Building a Linux-only Access Grid Node
Contents
1. Use a driver version known to compile with gcc 3 and which works correctly Driver version 1 0 4363 works correctlt when compiled with gcc 3 2 2 Use a non accelerated driver In this case no special compilation is necessary because the driver supplied with XFree86 is used Of course the accelerated OpenGL performance is not then available Note that any of these options only install the accelerated drivers It is still neces sary to configure XFree66 itself 25 Chapter 5 APPENDIX C 26 Chapter 6 APPENDIX D Configuring vic When vic starts up we want it be running with a number of options preset rather than having to manually set them everytime These options include such things as the frame rate and the quality settings They can be set when vic is invoked but it is easier to set them through a resource file in the user s home directory The file is named vic tcl and an example is provided below Note that it contains a Tel procedure user_hook which allows the user to insert Tcl code to be executed whenever vic starts up This mechanism is used to begin transmission of video on the capture machine If there are no capture devices on the display machine then no vic tcl file is required option add Vic maxbw 3072 50 option add Vic bandwidth 2048 50 option add Vic framerate 16 50 option add Vic quality 85 50 option add Vic rtpName University of Halmergurky option add Vic defaultTTL 66 proc user_hook gl2. d CONFIG_IP_MULTICAST y to enable multicast in the kernel This requires that TCP IP networking is enabled CONFIG_INET y To do this enter the Networking options menu and set the TCP IP networking option to Immediately below is the IP multicast ing option which should also be set to p e after saving the new kernel configuration compile the kernel using all of the steps make dep make bzlmage make modules make modules_install Copy the new kernel image at usr src linux arch 1386 boot bzImage to the boot directory Its a good idea to rename it using some convention that allows different kernel versions to be kept in the same directory e g bzim2420a bzim2420b etc In order to use the new kernel either grub or lilo depending on the distribution being used must be configured If using lilo edit the etc lilo conf file to add the new kernel to the choices offered at boot up time The contents of this file will not be enabled i e the new kernel will not appear in the boot menu until the lilo command is run Reboot the system and select the new kernel Chapter 2 INSTALLATION 2 On the display machine configure X Windows with Xinerama for the VGA cards being used The X Windows implementation used in most Linux distributions is named XFree86 The latest possible version should be used at least version 4 0 although a problem with such earlier versions is that recent VGA cards may not be recognised
3. HorizSync 31 5 95 0 VertRefresh 50 0 100 0 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B EndSection Section Monitor Identifier Monitor0 This is the monitor VendorName Mitsubishi ModelName Diamond View DV172 HorizSync 31 0 81 0 VertRefresh 56 0 75 0 EndSection Section Monitor Identifier Monitor1 This is the projector VendorName Hitachi ModelName SX 5500 HorizSync 15 92 VertRefresh 50 120 EndSection Section Device Identifier MGA CARD 1 Driver mtx BusID PCI 1 0 0 EndSection Section Device Identifier Card1 Driver nv VendorName nVidia Corporation BoardName NV17 GeForce4 MX 420 BusID PCI 2 4 0 EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen0 Device MGA CARD 1 Monitor Monitor1 DefaultDepth 24 DefaultFbbpp 32 Option TripleHead SubSection Display Depth 8 Virtual 3840 1024 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Virtual 3840 1024 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen1 Device Card1 Monitor Monitoro DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 EndSubSection SubSection Display 23 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 EndSubSection EndSection Section DRI EndSection Notes 1 http www ibiblio org pub Linux docs HOWTO Xinerama HOWTO 2 http www matrox com mga sup
4. vvd conf for display machine SLAVE video someplace com 2929 SLAVE audio someplace com 2929 VID_vic 1 MUD_tkmoo 1 End of vvd conf e Video machine vvd conf for video machine MASTER display someplace com VID_vic 3 15 Chapter 3 APPENDIX A End of vvd conf e Audio machine f vvd conf for audio machine MASTER display someplace com AUD rat 1 End of vvd conf 2 Two machine node with the display machine running vic rat and tkMOO lite The display machine will act as the MASTER machine for the video machine which has 4 camera inputs e Display machine vvd conf for display machine SLAVE video someplace com 2929 VID_vic 1 AUD rat 1 MUD tkmoo 1 End of vvd conf e Video machine f vvd conf for video machine MASTER displav someplace com VID vic 4 End of vvd conf 3 Single machine node with the displav machine running three cameras rat and tkMOO lite e Display machine vvd conf for display machine VID_vic 3 AUD rat 1 MUD_tkmoo 1 End of vvd conf 16 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B XF86Config file examples for Xinerama Below are three examples of XF86Config files for different vga drivers The first of these uses the accelerated OpenGL drivers from nVidia The second example is for a Matrox G200 a single PCI card with four vga outputs Notice that within each example a single projector definition Section Monitor actually can be used in multiple Screen definitions whenever the same type
5. Identifier Card1 Driver mga VendorName Matrox BoardName MGA G200 AGP BusID PCI 3 4 0 EndSection Section Device Option MGASDRAM True Option SWcursor True Identifier Card2 20 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B Driver mga VendorName Matrox BoardName MGA G200 AGP BusID PCI 3 8 0 EndSection Section Device Option MGASDRAM True Option SWcursor True Identifier Card3 Driver mga VendorName Matrox BoardName MGA G200 AGP BusID PCI 3 12 0 EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen0 Device Cardo Monitor Monitor1 DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen1 Device Cardi Monitor Monitor1 DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen2 Device Card2 Monitor Monitor1 DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen3 Device Card3 21 Chapter 4 APP
6. attribute denotes whether the machine is a master or slave machine The master machine is the one from which the node is navigated via browser to virtual meeting rooms This is almost al ways the display machine Other machines in the node are slave ma chines If the machine is a master it lists any slaves with their DNS names and the port number for communication Any slave machine similarly lists master machines from which they will take instruction The applications attribute merely lists the names of any applications to be started when a new virtual venue room is entered It also gives the number of instances of each application to run Lets consider some example vvd config files for a three machine AG node in which the display machine is used to navigate a virtual venue site and control the other two machines in the node e The display machine named ag display will run a single instance of vic to display incoming video It will also run a single instance of the MUD application tkMOO lite It will send venue information to the machines ag video and ag audio Its vvd config file will be start of vvd config SLAVE ag video somesite org 2929 SLAVE ag audio somesite org 2929 11 Chapter 2 INSTALLATION 12 VID_vic 1 AUD rat 0 MUD tkmoo 1 f end of vvd config Lines beginning with a symbol are ignored SLAVE machines ag video and ag audio are communicated with at port 2929 On this machine one instance of each o
7. version 1 4 log in as user ag and run the Gnome Control Center gnomecc program In its Session Properties amp Startup section select the Startup Programs tab and press the Add button which will bring up an Add Startup Program widget Use the widget s Browse facility to find usr local ag bin vvd and click its OK button then the Control Center s OK button This should be done for all machines which may constitute the node display video audio others b Install vic Notes A Chapter 2 INSTALLATION The vic program may be compiled and installed from source code but it is most easily installed using a prebuilt package If your package does not install the vic binary in usr local ag bin then a symbolic link to it will be required since that is where vvd will expect it to be e g if it had been installed in usr bin create the link with In s usr bin vic usr local ag bin vic On the video capture machine at least video device nodes must exist for each capture device If there are three capture devices then there must exist dev video0 dev video1 and dev video2 device files If they don t already exist they must be created with the mknod com mand using major number 64 and minor numbers 0 1 2 and 3 Con sult the mknod manpage for details This step is performed automati cally if installing the Slackware vic package from APAG An additional feature of the vic installed by this package is that it has bee
8. The version can be checked by running the command XFree86 version The aim in this section is to produce a configuration file which will start XFree86 in a way such that three projected VGA outputs and a single VGA output for the operators monitor all share the same desktop Within the XFree86 system a facility named Xinerama is used to enable an arbitrary number in our case four of VGA outputs to share a common desktop The configuration file to be created is etc X11 XF86Config and if such a file already exists it should be renamed to something else e g XF86Config old Warning If the file etc X11 XF86Config 4 exists it should also be re named or deleted Itis an alternate configuration file which will not be used in this setup but will confuse the setup if it remains If there is access to an existing XF86Config file suitable for your system i e from another node which uses the same vga cards monitor and projectors just copy that XF86Config file into etc X11 and the following steps will be unnecessary Some XF86Config files for various hardware are given in Appendix B Otherwise the following procedure explains how to create a suitable XF86Config file The procedure described here assumes the use of an nVidia based dual out put capable AGP card and two single output PCI cards The setup will ar range the two outputs from the AGP card to fill the left and middle tiles of the projected output One of the PCI card outputs will
9. a virtual venue Hardware Considerations Some hardware considerations are dealt with in this section namely choice of motherboard vga cards audio cards The following issues are worth considering when purchasing equipment 1 2 MOTHERBOARDS The more available PCI slots the better especially for single machine nodes If using a newer high performance VGA card the motherboard should have appropriate AGP performance to make use of it Dual processor motherboards are preferred but not essential P4 processors are only available for dual operation in the Xeon configuration Newer dual Xeon motherboards often have a mixture of 32bit and 64bit PCI slots While some 64bit slots can accomodate 32 bit cards the results may not be pre dictable and a motherboard with all 32bit PCI slots is recommended The only dual Xeon motherboard with a reasonable number of 32bit PCI slots five currently known to be available is the Tyan Tiger i7505 S2668 A number of single P4 processor motherboards exist with six available 32bit PCI slots VGA CARDS Chapter 2 INSTALLATION Four VGA outputs are required to achieve the single control monitor and three projected outputs of a standard Access Grid node While this can be achieved with a single Matrox G200 PCI card its performance is limited by the bandwidth of the PCI bus itself The table below gives the bandwidth of various bus types showing why it is preferable to use the AGP slot as m
10. deployment of new services The typical Access Grid node built to the recipe provided by the Access Grid team at Argonne National Laboratory uses a mixture of Windows and Linux machines An excellent AGDP Guide Building an Access Grid Node provides the information required to build such a system Probably all of the information in that Guide that doesn t relate to actual node machines also applies to the system decribed here For instance room construction will not depend on the operating system s being used A particular benefit of using this method is its scalability Exactly the same method of construction may be used to implement nodes comprising any number of machines The normal distinction between display video and audio machines is largely unimportant since each machine participating in a node is merely a provider of arbitrary services in particular the video audio and MUD functions used in an AG node All these functions can be performed on a single machine or shared between a number of machines built in the same way An issue arising from this method of construction is that of applications designed particularly for a non Linux environment in particular Distributed PowerPoint and Gentner Clear One control software In the short term our solution has been to have a separate Windows machine available to run these applications In prac tice this works very well For large events in particular the functions of presenta tion and
11. done by hand mkdir home ag tkMOO lite then copy the plugins direc tory from the source code directory into the home ag tkMOO lite directory Make sure that home ag tkMOO lite plugins contains the moo_control tcl plugin file Installation is now complete Log into the display machine and use the browser to enter meetings at a virtual venue OE a ID http www alsa project org http www opensound com http www tyan com http www slackware com http www nvidia com view asp 10 linux_display_ia32_1 0 4349 13 Chapter 2 INSTALLATION 6 http www opensound com 7 http www alsa project org 8 http www accessgrid org agdp guide building an access grid node 2 4 5 html audio config html 9 http www ap accessgrid org software 14 Chapter 3 APPENDIX A Format of the vvd config configuration file The configuration file etc vvd vvd config is read when vvd starts running It consists of a number of single line statements Blank lines or lines beginning with a are ignored The configuration file has two sections a machines section and an applications section The machines section defines the names of other ma chines with which vvd will interact The applications section defines the names and number of instances of any applications to be run A line in the machines section begins with either of the keywords MASTER or SLAVE It is followed by an symbol then by the name of a machine
12. install snd card ens1371 alsactl restore Now cd into the previously unpacked libs directory and run the commands configure then make then make install Repeat this for the utils directory run configure then make then make install The ALSA installation should now be complete Test it by running the com mand alsamixer and set levels of all the available channels to something reasonable say 60 100 Press the Esc key to exit the program and run als actl store to save the alsamixer settings 4 Create a user named ag on all machines O1 Chapter 2 INSTALLATION Before creating the user ag first create a distinct ag group as well using the command as root groupadd g 59999 ag where 59999 is the numerical identifier of the group and ag is its name The group id number should not be already assigned This is unlikely but can be checked in etc groups The actual value of the group number is not important only that it doesn t duplicate an existing group number To create the user ag run the command adduser which will prompt for a login name answer ag user id answer accept the default initial group answer ag additional groups answer users home directory answer default shell answer default and expiry date answer default After confirmation to proceed with creating the new account a password will be requested Assuming the ag account will be a generic account for op eration of the node by a range of users
13. node operation are best separated anyway The Genter control software is rarely used the settings rarely being changed after optimal settings have been made In the longer term it is expected that versions these applications will run in a Linux environment 1 http www accessgrid org 2 http www accessgrid org agdp documentation index html Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 INSTALLATION This chapter begins with an overview of the installation process and some behind the scenes explanation of how the Linux only AG node works This is followed by some instructions for the impatient a very brief pointwise list of the steps necessary for a Linux only installation After a section containing some general observations about hardware selection a detailed section on the software instal lation process is presented Overview This overview explains some of the differences between a Linux only AG node installation and the standard AG node software provided by ANL It includes some of the behind the scenes details of how a Linux only AG node works De spite these differences the actual operation of a Linux only AG node is the same All the main tools used in an all Linux Access Grid node vic rat tkMOO lite are the same as in a conventional node except that Windows versions of any of these applications are not required In fact none of the ANL installation system is used standalone versions of all software will be installed The ma
14. unique across all the Monitor sections which are in the configuration file The HorizSync and VertRefresh entries can be obtained from the monitor s user manual or they may be marked on the monitor or projector itself A typical Monitor section would be Section Monitor Identifier Monitor0 VendorName API ModelName acer FP751 HorizSync 31 0 81 0 VertRefresh 56 0 75 0 EndSection Although a single Monitor definition may be reused in different Screen sections e g the three projectors could use the same Monitor section it is probably less confusing to define a separate section for each monitor and projector being used Thus in a system with 3 projectors and one monitor there should be four Monitor sections with identifiers Monitor0 Monitor1 Monitor2 and Monitor3 Just cut paste edit to create them b Section Device The Device sections will have already generated when the XFree86 configure command was run Three Device definitions should have been created one for the dual output AGP vga card and two for the single output PCI cards The only change required is to enable the dual output function in the AGP card as it is not enabled by default First identify the Device section for the AGP card This can be ascertained from the BoardName and BusID entries of the Device sections Each Device section contains a number of entries beginning with a Find the entries for TwinView Second Monitor
15. Building a Linux only Access Grid Node Christoph Willing University of Sydney chris vislab usyd edu au Building a Linux only Access Grid Node by Christoph Willing Copyright O 2001 2003 by Christoph Willing Please freely copy and distribute give away this document in any format It s requested that corrections and or comments be forwarded to the document maintainer You may create a derivative work and distribute it provided that you 1 Send your derivative work in the most suitable format such as DocBook to the AGDP Access Grid Documentation Project or the like for posting on the Internet If not the AGDP then let the AGDP know where it is available 2 License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used 3 Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors If you re considering making a derived work other than a translation it s requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer Itis requested that corrections and or comments be forwarded to the document maintainer Chris Willing chris vislab usyd edu au Revision History Revision 1 0 10 June 2003 Initial publication on AGDP Table of Contents 1 INTRODUETION i i Re Gad asa a Ga Ga ta a rt 1 elitistas 1 QE INSTALLATION i iebes a aa ta a died fi a ottika a da 3 DIS ES A a A EA 3 Instructions for the Impatient ss 4 Hardwa
16. ENDIX B 22 aonitor Monitor0 DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection 3 XF86Config file for a Matrox Parhelia AGP card with three vga outputs combined with a PNY brand GeForce4 MX 420 single output PCI card Section ServerLayout Identifier Quad Layout Option Xinerama True Screen 0 Screen Screen 1 Screeni RightOf Screen InputDevice Mousel CorePointer InputDevice Keyboard1 CoreKevboard EndSection Section Files RgbPath usr X11R6 lib X11 rgb FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts local FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts misc FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts 75dpi unscaled FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Typel FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Speedo FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts 75dpi EndSection Section Module Load dbe SubSection extmod Option omit xfree86 dga EndSubSection Load typel Load freetype EndSection Section InputDevice Identifier Keyboard1 Driver Keyboard Option AutoRepeat 500 30 Option XkbRules xfree86 Option XkbModel pc101 Option XkbLayout us Option XkbCompat EndSection Section InputDevice Identifier Mousel Driver mouse Option Protocol PS 2 Option Device dev mouse EndSection Section Monitor Identifier My Monitor
17. Grid installations Both ALSA and commercial OSS drivers are available for this card Software Installation This section gives detailed instructions for installing the required software in a Linux only Access Grid node This section expands on all the steps listed in the Overview section However de tailed instructions for tasks like installing an operating system are really beyond this HOWTO Therefore this section is mainly concerned with the steps which make an otherwise normal Linux machine s into an Access Grid node Chapter 2 INSTALLATION 1 Install operating system For all machines participating in the Access Grid node an operating system must first be installed Any Linux distribution may be used The all Linux Access Grid system was developed using the Slackware distribution ver sion 8 1 but it is known to have been implemented using Red Hat and Mandrake distributions too It is a good idea but not essential to specify a journalling file system during the installation We prefer the XES file system but ext3 reiserfs or jfs should work well too After the base distribution has been installed it may be a good idea to re compile the kernel Although the stock kernels included with many Linux distributions will work quite well recompilation will ensure the availabil ity of video audio and networking features Recompilation also offers the opportunity to optimize the kernel for the CPU type being used as well as cre
18. HorizSync Sec ondMonitorVertRefresh and MetaModes They should be enabled by removing the leading character and edited to be Option TwinView True Option SecondMonitorHorizSync 31 0 81 0 Option SecondMonitorVertRefresh 56 0 75 0 Option MetaModes 1280x1024 1280x1024 The actual values should reflect the hardware being used Chapter 2 INSTALLATION c Section Screen In this section previously defined Device and Monitor sections are combined and display resolutions are set There should be three Screen definitions identified as Screen0 Screen1 and Screen2 Each should include a Device and Monitor entry as well as a number of Display subsections Delete all Display subsections leaving only those for Depths of 8 and 24 In the remaining subsections with Depth 8 and 24 add the following line Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 The 1280x1024 mode should not be included here if the monitor or projectors being used don t support that resolution Before the first Display Subsection add the line DefaultDepth 24 An example of one of the three completed Screen sections is shown here Section Screen Identifier Screen0 Device Cardo Monitor Monitoro DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSectio
19. IVA TNT2 Model 64 Model 64 Pro BusID PCI 2 4 0 EndSection Section Device Identifier Card2 Driver nvidia VendorName nVidia Corporation BoardName NV5M64 RIVA TNT2 Model 64 Model 64 Pro BusID PCI 2 6 0 EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen0 Device Cardo Monitor Monitor1 DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen1 Device Cardi Monitor Monitor1 DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen2 Device Card2 Monitor Monitoro DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display Depth 8 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection SubSection Display Depth 24 Modes 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480 EndSubSection EndSection 2 XF86Config file for a single Matrox G200 multimonitor card This card has four vga outputs To enable the Xinerama facility the Matrox driver for Linux should be installed first Section ServerLayout Identifier XFree86 Configured Option Xinerama True Screen 0 Screen0 00 Screen 1 Screeni RightOf Sc
20. In the case of a SLAVE line the machine name is followed by a symbol and a port number when communicating with the slave machine The port number normally used is 2929 There should be no spaces within an entry Examples of suitable SLAVE and MASTER lines are SLAVE video somewhere com 2929 MASTER display somewhere com Note that it is quite acceptable though probably unusual for a machine to be configured as both a SLAVE and a MASTER It is also acceptable to have nei ther SLAVE nor MASTER entry in fact that is how a single machine AG node is configured A line in the applications sections begins with one of the keywords VID_vic AUD rat or MUD_tkmoo It is followed by an symbol and then by the number of instances of the application to run There should be no spaces within an entry An example applications entry is VID_vic 1 The above line instructs that 1 instance of vic be run as the video application Examples of vvd config files Below are example vvd conf files in each machine of AG nodes with varying numbers of machines namely a 3 machine node a 2 machine node and a single machine node Note that any number of machines may be part of a node 1 Three machine node with the display machine running vic and tkMOO lite The display machine will act as the MASTER machine for the video and audio SLAVE machines The video machine has 3 camera inputs while the audio machine has 1 audio card e Display machine
21. an easy to remember low security password is probably OK although local institutional policies may need to be observed When the account for ag has been created test it by logging out and logging in again as the user ag Don t forget to log out and log in again as root before going on to the next step Install and configure vic rat tkMOO lite and vod The core programs which make the system an Access Grid node are now ready to be installed and configured They may be downloaded from the Asia Pacific Access Grid or from their originating sites a Install vvd The Virtual Venues Daemon vvd package is really a small collection of Tel Tk scripts which coordinates the actions of all the other the soft ware when navigating through an Access Grid virtual venue with a web browser Install the vvd package on all machines which consti tute the AG node being built If installing by hand these script should be put in usr local ag bin package based installations Slackware tgz package RedHat rpm etc should put them there automatically Whatever the installation method some post installation configura tion is required This involves editing the etc vvd vvd config file which is created when vvd is installed on each machine The format of the vvd conf file is the same for all machines in the node There are two attributes defined in a vvd config file namely the mas ter slave and applications attributes The master slave
22. ating and setting certain system files necessary for the later compilation of the ALSA audio drivers To perform the recompilation it is necessary to have installed development tools and the kernel source code as part of the initial installation procedure First login as root Then e change directory to where the kernel source is located usually in usr sre linux e configure the kernel using any of the commands make configure make menuconfigure or make xconfigure The following descriptions of where particular kernel or module options are set assumes that the make menu configure command is being used Apart from CPU options CPU type and SMP operation which don t necessarily need to be changed the op tions which need to be set are a CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV m to enable video as a module This is done by setting the Video For Linux option in the Multimedia devices menu to M b CONFIG_VIDEO_BT848 m to enable BT848 video capture devices Hauppauge and many other video cards Do this by entering the Video For Linux subdirectory of the Multimedia devices menu Now set the BT848 Video For Linux option to M If you know that your capture card requires some other driver which appears there set it to M instead CONFIG_SOUND m to enable sound as a module In the Sound menu set Sound card support to M If installing the ALSA project sound drivers as described later in this HOWTO it is important to disable all other sound options
23. b ModulePath usr X11R6 lib modules FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts misc FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Speedo FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Typel FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts CID FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts 75dpi FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts 100dpi EndSection Section Module Load record Load extmod Load dbe Load dri Load xtrap Load glx Load typel Load speedo EndSection Section InputDevice Identifier Keyboard0 Driver keyboard 17 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B 18 EndSection Section InputDevice Identifier Mouse0 Driver mouse Option Protocol Option Device EndSection nn auto dev mouse Section Monitor Identifier Monitor This is the monitor VendorName Mitsubishi ModelName Diamond View DV172 HorizSync 31 0 81 0 VertRefresh 56 0 75 0 EndSection Section Monitor Identifier Monitor1 This is the projector VendorName Hitachi ModelName SX 5500 HorizSync 15 92 VertRefresh 50 120 EndSection Section Device Option TwinView Option SecondMonitorHorizSync 31 0 81 0 Option SecondMonitorVertRefresh 56 0 75 0 Option MetaModes 1280x1024 1280x1024 Identifier Card0 Driver nvidia VendorName nVidia Corporation BoardName NV18GL Quadro4 380 XGL BusID PCI 1 0 0 EndSection Section Device Identifier Card1 Driver nvidia VendorName nVidia Corporation BoardName NV5M64 R
24. cess Grid Documentation Project Notes http www ap accessgrid org http www ibiblio org pub Linux docs HOWTO Xinerama HOWTO http http www accessgrid org agdp 29 Chapter 7 APPENDIX E 30
25. correctiv To test the configura tion run the command startx It is possible that some of the projected or monitor tiles are not in the correct order In this case edit the XF86Config file until it is correct perhaps first saving a copv The startx command will have to be run again after each change to the configuration file Now that the XF86Config file is correct we can set XFree86 to be run automaticallv when the svstem boots up so that startx doesn t have to be run each time To do this edit the etc inittab file Look for an entrv which includes the term initdefault For Slackware systems change it to be id 4 initdefault while for RedHat systems change it to id 5 initdefault Now whenever the system boots it will start with the AG display running correctly For all machines in the node other than the display machine i e video and audio machines the tiled display is not required Just install XFree86 as per the instructions supplied with the Linux distribution being used Typically their vga outputs are input to a KVM switcher as is done in a standard AG node On the audio machine install sound driver This involves installation of either the OSS commercial drivers from 4Front Technologies or the ALSA project drivers which is described below In structions to use the OSS commercial drivers are available from the AG Doc umentation Project The reason that installation of either of these drivers is nece
26. f vic and tkMOO lite will be started e The video machine named ag video will run three instances of vic to capture and transmit video from three cameras It will ac cept and act on venue information from the machine ag display Its vvd config file will be start of vvd config MASTER ag display somesite org 2929 VID_vic 3 AUD_rat 0 MUD_tkmoo 0 end of vvd config e The audio machine named ag audio will run a single instance of rat to capture and transmit audio It will accept and act on venue information from the machine ag display Its vvd config file will be start of vvd config MASTER ag display somesite org 2929 VID_vic 0 AUD rat 1 MUD_tkmoo 0 end of vvd config From the above it should be clear that it is trivial to create a single machine AG node hardware issues permitting by appropriate con figuration via the vvd config file e In the case of a single machine node there are no slaves to control We just run some instances of vic depending on how many capture cards could be installed and single instances of rat and tkMOO lite The vvd config file will be start of vvd config for single machine node VID_vic 3 AUD rat 1 MUD_tkmoo 1 end of vvd config Starting vod For vvd to do its work it needs to be running whenever the user ag is logged in Most desktop managers have some mechanism to achieve this automatically without explicit user intervention at login With the Gnome desktop manager
27. fill the right tile of the projected output while the second PCI card will provide the output for the operator monitor An advantage of using the nVidia based VGA cards is their excellent hard ware accelerated performance for graphics applications The accelerated performance is not available with the default driver provided with XFree86 so an accelerated driver must be downloaded and installed before creating the XF86Config file for XFree86 This is not essential if accelerated graphics performance is not required but is quite simple to do Note all the commands in this section should be run as the root user a Download the most recent Linux drivers currently 1 0 4349 from nVidia The files to download are the NVIDIA Linux x86 1 0 4349 run installation file and a README txt file b Change directory to the location into which the files were downloaded The README file there has detailed installation instructions More briefly exit out of X if it is running using the telinit 3 command and then as root run the command sh NVIDIA Linux x86 1 0 4349 run n which will unpack build and install the driver Caution Very new Linux distributions using the gcc 3 x compiler may produce a faulty binary at this step See Appendix C for alternative methods A basic XF86Config configuration file is now made using the XFree86 configure command Remember that this should be run as the root user and that X should not be running Running t
28. hich the venue information should be sent On these other machines vvd receives the information and starts up any applications listed in their own configuration file Typically the video machine would run three instances of vic while the audio machine would run a single instance of rat Note that the classical distribution of work between three machines as described above display video audio machines is easily changed merely by changing the vvd conf configuration file For instance a single machine configuration would hardware constraints permitting start 1 instance of tkMOO lite 3 of vic and 1 of rat In this case there is no need to pass room information to any other machines In a 2 machine system where the audio is performed on the display machine the vvd conf for the display machine would start 1 instance of tkMOO lite 1 of vic and 1 of rat then pass the room information to the second machine listed in vvd conf The second machine would start 3 instances of vic The format of the vvd conf file is detailed in Appendix A The fact that an all Linux system can be used for nodes comprising any number of machines means that no rigid delineation between display video and au dio machines exists However for ease of explanation the instructions presented here will implement a classical three machine system in which one machine will perform the display function another the video capture function the third the audio function
29. his command creates a file root XF86Config new which will be edited to produce a working config uration file for the display machine Change directory to etc X11 and copy Chapter 2 INSTALLATION root XF86Config new to etc X11 XF86Config note that the new suffix is dropped A general description of the XF86Config file format is available from the its man page by running man XF86Config from which we see that Mon itor definitions are combined with Device vga card definitions to pro duce Screen output definitions These Screen definitions are used in a ServerLayout section in which the positions of the output screens relative to each other are specified All definitions are declared between Section and EndSection statements i e a monitor definition appears between the lines Section Monitor and EndSection Any number of definitions may appear distinguished by an Identifier statement within each definition The various definitions are created in the XF86Config file by using the fol lowing steps a Section Monitor If projectors and monitors are connected directly to the vga cards there is a good chance that the Monitor sections are already complete Many modern projectors and monitors are able to provide the nec essary information to the system when XFree86 configure is run The important entries in the Monitor section are those of HorizSync VertRe fresh and Identifier The Identifier entry should be
30. jor differ ence between a conventional node and the all Linux node is the Virtual Venues Daemon vvd It is the only new software application in the installation and is used to synchronise operation of all the other tools when navigating about a vir tual meeting venue It replaces a conventional node s CORBA based mechanism to perform the synchronisation function It is assumed that Tcl Tk is already in stalled this is required by both vvd and tkMOO lite The vvd daemon works as follows When a virtual venue room is selected with a browser usually running on the display machine information about that room is returned by the virtual venue server to the browser in the form of a session description and a MUD room change command This information is tagged by the server with particular mime types namely application x ag sdp and application x ag mud The browser passes this information to vvd using special mimetype handlers The vvd daemon uses this information to start and stop the various tools in accordance with a predefined configuration The configuration is specified in a configuration file etc vvd vvd conf This configuration file lists amongst other things how many instances of any application should be run using the downloaded venue information as startup parameters Typically a display machine will run a single instance of vic and a single instance of tkMOO lite The configuration file also lists any other machines in the node to w
31. n EndSection The three Screen sections should now describe the four outputs re quired namely one Screen describing the dual ouput AGP vga card and its projectors another Screen describing one PCI vga card and its projector and the third Screen describing the second PCI card and its monitor d Section ServerLayout In this section the positions of the three Screens will be set relative to each other The current Screen entries in the ServerLayout should be deleted replaced by new entries beginning with the Screen describ ing the dual output AGP card say Screen0 This is followed by an entry for the PCI card driving a projector say Screenl giving its posi tion relative to Screen 0 by using any of the terms RightOf LeftOf Above or Below The same is done for Screen so that given we want to position all the outputs in a horizontal row with the operator monitor on the right hand side of the desktop the Screen entries in the ServerLayout section will look like Screen 0 Screen0 Screen 1 Screen RightOf Screen0 Screen 2 Screen RightOf Screen Lastly we add an entry to enable the Xinerama option which allows the defined layout of Screens to occupy a single desktop That line is Option Xinerama True An alternative to enabling the Xinerama option in the ServerLayout section is to include it in a ServerFlags section Chapter 2 INSTALLATION 10 QI At this stage XFree86 should be configured
32. n modified to include support for USB cameras Logitech Pro4000 Automatic transmission including frame rate and PAL NTSC set ting is controlled by the vic tcl startup file in ag s home directory An example startup file is given in Appendix D Install rat The audio tool rat may be installed by compiling source code or by using a prebuilt package As for vic if the rat executable is not installed into usr local ag bin then a symbolic link to that location must be created Install tkMOO lite To make tkMOO lite operate in an Access Grid environment it re quires the moo_control tcl plugin which enables tkMOO Iite to respond change rooms to another program in this case vvd If download ing from the tkMOO lite web site be sure to find the plugin there as well If using the version from the APAG web site it is already included In either case unpack the tarball and read the README file which gives instructions about modifying the Makefile to suit the local environment Edit the Makefile to reflect the version of the Tk shell wish being used as well as the location for the executable i e usr local ag bin Then as root execute the Makefile with make install If you ve downloaded tkMOO lite from the APAG site now run the command make installuser This will create a tkMOO lite di rectory in ag s home directory and install a plugins directory there which includes the moo_control tcl file Otherwise this must be
33. obal inputPort inputType fps videoDevice videoDeviceList set video_xmit 0 after 200 toggle_window menu set inputPort Compositel menu cb frame right fps scale set 24 set inputType pal set brightness 100 set contrast 100 set note option get note Vic if note update note note else switch videoDevice o3 update note Physics PRESENTER set video_xmit 0 02 update_note Physics AUDIENCE set video_xmit 1 ol update note Physics MAIN set video_xmit 1 _o0 update_note Physics X11 set video_xmit 0 if video_xmit gt 0 transmitButton invoke toggle_window menu 27 Chapter 6 APPENDIX D 28 Chapter 7 APPENDIX E Resources 1 Software for construction of a Linux only Access Grid node is available at the Asia Pacific Access Grid APAG web site In addition Table 1 lists the originating sites of all the software Table 7 1 Software downloads Name APAG download Original site vvd vvd2 vvd2 from APAG vic vic2 vic2 from UCL rat ratz rat from UCL tkMOO lite tkMOO lite2 tkMOO lite2 from AWNS 2 Xinerama is the XFree86 facility which allows multiple vga card outputs to be contained within a single desktop The Linux Xinerama HOWTO has general instructions on Xinerama configuration 3 Instructions for all other aspects of Access Grid node construction are avail able from the Ac
34. of projector is being used The third example shows how a Matrox Parhelia with 3 vga outputs can be combined with a single output nVidia based PCI card More general information on Xinerama is available in the Linux Xinerama HOWTO All these examples will provide layouts in which the three leftmost vga outputs are to be projected while the rightmost output is intended for the operator s mon itor They could reversed by replacing the RightOf keyword in the ServerLay out Sections with the keyword LeftOf All the screen sizes are based on single 1280x1024 rasters giving a 3840x1024 projected area and a 1280x1024 monitor area If your projectors only support 1024x768 then the Modes lines in each Screen will need to be changed If basing a real system on these examples remember to replace the Monitor Hor izontal and Vertical sync entries with those matching the projectors and monitor actually being used 1 XF86Config file for Leadtek Quadro4 380XGL dual output AGP card and two generic RIVA TNT2 single output PCI cards This configuration uses nVidia s accelerated OpenGL driver Driver nvidia in the Device sections Section ServerLayout Identifier XFree86 Configured Screen 0 Screen0 00 Screen 1 Screeni RightOf Screen0 Screen 2 Screen2 RightOf Screen1 InputDevice Mouse0 CorePointer InputDevice Keyboard CoreKevboard Option Xinerama True EndSection Section Files RgbPath usr X11R6 lib X11 rg
35. port drivers latest home cfm 24 Chapter 5 APPENDIX C Accelerated nVidia drivers with gcc3 Some recent accelerated nVidia graphics drivers may compile with inconsistent results At least version 1 0 4349 is known to have problems and should be avoided At the time of writing version 1 0 4363 is the newest and works well with gcc 3 2 2 If a personally compiled driver does not run as expected possible workarounds include Use a precompiled version of the driver If you install without the n option i e sh NVIDIA Linux x86 1 0 4349 run then the installation program will at tempt to download and install a precompiled driver from the nVidia download site Use an earlier version of gcc one of the 2 x series This will require installation of the older version of gcc Use an earlier version of the nVidia driver A previous release of nVidia s ac celerated driver is 1 0 4149 which appears to compile correctly with version 3 releases of gcc version 2 releases too The nVidia drivers up to and including 1 0 4149 use a different installation method when compiling from source code Two gzipped tar files NVIDIA_kernel 1 0 4149 tar gz and NVIDIA_GLX 1 0 4149 tar gz should be downloaded and unpacked somewhere convenient e g tmp Change to console mode telinit 3 and as root cd into the NVIDIA_kernel 1 0 4149 directory and run the command make install Now cd into the NVIDIA_GLX 1 0 4149 directory and run the command make install
36. re Considerations ss 4 Software Installation a ita 5 3 APPENDODCGA TAR entleeren a o e a a aes eseo 15 Format of the vvd config configuration file 15 Examples of vvd config files 15 AO APPENDIX Bici Renee en rie in nt 17 XF86Config file examples for Xinerama senser 17 D APPENDIX Enterrement an A entres ie este 25 Accelerated nVidia drivers with 83 memnmnnennznnnrenzznntznznennenzi 25 6 APPENDIX Di sinne aioa i a ds s 27 COM SUTIN Vic alitas 27 Fo APPENDIX Ernie ids 29 RESOULCES i a ra a GAIA taa BA A Ea du 29 iii iv Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Notes This document describes how to construct an Access Grid node using only the Linux operating system This construction method has been used for two sepa rate nodes at the University of Sydney and have now been in operation for nearly two years The first of these a three machine node was used for our participation in the SCGlobal 2001 event A single machine version was built soon after This method of construction has since been successfully implemented by another six sites throughout Australia The method of construction described here relates to Access Grid nodes prior to the AG2 release of May 2003 It is similar to the AG2 version in that the primary services video audio MUD may be configured to run on any of the machines in the node However the AG2 version is far more advanced especially in terms of dynamic configurability authentication and
37. reen0 Screen 2 Screen2 RightOf Screen1 Screen 3 Screen3 RightOf Screen2 InputDevice Mouse0 CorePointer InputDevice Keyboard CoreKeyboard EndSection Section Files RgbPath usr X11R6 lib X11 rgb ModulePath usr X11R6 lib modules FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts misc FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Speedo FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Typel FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts CID FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts 75dpi FontPath usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts 100dpi EndSection Section Module 19 Chapter 4 APPENDIX B Load dbe Load dri Load extmod Load glx Load record Load xtrap Load speedo Load typel EndSection Section InputDevice Identifier Keyboard0 Driver keyboard EndSection Section InputDevice Identifier Mouse0 Driver mouse Option Protocol PS 2 Option Device dev mouse EndSection Section Monitor Identifier Monitor0 This is the monitor VendorName Hansol ModelName 710P HorizSync 39 96 VertRefresh 47 160 EndSection Section Monitor Identifier Monitor1 This is the projector VendorName Hitachi ModelName SX 5500 HorizSync 15 92 VertRefresh 50 120 EndSection Section Device Option MGASDRAM True Option SWcursor True Identifier Card0 Driver mga VendorName Matrox BoardName MGA G200 AGP BusID PCI 3 0 0 EndSection Section Device Option MGASDRAM True Option SWcursor True
38. s 3 Chapter 2 INSTALLATION Instructions for the Impatient For experienced Linux enthusiasts these Instructions for the Impatient may pro vide sufficient information in themselves to construct a complete Linux only AG node However they are really intended to provide an overview of the steps that will need to be performed These steps are explained in detail in the Software Installation section The points below enumerate the steps of an Installation for the Impatient Some Linux users may find these to be sufficient to proceed with an installation im mediately However each point has an accompanying link which should also be consulted for greater detail about that point rm N QI O1 Install operating system This means just building a basic working Linux system with networking including multicast More details On the display machine configure X Windows with Xinerama for the VGA cards being used More details On the audio machine install sound driver This involves installation of either the ALSA project drivers 0 5 series or the OSS commercial drivers from 4Front Technologies More sound driver details Create a user named ag on all machines Optionally first create a distinct ag group as well More details Install and configure vic rat kMOO lite and vvd More details At this point the installation is complete Log into the display machine and use the browser to enter meetings at
39. ssary is that the free OSS drivers distributed with the Linux kernel are not capable of full duplex operation which is a requirement to run the audio tool rat correctly It is true that some recent audio chips are supported for full duplex operation by the kernel drivers but this support is inconsistent hence the need for separate installation At the ALSA organisation s download page are two sets of downloads the most recent 0 9 series and the older 0 5 series Don t use the 0 9 series Download three files the most recent revision of the 0 5 series driver lib and utils files As root user unpack them somewhere convenient e g tmp then cd into the driver directory The README file in the driver directory gives all the details for the driver installation Assuming that a PCI 128 sound card is being used the brief version of those instructions is to run the com mands configure with card ens1371 then make then make install Now run the script snddevices which creates some sound devices Finally edit the etc modules conf file to enable automatic loading of the driver moules whenever they re needed namely add the lines alias char major 116 snd alias snd card 0 snd card ens1371 alias char major 14 soundcore alias sound slot 0 snd card 0 alias sound service 0 0 snd mixer oss alias sound service 0 1 snd seq oss alias sound service 0 3 snd pcm oss alias sound service 0 8 snd seq oss alias sound service 0 12 snd pem oss post
40. uch as possible A dual output Matrox G450 or G550 AGP card combined with a dual output G400 PCI card is a common configuration Our interest in running hardware accelerated visualisation and graphics applications in an Access Grid context has led us to use nVidia based cards Any of the Quadro4 series give excellent accelerated performance The newest of these cards require an 8x AGP slot They are generally dual output and are used together with two additional single output PCI cards When using AGP and PCI cards together like this it is preferable to use cards based on chips from the same manufacturer This simplifies installation of drivers for the cards Table 2 1 Bandwidth of various bus types BUS type Bandwidth PCI 133MB s AGP 1x 266MB s AGP 2x 532MB s AGP 4x 1 05GB s AGP 8x 2 1GB s A new yet to be released bus standard PCI Express will have a bandwidth of 8GB s Qo AUDIO CARDS An audio chip capable of full duplex operation is required Many mother boards already have audio chips available on board If a suitable driver is available for an on board chip then no additional sound card is required making an extra PCI slot available for other purposes If an on board chip is not supported and an additional card is required ensure that the mother board BIOS is capable of disabling the on board chip The Soundblaster PCI 128 is a cheap but adequate audio card commonly used in Access
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search