ) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

[Awesome Donkey]

Did you add the key by using this in a Terminal?

Code: [Select]

wget -q "http://dist.jriver.com/mediacenter@jriver.com.gpg.key" -O- | sudo apt-key add -

[Zhillsguy]

I missed that crucial step. Will do it tonight..... thanks AD.

[Awesome Donkey]

An update! A tutorial for enabling thread priorities has been added. To do this make sure you have Media Center 23.0.21 or above installed!

Also looks like Debian 9.1 Stretch was released, addressing the APT issues I was having (among other issues). Looks like a good, stable release!

[Araj]

Thanks muchly for the excellent install guide. Worked a treat with very little experience of Ubuntu / Linux in general.

Is there any way of configuring the buttons on a remote? In Theater View, only 2 of the 49 buttons on my generic remote do anything at all (one plays/stops audio and the other plays/stops video), and even one of those isn't where it should be. I use the same remote for another well-known but obviously unmentionable media centre in Ubuntu and the buttons were pretty much on target even before I used a remote configuration add-on...

[TrevorW]

Hi AwesomeDonkey,
(Where the hell did that name come from . . . sure theres a story  )
OK I'm a seasoned MC users but on windows and also the ID.
I'm just setting up to check out MC23 but on Debian 7/8/or9 the machine I have available to do this initial check is an HP 32bit so have been using i386 distro's.
I have followed along with a basic install of Debian 9.1.0 then 7.11.0 but have reached the same point with both . . .
When I get to install MC23 (step 2 in your article I think) it get E: Unable to locate package mediacenter23
If it helps I include the full session after the reboot of the initial debian install (for wheezy 7.11) in an attachment
Please don't assume any Debian experience I'm completely following along here, I do have a solid Windows and other tech background though.

So any ideas from yourself or others. The above occurs in Debian 9 i386 too but I noted that this was not explicitly supported so tried wheezy below.
 
Hope someone can give me a steer.

Regards

[Awesome Donkey]

The MC stable/latest/beta APT repos are in the process of changing right now (e.g. updating to Debian Stretch for 64-bit, Debian Jessie for 32-bit, arches being merged into one mediacenter23.list, etc.) - a couple of them like the beta repo give off 404 errors when trying to check for updates. Once everything stabilizes it'll become easier to install/update MC via the APT repos. Hopefully it means there will be only one mediacenter23.list for each MC repo instead of three for each.

In the meantime I'd manually install MC via the .deb file using sudo dpkg -i 'path to .deb file' in the Terminal.

(Where the hell did that name come from . . . sure theres a story  )

Believe it or not, it's random. I'm not very good at choosing nicknames so I picked it at random. Seems to have worked out pretty well.

[TrevorW]

Hi Awesome,
Thats cool, we'll look forward to the repo's stabilizing then . . . any idea of time frame for this and where it will be posted ??

Meantime I'll try the alternate install, will I pickup the deb path easily somewhere ?

Regards

[Awesome Donkey]

Here, I'll post a quickie tutorial to get it done fast. I chose the latest beta build for this one (as licensing/registration has changed between 23.0.21 to 23.0.28) so you won't have to eventually restore your license a second time.

Here's the easiest way to do it from a Terminal (64-bit);

Code: [Select]

wget http://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/test/MediaCenter-23.0.28-amd64.deb
Then...

Code: [Select]

sudo dpkg -i ~/MediaCenter-23.0.28-amd64.deb
That should do it. If you encounter any errors (like dependencies) just run sudo apt-get install -f from the Terminal.

[TrevorW]

Thanks, I'm actaully on a 32bit machine with debian i386 so should I use something like
sudo dpkg -i ~/MediaCenter-23.0.28-i386.deb ?

REgards

[Awesome Donkey]

Ohhh yes, my apologies. Here's the correct lines for i386.

Code: [Select]

wget http://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/test/MediaCenter-23.0.28.deb
Then...

Code: [Select]

sudo dpkg -i ~/MediaCenter-23.0.28.deb

[TrevorW]

Great I'll get to this later this PM and let you know how it goes.
Would be good to know when and how we get to know when the repo issue is sorted ??

Thanks again . . . especially for the fats turn round well done.

Regards

[Awesome Donkey]

Yeah, I'll post here when the repos are updated and fully working again (and I'll redo that part of the tutorial, along with the APT tutorial). Last I read Bob was working on the issues with getting the MC builds working with GCC 6 on Debian Stretch.

[TrevorW]

Hi Again,
Finding myself next to the 32bit machine on another job but couldn't resist a fiddle with this!!
Ran the two command as instructed and also tried the command from your original post to resolve dependencies but result not completely as I'd expect. Result is attached.

Do I take it the Debian 9.1 64bit and 32bit is the real target for MC23 release. maybe better I revert to Debian 9.1 i386 then go forward with any comment on the above.

Cheers

[Awesome Donkey]

Actually, the i386 (32-bit) and armhf (ARM) builds target Debian 8.x Jessie now. The AMD64 (64-bit) builds currently target Jessie too, but will move to Debian 9.x Stretch soon.

If you're using Debian 7.x Wheezy, yeah, probably won't work there anymore.

[TrevorW]

So your original article will be changing then 
OK so I'll install Debian 8.8 i386 and try the setup and install again.
Regards

[TrevorW]

Hey,
Looks like I'm good to go. Mediacenter23 installed and has run.
Had to mess around with installing SUDO from root then adding username to it (I thought the first part of your article covered that but maybe Debian 8 doesn't install SUDO by default . . . that seamed to be suggested else where.

Anyway, I'm gonna return to your MC23 article now to get the Master licence installed.

Does Debian update automatically (8.8 to 8.9 if a specify a mirror - did this during Debian install - or do I have to invoke the update

Cheers

[Awesome Donkey]

Updated tutorial and the APT repos listed - both the latest and beta repos have been merged into one repo. Only the stable repo is still split into three choices!

[markh56]

I get this error when running sudo apt-get update after adding the latest repo command to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list
Tried the beta one too, same thing.
E: Type '--2017-09-09' is not known on line 1 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter23.list
E: The list of sources could not be read.

[markh56]

Sorry -typo, disregard previous. Never mind...installing now. My bad.

[Awesome Donkey]

I tried Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark (daily build) today and IMO it's still a mess even though there's a month until final release. It has a ways to go still until it's pretty usable seamlessly, at least that's how it seems to me. I also really didn't like going through the hoops involved to switch from the new Ubuntu Dock to Dash To Dock (which is ironic, the Ubuntu Dock is a fork of Dash To Dock with very little of the features Dash To Dock has), but it can be done. Once you've got Dash To Dock in (and set to emulate the Unity 7 glass effect) it does look a lot like Ubuntu with Unity. Sadly, I couldn't get video thumbnails to work through Files/Nautilus no matter what I did so that was a bit of a bummer.

The only good side? For the first time ever (once I upgraded to the 4.13 Linux kernel) I was able to get my Nvidia GPU working with the Nouveau open-source drivers today! Since I don't game on Linux, I may not need the Nvidia proprietary drivers anymore, YAY! I can probably use Wayland in the future, double YAY!

Once Linux 4.13 lands in Arch Linux's stable repos, I'll likely redo my Arch Linux install and try using the open source drivers.

But, if you're wondering, Media Center 23 works fine under Ubuntu 17.10, as expected. Even DSD DoP does too! Oh, I also updated/created a new version of the Ubuntu Ambiance skin for GNOME (and forked off the original as the Unity version of the skin). I'll try to upload it at some point this week!

[nickolsj]

Is there a way to install the 64-bit version on Ubuntu 16.04?  Was reading the other post regarding STRETCH, but wasn't sure how to go about it, or if it could be done in the same manner as how we do the 32-bit install.

Thanks

[Awesome Donkey]

Mmmm, can probably do it just by following the normal Ubuntu instructions (add the repo + install mediacenter23).

[nickolsj]

Mmmm, can probably do it just by following the normal Ubuntu instructions (add the repo + install mediacenter23).

That is what i am confused about; what repo do I need to point to?

Not very familiar with how repos and apt really work.  Might not be the right place to ask but do you have any suggestions as to where I can learn more about repos and apt. Trying to get smarter on Linux.

Thanks

[JimH]

You're talking to the right guy.

[Awesome Donkey]

Re-read the tutorial carefully, especially step one as it slightly explains what each of the three repositories are for (e.g. updates).

This is a technical explanation of what the repositories are in general: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository

And this is a technical explanation of what APT repositories are: https://blog.packagecloud.io/eng/2015/08/04/apt-repository-internals/

Basically, you pick and choose one repo you want; do you want the stable repo (with more stable builds which are updated not so often), the latest repo (always the latest build, may or may not be very stable, it depends but they generally are in my experience) or the beta repo (there's beta releases now and then). I'd pick between stable or latest in this case. Once you pick a repo, you add it via the command posted for that repo above.

[nickolsj]

In step 1 you say :

download and add the correct mediacenter.list file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ depending if you're using 32-bit or 64-bit

This is where I get lost.  Are there different repos for the 32 and 64-bit versions; how do I indicate I want the 64-bit version as opposed to the 32-bit? There is only 1 repo for each release stable/latest/beta.

[Awesome Donkey]

Actually that part is a leftover, it doesn't matter anymore as 32-bit/64-bit/ARM was merged into a single .list file for each of the three repos (stable/latest/beta). There's only those three repos now, but a few months ago there was 9 overall but it was reduced to 3. As for choosing the 64-bit over 32-bit, that part is automatic unless you specifically want it to install the 32-bit build (in my opinion, there's no reason to use the 32-bit build on a 64-bit system).

EDIT: Corrected/removed that old part. Thanks for pointing it out!

[nickolsj]

OK, got it figured out i think.  The only other thing is how do i confirm that it is x64?  If i go to Help>About Media Center in Windows it is shown in the title bar as (64-bit).  I am not seeing the (64-bit) on Linux side.  Does this mean I installed the 32-bit version?  I tried uninstalling/reinstalling on Linux to be sure it was grabbing the right one but it is giving me the same info.

Also having an issue connecting to remote library running off of Linux via Windows running MC22...Actually, I'll start a new topic for this.

[Awesome Donkey]

Linux and Mac lacks the 64-bit title bar (though, IMO, in at least Linux it does make sense but not Mac since by default MC is 64-bit).

Now if you added one of the repos, it'll automatically install MC matching the architecture you're going to be running it on. If you have a 64-bit CPU, it'll install the 64-bit MC. The *only* way to install the 32-bit MC on a 64-bit machine is by forcing it (and any needed multiarch libraries) via a package manager (e.g. Synaptic) or by forcing mediacenter23:i386 via the apt-get install command above. If you install via sudo apt-get install mediacenter23 it's VERY likely you've got the 64-bit build of Media Center if you're running on a 64-bit machine.

[nickolsj]

Cool..thanks for the info and help.  Look like everything is running and communicating like it should be! 

[bob]

Linux and Mac lacks the 64-bit title bar (though, IMO, in at least Linux it does make sense but not Mac since by default MC is 64-bit).

Now if you added one of the repos, it'll automatically install MC matching the architecture you're going to be running it on. If you have a 64-bit CPU, it'll install the 64-bit MC. The *only* way to install the 32-bit MC on a 64-bit machine is by forcing it (and any needed multiarch libraries) via a package manager (e.g. Synaptic) or by forcing mediacenter23:i386 via the apt-get install command above. If you install via sudo apt-get install mediacenter23 it's VERY likely you've got the 64-bit build of Media Center if you're running on a 64-bit machine.

You can do
Help->System Info->Advanced to see if you are running 64 bit or 32 bit.

[Awesome Donkey]

Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark is out, and Media Center 23 works fine with it (no surprise). I'll be updating my Linux Modern Cards skin pack here in a few with a new Ubuntu Ambiance skin for GNOME. (EDIT: Linux skin pack updated).

You can do
Help->System Info->Advanced to see if you are running 64 bit or 32 bit.

Nice! What about ARM though?

[bob]

Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark is out, and Media Center 23 works fine with it (no surprise). I'll be updating my Linux Modern Cards skin pack here in a few with a new Ubuntu Ambiance skin for GNOME. (EDIT: Linux skin pack updated).

Nice! What about ARM though?

32 bit only

[becar]

Hello! I bought a Media Center Master License 23 to apply on two PCs: with windows 10 and ubuntu. With windows no problem, but with ubuntu the terminal responds:
CRegistrationHelper :: RestoreFromFile: license file Media Center23 Master-YYYYYY.mjr not found.
Could not restore license from file Media Center23 Master-YYYYYY.mjr
CRegistrationHelper :: RestoreFromFile: bInstalledOk is false, error = Your license file is for a different product
There's a solution?
Regards!

[Awesome Donkey]

Make sure you're using MC 23.0.102 from the latest repo. If you're using the stable repo I highly suggest switching to the latest repo.

[becar]

I changed the repository. I installed version 23.0.102 but it still does not work. The result in the terminal is:
CRegistrationHelper :: RestoreFromFile: license file Media Center23 Master-YYYYYY.mjr not found.
Could not restore license from file Media Center23 Master-YYYYYY.mjr
What is the solution?