VM Audio Solution

When setting up VM access over ethernet using the AV Access device, I noted that one issue was the failure of my Harman Kardon Soundsticks to work with the system. Plugging them in to the receiver USB port would result in intermittent but regular screen blanking.

A few readers suggested additional power and I purchased a USB power/data cable, but that didn't work.

Next, I tried a cheap and cheerful external USB soundcard. I plugged this into the receiver and attached some powered speakers. This worked, in that my OSX VM recognised the device immediately and could play audio, but it was annoyingly distorted - just enough crackle & pop to distract.

Next, I tried attaching the USB soundcard directly to the (passed through) USB adapter on the unRaid box. I then passed the audio out to the AV Access transmitter audio in and attached the speakers to the receiver audio out.

Hey Presto, perfect audio*. No crackles, pops, noise or distortion. The lesson here is that with this method of video/IO/audio distribution, the soundcard needs to stay upstream. My SoundSticks are now moved to another workstation where they can be attached to that VMs USB adapter directly.

My final working audio chain is;

PCIe USB Adapter -> USB Audio Card -> AV Access TX Audio In -> AV Access RX Audio Out -> Speakers

*When I say 'perfect', I mean adequate for needs in that system sounds and youtube audio plays just fine. I wouldn't be using this set up for anything close to critical listening.

MediaServer 8.2

It’s been over 5 years since I built MediaServer8, an unRaid based system that looks after not only storage duties, but also hosts my main workstation, manages whole-house audio systems, whole house LiveTV and PVR, home automation and a bunch of other stuff through dockers, VMs and plugins.

The AMD FX8320 based system has been rock solid in all of that time. Indeed, the only problem I’ve ever had occurred in the past week when my dual 1TB spinners assigned to a cache pool started showing millions of unrecoverable BTRFS errors. Fortunately, I rescued my appdata and domains folders in time. My docker image was not so lucky :-(

A few months ago, the itch emerged and, try as I might, I found it difficult to resist the urge to scratch. There was nothing wrong with the system per se, but with ‘only’ 8 cores and 32GB RAM, it was a bit restrictive in the number of VMs I could run simultaneously, and no real scope for growth. I had a particular hankering to virtualise the dual boot Hackintosh the family use daily, as well as a few other utility systems. Threadripper was calling. Here’s how I answered....

Routing VMs anywhere

I'll start my saying that these things are freaking amazing!

I've been running a few VMs on my unRaid box for a while now. Specifically my main workstation (Win10 /OSX switchable), as well as some utility boxes.

One of the challenges has been physical location and signal transfer - my unRaid server resides in my attic and any VMs that required an interface (display & USB), would need to be located within the reach of a HDMI run.

This ruled out virtualising some systems, including a Win 10 / OSX dual boot hackintosh that's the main system the family uses. It's miles away from the server with no hope of running cables.

I'd toyed with HDMI over ethernet before, with little success. Recently, however, I came across the Av Access range of products...

OpenVPN via tethered connection - no root, no PC software installs

A while back, I'd installed an OpenVPN docker on my unRaid server to allow me access home systems remotely. It worked for a while, but recently I'd been unable to use it as a lot of computers I use away from home are locked down by corporate IT.

I'd installed OpenVPN client on my Android phone, thinking I could tether from a PC and access home systems that way. No dice. It turns out Android specifically restricts tethered connections accessing VPN connections due to security concerns. Workarounds are either root the android device, or install some kind of proprietary tethering. The first I didn't want to do, the second I couldn't as the PC does not permit software installs.

I was about to give up when I came across Every Proxy, a very simple android app that installs a https or SOCKS proxy server. Now, when I tether my android to PC (WiFi or USB), I can enter the proxy details in the browser config. and, hey presto, the PC can access the OpenVPN tunnel to my home server and I can access unRaid or any of my VMs (via vnc).


Yay!

UnRaid Not Accessible from Windows 10 Explorer

I recently updated a Windows 10 PC to the latest and greatest through auto updates. (currently Windows 10 Pro Build 1803). After doing so, I found I could not access UnRaid either by name or IP address. (Windows explorer was showing an unspecified errorcode Ox000 )

After a bit of GoogleFu and some trial and error, the following steps worked for me;

1. Run services.msc and set Function Discovery Resource Publication Service to automatic(and start it).
2. Enabled SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support under Control Panel ->Programes & Features -> Turn Windows features on and off.
3.  Run gpedit.msc and set Enable insecure guest logons to enabled (under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> Lanman Workstation.

I'm unsure if all of the above are necessary, but 3 was required for me after 1 & 2 solved the basic error. There may be other ways to solve this, the above worked for me.

The Grand Plan

Welcome to Mediaserver8, a place where I document my adventures in home automation and media serving - mostly for my own reference and future sanity!

I'm going to keep this post on top and maintain the overview schematic at Gliffy to offer an introduction to my HA system as it evolves. (Here's a direct link to a scalable version of this diagram).

Card

Read on for a detailed breakdown of this setup...