Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
215 lines (143 loc) · 7.41 KB

BareMetal_README.md

File metadata and controls

215 lines (143 loc) · 7.41 KB
Raw

Bare Metal RTSP Streamer using X11 and VLC

Don't need the containerized version? You can do it on bare metal using with VLC. This is a relatively comprehensive guide but it assumes you have some understanding of shell.

This guide may be behind the containerized version but I'll try to keep it up to date.

Environment

  • OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
  • Hardware: Beelink T5 Mini PC, Celeron N4020
  • Snap version of VLC (more on this below)

How To

  1. Install Ubuntu, ensuring to expand the file system. Enable SSH and setup your user account. After reboot, login accordingly (SSH or otherwise).

  2. First we need to purge Ubuntu of the pre-packaged VLC as it does not support RTSP streaming after 21.04.

    sudo apt purge vlc
sudo apt purge vlc-data
sudo apt purge vlc-bin
sudo apt purge vlc-plugin-base
sudo apt purge vlc-plugin-qt
sudo apt purge vlc-plugin-video-output
sudo apt purge vlc-l10n

  3. Ensure Ubuntu Frame is disabled as it will interfere with X11:

     sudo systemctl stop snap.ubuntu-frame.daemon
 sudo systemctl disable snap.ubuntu-frame.daemon

  4. Remove any remaining dependencies.

     sudo apt autoremove

  5. Clean the package cache

     sudo apt clean

  6. Install VLC via snap

      sudo snap install vlc

  7. Install X11, Openbox, and related dependencies.

     sudo apt update
 sudo apt install xorg openbox
 sudo apt install python3-xdg
 sudo apt install x11-xserver-utils
 sudo apt install mesa-va-drivers

  8. Configure Xorg for Non-Root Users

     sudo nano /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

    Add or Modify the following:

     allowed_users=anybody
 needs_root_rights=yes

  9. We need to create a valid menu file for Openbox

    sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/openbox
sudo nano /var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml

    Add the following XML:

    <openbox_menu>
  <menu id="root-menu" label="Openbox 3">
    <item label="Terminal">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>xterm</command>
      </action>
    </item>
    <item label="Restart">
      <action name="Restart"/>
    </item>
    <item label="Exit">
      <action name="Exit"/>
    </item>
  </menu>
</openbox_menu>

  10. Create a VLC startup script:

    nano ~/start_vlc.sh

    Add the following:

    #!/bin/bash

# Export necessary environment variables for X11
export DISPLAY=:0
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u)

# Check if X server is running
if ! pgrep -x "Xorg" > /dev/null
then
        # Start X11 server using xinit with authorization
        xinit /usr/bin/openbox-session -- :0 vt7 &
        XORG_PID=$!
        sleep 5
else
        echo "X server already running"
fi

# OPTIONAL Disable screen blanking and energy saving features
# xset s off          # Don't activate screensaver
# xset -dpms          # Disable DPMS (Energy Star) features
# xset s noblank      # Don't blank the video device
# setterm -blank 0 -powerdown 0

# Start VLC with the desired options
# Replace localhost with your RTSP stream
/snap/bin/vlc -I dummy rtsp://ccsmsdocker:8554/birdseye --fullscreen --no-video-title-show --no-osd --no-audio --network-caching=2000 --rtsp-tcp --codec avcodec --avcodec-hw=none --file-caching=2000 --live-caching=2000 --realrtsp-caching=2000 --no-audio


# Wait for VLC to finish if Xorg was started in this script
if [ ! -z "$XORG_PID" ]; then
        wait $XORG_PID
fi

    Make the script executable:

    chmod +x ~/start_vlc.sh

  11. Create a systemd service in the user's home directory so VLC is not started as root:

    mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/
nano ~/.config/systemd/user/vlc.service

    Add the following to the service file ensuring to replace "your_username" with your user:

    [Unit]
Description=VLC media player
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/your_username/start_vlc.sh
Restart=always
RestartSec=5s
StartLimitBurst=5
StartLimitIntervalSec=60
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
Environment=XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/%U

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

    Enable and start the service:

    systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable vlc.service
systemctl --user start vlc.service

    Enable lingering to ensure that the user services start at boot regardless of login status. Replace "your_username" with your user:

    sudo loginctl enable-linger your_username

  12. Reboot the system. If configured properly you should see the device load in the stream and display it on full screen after boot up.

Testing the Script

If you're having issues after reboot, you can troubleshoot the script by manually starting it with

    ~/start_vlc.sh

Troubleshooting

  • It may not be necessary for you but I found my user was lacking access to /dev/tty0. To enable:

      sudo usermod -aG tty your_username

  • You may need to ensure that your user has proper permissions to start Xserver and access the display:

      sudo usermod -aG video,input your_username

  • Latency issues? You can play with the VLC flags within the ~/start_vlc.sh script. Expirement accordingly, you may need all, some, none, or a revised caching times.

      --network-caching=1000
  --rtsp-tcp
  --no-hw-decoding
  --codec avcodec
  --avcodec-hw=none
  --file-caching=2000
  --live-caching=2000
  --realrtsp-caching=2000
  --no-audio

  • Still having issues? Check the VLC logs with the following command:

      journalctl --user -u vlc.service

  • Still still having issues? Godspeed. Try using htop to see if your device is running low on resources:

      sudo apt-get install htop
  htop

Misc

  • Why not Wayland?

    This started out with Wayland with the intention to run Ubuntu Frame. Turns out VLC does not have a connector for Wayland. After trying and failing with Xwayland to add a compatibility layer, I ended up on X11. X11 is natively supported as a connector with VLC making it much easier to get it playing together.

  • Why not RTSP2Web?

    I did try it. It's a great project and technically should do what I need but I found with what little resources this micro PC has, the stream was not working well within Wayland and it's Chromium view. Furthermore it just has far more than I needed. I already have Frigate as my NVR, I just need a way to distribute the view.

  • Why VLC and not just through a browser?

    This was the preferred solution originally. At the time of writing this, no modern browsers directly supports an RTSP feed. I ran assorted tests using FFMPEG to transcode RTSP to M3U8 so I could play the stream using html5. The result was terrible latency. Even worse, while the stream worked on my desktop, the Beelink I'm using for the display wouldn't even attempt to play it via Chromium in Kiosk mode under Wayland.

  • Enable VLC Logging with the following flags:

      -log-verbose=2 --file-logging --logfile=/home/vlcuser/vlc.log