vlc/vls/vlms Quickstart

[Bill Eldridge]

VideoLan VLC/VLS/VLMS Quickstart             2002/01/26

0) This is the start of a longer videolan Quickstart,
which will be added to as I get more parts
working. Currently I only have vlms/vlc and
vls/vlc working on one particular MPEG file
on one Linux box.  (i.e. doesn't work over the
network yet, nor with a Windows client, etc., etc.).
Or if someone who knows much more about this stuff is eager,
he/she is welcome to steal this and expand it - please
tell me to step aside.

1) Both the latest stable release and the last
CVS (2002/01/25) of vls/vlc/vlms worked in the end for me.
Run everything as root, at least until you figure it out
and maybe after.  I configured vls with:

./configure --disable-dvd

and vlc with:

./configure --enable-gnome

while vlms doesn't have configure, so I just did "make".

and ran "make", "make install" on them. (you can
do a "make uninstall" and "make clean"  or "make distclean"
as needed)

2) You need mkpassword, which I got by downloading
serveez-0.1.2 from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/serveez/
Trying to compile this failed (didn't have guile),
but I didn't need anything but mkpassword, so
I did a ./configure, cd squeeze-0.1.2/src,
make mkpassword and copied mkpassword to
/usr/local/sbin.  (you can put it anywhere in
your path).  At that point, you just type
"mkpassword" and enter the password you want
to encode.  Cut-and-paste tat that to your vls.cfg

3) My start is simply to stream a file, presentation_short.vob,
that I downloaded from ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/streams.
This is important, because the DTS_Organic.mpeg and
exotic_animal_sex.mpeg files I downloaded from the same site
*DIDN'T* work, nor did my own mpeg files.  Start with something
that works.  The example below has this file in /mpegs/bill -
you most likely will want a different location and first name :)

4) You can compare my vls.cfg with the distribution vls.cfg to get
a better idea of what the section names mean - I wasted a lot of time
by keeping the wrong (original) name in the Inputs section, instead
of what I'd changed it to.  
File without original comments:

#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEGIN "Vls"
LogFile       = "/tmp/vls.log"                # log file
END

BEGIN "Groups"
monitor       = "help|browse|logout"
master        = "help|browse|start|resume|suspend|stop|shutdown|logout"
END

BEGIN "Users"
bill             = "biC4vi88iMezU:master"   # password 'bozo' using
mkpassword
dummy            = "idthWSwmfr8vQ:master"   # password 'idiot' using
mkpassword
END

BEGIN "Telnet"
LocalPort     = "9999"                # where you'll start programs &
shutdown
END

BEGIN "NativeAdmin"
LocalPort     = "9998"                # No clue
END

BEGIN "Inputs"
BillsFiles = "local"                  # One branch of file inputs
(content)
END

BEGIN "BillsFiles"
ConfigPath = "/mpegs/bill"     # Points to directory for input.cfg
END

BEGIN "Channels"
MainChannel     = "network"           # One IP path (transport)
END

BEGIN "MainChannel"       # type == "network"
SrcHost       = "172.30.0.1"
SrcPort       = "4321"
DstHost       = "172.30.0.1"
DstPort       = "1234"
END


5) My /mpegs/bill/input.cfg looks like:

#----------------------------------------------------------------
BEGIN "Input"
FilesPath             = "/mpegs/bill"    # Can be somewhere else
PgrmCount             = "3"
END

BEGIN "1"
  Name                  = "DTS"
  FileName              = "DTS_Organic.mpeg"
  Type                  = "Mpeg1-PS"
END

BEGIN "2"
  Name                  = "present"
  FileName              = "presentation_short.vob"
  Type                  = "Mpeg2-PS"
END

BEGIN "3"
  Name                  = "exotica"
  FileName              = "exotic_animal_sex.mpeg"
  Type                  = "Mpeg2-PS"
END

but I already said that 2 & 3 don't work (tried Mpeg1-PS and
MPeg2-TS and still didn't work), so you can just change PgrmCount
to "1" and omit the 2nd and 3rd examples.

6) First test with vlms - start your client with:

vlc --noaudio udpstream:0 at 172.30.0.1:1234

and then your one-shot server:

vlms -d 172.30.0.1:1234 -a off /mpegs/bill/presentation_short.vob

Your client should suddenly pop up a not-so-terribly
interesting video, but at least it's video.

6) When you go to start programs, you'll be specifying an
a) actual file or media entry, b) where it lies in
your content (directory/tree/filelist) structure, and c) what
networking transport (UDP, multicast, carrier pigeon) it uses.

Make sure you're *NOT* in the vls source directory, or it
will use that vls.cfg instead of /usr/local/etc/videolan/vls/vls.cfg

Without further ado, the following should work:

vlc --noaudio udpstream:0 at 172.30.0.1:1234
vls &
telnet localhost 9999
login: bill
password: bozo

browse

start present MainChannel BillFiles --loop

7) Yep, that's it, so far. If you have good examples to extend this
functionality, please send it my way.  Also tell me if I screwed up
somewhere - this is supposed to take the pain out of getting something
basic working.  There are some patches for multicasting I'll be
trying out soon.
-- 
Bill Eldridge
Radio Free Asia
bill at rfa.org

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