Vortexbox

[bencat]

Just a suggestion but on the Vortex box controls under CD have you fixed your URL ? I do not use the in built drive myself and prefer to rip using dBPoweramp and send this across over the network to the Flac file on the Vortex Box . I did find that until I had fixed the URL on the CD Drive Tab the drive would not copy .

 

[slavedata]

Good point from Andrew about a fixed ip address for the Vortexbox. I have always used a fixed ip as a matter of course when setting it up as a server by definition has to be at a known constant ip address.

 

[Craze]

Have you tried ripping a CD does this work?

I have... and it doesnt...

it blows my mind but attempting to rip an audio cd, causes the whole machine (not just the vm) to reset after about 20 seconds. it starts the process and reads the list of tracks on the cds and displays it. Then it looks like its ripping the first track and after a few seconds, the computer goes unresponsive and then i am seeing the bios screen....

 

[Craze]

Just a suggestion but on the Vortex box controls under CD have you fixed your URL ? I do not use the in built drive myself and prefer to rip using dBPoweramp and send this across over the network to the Flac file on the Vortex Box . I did find that until I had fixed the URL on the CD Drive Tab the drive would not copy .

Do you mean under network configuration?

I didnt set the ip statically but every time the vms have booted up they have had the same IPs....

 

[slavedata]

Do you mean under network configuration?

I didnt set the ip statically but every time the vms have booted up they have had the sa

 

[slavedata]

Have you got an old machine you could try setting it up on to eliminate the complexities of the VM environment. Any old thing will do with only 2Gb of memory is perfect. Or a spare drive you could swop into your current machine just for the purposes of a try out.

 

[bencat]

Next question is me being out of my depth so if this is not an option then apologies . I bought the ZEN Liv as a stand alone Vortex box and Due to me wanting and needing a much larger HD I was forced to do a complete new install . Once settings on the boot up menu had been set to read USB flash first I loaded vortex box to the USB flash drive switched on the ZEN connected to a TV screen and using a sub key board moved to the line to load Vortex Box and set it running . Following all the on screen prompts this loaded 2.5 with no issues and when switched off and the sun drive removed then put in place an connected upstairs with Ethernet cable then switched on it just worked and I was able to find the vortex box control page . With regard to the CD ripper it was not making the Vortex Box a fixed url I was referring to . On the CD Rip page it says that the url is set and the url box below do not need to be set but I found I needed to enter the VB url in to that box and save it before the CD drive would work . So can you first try the CD setting suggests and if this does not work then load VB directly not using a Virtual Box ? Lastly on the Vortex Box site there is a thread about loading VB via a Docker Box which means little to me but you might understand and perhaps this could work .

 

[Craze]

Another thing to note: The system was built with 5 new dvd drives, the first two are also blueray (lg) and the last 3 are plextor. I have 3 vms setup. 1) with straight 2.5 installed and linked to first bluray drive, the second is a 2.4 install that was upgraded to 2.5 also to a bluray drive, and the third was another 2.5 install to a plextor drive.

 

[slavedata]

Having done a bit of research I'm pretty sure you need to assign an IP address to the VM using the Vortexbox server configuration page that is different to the ip of the VM host.

 

[Craze]

Have you got an old machine you could try setting it up on to eliminate the complexities of the VM environment. Any old thing will do with only 2Gb of memory is perfect. Or a spare drive you could swop into your current machine just for the purposes of a try out.

unfortunately, i dont have an old machine (that works) I could possibly get another drive to put in this machine and install it straight to test it out with.

another side note: my original goal was to build a machine where i could rip all my dvds/cds in a quick and easy manner but the thought of doing 1 at a time was something i just wasnt prepared to do. I saw a video where i guy setup his (old) machine in this mannner and it resonated with me. since i didnt have an old machine, I decided to build a new one but i got carried away and built a pretty nice system which i figured i could also use for a variety of other things. but essentially for the ripping I have the 5 drives, and two exrternal drives which would allow me to get throught 1000+ discs that i have at a pace that i could live with.

 

[Craze]

Having done a bit of research I'm pretty sure you need to assign an IP address to the VM using the Vortexbox server configuration page that is different to the ip of the VM host.

it does have a different ip from the host due to how i set up the vms.

When they are all on, I can access each one separately from a different computer.

(ive been testing with only one running at a time though for the time being)

 

[slavedata]

This link might have some useful pointers especially the post on alternat virtual SCSI controllers.
https://www.vortexbox.org/forum/support/934-vb-on-vmware

 

[Craze]

This link might have some useful pointers especially the post on alternat virtual SCSI controllers.
https://www.vortexbox.org/forum/support/934-vb-on-vmware

Thanks so much for trying to help me! Unfortunately I cannot access the forums on that site. I signed up last week but have not yet been "approved"

 

[slavedata]

Cut and paste of most relevant looking posting
It was not working for me originally (hanging forever on the step "A start job is running for dev-disk-by\......."). I changed the SCSI Controller to LSI Logic Parallel and was able to successfully install and boot under ESXi 6.5. The SCSI controller options VMware Paravirtual and LSI Logic SAS did not work (I did not try the BusLogic option).

Have not figured out how to install VMware Tools yet.

FYI, here is my configuration (feedback from others is welcome). I am installing headless to run as VM under ESXi; and /storage will be mapped to a SMB/CIFS share from my NAS4Free server. Note: later I want to disable VortexBox as SMB server (since I have NAS4Free to do that). FYI, I use this to run Squeezebox server and to create a .mp3 mirror of my FLAC directory. I am not using it for ripping or for driving any attached devices.

ESXi Guest OS Configuration:
----------------------------------------------
* Guest OS = Linux -> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit)
* CPU = 2
* Memory = 1,536 MB
* Disk = 40GB <--- 10Gb should be sufficient; but the VortexBox install scripts assume >36GB drive
* NIC = VMXNET3
* SCSI Controller = LSI Logic Parallel

INSTALL STEPS (after reboot at end of the Clonezilla image install):
------------------------------------------------------------------------
dnf -y update
config_4-30.sh # this script allocates a 30Gb partition (no idea why it is needed; but next script fails without this)
config_local_storage.sh # this script sets up some local storage volume (no idea why needed; but mount_drives.sh hangs if this step isn't done)

dnf install -y cifs-utils
echo "mount.cifs //PELICAN/media /storage -o user=<NAS4Free_user>,pass='<NAS4fREE_user_password >',dom=<workgroup>" > /opt/vortexbox/post_startup.sh
reboot

#
# FYI: here is copy of my acutal mount.cifs command line inside of /opt/vortexbox/post_startup.sh :
# mount.cifs //PELICAN/media /storage -o user=media,pass='+1xxx846yyzz',dom=AVIARY
#

 

[bencat]

Look I am not going to lie I do not understand any of the above but Dave does . Follow what he is advising and things will get sorted in time .

 

[Craze]

Cut and paste of most relevant looking posting
It was not working for me originally (hanging forever on the step "A start job is running for dev-disk-by\......."). I changed the SCSI Controller to LSI Logic Parallel and was able to successfully install and boot under ESXi 6.5. The SCSI controller options VMware Paravirtual and LSI Logic SAS did not work (I did not try the BusLogic option).

Have not figured out how to install VMware Tools yet.

FYI, here is my configuration (feedback from others is welcome). I am installing headless to run as VM under ESXi; and /storage will be mapped to a SMB/CIFS share from my NAS4Free server. Note: later I want to disable VortexBox as SMB server (since I have NAS4Free to do that). FYI, I use this to run Squeezebox server and to create a .mp3 mirror of my FLAC directory. I am not using it for ripping or for driving any attached devices.

ESXi Guest OS Configuration:
----------------------------------------------
* Guest OS = Linux -> Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit)
* CPU = 2
* Memory = 1,536 MB
* Disk = 40GB <--- 10Gb should be sufficient; but the VortexBox install scripts assume >36GB drive
* NIC = VMXNET3
* SCSI Controller = LSI Logic Parallel

INSTALL STEPS (after reboot at end of the Clonezilla image install):
------------------------------------------------------------------------
dnf -y update
config_4-30.sh # this script allocates a 30Gb partition (no idea why it is needed; but next script fails without this)
config_local_storage.sh # this script sets up some local storage volume (no idea why needed; but mount_drives.sh hangs if this step isn't done)

dnf install -y cifs-utils
echo "mount.cifs //PELICAN/media /storage -o user=<NAS4Free_user>,pass='<NAS4fREE_user_password >',dom=<workgroup>" > /opt/vortexbox/post_startup.sh
reboot

#
# FYI: here is copy of my acutal mount.cifs command line inside of /opt/vortexbox/post_startup.sh :
# mount.cifs //PELICAN/media /storage -o user=media,pass='+1xxx846yyzz',dom=AVIARY
#

regardless, i appreciate your help... any ideas thrown into the air may work or may even spark an idea as to what could work.... so again, thank you

 

[Craze]

On an unrelated note, do we know why there hasnt been any new releases in a long time?

 

[Craze]

I re deployed the 2.5 ovf file in virtual box and it seems to be ripping dvds. It is jst calling the rips title01 so it is not pulling in any information and it is not moving the rip out of the tmp directory. is that a common problem, and if it is, is there an easy fix?

One interesting thing is, it will still crash the whole computer if i use an audio cd

 

[slavedata]

The reason Vbox is so old is the guy who wrote it had to make a living so went on to found a company selling hardware with I believe an updated version of the software.
He has since, last year, brought out an updated release to 2.5 that included version 8.4 of LMS and fixed some issues with retreiving album art.
In terms of OS Fedora 25 is ancient (Current release 39) but for its simple server functions totally adequate.

 

[slavedata]

Thinking about your issues which I am sure are VM specific you would probably do well to post questions on a forum dedicated to the VM software you are using.