Guest Busbodger Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Hello! Mandrake Newbie here. Been using Mandrake (Mandriva) for a few months now. Am continuing to migrate away from Windows to Mandrake and so far love it! One goal for my main machine was to use it as a jukebox running much of my music collection from it's hard drives. I love Amarok! I have already set up an analog feed from the speaker jack output of the computer to my stereo and then to my shop speakers. Sounds great. Next step is to find a way to use my old 486DX4 Laptop to show what Amarok is playing and Amarok's controls so I can control it. Basically show the Amarok window on the laptop in the shop. I am sure somebody has done this but I don't know what to call it so I have been unable to research it. Anyone name it for me? Again the audio stream is output to my stereo, just want to control Amarok from my laptop. Now, final piece to my want list: I want to use existing hardware. Can I configure the two computers so they can exchange this info via their modems via a plain phone wire running between them? We're talking about 25 feet of wire. The modems are tested and working on both. Once upon a time I could have used PC Anywhere to do this job. Is there an equivalent Linux solution? THANKS in advance to anyone that can help. Chris Cookeville, TN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 with regard to the modem-to-modem: I don't believe this is possible, as modems require a phone system to communicate (so that they can actually dial out). You don't have an other options, perhaps Parallel Ports (better known as the hold printer ports)? I'd really suggest spending the $40 or so to get two cheap network cards and a nice long network cable, as you'll get a faster connection. As for controlling amarok between machines, it's a simple matter of setting up your X server (graphical server) to allow connections, and then running amarok from machine 1 on machine 2. At the moment I don't remember exactly how to do this, so I'll have to get back to you after I remind myself :) of course, another (and possibly more what you're looking for) option is vnc, which there are many incarnations off - and should be in the Mandriva sources. If you can't find one, I suggest TightVNC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Busbodger Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Found something called a "leased line" connection which is funny b/c it uses a free phone wire... <griN!> I think what it does would make the connection. I remembered a few minutes after that post that I had network cards for both machines so rather than revisit the whole "winmodem debacle" I'll use those. Now I'm down to software questions I guess. How to config them and what software to use. If you remember let me know! <griN!> I'll examine the info you gave me and look for Linux PCAnywhere equivalents too. VNC appears to be one according to a chart of Windows/Linux equivalents I found. I'm torn - swap the info just to show the Amarok window or gain the functionality of having the whole main computer at my fingertips. However using network cards I'd have enough bandwidth I think to stream sound to the laptop through the network cable which might be better, draw less power (no amp), etc... Hmmm. This might be good! Learning... THANKS! Chris Cookeville, TN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 If you just want to play the files on your laptop, instead of controlling amarok remotely, then you could just stream the audio - there are many ways to do this :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Actually, you could use the two modems, but it would be silly. You'd basically set the one up as a server, so it "answers" a call from the other computer, then jack in the line and get the other one to "dial" without waiting for a dialtone and then force an answer on the other one at exactly the same time. In theory this would work, but it would be painful and very silly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 imagine sprinting from one system to the other. atleast you'd get some exercise ;) oh, and BTW, welcome to the board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qchem Posted August 17, 2005 Report Share Posted August 17, 2005 You could just launch amarok using SSH from the client machine and you'll be able to use it - at least I don't think it'll cause any problems with where the sound goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Busbodger Posted August 17, 2005 Report Share Posted August 17, 2005 Thanks folks! Really having alot of Linux fun. I am amazed at how versatile Linux is! Glad to be putting Microsoft behind me. Yeah, going to go network card to network card and prob use TightVNC so I can see the desktop. Based on earlier experiences with this old laptop and a university network I don't think it is capable of handling much sound processing. I'll control it with VNC and deliver it to my shop analog. Did some more reading and TightVNC starts a new session when I log into the main computer so the family would be able to use the main computer at the same time without interference. Also looks like I could pop in a cheap audio card and play my music through it so my family also still has sound at the main computer for their own purposes. None of us stress the machine very much but we do force it to do alot of multitasking with multiple sessions. Last question I have to answer is how specifically to make the computers talk to each other through their network cards without a router or hub or whatever. If anyone can name the required software or give the name for this method, let me know and I can research it. Thanks folks! I hope to have the time to work on this project this weekend. Chris Linux-newbie Cookeville Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jboy Posted August 17, 2005 Report Share Posted August 17, 2005 ...how specifically to make the computers talk to each other through their network cards without a router or hub or whatever. Nothing special needed once you have the network and NIC configured on each machine. I'm not on a linux machine right now, so I'm doing this from memory, but basically your steps are: Start the vnc server on one machine. By default, it uses tcp port 5900. So you have to configure your firewall to open port 5900. You can configure the firewall to restrict this access by IP address if desired. You can verify what port the vnc server is using by executing this command in a terminal: netstat -pant | grep -i LISTEN Start your vnc client (you said you're using TightVNC) on the other machine and connect to the IP address or hostname (if /etc/hosts was configured for this) of the machine running the vnc server. I believe the vnc server package is called rfbserver. It may not be installed by default, so you may need to download it using rpmdrake or urpmi. There are lots of posts here about all this so you can search for additional details; e.g., rfbserver, vncserver, etc. Also the man pages will be informative. I don't think you need anything in /etc/hosts.allow (man hosts.allow) on the server machine for allowing the vnc client to connect (I could be wrong on this). The situation with ssh is different. First you need to configure the firewall to open tcp port 22 on the machine where sshd is running. Then you'll need to have a line in it's /etc/hosts.allow like this: sshd:<ip address of client machine>:ALLOW If you need to, you can also use: ALL:<ip address of client machine>:ALLOW Your /etc/hosts.deny file may have a line like: ALL:ALL except 127.0.0.1:DENY That's ok. Leave as it. You're controlling what you want to allow through /etc/hosts.allow and you're denying everything else. This is a bit rambling. Post more questions if this, the searches, and the man pages don't cover your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brainfryd Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 ...how specifically to make the computers talk to each other through their network cards without a router or hub or whatever. Nothing special needed once you have the network and NIC configured on each machine. You will need to get a shop or a network tech to make you what's call a 'crossover" cable using CAT5e if you aren't going to be using a hub, switch or router. A regular network cble will not work with a direct connection between network cards. A crossover cable has the Tx (transmit) and Rx (recieve) wires reversed in the RJ-45 plug at one end compared to the other plug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 Crossover cables aren't necessary with modern hardware. Any network interface bought in the last year or two should be able to use a "straight" cable and figure it out, so maybe try one if you don't have a crossover handy / before heading for the stores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Busbodger Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 (edited) Hey you folks are A++ You seem to have given me all the answers! What more could a person ask for? <grin!> I'll be looking at this on the weekend after the extended family visit. I'll try with a straight cable and if it doesn't work (my hardware is 3 and 4 years old) I'll snip the end off and make it a crossover cable. THANKS! Chris Edited August 18, 2005 by Busbodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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