Vortexbox appliance - can I interact with it via a laptop

[dub01s]

Hi


I have a basic understanding of and use for computers. I have a laptop running XP and a DSL wireless router and a Logitech Squeezebox. I am considering the Vortexbox appliance to sit next to my Squeezebox and become part of my HiFi system, but I am wondering how I interact it with it.


Do I have buy a monitor, keyboard and mouse to plug into the Vortexbox appliance?


Can I interact/control it through my laptop?


regards


chris

[andrew]

The VortexBox appliance is designed to not need a monitor or keyboard. It has a web interface (GUI) that can be accessed from your laptop. You can also use an iPod touch (with ipeng) or a Logitech Controller connected to your wireless network to control what song is playing etc.

[HalfBit]

dub01s said:

Hi


I have a basic understanding of and use for computers. I have a laptop running XP and a DSL wireless router and a Logitech Squeezebox. I am considering the Vortexbox appliance to sit next to my Squeezebox and become part of my HiFi system, but I am wondering how I interact it with it.


Do I have buy a monitor, keyboard and mouse to plug into the Vortexbox appliance?


Can I interact/control it through my laptop?


regards


chris




Hi Chris,


As Andrew says, The VortexBox Appliance (VBA) does not need a monitor or keyboard as delivered. The VBA is a fine design. That said, if you follow some of the fixes, upgrades, and refinements suggested on this forum, you will need to load a terminal program (suggest PuTTY) on your XP machine (easy) and log on to the VBA over your network.


In a couple of instances for me, probably through my errors, It was necessary to download the VortexBox image from this site (an ISO), burn an equivalent image to a CD, and load that onto the VBA to restore its function. There are two things about that process you should consider:


1. All your music files on the VBA will be lost. You must have an external backup before you load the ISO, and you must copy the music back when the VBA is updated. It is all straight-forward, but takes time. You will want to keep regular music backups anyway to avoid having to rip the CDs again.


2. To load the ISO, you must have a monitor and keyboard connected to the VBA because it is an entirely local process. It cannot be done over the network. Any simple monitor and keyboard will do, but if you only have a laptop, and no other "spare" computer around to borrow from, you will need to get those pieces to load the ISO.


Andrew, please comment if I got any of the above wrong.

[andrew]

HalfBit, You have been using VortexBox for quite some time. At this point (as of VortexBox 0.9) you can do updates through the web interface. We are quicklly getting to the point where you should never need the console.

[HalfBit]

Andrew said:HalfBit, You have been using VortexBox for quite some time. At this point (as of VortexBox 0.9) you can do updates through the web interface. We are quicklly getting to the point where you should never need the console.



Andrew, I had VortexBox 0.9 installed and working when I did some operation that caused the web interface to play music to disappear. I work very carefully and do not believe I made errors, but you never know. Your recommended fix was to backup the music, download the ISO, burn the CD, install the CD with the monitor and keyboard, and then reinstall the music.


I look forward to the all-web maintenance and update methods when we never need the text TTY interface to Linux or a VBA-attached keyboard and monitor. I figured it would be valuable for Chris to know that as of now, those might be required and why.

[dub01s]

Thank you all for your responses to my questions. I'm almost sold on the vortexbox appliance.


To summarize: In normal everyday use I can control the vba from my laptop. If I have problem with the OS, then I will probably need to attach a monitor and keyboard to the vba.


I'm not keen on the idea of having to purchase a monitor. The vba would be located less than a metre from my plasma tv. The tv has an svideo and composite input on the front panel. I understand the vba has vga d-sub.


Would it viable to connect the vba to my tv via some sort of d-sub to svideo adaptor?


thanks again


Chris

[andrew]

Hooking VGA to composite requires an adapter. You don't want to go down that road. Most people never have to connect a monitor. Seems like if you had a problem and had to rebuild you could borrow a monitor from sombody.