Introduction
The following guide has been designed to help users install the Access Grid software on Fedora Core 6. It has been assumed that you will setup your display and audio devices yourself. This guide will not cover this process as it will vary from node to node, as it depends on hardware.
This guide has been designed so that both Linux proficient and non proficient users are able to install the Access Grid software on Fedora Core 6. It has however been assumed that your video/audio devices are working and supported by Fedora Core 6. If, once you installed and you try and use the Access Grid software, you think that the display/audio isn’t working correctly, we recommend you manually update your video/audio drivers or send an email to the Access Grid mailing list asking for assistance. Information regarding the Access Grid mailing list can be found at http://www.accessgrid.org/mailinglists. Another mailing list you might try is Grangenet Access Grid mailing list. Information regarding Grangenet’s mailing list can be found at http://lists.grangenet.net/mailman/listinfo/accessgrid-l. This guide has been divided into sections to help you navigate your way through the document. If you already have a RedHat Fedora Core 6 system running and updated you can skip down to the "Installation of the AccessGrid Software" section.
This installation guide has instructions on how to setup the Access Grid Toolkit on both single node and multi-node configurations. A single node configuration is where you have one machine which handles the entire workload. This machine will capture video, produce video and manage audio. This type of node configuration is generally used if you have a single capture device and connect to small AG sessions. A multi-node configuration is where multiple machines spread the workload for the running of an Access Grid. You may use one machine for each of the following functions, or use a combination of machines to perform the duties below:
- Capture of video
- Production of video
- Managing of audio
This type of node configuration is recommended if you have multiple capture devices and may participate in very large "virtual" meetings.
In regards to multi-node configurations this guide will refer to three different types of nodes; display, capture and audio nodes. The display node is the machine that generally displays the video feeds. The capture node is the machine that captures video through capture device/s. The audio node is the machine that handles all audio whether incoming or outgoing.
It should be noted that it is quite common for the functionality of display and audio to be performed on a single node. As the CPU requirements for capturing and sending audio is quite minimal. For the CQU AccessGrids, we use 2 computer nodes for our room based AccessGrids, a "Capture" node that performs the video capturing and sending of video and a "Display/Audio" hybrid node to perform the other duties of an AccessGrid. Therefore, when the terminology of an audio node is mentioned, it could also be referencing the display node as they are the same machine.
Additional information
For more information on Fedora core, it is suggested to visit the following websites: