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
21 libmad) is needed for para_server if you only want to stream mp3 or
22 wma files. Also, it's fine to use para_server on a box without sound
23 card as para_server only sends the audio stream to connected clients.
25 -------------------------
26 Install server and client
27 -------------------------
29 Install the paraslash package on all machines, you'd like this software
32 (./configure && make) > /dev/null
34 There should be no errors but probably some warnings about missing
35 software packages which usually implies that not all audio formats will
36 be supported. If headers or libs are installed at unusual locations
37 you might need to tell the configure script where to find them. Try
41 to see a list of options. If the paraslash package was compiled
42 successfully, execute as root,
46 -----------------------------------
47 Setup user list and create RSA keys
48 -----------------------------------
50 Note that the RSA keys for paraslash 0.3.x will not work for version
51 0.4.x as the new version requires stronger (2048 bit) keys. If you
52 already have your 2048 bit keys, skip this step. If you are new to
53 paraslash, you have to generate a key pair for each user you want to
54 allow to connect. You need at least one user.
56 Let's assume that you'd like to run the server on host server_host
57 as user foo, and that you want to connect from client_host as user bar.
59 As foo@server_host, create ~/.paraslash/server.users by typing the
63 target=~/.paraslash/server.users
64 key=~/.paraslash/key.pub.$user
65 perms=AFS_READ,AFS_WRITE,VSS_READ,VSS_WRITE
67 echo "user $user $key $perms" >> $target
69 This gives "bar" the full privileges.
71 Change to the "bar" account on client_host and generate the key-pair
74 key=~/.paraslash/key.$LOGNAME
76 (umask 077 && openssl genrsa -out $key 2048)
78 Next, extract its public part:
80 pubkey=~/.paraslash/key.pub.$LOGNAME
81 openssl rsa -in $key -pubout -out $pubkey
83 and copy the public key just created to server_host (you may
84 skip this step for a single-user setup, i.e. if foo=bar and
85 server_host=client_host):
87 scp $pubkey foo@server_host:.paraslash/
89 Finally, tell para_client to connect to server_host:
91 conf=~/.paraslash/client.conf
92 echo 'hostname server_host' > $conf
98 Before starting the server make sure you have write permissions to
99 the directory /var/paraslash.
101 sudo chown $LOGNAME /var/paraslash
103 Alternatively, use the --afs_socket Option to specify a different
104 location for the afs command socket.
106 For this first try, we'll use the info loglevel to make the output
107 of para_server more verbose.
111 Now you can use para_client to connect to the server and issue
112 commands. Open a new shell (as "bar" on "client_host" in the above
118 to retrieve the list of available commands and some server info.
119 Don't proceed if this doesn't work.
127 This creates some empty tables under ~/.paraslash/afs_database-0.4.
128 You normally don't need to look at these tables, but it's good to
129 know that you can start from scratch with
131 rm -rf ~/.paraslash/afs_database-0.4
133 in case something went wrong.
135 Next, you need to fill the audio file table of that database with
136 contents so that para_server knows about your audio files. Choose an
137 absolute path to a directory containing some audio files and add them
138 to the audio file table:
140 para_client add /my/mp3/dir
142 This might take a while, so it is a good idea to start with a directory
143 containing not too many audio files. Note that the table only contains
144 data about the audio files found, not the files themselves.
146 Print a list of all audio files found with
150 ------------------------
151 Start streaming manually
152 ------------------------
155 para_client -- stat -n=2
157 This starts streaming and dumps some information about the current
158 audio file to stdout.
160 You should now be able to receive the stream and listen to it. If
161 you have mpg123 or xmms handy, execute on client_host
163 mpg123 http://server_host:8000/
165 xmms http://server_host:8000/
167 Paraslash comes with its own receiving and playing software, which
168 will be described next. Try the following on client_host (assuming
169 Linux/ALSA and an mp3 stream):
171 para_recv -r 'http -i server_host' > file.mp3
172 # (interrupt with CTRL+C after a few seconds)
173 ls -l file.mp3 # should not be empty
174 para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav < file.mp3 > file.wav
175 ls -l file.wav # should be much bigger than file.mp3
176 para_write -w alsa < file.wav
178 If this works, proceed. Otherwise double check what is logged by
179 para_server and use the --loglevel option of para_recv, para_filter
180 and para_write to increase verbosity.
182 Next, put the pieces together:
184 para_recv -r 'http -i server_host' \
185 | para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav \
188 ---------------------
189 Configure para_audiod
190 ---------------------
192 In order to automatically start the right decoder at the right time
193 and to offer to the clients some information on the current audio
194 stream and on paraslash's internal state, you should run the local
195 audio daemon, para_audiod, on every machine in your network which is
196 supposed to play the audio stream. Try
200 for help. Usually you have to specify only server_host as the receiver
201 specifier for each supported audio format, like this:
203 para_audiod -l info -r 'mp3:http -i server_host'
205 The preferred way to use para_audiod is to run it once at system start
206 as an unprivileged user. para_audiod needs to create a "well-known"
207 socket for the clients to connect to. The default path for this
210 /var/paraslash/audiod_socket.$HOSTNAME
212 so the /var/paraslash directory should be writable for the user who
215 If you want to change the location of the socket, use the --socket
216 option for para_audiod or the config file ~/.paraslash/audiod.conf
217 to change the default. Note that in this case you'll also have to
218 specify the same value for para_audioc's --socket option.
220 If para_server is playing, you should be able to listen to the audio
221 stream as soon as para_audiod is started. Once it is running, try
225 That should dump some information to stdout. Other commands include
237 para_gui reads the output of "para_audioc stat" and displays that
238 information in a curses window. It also allows you to bind keys to
239 arbitrary commands. There are several flavours of key-bindings:
241 - internal: These are the built-in commands that can not be
242 changed (help, quit, loglevel, version...).
243 - external: Shutdown curses before launching the given command.
244 Useful for starting other ncurses programs from within
245 para_gui, e.g. aumix or dialog scripts. Or, use the mbox
246 output format to write a mailbox containing one mail for each
247 (admissible) file the audio file selector knows about. Then
248 start mutt from within para_gui to browse your collection!
249 - display: Launch the command and display its stdout in
250 para_gui's bottom window.
251 - para: Like display, but start "para_client <specified
252 command>" instead of "<specified command>".
254 This concludes the installation notes. Next thing you might to have a look
255 at is how to use paraslash's audio file selector. See
257 <a href="README.afs.html"> README.afs</a>