[paraslash.git] / INSTALL

INSTALL
=======

----
Any knowledge of how to work with mouse and icons is not required.

---------------------------
Install all needed packages
---------------------------

See README for a list of required software. You don't need everything
listed there. In particular, mp3, ogg vorbis and aac support is
optional. Autoconf will detect what is installed on your system
and will only try to build those executables that can be built with
your setup.

Note that no special library (not even the mp3 decodong library libmad)
is needed for para_server if you only want to stream mp3 files.
Also, it's fine to use para_server on a box without sound card as
para_server only sends the audio stream to connected clients.

-------------------------
Install server and client
-------------------------

Install the package on all machines, you'd like this software to run on:

        (./configure && make) > /dev/null

There should be no errors but probably some warnings about missing
software packages which usually implies that not all audio formats will
be supported. If headers or libs are installed at unusual locations
you might need to tell the configure script to find them.  Try

        ./configure --help

to see a list of options. If the paraslash package was compiled
successfully, execute as root,

        make install

-----------------------------------
Setup user list and create rsa keys
-----------------------------------

If you already have your rsa keys, skip this step. If you are new
to paraslash, you have to generate an rsa key pair for each user you
want to allow to connect. You need at least one user.

Let's assume that you'd like to run the server on host server_host
as user foo, and that you want to connect from client_host as user bar.

As foo@server_host, create ~/.paraslash/server.users by typing the
following commands:

        target=~/.paraslash/server.users
        key=~/.paraslash/key.pub.bar
        perms=AFS_READ,AFS_WRITE,VSS_READ,VSS_WRITE
        mkdir -p ~/.paraslash
        echo "user bar $key $perms" >> $target

This gives "bar" the full privileges.

Change to the bar account on client_host and generate the key-pair
with the commands

        key=~/.paraslash/key.bar
        mkdir -p ~/.paraslash
        (umask 077 && openssl genrsa -out $key)

Next, extract its public part:

        pubkey=~/.paraslash/key.pub.bar
        openssl rsa -in $key -pubout -out $pubkey

and copy the public key just created to server_host (you may
skip this step for a single-user setup, i.e. if foo=bar and
server_host=client_host):

        scp $pubkey foo@server_host:.paraslash/

Finally, tell para_client to connect to server_host:

        conf=~/.paraslash/client.conf
        echo 'hostname server_host' > $conf

-----------------
Start para_server
-----------------

For this first try, we'll use a debug level of two to make the
output of para_server more verbose.

        para_server -l 2

Now you can use para_client to connect to the server and issue
commands. Open a new shell (as "bar" on "client_host" in the above
example) and try

        para_client help
        para_client si

to retrieve the list of available commands and some server info.
Don't proceed if this doesn't work.

-------------------
Create the database
-------------------

        para_client init

This creates some empty tables under ~/.paraslash/afs_database.
You normally don't need to look at these tables, but it's good
to know that you can start from scratch with

        rm -rf ~/.paraslash/afs_database

in case something went wrong.

Next, you need to fill the audio file table of that database with
contents so that para_server knows about your audio files.  Choose an
absolute path to a directory containing some audio files and add them
to the audio file table:

        para_client add /my/mp3/dir

This might take a while, so it is a good idea to start with a directory
containing not too many audio files. Note that the table only contains
data about the audio files found, not the files themselves.

Print a list of all audio files found with

        para_client ls

------------------------
Start streaming manually
------------------------

        para play
        para stat 2

This starts streaming and dumps some information about the current
audio file to stdout.

You should now be able to receive the stream and listen to it. If
you have mpg123 or xmms handy, execute on client_host

        mpg123 http://server_host:8000/
or
        xmms http://server_host:8000/

Paraslash comes with its own receiving and playing software, which
will be described next. Try the following on client_host (assuming
Linux/ALSA and an mp3 stream):

        para_recv -l 2 -r 'http -i server_host' > file.mp3
        # (interrupt with CTRL+C after a few seconds)
        ls -l file.mp3 # should not be empty
        para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav < file.mp3 > file.wav
        ls -l file.wav # should be much bigger than file.mp3
        para_write -w alsa < file.wav

If this works, proceed. Otherwise double check what is logged by
para_server and use the --loglevel option of para_recv, para_filter
and para_write to increase verbosity.

Next, put the pieces together:

        para_recv -r 'http -i server_host' \
                | para_filter -f mp3dec -f wav \
                | para_write -w alsa

---------------------
Configure para_audiod
---------------------

In order to automatically start the right decoder at the right time
and to offer to the clients some information on the current audio
stream and on paraslash's internal state, you should run the local
audio daemon, para_audiod, on every machine in your network which is
supposed to play the audio stream. Try

        para_audiod -h

for help. Usually you have to specify only server_host as the receiver
specifier for each supported audio format, like this:

        para_audiod -l 2 -r 'mp3:http -i server_host'

The preferred way to use para_audiod is to run it once at system start
as an unprivileged user. para_audiod needs to create a "well-known"
socket for the clients to connect to. The default path for this
socket is

        /var/paraslash/audiod_socket.$HOSTNAME

so the /var/paraslash directory should be owned by the user who
runs para_audiod.

If you want to change the location of the socket, use the -s option
for para_audiod or the config file ~/.paraslash/audiod.conf to change
the default. Note that in this case you'll also have to specify the
same value for para_audioc's -s option.

If para_server is playing, you should be able to listen to the audio
stream as soon as para_audiod is started.  Once it is running, try

        para_audioc stat

That should dump some information to stdout. Other commands include

        para_audioc off
        para_audioc on
        para_audioc sb
        para_audioc term
        para_audioc cycle

--------------
Start para_gui
--------------

para_gui reads the output of "para_audioc stat" and displays that
information in a curses window. It also allows you to bind keys to
arbitrary commands. There are several flavours of key-bindings:

        - internal: These are the built-in commands that can not be
          changed (help, quit, loglevel, version...).
        - external: Shutdown curses before launching the given command.
          Useful for starting other ncurses programs from within
          para_gui, e.g.  aumix or dialog scripts. Or, use the mbox
          output format to write a mailbox containing one mail for each
          (admissible) file the audio file selector knows about. Then
          start mutt from within para_gui to browse your collection!
        - display: Launch the command and display its stdout in
          para_gui's bottom window.
        - para: Like display, but start "para_client <specified
          command>" instead of "<specified command>".

This concludes the installation notes. Next thing you might to have a look
at is how to use paraslash's audio file selector. See README.afs.