Building a Linux Player / Server

Save the cost of an Operating System by following these steps.

Get a stable and less costly player pc or setup an on-premise server by following these steps. Or, if you would like one that is pre-configured and ready to run, you can buy them from us. This document designates specific instructions for the On-Premise server or the Signage Player Workstation with the symbol shown. Most of the images can be clicked on to see a larger version of the image.

Following these instructions will destroy everything on your computer's hard drive!!! Select a computer that you are ok to destroy and rebuild.

Download and Create DVD/CDs

• Go to http://www.opensuse.org and click on the "Get It" button to download the latest DVD ISO images.
• Select whether you have a 32 or 64 bit PC. All of our recommended specifications are for a 64 bit pc.
• Select the download method.
• Click download. This will take several hours to complete the download.
• Burn a DVD for each of the ISO images (Note: ISO images are not written to DVDs the same way as files - if using Nero, select Burn Image from the file menu)
• Be sure to label each DVD after burning them.

Test the DVD

• Boot from the DVD to run the installation program.
• If the Suse logo does not appear, you may have to go into your computer's firmware bios configuration to enable booting on the CD before the hard drive.
• Once the Suse logo appears, use the arrow key to stop the auto-boot from the hard disk.
• Do the "Check Installation Media" for each DVD that was created.
  

Delete All Partitons

If this is not a new computer, you will want to clear all paritions from the hard drive.

• Select Rescue System
  
• Show all the partitions by typing "fdisk -l"
• For each /dev/hd? or /dev/sd? showing, type "fdisk /dev/???"
• type p <enter> to see the partitions.
• type the keys d <enter> followed by the partion number for each partition <enter>
• type p <enter> to make sure all of them are gone
• type "w" to write it.
• type "shutdown -r now" to reboot

Install The System

• Select the Installation menu.
  
• For optimal support for all monitors in terminal, press F3 and set the screen resolution to 1024 x 768.
  
• Begin the installation and select the language for the product and your keyboard layout.
  
• Select New Installation.
  
• Select your time zone location and set the hardware clock to UTC.
  
• If creating an on-premise server, select Other, then select Minimal Server Selection (Text Mode).
  
• If creating a signage viewing workstation, select KDE as your desktop.
  
• Choose the automatic disk partitioning unless you know what you are doing. It should remove all paritions and start from scratch.
  
• Create the user svision with a password of your choosing that is secure and something you will remember. Be sure to check all checkboxes so that this is the system administrator password as well.
  
• The next screen shows the configuration to build. There are a few changes that need to be made.
• Enable SSH by scrolling to the bottom of the screen at the Firewall and SSH section. Click on "enable and open".
  
• Click on the Software tab to configure the software that will be installed.
  
• Click the checkbox for Web and LAMP server and File Server under Server Functions.
  
• Uncheck Games and Office Software under Desktop Functions if they are checked.
  
• Click the "Software Details" button on the lower left side of the screen.
  
• Click on the "Search" tab on the upper left side of the screen.
  
• Type sensors into the search box and check the box next to sensors.
  
• Type php5 into the search box and check the following:
  • bcmath
  • bz2
  • calendar
  • curl
  • exif
  • ftp
  • gd
  • mbstring
  • mcrypt
  • sockets
  • zlib
    
• Click on Accept in the lower right corner and click "Continue" to accept all the automatic changes shown.
  
• Click on the Install button on the lower right side of the screen.
• NOTE: Clicking "Install" on this confirmation screen will overwrite your pc's hard drive! If you are unsure, click Back and abort the installation.
  
  
• The system will now build the linux platform which will take about 30 minutes.

Add Nvidia Driver Repository

• Open firefox and type the following into the url and confirm everything
• http://opensuse-community.org/nvidia.ymp
• Select Edit, Preferences and set the home page to http://localhost

Update the Server

• Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 and log in as root
• Refresh the repositories by typing "zypper ref"
• Update the server by typing "zypper up"
• restart the server by typing "shutdown -r now"

Configure Linux with YAST

You are now ready to configure several system properties to run properly with the on-premise server or the signage viewing workstation using YAST.

• Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 and log in as root
• Type YAST on the command line once you are logged in.
  

Configure Automatic Updates

• Select Online Update Configuration from the Software Menu.
  
• Press Alt-U to turn on automatic updates.
• Press Alt-S to skip interactive updates
• Press Alt-G to agree with licenses
  
• Press Alt-O to save

Configure System Services

• Select System Services from the System menu.
  
• Enable Apache2 for the web server
  
  
• Enable AutoYast for automatic updates
  
• Enable MySql for the database usage
  
• Enable NTP to synchronize the time to atomic time.
  
• Click Alt-O to save the settings and select Yes to save the changes to the runlevels.
  

Configure the Ethernet Adapter for Static IP Address for On-Premise Server

• Select Network Settings from the Network Devices menu.
  
• Select the proper network adapter (our system currently uses eth0) and click Alt-I to edit it
  
• Setup the Dynamic or Static IP Address for your network and enter a hostname of screen1.strandvision.com for the first StrandVision device on your network, screen2.strandvision.com for the second, etc. Press Alt-N to save.
  
• Say yes to the warning about no zone be defined if it appears.
  
• (if it does not appear, Press Alt-G to set the general preferences). Press Alt-Z to set it to the external zone.
  
• Accept the changes by pressing Alt-N (the next button).
• Press Alt-S to edit the hostname and dns entries. Enter screen1.strandvision.com for the first StrandVision device on your network, screen2.strandvision.com for the second, etc. Setup your name servers appropriately.
  
• Press Alt-U to setup the routing gateway for your network.
  
• Press Alt-O to save

Configure the Web Server

• Select HTTP Server from the Network Services menu.
  
• For the first wizard step, open the port in the firewall by pressing Alt-F and click Alt-N for next.
  
• The second wizard step is ok with just PHP scripting enabled. Click Alt-N for next.
  
• If desired, you can change the administrator email on step 3. Click Alt-N for next.
  
• Step 4 allows you to add a virtual host. Click Alt-A to add a new virtual host.
  
• Enter screen1.strandvision.com as the server name of the first StrandVision device you have on your network, screen2 for the second, etc. Enter /home/svision/public_html as the server contents root. Enter your email address if you wish. Press Alt-D to use the IP address. Press Alt-G and Alt-O to empty an empty virtual host id.
  
• Press Alt-N to go to the next step
• Press Alt-D to enter the directory index options of "index.php index.html". Click Alt-N twice to finish adding the virtual host
  
• Step 5 of the wizard shows the summary.
  
• Click Alt-P to setup some expert settings.
• Click Alt-S to modify the server modules. Find Rewrite and press Alt-T to enable mod-rewrite.
  
• Press Alt-O for hosts, Alt-I, go to the directory field and press Alt-I. Enter "All" for AllowOverride.
  
• Press Alt-O twice to save it and press Alt-F to finish.

Configure the NTP Server

• Select NTP Configuration from the Network Services menu.
  
• For 3 random servers, do the following:
  • Press Alt-A to add a new server.
  • Select Server as the synchronization type.
    
  • Press Alt-S and select Public NTP Server.
    
  • Press Alt-S and select your country and a random public server.
    
  • Press Alt-T to test the connection. If it could not connect properly, select a different one.
    
  • Press Alt-O twice to save it.
• When you have added all 3 servers, press Alt-O to save them.

Exit out of YAST

• Press Alt-Q to exit out of YAST

Install StrandVision Startup Code

• set your default directory to the web directory by typing "cd /home/svision/public_html"
• type "curl http://www.strandvision.com/webcache/linuxremote.tar.gz | tar xvz"
• If that does not work, copy the file to a USB drive as follows:
  • Log into your StrandVision account and click on Signage Pages / View Signage.
  • Go to the bottom of the screen and click on "get initial player code" and save to the usb drive.
  • Plug the USB thumb drive into a usb port of the computer.
  • type cat /proc/partitions. Make a note of the last one which is the volume for the usb drive. (for example sda1)
  • type mkdir /flash if you have never done it on this computer before.
  • type "mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /flash".
  • you can now see a directory of the usb drive by typing "ls /flash".
  • extract the file with "tar -xvzf /flash/filename
• type "mkdir libcache" to create the error log directory]

Configure Boot Image

• cd /boot
• mv message message.old
• mkdir temp
• cd temp
• cpio -i < ../message.old
• rm back.jpg
• cp /home/svision/public_html/images/back.jpg back.jpg
• ls . | cpio -o > ../message
• cd ..
• rm -rf temp
• cd /etc/bootsplash/themes/openSUSE
• cp -R/home/svision/public_html/images .
• mkinitrd
• cd /home/svision
• cp public_html/images/silent-1920x1200.jpg .
• rm -R public_html/images

Setup MySql

• For all of these instructions, replace pass with the administrator password you initially setup
• Change to the web directory by typing "cd /home/svision"
• Create a file with the root password by typing:
  echo root, pass > sqladmin.txt
• Change the mode by typing "chmod 600 sqladmin.txt"
• Change the owner and group by typing "chown wwwrun:www sqladmin.txt"
• Change the root password to the administrator password you setup for the computer by typing:
  mysqladmin -u root password pass

Setup Security Rights

• Type the following commands:
• chmod 775 public_html
• cd public_html
• chown -R wwwrun:www .
• usermod svision -G www
• usermod wwwrun -G users

Configure PHP

Type "vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini", press i to be able to insert characters and find / set the following lines. Many of these will already be set to these values (marked with *) and error_log is commented out and needs a new line created near the commented out ones.

• max_execution_time = 60 (around line 440)
• *max_input_time = 60
• *memory_limit = 128M
• error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_DEPRECATED (around line 514)
• *display_errors = Off
• display_startup_errors = On
• *log_errors = On
• *ignore_repeated_errors = Off
• error_log = /home/svision/public_html/libcache/error.log (around line 638)
• *register_globals = Off (around line 695)
• *register_long_arrays = Off
• post_max_size = 128M
• *file_uploads = On (around line 874)
• upload_max_filesize = 128M
• *max_file_uploads = 20

press the keys <escape> : w q <enter> to save the changes

Configure Apache

• Type "vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf"
• change the ErrorLog parameter to /home/svision/public_html/libcache/error.log
• press the keys <escape> : w q <enter> to save the changes
• type service apache2 restart

Configure Sudo Security

• Type "vi /etc/sudoers"
• at the end, press "i" and add:
• %users   localhost = NOPASSWD:/sbin/shutdown
• press the keys <escape> : w q <enter> to save the changes

Configure Log File Rotation

• type "cd /etc/logrotate.d"
• type curl http://www.strandvision.com/data/logrotate.tar.gz | tar xvz
  

Configure Sensors To Be Read

You are now ready to configure the system to read the various sensors that the system has available. This will be done in the terminal.

• run the command "sensors-detect" and press enter for each question that appears.
  
• reboot the system by typing "shutdown -r now"
• when it comes back up, log in and type sensors. You should see some sensor information appear.
  

Configure Cron Jobs

• Run crontab -e -u wwwrun
• press i for insert
• enter the following lines:
  * * * * * cd /home/svision/public_html; php remotecron.php
• press the keys <escape> : w q <enter> to save the changes (colon is command signifier, write, quit)
• Setup the log rotation job by running crontab -e -u root
• press i for insert
• enter the following lines:
  MAILTO="root@screen1"
  0 0 * * * logrotate /etc/logrotate.d
  * * * * * cd /home/svision/public_html; php remoterootcron.php
• @reboot sleep 5; cd /home/svision/public_html; php remoteboot.php
• press the keys <escape> : w q <enter> to save the changes

Create a Burn In Test File

• type "cd /home"
• Type "vi test.sh"
• create 50 lines of this command (there are 10 here for you to copy):
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
  find / | xargs tar cf - | bzip2 > /dev/null&
• You can also type the line in once, hit <esc>, press yy to copy the line, then hit p to paste the line 50 times.
• press the keys <escape> : w q <enter> to save the changes
• type "chmod u+x test.sh"
• To do the burnin, type: "./test.sh &"
• type "top -c" to see a continuous running status of the server load. Press "q" to exit.
• There will be occasional times when messages go all over the screen - and it will be very slow, so be sure you are done configuring.
• Check it in 24 hours. If still running, all is good. you can either type "halt" to shut down the server or "killall bzip2" to stop all processes

Check Web Server

• Open up Firefox and type localhost.
• Open up a web browser from a separate computer and type the server's ip address.
• It should come up with a spot to enter the StrandVision username and password. This is where the customer starts setting up the system for their unique StrandVision Digital Signage account.
  

Configure the Sound

• Click on the speaker in the lower right corner and select "Mixer"
• Click Settings, Configure Channels
• Show the Line and Mic inputs
• Set the volume to the maximum for the Master, PCM and Line controls.
• Close the window.
• open up the flash standalone player by clicking the start icon and typing "flash" in the search bar.
• type http://localhost/flash/sign.swf into the url
• right click on the display and click settings
• click on the second icon and allow access to microphone and camera for localhost and set the remember checkbox
• click close to save the settings.
• Close the flash player by pressing Alt-F4

Disable Power Management And Screen Saver

• At the desktop, click on configure desktop, display. Turn the power control off.
• Go back and in the screen saver section, turn the screen saver off
• Close the desktop window.
• Right click on the desktop
• select wallpaper
• browse to /home/svision/silent-1920x1200.jpg
• Set it to "scaled"

Make Hard Drive Image (StrandVision Only)

• Boot from the Suse distribution cdrom.
• Select Expert tools from the "Repair Installed System" menu
• Shrink the sda3 partition to 1GB
• Restart again from the Suse distribution cdrom.
• Select Rescue System
• Login as root with no password.
• Make sure NO partitions are mounted from the source hard drive.
• Make a temporary directory /flash
• Mount each partition, then create a file of zeros which fills the entire disk, then delete it again.
  mount   -t   ext4   dev/sda1   /flash;   dd   if=/dev/zero   of=/flash/delete.me   bs=8M;   rm   /flash/delete.me;   umount   /flash
• Mount the external HD.
  mount   -t   vfat   /dev/sdb1   /flash
• Store extra information about the drive geometry necessary in order to interpret the partition table stored within the image. The most important of which is the cylinder size.
  fdisk -l /dev/sda > /flash/sda_fdisk.info
• Backup the drive.
  dd   if=/dev/sda   conv=noerror,sync   bs=1024   |   gzip   -c9   >   /flash/filename.img.gz
• Run md5sum /flash/filename.img.gz > /flash/filename.img.md5
• unmount /flash and shut down the linux pc
• Attach hard drive to windows pc
• Copy both .img files to the data directory on the server
• "dd" is the command to make a bit-by-bit copy of "if=/dev/sda" as the "Input File" to "of=/flash/sda.img.gz" as the "Output File". Everything from the partition will go into an "Output File" named "sda.img.gz". "conv=sync,noerror" tells dd that if it can't read a block due to a read error, then it should at least write something to its output of the correct length. Even if your hard disk exhibits no errors, remember that dd will read every single block, including any blocks which the OS avoids using because it has marked them as bad. "bs=64K" is the block size of 64x1024 Bytes. Using this large of block size speeds up the copying process. The output of dd is then piped through gzip to compress it.
• To restore your system:
  gunzip   -c   /flash/filename.img.gz   |   dd   of=/dev/sda   conv=noerror,sync   bs=1024
• Follow these instructions if you are a production house.

Other Commands

• Create a tar file: tar -cvzf filename.tar.gz dirname/
• Find file: find dir -name filename*.*