1 Paraslash install notes
2 =======================
4 Any knowledge of how to work with mouse and icons is not required.
6 Install all needed packages
7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8 See README for a list of required software. Don't be afraid of the long
9 list of unusal libraries: Most of them are only needed for optional
10 programs. Autoconf will detect what is installed on your system and
11 will only build those executables that can be built with your setup.
14 Install server and client
15 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16 Install the package on all machines, you'd like this software to run on:
18 (./configure && make) > /dev/null
20 There should be no errors (but probably many warnings about missing
21 software). Then, as root,
26 Setup user list and create rsa keys
27 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
28 If you already have your rsa keys, skip this step. If you are new
29 to paraslash, you have to generate an rsa key pair for each user you
30 want to allow to connect. You need at least one user.
32 Let's assume that you'd like to run the server on host server_host
33 as user foo, and that you want to connect from client_host as user bar.
35 As foo@server_host, create ~/.paraslash/server.users by typing the
38 target=~/.paraslash/server.users
39 key=~/.paraslash/key.pub.bar
40 perms=DB_READ,DB_WRITE,AFS_READ,AFS_WRITE
42 echo "user bar $key $perms" >> $target
44 This gives bar full privileges.
46 Change to the bar account on client_host and generate the key-pair
49 key=~/.paraslash/key.bar
51 (umask 077 && openssl genrsa -out $key)
53 Next, extract its public part:
55 pubkey=~/.paraslash/key.pub.bar
56 openssl rsa -in $key -pubout -out $pubkey
58 and copy the public key just created to server_host (you may
59 skip this step for a single-user setup, i.e. if foo=bar and
60 server_host=client_host):
62 scp $pubkey foo@server_host:.paraslash/
64 Finally, tell para_client to connect to server_host:
66 echo 'hostname server_host' > ~/.paraslash/client.conf
70 For the first try, we'll use the default audio file selector, the
71 "random" selector which chooses audio files from the given directory
72 by random. You have to tell para_server via the --random_dir command
73 line option where this selector should look for audio files.
75 para_server --random_dir=/my/mp3/directory
77 Now you can use para_client to connect to the server and issue
78 commands. Open a new shell (as "bar" on "client_host" in the above
84 to retrieve the list of available commands and some server info.
86 Start streaming manually
87 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
92 This starts streaming and dumps some information on the current song
95 You should now be able to listen to the stream with any player
96 capable of reading from stdin. To check this, try the following
101 para_recv -r 'http -i server_host' | para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav | para_write -w alsa
103 mpg123 http://server_host:8000/
105 xmms http://server_host:8000/
109 para_recv -r 'http -i server_host' | para_filter -f oggdec -f wav | para_write -w alsa
111 If this works, proceed. Otherwise doublecheck what is logged by
112 para_server and use the --loglevel option of para_recv, para_filter
113 to increase verbosity.
115 Choose an audio file selector
116 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
117 paraslash has three different audio file selectors: random (default),
120 The random selector chooses files randomly from the given
123 The playlist selector allows to send a playlist to para_server
124 via the lpl (load playlist) command. para_server will choose
125 files from the loaded playlist in sequential order.
127 The mysql selector stores information about your audio
128 files in a mysql database. It is much more involved than
129 the other two selectors and lets you chose files in many
130 interesting ways. If you like to use the mysql selector,
131 read README.mysql and follow the instructions given there.
132 Return to this document when ready.
134 The current audio file selector can be changed at runtime via
136 para_client chs new_selector
139 Configure para_audiod
140 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
141 In order to automatically start the right decoder at the right time
142 and to offer to the clients some information on the current audio
143 stream and on paraslash's internal state, you should run the local
144 audio daemon, para_audiod, on every machine that is supposed to play
145 the audio stream. Try
149 for help. Usually you have to specify at least server_host as the
150 receiver specifier, like this:
152 -r 'mp3:http -i server_host'
154 The prefered way to use para_audiod is to run it once at system start
155 as an unprivileged user. para_audiod needs to create a "well-known"
156 socket for the clients to connect to. If you want to change the
157 default socket (e.g. because you do not have write access for the
158 directory where the socket resides), use the -s option or the config
159 file to change the default. Note that in this case you'll also have
160 to specify the same value for para_audioc's -s option.
162 If para_server is playing, you should be able to listen to the audio
163 stream as soon as para_audiod is started. Once it is running, try
167 That should dump some information to stdout. Other commands include
178 para_gui reads the output of "para_audioc stat" and displays that
179 information in a curses window. It also allows you to bind keys to
180 arbitrary commands. There are several flavours of key-bindings:
182 o internal: These are the built-in commands that can not be
183 changed (help, quit, loglevel, version...).
185 o external: Shutdown curses before launching the given command.
186 Useful for starting other ncurses programs from within
187 para_gui, e.g. aumix or para_dbadm. Or, use
191 to write a mailbox containing one mail for each file
192 in the mysql database and start mutt from within para_gui
193 to browse your collection!
195 o display: Launch the command and display its stdout in
196 para_gui's bottom window.
198 o para: Like display, but start "para_client <specified
199 command>" instead of "<specified command>".
202 That's all, congratulations. Check out all the other optional gimmics!
206 If something went wrong, look at the output. If that does not give
207 you a clue, use loglevel one (option -l 1 for most commands) to show
208 debugging info. Almost all paraslash executables have a brief online
209 help which is displayed by using the -h switch.
211 Still not working? Mail the author Andre Noll <maan@systemlinux.org>
212 (english, german, or spanish language). Please provide enough info
213 such as the version of paraslash you are using and relevant parts of