Homeserver HAL10K

This project is about creating an Open Source version of a server for the household. Not just a place for homework files, the family web page or the well-known media-center.

This goal of this project is to create a server that will support the family in all daily activities including for example:

• Security - integration to surveillance camera and alarm
• Power - central control of power installation via z-Wave
• Info station - touchscreen access to information
• File server with security for work and homework
• Media center (music, movies, photos etc)
• Family email server, intranet/wiki and web pages
• Web caching and content filtering (parental control)

This is not a software development project - more a study in how far you can get with the integration of existing Open Source Software in the area. But should it require changes and/or improvements to be made, then we are more than happy to make these and share them.

The work is done by a student of Copenhagen University College of Engineering.

May 19, 2009 - Torben Soerensen, CEO, Casalogic A/S

My name is Louis Amhild and at the moment I am studding to become IT-engineer, at the Copenhagen University College of Engineering, Denmark. In the past few months, I have been working as a trainee in Casalogic AS.

About 7 years ago, I decided to cut my leashes from Microsoft and became a happy Linux and open source user. I have never contributed much to the Linux community before, but now it is time. Thanks to Casalogic, for given me this opportunity. It is my hope, that this project will help other Linux users and maybe inspire a single Windows user or two, to think about Linux, the next time they want to build a server.

Who could benefit from reading this project?..

• People that wants to build a nice media-center using open source software only.

• People that are planning to buy some of the hardware devices used in this project.

• People that have already brought, some of the hardware devices used in this project, and needs a howto / tutorial.

It is not necessary to read this part to understand the project. A quick look at the overview diagram below, should give the reader sufficient insight in the basic project ideas. Some very committed readers, might wish to read this part though.

Project specification (In danish only)

The following document contains a list of hardware devices that are used in the halk10k project, including current prices in danish currency (kr.). Prices might only be of interest for people living in Denmark, but could give others a god idea about the total cost of a server, like the one build in this project.

Hardware used in the project

Many different hardware devices have been considered throughout the project process. Most of them are listed below - maybe someone could use this information as source of inspiration to other hardware projects.

Hardware candidates

Readers that have brought the HFX Media PC Case or similar, would be interested in this document. It describes some pros and cons of the HFX Media case and some common pitfalls regarding the installation of hard disks, VFD display, power supply, motherboard, CPU and heat pipes in the case.

Installing the hardware

Documentation about configuring SATA hard disks in a RAID 1 array, on the MSI KA780G motherboard, can be found in the following document.

Howto setup RAID 1 on KA780G

The purpose of this project have been to investigate the opportunities of making a quite advanced media center, with open source software. Many projects exists out there, but the most of them: aAR OS, MythTV (, Mythbuntu), VDR, Elisa, GeexBox, XBMC, Freevo etc. lacks support of the Z-wave protocol, which is one of the key features in this project. At the moment only one open source media center supports all the features from the project specification (inc. Z-wave) and that is -LinuxMCE! Because of this, LinuxMCE seemed like the obvious choice for this project.

The decision was made, but not very soon after, it became obvious what a big mistake that decision was. LinuxMCE feature list looks promising, but the most of the features does not work out of the box. Actually I can't recall a single one that did. LinuxMCE is slow, it is unstable, it is complicated to configure and I have wasted way too many hour in the attempt to make it function appropriately. I am really not trying to hurt any ones feeling out there. LinuxMCE is just not ready yet - at least that is my humble opinion.

If you are a very patient person, with lots of experience in Linux, then i can recommend you to try the current version of LinuxMCE (710 or 810 alpha) - otherwise not.

Someone might get better results than I did with LinuxMCE, so feel free to use these steps to install LinuxMCE 810 alpha version:

Howto install LinuxMCE 810 Alpha

Howto install iMON VFD Display and IR-receiver with LIRC iMON driver

Finally (6. May - 2009) the new driver for the Hauppaug TV-tuner HVR-2200 became available. The document below contains a tutorial, that describes howto install the driver.

Howto install HVR2200 in Linux

This document describes how to stream video from the TV-IP312 in Linux. It also contains a howto about integration of that webcam with motion-detection in LinuxMCE:

TV-IP312 Linux howto

Zwave is on its way to become the new de facto standard in the home automation business. We decided to investigate the opportunities of using this new promising standard in Linux. As mentioned earlier, not many open source media center solutions with support of Zwave exists today. One of the main reasons is that the Zwave protocol is closed to the public, though a license can be purchased from Zensys. For this reason, the first Zwave library in LinuxMCE was closed source, but the new release of LinuxMCE includes a open source Zwave library, based on reverse engineering.

The following document contains information about different Zwave devices and there usage in Linux. This includes links to other pages regarding installation of the TrickleStar Zwave Usb controller, the ZIR010 Motion detector and the ZDP200 lamp dimmer in LinuxMCE.

Zwave information