AlienBBC Installation

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Installing AlienBBC on Linux

These instructions assume you are installing on to SlimServer 6.2/6.3 or 6.5.

  1. Download the linux archive:


  2. Extract this tar file into the main slimserver directory. This is usually: /usr/local/slimserver.

  3. Ensure that /usr/local/slimserver/Bin/mplayer.sh is executable by the user 'slimserver'.

  4. Ensure that mplayer is installed and available on the path for slimserver (as for previous AlienBBC versions) and has the relevant codecs available.
    If you need help with installing mplayer this may help: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17015.

  5. If using mplayer pre7 or later edit slimserver-convert.conf to comment out the lines that follow "# Default mplayer up to pre6". Then uncomment the lines that follow "# Alternative for mplayer pre7 or later".

  6. Restart slimserver and see if AlienBBC appears on the web page.

  7. If you have trouble, Run './slimserver.pl -d_plugin' in a shell from /usr/local/slimserver to check for error messages at startup.

Extra Information

For detailed instructions on installing on linux see ripcaster's website http://www.ripcaster.co.uk/node/18.

Installing AlienBBC on Linux with SqueezeCenter 7.0

These instructions assume you are installing on to SqueezeCenter 7.0.

  1. Download the linux archive: http://www.x2systems.com/alienbbc/alienbbc-linux-v2.00_7.0.tar.gz.

  2. Extract this tar file into the main SqueezeCenter directory. This is likely to be: /usr/local/slimserver or /usr/local/squeezecenter, but will depend on how you have installed SqueezeCenter.

  3. Ensure that the included Bin/mplayer.sh is executable by the SqueezeCenter user.

  4. Ensure that mplayer is installed and available on the path for SqueezeCenter (as for previous AlienBBC versions) and has the relevant codecs available.
    If you need help with installing mplayer this may help: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17015.

  5. Restart slimserver and see if AlienBBC appears on the web page.

  6. If you have trouble, Run './slimserver.pl --debug server.plugins' in a shell to check for error messages at startup. [or squeezecenter.pl depending on your install]

Installing AlienBBC on Windows

These instructions assume you are installing on to SlimServer V6.2 or later.

The simplest way to install AlienBBC on Windows is to use the installer.

These will install all the files you need to run AlienBBC including mplayer.

When you have run the install you will need to restart SlimServer to load AlienBBC. To test mplayer is working go to "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread" (or "C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread" on v7.0) and run "Test mplayer.bat", this batch file will allow you to test a few BBC stations.

NOTE: If your players include Slimp3s wireless connected Squeezeboxs with bitrate limiting set, then you need to ensure lame is installed. Extract lame.exe to the folder "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread" (or "C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread" on v7.0).

Extra Information

For detailed instructions on installing on windows see ripcaster's website http://www.ripcaster.co.uk/node/56.

Installing AlienBBC on Windows - Manual method

Files you will need:

AlienBBC v1.06 or later: http://www.x2systems.com/alienbbc
Direct link for SlimServer 6.2 or 6.3: http://www.x2systems.com/alienbbc/alienbbc-windows-v1.06_6.2-3.zip
Direct link for SlimServer 6.5 http://www.x2systems.com/alienbbc/alienbbc-windows-v1.06_6.5.zip
Direct link for SlimServer 7.0 http://www.x2systems.com/alienbbc/alienbbc-windows-v2.00_7.0.zip

MPlayer: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
Direct link: http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/win32/MPlayer-mingw32-1.0rc2.zip

Lame: http://lame.sourceforge.net/
For a precompiled version (3.96.1. is stable) try http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm

Installing

  1. Extract the AlienBBC zip file into the main slimserver directory (be sure to retain the folder names). This is usually: "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server" (or "C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server" on v7.0).

  2. Extract mplayer.exe to the folder "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread" (or "C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread" on v7.0).

Testing

To check AlienBBC is installed correctly run:
    "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\slim.exe" --d_plugin --d_source --d_remotestream
    (or "C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\slim.exe" --d_plugin --d_source --d_remotestream on v7.0.
from a command prompt to see if there are any errors loading the plugin. Restart SlimServer and see if AlienBBC appears on the web page and on the Radio menu on a slim player.

To check mplayer is installed correctly run:
    "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread\mplayer.exe" -vc null -vo null -cache 128 -af volume=0:sc,resample=44100:0:1 -playlist http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/realplayer/media/fmg2.rpm
or on v7.0
    "C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\Bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread\mplayer.exe" -vc null -vo null -cache 128 -af volume=0:sc,resample=44100:0:1 -playlist http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/realplayer/media/fmg2.rpm
(This should be all on a single line.)

Installing AlienBBC on the Mac (thanks to Daniel Cohen http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24480)

These instructions assume you are installing on to SlimServer 6.2/6.3 or 6.5. You need various files for AlienBBC:

  1. AlienBBC itself. Make sure you download the version for your SlimServer (there are versions for SlimServer 6.2/6.3 and 6.5).
    You will be downloading a file whose name ends in .tar.gz, which your browser may or may not decompress into a file whose name ends in .tar. If your browser has not done this automatically, double-click on the .tar.gz file to get the .tar file. Now double-click on the .tar file, and you will get a folder whose name is something like alienbbc-linux with a version number at the end.
    In either your personal Library or the main Library on your hard drive there will be a folder named SlimDevices. All the contents of the alienbbc-linux folder need to be put in this SlimDevices folder. In particular, if the SlimDevices folder does not already contain a Plugins folder, you can just move or copy the Plugins folder from alienbbc-linux to SlimDevices; if you already have a Plugins folder in SlimDevices (because you have installed other plugins), you need to move or copy the contents of the Plugins folder in alienbbc-linux into the Plugins folder of SlimDevices. Similarly, the contents of the Bin subfolder of the alienbbc-linux folder need to go into a Bin subfolder of the SlimDevices folder, while the custom-types.conf and slimserver-convert.conf files, if they exist (which they do for the 6.2 and 6.3 version of AlienBBC, but not for the 6.5 version) simply go into the SlimDevices folder.

  2. Next install lame. To do this download LAME Audio Encoder 3.96.1 from http://www.thalictrum.com/index.php?pageid=6&artid=6. This is a .dmg.gz file; as in step 1, your browser may automatically unpack this to a .dmg file, which is a disk image that opens to contain one file, lame-3.96.1.pkg. If it does not unpack automatically, you may have to double-click on it to get the .dmg file, and perhaps may need to double-click again to open it.Double-clicking on lame-3.96.1.pkg i takes you through the installation process for lame.
    Note that lame gets installed into the folder /usr/local/bin, and various related files get installed into /usr/local/lib and /usr/local/share; if these folders did not previously exist, the installation will create them.

  3. The final item you need is mplayer. Click on the mplayer link at the top of the AlienBBC Web page, and towards the bottom of the resulting page is a link to download mplayer for Mac. This is again a .tar.gz file, which need to be dealt with as before. The resulting folder contains mplayer and also mencoder (which isn't needed). mplayer should be put in /usr/local/bin, because lame was placed there for you in step 2. Note that this folder is normally invisible, but can be made visible using "Go to Folder" in the Finder's Go menu (either type /usr and navigate as usual, or type /usr/local/bin).
    If this is your first installation of mplayer, please ensure that you have the version given by these instructions. There are many places on the Internet where you can download mplayer, and some of them give an older version of mplayer which requires further files to be downloaded and installed. If you already have working versions of mplayer and lame, perhaps in another location, it should not be necessary to change them. But things will not work if you have lame in /usr/local/bin and mplayer in /usr/bin (for instance).
    There is a version of mplayer for the Mac available here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html (we need some feed back about whether this works ok).

  4. Stop and restart SlimServer, and AlienBBC should now work.
    However, it can take uncomfortably long for a stream to start playing (long enough that I often wonder if there is an error), and you may well want to increase Radio Station Timeout in the Network section of the Server Settings.

There may be issues with installation on an Intel Mac. But so far as I have been able to find out, the installation should work. However, mplayer and lame will currently (July 06) run under Rosetta, not native, which will slow things down, but hopefully thins will be fast enough.

Installing AlienBBC on the Mac OS X with SqueezeCenter 7.0

These instructions assume you are installing on to SqueezeCenter 7.0.

  1. Install SqueezeCenter 7.0 nightly from 4th Jan or later. If you have not run 7.0 before, start the server so that the Plugins folders are created.

  2. Download MPlayer for OS X from: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html. Install the universal package accepting the default file locations.
    Note: You may skip this stage if you already have a working version of mplayer installed from a previous alienbbc installation.

  3. Download the alienbbc distribution for linux/osx and open it to reveal the Plugins folder: http://www.x2systems.com/alienbbc/alienbbc-linux-v2.00_7.0.tar.gz.

  4. a) If you installed SqueezeCenter for the local user only or only want the current user to use Alien:
        - Open Finder and goto ~/Library/Application Support/SqueezeCenter/Plugins [note not plugin]
        - Drag the "Alien" folder from the alienbbc distribution to the Plugins folder in ~/Library/Application Support/SqueezeCenter/Plugins
        [note ~ represents folders within your own account, so the above relates to the Library folder within your home folder]

    b) If you installed SqueezeCenter for all users and want all users to be able to use Alien:
        - Open Finder and goto /Library/Application Support/SqueezeCenter/Plugins
        - Drag the "Alien" folder from the alienbbc distribution to the Plugins folder in /Library/Application Support/SqueezeCenter/Plugins (you may need to create this)

  5. Restart the server, Alien should now show up on the home page and player menu under Internet Radio.

Last updated: 9 March 2008