Tooloop Open Media Server

announcements
#1

I am happy to announce that Tooloop, my open media server for public and live media installations, is now in alpha phase and ready to test.

Tooloop is an open media server framework.

  • a well defined range of industrial grade hardware.
  • a minimal Linux, customized for public multimedia installations.
  • a set of network management and monitoring tools.

It’s all open source and available on GitHub

You can run pretty much any Linux application on Tooloop OS but openFrameworks is specifically targeted and I would love to get your feedback before approaching a 1.0 release.

Many ideas of Tooloop OS are based on the article in the openframeworks book on keeping a linux installation up forever.

Project website:
www.tooloop.org

2 Likes
#2

Hi Daniel, great project!!

I just installed the tooloop on the virtual box and I have some question about:

  1. Where I should develop my OF apps? May I develop directly on Tooloop or should I chose an other Linux machine? In case, what development environment is the right one?

  2. Tooloop is at alpha stage. What should I watch out in terms? Which can be the unwanted behaviours?

Thanks!

Paolo

#3

I guess you have some options. You absolutely can develop on the machine itself.
If you want more comfort, like a proper window and file manager, you could also use a second development machine.

My personal setup looks like this:

I develop on my Mac but in my project folder, I also keep the linux make files next to the XCode project file.
In config.make, I set an absolute path, as OF_ROOT so the project can live outside of the OF installation folder:

OF_ROOT = /assets/presentation/openframeworks

Now I push my code to a local GIT repo and pull from that on the Tooloop Box. Now I can compile the project on Linux using make.

I would love to get OF people involved to discuss a suggested workflow that we can then add to the manual which is barey exisitng at the moment:
http://tooloop.org/Documentation/App%20Development/Openframeworks

It is missing comfort and documentation mainly.

Also things change. One thing, I am working on in a branch is creating a local Package repository so app bundles will in fact become .deb packages which can be installed using apt. Have a look: https://github.com/vollstock/Tooloop-Settings-Server/issues/4#issuecomment-418665340

Once that’s somewhat stable, I will have to ask the OF community to help turning OF in a .deb package which will then ship with Tooloop OS and installed automatically with your app. Also this way each OF app can ask for a specific OF version. Basically a future proof app store with dependncies and stuff :slight_smile:

I use Tooloop for my personal work. But apart from me barely anyone has tested it. It is far away from being a system hardened in the wild. The whole purpose of the project is to change that.

Having said all this, the things that are implemented work just fine. And once you have it up and running, it’s rock solid Linux workstation.