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howto:linux:install:lean

Install Serviio to a Created Directory In any Linux /home

The benefits of Linux come to the fore with the ability to install programs to somewhere that does not enlarge or effect the core libraries or add to the system core size.

Using this method you can have a system which is lean and mean and runs on something like a small solid state drive partition …and yet still be able to launch larger programs from somewhere else with greater space. With this flexibility it is possible to do things that really increase the speed and efficiency of java apps and most other of today's software that has a large foot print for that matter.

Even so it is still possible to use Serviio as a startup program even if it is installed to a /home/your_user_name sub directory of your creation.

With most Linux distros simply right clicking on the downloaded Serviio tar file will give you the option to decompress the file to any /home/your_user_name/ sub directory that you create. (you can custom name the serviio folder but the decompressed serviio folder will be to a sub folder /serviio-####CurrentVersionNumber unless you tell tar otherwise.)

Keeping your home sub directories in order so that things make sense is highly recommended, my method is to create a /home/eric/programs directory where I have Serviio and many other programs which I like to run without core installs. I keep my /root directory down below 10 gig and have it on a different partition than my /home directory which can be huge and is where I do all my file storage.

However having a separate /home partition is not that important, you can still effectively install programs to /home sub directories even with the default partitioning scheme that most Linux distros do on system install.

If you wish to keep your /library and /plugins after you untar the file to your directory of choice this is also possible. That way you will be able to save all your settings and plugins to access content without having to redo the data in Serviio console.

A simple way to do this is cut and paste or save (simply drag and drop) the old saved directories to your new install after renaming the directories /library and /plugins that were decompressed from the new install each as /library.old and /plugins.old .old is the standard backup method for recovery in linux..like .bak is recognised by Windows for the same purpose

This way if there is something in your saved directories that is incompatible with your new install of Serviio you can revert to the default ones that were installed by tar simply by removing the .old designation after removing the current ones that cause a problem.

Then all you need to do with Gnome and Mint or other distros with the ability to edit the “start Menu” by simply right clicking on the “menu”, is add the serviio and console .sh scripts as programs to launch from /home/your_user_name/the directory that you put serviio in/serviio-whatever is current/bin/ to your Menu(s). Other users on the same machine but with a different login will not have these items in their start menu. So if you share this machine with others that do not use a dlna server the changes that you made are not system wide at all. And will not effect the core of Linux in anyway whatsoever.

You can also just right click on the desktop and create launchers to serviio.sh and/or serviio-console.sh

It is not absolutely necessary to have serviio in the start menu but if you do it also makes it possible then to have serviio run as a user specific login startup item without having to essentially “system daemonize” the serviio core java process.

The process to core install serviio as a service is also documented in this wiki for those who desire to install serviio as a core program.

That is the really nice part the choice is up to the user.

You need to make sure that you have sun-java 1.6 and ffmpeg installed and you can do that with the command line or Synaptic or whatever package manager you have .. whatever form of Linux you choose Serviio will work without too much hassle or command line expertise. Some Debian variants and pure Debian will need the non-free media repositories enabled to get the “proprietary codecs” though. But by and large all newer Linux distros will work well with Serviio.

Understanding complicated command line based instructions is nice and will help speed up tasks that would otherwise require complicated and often poorly constructed desktop GUIs. But this tutorial in how to quickly and easily setup Serviio.

I am sure that as Serviio progresses there will be those who automate the processes that I have just described with simple install scripts that do everything that I just described.

howto/linux/install/lean.txt · Last modified: 2012/01/07 23:22 by eric