EarthLink Conference Manager

UNIX/Linux Conference Manager

The UNIX version of Conference Manager is distributed in source code form and is intended for UNIX-savvy users. It is compatible with Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD.

Requirements

Working vic
- Linux
  linux_binaries.tar.gz
- Solaris
  vic-2.8-solaris2.4.tar.gz - For use with Sunvideo video capture cards
  vic-osprey-sol2.4.tar.gz - For use with Osprey video capture cards
Wish (Tcl/Tk) installed: http://tcl.sourceforge.net
Sox or other tool providing a sox-compatible 'play' command (required for notification and event sounds): http://www.spies.com/Sox/

Download

Download the UNIX/Linux version of Conference Manager from the link below:

confmgr-ext-v0.4.52-source.tar.gz

Installation

Extract the above tarball to a temporary directory and from that directory, run the following commands:

  make

  su
  make install

You will also need to ensure the /usr/local/confmgr directory is writable by your user ID.

See 'install-avl1cli.sh' script for specifics of what gets installed where.

It will not overwrite existing rtpaudio and rtpvideo scripts in /usr/local/confmgr (if any).

This version creates a "wrapped" binary, but still uses your installation of 'wish' at run-time. You may need to modify the run_wish.c code if your version of wish is not in /usr/local/bin/wish.

Configuration

The software uses scripts to start the multimedia tools. They are named rtp$MEDIA where MEDIA is video, audio, or whiteboard. A script called 'rtpaudio' starts the audio tool. The script that starts the video tool is called 'rtpvideo' and the script that starts whiteboard is called 'rtpwhiteboard'. By default, these start vic, vat, and wb. You may have to modify these scripts to work properly with the multimedia tools installed on your platform. These scripts are invoked with three aguments as follows:

The name of the conference
The full-name of the user
The IP address and port of the destination, given as IP/port

The first two are optional. If the media tool does not support them, things should still work. The "name of the conference" is usally displayed in the title of the window and the full user name is a nickname associated with the stream. The third argument is required and all multimedia tools support it. Most tools will work if just given the third aurgument in the script, e.g.:

  #!/bin/sh
  cd /usr/local/confmgr
  exec rat $3 >>rtpaudio.out 2>&1
  exit 2

See the default 'rtpaudio' and 'rtpvideo' scripts for more information. The software invokes the command 'play' to play audio files for producing event sounds. The 'play' command included in the sox package works, or you may provide a different tool as required for your audio hardware. The software invokes the command 'openurl' to open a web page url in a browser window. An example script might be:

    #!/bin/sh

    # usage: openurl url
    #
    # Opens a new netscape window with the url inside
  
    if [ $# -ne 1 ] ; then
      echo "usage: openurl url" >&2
      echo "got ${#}: $*" >&2
      exit 1
    fi
    x=`echo "$1" | sed 's/,/%2c/g'`
    echo "netscape -raise -remote openURL($x,new-window)" 1>&2   
    netscape -raise -remote "openURL($x,new-window)" 
    exit 0

You must provide an 'openurl' script that works with your favorite installed browser in order to use the Help pages, for automatic updates, and to follow links in chat windows

Optional Media Tools

Conference Manager is highly functional with video only. If you wish to use audio and shared-whiteboard features, you will need additional multimedia tools (vat or rat for audio and wb or wbd for whiteboard). See http://www.research.earthlink.net/software/mbone/.

Note: We recommend using Conference Manager with video-only before attempting to install or use audio and shared-whiteboard features.