Installing and running Xibo Linux Python Client in Acer Aspire One D255E

I have tried Xibo Linux Python Client 1.3.0 on my Acer Aspire One D255E netbook, here are the steps I followed.

Install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Since the client is only officially supported in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, I had to install it first. After installation the network (ethernet and wifi) does not work, please visit Installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in Acer Aspire One D255E for the instructions to resolve the networking issues as well as make the SD card reader work properly.

Upgrade Xibo Server to version 1.3.0

The next step I did was to update the Windows XP server to version 1.3.0. I followed parts of the server installation instructions I previously wrote for version 1.2.0.

Download xibo-server-1.3.0.zip
Extract its content to c:\xampp\htdocs\xibo
Run XAMPP Control Panel and start Apache and Mysql.
Go to http://localhost/xibo
Enter the admin username and password, it will ask you if you want to do a database version update, click on “Yes” and it will complete the update

Install Xibo Python client in Linux

Back to the netbook running Ubuntu 10.04 to install the Xibo Python client in a terminal window.

Update your machine with the latest patches:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Download the automatic installation script:

wget http://launchpad.net/xibo/1.3/1.3.0/+download/xibo-1.3.0-ubuntu.all-pyclient.sh
Install bzr or the script will return the error “./xibo-1.3.0-ubuntu.all-pyclient.sh: line 173: bzr: command not found)”

sudo apt-get install bzr
Run the script:

./xibo-1.3.0-ubuntu.all-pyclient.sh

At this point, I got ” All done.”, but bzr had the following issue :

You have not informed bzr of your Launchpad ID, and you must do this to
write to Launchpad or access private data. See “bzr help launchpad-login”.

And if you run the client, it will say some libraries are missing. So I decided to complete the installation manually.

Install the required libraries and packages:

wget http://launchpad.net/xibo/1.3/1.3.0/+download/libavg-berkelium-vdpau-1.6.0.tar.gz
cd /
sudo tar xvf ~/libavg-berkelium-vdpau-1.6.0.tar.gz
sudo apt-get install libboost-python1.40.0 libboost-thread1.40.0 libdc1394-22 libgraphicsmagick++3 \ libgraphicsmagick3 libavutil49 bzr python-soappy python-feedparser python-serial flashplugin-nonfree \ libavcodec52 libavformat52 libswscale0 libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio libvdpau1
Modify the client configuration by setting the Xibo server URL and server key:

cd /opt/xibo/pyclient/client/python/
cp site.cfg.default to site.cfg
vi site.cfg

I modified the xmdsUrl and xmdsKey lines as follows:

xmdsUrl=http://192.168.0.102/xibo
xmdsKey=cnxsoftxibo
Run the client:

./run.sh

Schedule a layout for the Client

Then go back the Windows XP Xibo server, and go to http://localhost/xibo/ in your web browser to access Xibo dashboard. Go to Management->Displays, and edit the new display to license it. Finally, schedule a layout and wait for the netbook to start to play.

I used the same layout as in Xibo Open Source Digital Signage Tutorial / Demo and it could play in the Linux client without problem once everything was correctly configured.

N.B: If you encounter the error <Fault Receiver: This display client is not licensed>, it probably means the server key is incorrect.

Performance and internals

The layout has a web browser window, a video window, a picture window and a text ticker. While it is playing, the CPU usage is around 60 to 85% on both CPU cores at the Atom N455 processor.

The programs running (beside XiboClient.py) that take most of the CPU usage are:

pulseaudio: cross-platform, networked sound server.
berkelium: library that provides off-screen browser rendering via Google’s open source Chromium web browser.
compiz: one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management

The video decoding is performed via libavg that uses many of the ffmpeg libraries for audio and video decoding.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.