Serviio

I've now spent hour trying to get serviio to work on linux. There is no deb, there is no official installation guide, just a bunch of old outdated, half-baked post slapped in the wiki, constantly giving me errors.
No guide on assigning users and permissions, no easy guide on how to install the proper codecs. Just a cronick fucking mess all over the place.

I'm disappointed and sick and tired of this bullshit so much that I registered an account to vent, something I rarely do, and I've seen my share of linux terminal bs. Is serviio not really meant for linux or what? Why go through the trouble if you have to be a freaking engineer and private detective to install the damn thing? An why put US through trying to get this thing to work and then leave us hanging half-way through the process. The media library doesn't scan the files, the ffmpeg "guide" contains commands that give error/makes no sense half way through the damn thing, plus supplies bullshit lines like "This guide uses latest FFmpeg source, Serviio is tailored to work with a certain version though - the source can be downloaded at http://www.serviio.org/download", and then leaves me hanging to figure out how to customize all this shit on my own .

I'm sick and tired and I'm mad, because I wanted this thing to work as advertised. I request that you put this thing down until an installation guide is provided where one can reasonably expect to get it to work instead of yelling at the screen.

It's been always the case that Linux version is not for beginners - you chose Linux as your OS of choice, you're expected to know something about building tools using the command line.

The Wiki is user generated content, people like you, who did make the effort to go through the differences of each distribution and put together a quick guide. It might be outdated, hopefully someone will bring them up to date (hardly to expect that from you, I guess).

Your request to take the product down... nice one. It doesn't work for you, fine, move on - but stop insulting the people who put hours of their time to build /test/ write up something that is there for you for free.

Now that you vented your feelings, maybe you can just jog on... ciao.

boy, i don't know about you, but I am NOT linux expert, and I spend one evening to get Serviio working on FEDORA.
All info how to do that, I read on Serviio wiki, and ffmpeg & libraries installed with 'yum'.

So, don't be pissed off, just try once more.

Its laziness and stephchildly threatment like this that gives linux a bad rap. There is absolutely no reason why in 2013 this should be so damn messy and convoluted. Just downed PS3mediaserver instead, and that consisted of copy pasting 3 lines to add a repo and install the app so that all the proper codecs are installed and the application icon shows up the unity launcher. In other words the easiest operating system of them all to install at. How fucking hard can it be to drop a few official lines on how to install the damn thing and maintain it from version to version? If you're just going to insult us by waste our time and having us chasing down rabbit holes from the get-go, then why not just pull it? So damn annoying to come half-way through a guide with a million commands and realize it's only served to mess up my system to no avail. And why the hell should I do your work when it's closed source (you like to USE FOSS libraries) and a pay-app? Jogging on, just wanted to warn others and maybe somebody with a little craftmanship-pride would take the feedback.

ok, i see, you are prepared to argue with whole world... before 10 minutes one cat walked on opposite side of your street, go there and argue with your neghbour why HE left that cat outside (no matter that isn't his cat)

yes, I'm probably just another irrational hater. which means you can just blow my complaints without addressing them. which would be convenient as opposed to addressing them. you, sir - have cracked the consumer feedback-code, which puts you on the path to better product development and profits.

unless, of course, you think I'm being sarcastic...

I'll try to answer to your feedback (if you can call your rude article that).

Linux may be easy to install things to, but it's definitely not easy to distribute to - due to the amount of distributions, architectures, etc. PS3MS (AFAIK) doesn't need all the extra libraries linked to FFmpeg (like libRTMP, libASS), thus you can use apt-get (which, again, works only in certain distributions) to get a pre-built version. Last time I checked, the Ubuntu maintainer decided to package LibAV instead of FFmpeg, to the FFmpeg package in the repository was outdated and deprecated. Serviio needs bleeding edge FFmpeg releases.

For Windows and Mac, the FFmpeg binary is bundled with the installer (the advantage of single CPU architecture). For Linux it's not and there is the additional work needed to get it working as expected.

First, politeness was never the intention - frankness and clarity about the level of frustration caused by this bs was. I don't care if the program is freemium as long as it serves to mess up my whole system because of bad instructions - then I'm left actually poorer than before. It's irresponsible and harmful beyond the application itself, similar to posting a "free" food recipe that gives poisoning.

PS3MS does require specific libraries and versions, that is exactly why it is recommended to install it from PPA.

That being said, I'm not a programmer by trade, however it does sound strange that it is not possible for both serviio and PSMS3 to use their own, "portable" codecs. What is the difference between calling a codec installed in a local serviio folder (that compiles itself via a script or selections inside the app) instead of using systemwide codecs? XBMC does this for decoding, maybe this is harder for encoding? Anyways, sounds strange to me if this is impossible to do, and it would make everything SO much easier since compatibility wouldn't break from version to version.

As far as permission goes, I find no logical reason why the serviio dev team does not ensure that this is mentioned in the wiki at all. Are people supposed to start threads and google for hour on end everytime then encounter permission issues with external disks for example?

One guide, one place, check it everytime you update the version - Run an installation script inside a VM for example and see if something breaks. Not just release stuff and wait until frustrated users have spent a gazillion hours trying to solve the issues because they think its system specific, and then hope some of them writes the wiki for you. Software 101.

is there some reason why you don't start using that PS3 and stop shouting here?

Why? Are you some sort of officially annointed forum cop, or do you just like to suck up to the developers?

I'm closing this thread.