5 Any knowledge of how to work with mouse and icons is not required.
7 ---------------------------
8 Install all needed packages
9 ---------------------------
12 <a href="REQUIREMENTS.html"> REQUIREMENTS </a>
14 for a list of required software. You don't need everything listed
15 there. In particular, mp3, ogg vorbis and aac support are all
16 optional. The configure script will detect what is installed on your
17 system and will only try to build those executables that can be built
20 Note that no special library (not even the mp3 decoding library libmad)
21 is needed for para_server if you only want to stream mp3 files.
22 Also, it's fine to use para_server on a box without sound card as
23 para_server only sends the audio stream to connected clients.
25 -------------------------
26 Install server and client
27 -------------------------
29 Install the package on all machines, you'd like this software to run on:
31 (./configure && make) > /dev/null
33 There should be no errors but probably some warnings about missing
34 software packages which usually implies that not all audio formats will
35 be supported. If headers or libs are installed at unusual locations
36 you might need to tell the configure script where to find them. Try
40 to see a list of options. If the paraslash package was compiled
41 successfully, execute as root,
45 -----------------------------------
46 Setup user list and create rsa keys
47 -----------------------------------
49 If you already have your rsa keys, skip this step. If you are new
50 to paraslash, you have to generate an rsa key pair for each user you
51 want to allow to connect. You need at least one user.
53 Let's assume that you'd like to run the server on host server_host
54 as user foo, and that you want to connect from client_host as user bar.
56 As foo@server_host, create ~/.paraslash/server.users by typing the
60 target=~/.paraslash/server.users
61 key=~/.paraslash/key.pub.$user
62 perms=AFS_READ,AFS_WRITE,VSS_READ,VSS_WRITE
64 echo "user $user $key $perms" >> $target
66 This gives "bar" the full privileges.
68 Change to the "bar" account on client_host and generate the key-pair
71 key=~/.paraslash/key.$LOGNAME
73 (umask 077 && openssl genrsa -out $key)
75 Next, extract its public part:
77 pubkey=~/.paraslash/key.pub.$LOGNAME
78 openssl rsa -in $key -pubout -out $pubkey
80 and copy the public key just created to server_host (you may
81 skip this step for a single-user setup, i.e. if foo=bar and
82 server_host=client_host):
84 scp $pubkey foo@server_host:.paraslash/
86 Finally, tell para_client to connect to server_host:
88 conf=~/.paraslash/client.conf
89 echo 'hostname server_host' > $conf
95 Before starting the server make sure you have write permissions to
96 the directory /var/paraslash.
98 sudo chown $LOGNAME /var/paraslash
100 Alternatively, use the --afs_socket Option to specify a different
101 location for the afs command socket.
103 For this first try, we'll use the info loglevel to make the output
104 of para_server more verbose.
108 Now you can use para_client to connect to the server and issue
109 commands. Open a new shell (as "bar" on "client_host" in the above
115 to retrieve the list of available commands and some server info.
116 Don't proceed if this doesn't work.
124 This creates some empty tables under ~/.paraslash/afs_database.
125 You normally don't need to look at these tables, but it's good
126 to know that you can start from scratch with
128 rm -rf ~/.paraslash/afs_database
130 in case something went wrong.
132 Next, you need to fill the audio file table of that database with
133 contents so that para_server knows about your audio files. Choose an
134 absolute path to a directory containing some audio files and add them
135 to the audio file table:
137 para_client add /my/mp3/dir
139 This might take a while, so it is a good idea to start with a directory
140 containing not too many audio files. Note that the table only contains
141 data about the audio files found, not the files themselves.
143 Print a list of all audio files found with
147 ------------------------
148 Start streaming manually
149 ------------------------
154 This starts streaming and dumps some information about the current
155 audio file to stdout.
157 You should now be able to receive the stream and listen to it. If
158 you have mpg123 or xmms handy, execute on client_host
160 mpg123 http://server_host:8000/
162 xmms http://server_host:8000/
164 Paraslash comes with its own receiving and playing software, which
165 will be described next. Try the following on client_host (assuming
166 Linux/ALSA and an mp3 stream):
168 para_recv -l info -r 'http -i server_host' > file.mp3
169 # (interrupt with CTRL+C after a few seconds)
170 ls -l file.mp3 # should not be empty
171 para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav < file.mp3 > file.wav
172 ls -l file.wav # should be much bigger than file.mp3
173 para_write -w alsa < file.wav
175 If this works, proceed. Otherwise double check what is logged by
176 para_server and use the --loglevel option of para_recv, para_filter
177 and para_write to increase verbosity.
179 Next, put the pieces together:
181 para_recv -r 'http -i server_host' \
182 | para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav \
185 ---------------------
186 Configure para_audiod
187 ---------------------
189 In order to automatically start the right decoder at the right time
190 and to offer to the clients some information on the current audio
191 stream and on paraslash's internal state, you should run the local
192 audio daemon, para_audiod, on every machine in your network which is
193 supposed to play the audio stream. Try
197 for help. Usually you have to specify only server_host as the receiver
198 specifier for each supported audio format, like this:
200 para_audiod -l info -r 'mp3:http -i server_host'
202 The preferred way to use para_audiod is to run it once at system start
203 as an unprivileged user. para_audiod needs to create a "well-known"
204 socket for the clients to connect to. The default path for this
207 /var/paraslash/audiod_socket.$HOSTNAME
209 so the /var/paraslash directory should be writable for the user who
212 If you want to change the location of the socket, use the --socket
213 option for para_audiod or the config file ~/.paraslash/audiod.conf
214 to change the default. Note that in this case you'll also have to
215 specify the same value for para_audioc's --socket option.
217 If para_server is playing, you should be able to listen to the audio
218 stream as soon as para_audiod is started. Once it is running, try
222 That should dump some information to stdout. Other commands include
234 para_gui reads the output of "para_audioc stat" and displays that
235 information in a curses window. It also allows you to bind keys to
236 arbitrary commands. There are several flavours of key-bindings:
238 - internal: These are the built-in commands that can not be
239 changed (help, quit, loglevel, version...).
240 - external: Shutdown curses before launching the given command.
241 Useful for starting other ncurses programs from within
242 para_gui, e.g. aumix or dialog scripts. Or, use the mbox
243 output format to write a mailbox containing one mail for each
244 (admissible) file the audio file selector knows about. Then
245 start mutt from within para_gui to browse your collection!
246 - display: Launch the command and display its stdout in
247 para_gui's bottom window.
248 - para: Like display, but start "para_client <specified
249 command>" instead of "<specified command>".
251 This concludes the installation notes. Next thing you might to have a look
252 at is how to use paraslash's audio file selector. See
254 <a href="README.afs.html"> README.afs</a>