Arch Linux

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

I'm a fan of football and ice-hockey and I like watching live matches via P2P TV. In times when I was using mainly Mandriva, I had some apps installed on that system, QSopCast, TVUPlayer and TVAnts among them. The latter two via WINE of course. I didn't have any problems with making them work, but it all changed on Arch...

Let's consider "the QSopCast case". I installed it from [community] via Pacman. The program seems to be properly configured, and the only change it required was a new URL for the channel list.

On my former Mandriva system that was all I had to do in order to make it work, but not on Arch. Every time I choose a channel from the list and try to launch it, it only says "Connecting..." for various amount of time

Sometimes after several seconds the status changes, but progress bar always points 0% and I never managed to open any channel in any player I possess

My first thought was that probably my firewall is blocking required ports, so my next step was to open them up. I found on the net, that SopCast uses TCP ports from 3900 to 3920 and I opened them in Guarddog.

Unfortunately it didn't do the job. Some people say that Guarddog is nasty and often creates some unnecessary issues, so I shut it down, but in vain

The same problem I have with another front-end of SopCast, namely gsopcast. Also TVUPlayer doesn't work, although at start it seems everything works O.K, but when I try to open channel's stream in any player I choose, it doesn't play

I've run out of ideas Could anyone help with with an advice? Maybe I'm making a silly mistake which I simply don't notice. Any suggestions are much appreciated as Stanley Cup finals approach rapidly

Last edited by Zibi1981 (2008-05-13 21:26:44)

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"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

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fatlarry

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 31

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

Just a thought: take a look at hosts.deny and hosts.allow and see if there's nothing wrong there. I understand Arch is using these more strictly than others

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

Below is the content of /etc/hosts.allow

#
# /etc/hosts.allow
#

# End of file

and here - /etc/hosts.deny

#
# /etc/hosts.deny
#

ALL: ALL: DENY

# End of file

Does this ring any bell? What do you suggest?

---

"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

MSI Raider GE78HX 13VI-032PL

fatlarry

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 31

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

Your hosts.deny basically says to forbid any other computer to use your X display; can't remember more, sorry, but we may be onto something here. Can you take a look to the same files on the box where this used to work and try those settings?

If you have a gateway on your router, I would also temporarily put that IP in hosts.allow, BUT I AM NOT big on security, this would probably be more of a kludge to test it rather than a good/right thing to do

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

I don't know if it's a good idea to copy and paste the settings which worked on Mandriva. Arch is quite different in many aspects so it not only might not work but also could lead to unexpected problems. Here are they anyway

/etc/hosts.allow

#
# hosts.allow    This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#        allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#        by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#

/etc/hosts.deny

#
# hosts.deny    This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#        *not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#        by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
# The portmap line is redundant, but it is left to remind you that
# the new secure portmap uses hosts.deny and hosts.allow.  In particular
# you should know that NFS uses portmap!

Maybe someone more experienced could help?

---

"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

MSI Raider GE78HX 13VI-032PL

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

I tried to allow any hosts by putting "#" before ALL: ALL: DENY in /etc/hosts.deny, but it didn't help with the matter Anyone could help me with this?

---

"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

MSI Raider GE78HX 13VI-032PL

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

I don't believe this...there aren't any Arch Linux users who would know how to help me with this? No one reading this board is using SopCast or any other P2P-TV application?

---

"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

MSI Raider GE78HX 13VI-032PL

pressh

Developer/TU

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2005-08-14

Posts: 1,719

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

I don't believe this...there aren't any Arch Linux users who would know how to help me with this? No one reading this board is using SopCast or any other P2P-TV application?

First of all, there is nothing wrong with your hosts.allow and hosts.deny files. Sopcast should work fine with the files as you have them.

So why does it not connect? I'm not sure actually Have you tried running sopcast with your firewall down ? (yes it is not very secure but just so we know if it is, or is not due to your firewall).

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

Here's what I wrote about it above

Some people say that Guarddog is nasty and often creates some unnecessary issues, so I shut it down, but in vain

So I guess that it isn't a firewall issue, unless Guarddog is more nasty I thought it to be and blocks some traffic even when shut down.

---

"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

MSI Raider GE78HX 13VI-032PL

pressh

Developer/TU

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2005-08-14

Posts: 1,719

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

Here's what I wrote about it above

Some people say that Guarddog is nasty and often creates some unnecessary issues, so I shut it down, but in vain

So I guess that it isn't a firewall issue, unless Guarddog is more nasty I thought it to be and blocks some traffic even when shut down.

O sorry I must have missed that line. I'm afraid I don't have any clue what's happening for you as it is not your /etc/host.deny file (I have gsopcast working with the same line), it's appears not to be your firewall (I have no idea how guarddog works but I don't think it can block your traffic when it is not running), and your internet connection seems to be working normally I suppose.

Zibi1981

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-01-31

Posts: 644

Re: Cannot make any P2P-TV program work

Yes, my Internet connection works great on all operating systems I use at the moment. How is it possible that even a single P2P-TV application isn't working on Arch, while all of them run great on Mandriva and Windows XP? It's still a great mystery and trouble to me...

---

"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed."

MSI Raider GE78HX 13VI-032PL