TwonkyMedia and Solaris10

[helibore]

Hi,

I would love to run Solaris10 and ZFS but the only thing stopping me is a lack of TwonkyMedia.
Is there any chance of a version of TwonkyMedia running on x86 Solaris10 ?
Give that Open Solaris is moving forward and that Solaris 10 can be downloaded by a simple registration process, as can SunStudio 12 a version for Solaris would be great

Thanks
John

[constantin]

Hi,

this is possible by installing TwonkyMedia inside a Linux Container using branded zones. Here is a guide on how to do that: http://blogs.sun.com/constantin/entry/t ... on_solaris.

Although this works fine, it would still be better to have a native Solaris version of the TwonkyMedia server. I'll send em ail to their support department, hopefully Solaris will soon become popular enough for it to be supported by TwonkyVision/PacketVideo.

Hope this helps,
Constantin

[stilgars]

Hi,

I'm also waiting for a real support of Sun OS, since I don't plan of using tricks to make Twonkymedia run on my personal NAS box, based on Open Solaris.

Open Solaris (and other derivative from Solaris), because of its unique support of ZFS, is becoming more and more popular among enthusiast users, and I feel TwonkyMedia should provide us serious support.

Regards,
Julien

[norbertk]

Hi,

Constantin keep up the good work on your Blog ! Nice to see there are more people using their Open Solaris home system as a DLNA server. I'm also waiting for a real support of ( Open) Solaris , BrandZ is a workaround but costs a lot of resources on my little home server. It wouldn't be that much work for Twonky Media to make a solaris port.

Cheers,

Norbert.

[brainz]

Hi,

I have a home server running OpenSolaris with just under a TB of ACC media that I would dearly love to stream direct. I have Windows XP running in a Virtualbox VM on top of OpenSolaris just to stream media around the house, after reading some of the reviews would dearly love to strip this out and replace with TwonkyMedia running in Solaris.

Are there any plans to release a Solaris/OpenSolaris version?

[mbr22abcdefg]

I too would be very interested in a Solaris/Opensolaris native port of TwonkyMedia. It would definitely encourage me to buy it.

[ariyo]

Hi,

I have a license for twokymedia and would also like twokymedia for native solaris 10.
My branded linux zone does not always work especially for PS3s.

regards,
Chris

[twonkysol]

I have TwonkyServer for years on Windows and really like it.

Oracle is pushing Solaris in the right direction. Probably one of the best integrated systems with Windows and absolutely free for non-commercial use. Running TwonkyServer on Solaris would be delightful!!!

[twonkysol]

I was able to install it under brandz lx(CentOS tarball) zone following instructions. It is working, but I am observing some strange issues when navigating config pages - the browser seems to be unresponsive at times (possibly due to JavaScript chat with the server). The media receivers’ page does not display any media players it interacted with successfully. I have entered MAC, type and view manually (very difficult to enter due to constant glitches and slowness of the UI). There is no way to enter IP address. The Twonky server knows the IP of the player, as it displays media player IP address when it is playing content. There is some prolonged delay (blank/black screen) after movie file is selected for playback.
I have tested download speed on PC: webbrowse – it is not an issue (~75MBytes/s). Once playback starts it is silky smooth, even on full bitrate BD m2ts copies.

Anyone else is experiencing the same. Also, oracle dropped support for lx zones in Solaris 11+. So linux zones may not be an option in the future.

TwonkyServer runs on just about any inexpensive NAS box, routers and other tiny/exotic goodies. It is really that hard to compile it for solaris/opensolaris. Solaris platform is not as fragmented as Linux, so getting it work on opensolaris will cover just about all. Just bare streaming will do – no need for transcoding or conversion. From what I know – there is known difference on solaris - printf will cause an exception when NULL pointer passed as char * argument.

Another thing:
For some reason: route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0 -> will error out in linux zone

I was able to enable multicast routing on global zone:

route add 224.0.0.0 192.168.1.195 -interface
where: 192.168.1.195 is linux zone allocated virtual NIC IP address.

root@nxstor:/export/home/admin# netstat -rn

Routing Table: IPv4
Destination Gateway Flags Ref Use Interface
-------------------- -------------------- ----- ----- ---------- ---------
default 192.168.1.1 UG 4 453
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 17 50044 lo0
192.168.1.0 192.168.1.194 U 9 8711 bge0
224.0.0.0 192.168.1.195 U 1 0 bge0

Routing Table: IPv6
Destination/Mask Gateway Flags Ref Use If
--------------------------- --------------------------- ----- --- ------- -----
::1 ::1 UH 2 0 lo0

[twonkysol]

[quote="twonkysol"]Another thing:
For some reason: route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0 -> will error out in linux zone

I was able to enable multicast routing on global zone:

route add 224.0.0.0 192.168.1.195 -interface
where: 192.168.1.195 is linux zone allocated virtual NIC IP address.

root@nxstor:/export/home/admin# netstat -rn

Routing Table: IPv4
Destination Gateway Flags Ref Use Interface
-------------------- -------------------- ----- ----- ---------- ---------
default 192.168.1.1 UG 4 453
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 17 50044 lo0
192.168.1.0 192.168.1.194 U 9 8711 bge0
224.0.0.0 192.168.1.195 U 1 0 bge0[/quote]

After testing multicast binding for a while with:
remote machine: iperf -c 224.2.2.20 -u -T 16 -i 10 -t 1000
linux zone: iperf -s -B 224.2.2.20 -u -i 1

Linux zone seems to be deaf, but has no issue in reverse test. It seems without it Twonky could not register any UPNP client(s). As last effort, I installed twonkymedia server on my 5 years old RH4 linux VM and registered all my UPNP clients with it (by connecting). Then I copied /var/twonkymedia/client.data over to twonkymedia instance in solaris linux zone and now I could see all my devices in Media Receivers list. Although it is static list.

Will it suffice for TwonkyManager to recognize and use a specific configuration for clients on the list when they connect? Based on my test with Samsung 3D TV - it does not (fails on mkv).

Another nasty issue: solaris linux zone does not provide any info in shared network mode (only option for linux zone):
netstat, arp, route - they all return nothing when executed. This is probably the real issue here...

[twonkysol]

After watching how twonkymedia struggles with absent multicast and crippled network layer in solaris lx zone. I have decided to move it on oracle VirtualBox ubuntu/server VM. It was a lot of fun to set it up, considering doing it without GUI (headless), but I was rewarded with flawless TwonkyMedia Server operation. VM has more overhead, but it is negligible.

VirtualBox install is very simple affair on standard opensolaris machine.
Here is a good writeup on installing VirtualBox on specialized opensolaris build of NexentaStor:
http://hype-o-thetic.com/2010/08/06/how ... tor-3-0-4/

Here is VM config:
VBoxManage createvm --name "ubuntu-tw" --ostype Ubuntu --register
VBoxManage modifyvm "ubuntu-tw" --memory 256 --acpi on --boot1 dvd --nic1 bridged
VBoxManage createhd --filename "ubuntu-tw-3g.vdi" --size 3000
VBoxManage storagectl "ubuntu-tw" --name "IDE Controller" --add ide --controller PIIX4
VBoxManage storageattach "ubuntu-tw" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium "ubuntu-tw-3g.vdi"
VBoxManage storageattach "ubuntu-tw" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium /root/ubuntu-10.10-server-i386.iso

************ Edit NIC to well known e1000g in unix world
VBoxManage modifyvm ubuntu-tw --nictype1 82540EM --bridgeadapter1 bge0

************ install guest VM in user mode
VBoxHeadless --startvm "ubuntu-tw"

Connect to it with Windows Remote Desktop - use host IP and perform Ubuntu install with all default options (no additional software).

********** host folder sharing for your ZFS pool (raidz[x]) for share(s)
VBoxManage sharedfolder add ubuntu-tw --name shared -- hostpath /volumes/media --readonly

********** Install VBoxGuestAdditions, so you could access host shared folder without network.
VBoxManage storageattach "ubuntu-tw" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium /root/VBoxGuestAdditions_3.2.8.iso

On Guest:
mount /dev/scd0 /media
And follow the instruction from VB user guide…

***********After you finished with Additions you could automount shared folder:
Add following line before “exit 0” in guest’ /erc/rc.local
mount -t vboxsf shared /volumes/media

*********** starting VM in daemon mode
VBoxManage startvm ubuntu-tw --type headless
or
VBoxHeadless --startvm "ubuntu-tw" &

********** show VM config
VBoxManage showvminfo ubuntu-tw

********** bootstrap VM
nano /etc/rc2.d/S99vbox
#/bin/sh
/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless --startvm "ubuntu-tw" > /dev/null &

chown root:sys S99vbox
chmod 744 S99vbox

*************** Shutdown headless **************
On Guest:
sudo apt-get install acpid

Host:
VBoxManage controlvm ubuntu-tw acpipowerbutton

Automatic VM shutdown on host:
nano /etc/init.d/killvbox
#/bin/sh
/usr/bin/VBoxManage controlvm ubuntu-tw acpipowerbutton > /dev/null

chown root:sys /etc/init.d/killvbox
chmod 744 /etc/init.d/killvbox

ln -s /etc/init.d/killvbox /etc/rc0.d/K00vbox
ln -s /etc/init.d/killvbox /etc/rc1.d/K00vbox
ln -s /etc/init.d/killvbox /etc/rc5.d/K00vbox
ln -s /etc/init.d/killvbox /etc/rc6.d/K00vbox
ln -s /etc/init.d/killvbox /etc/rcS.d/K00vbox

********** get really fancy ********
read on: http://farfewertoes.com/code/vboxcontrol/

Have fun...