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Linux Homevision

The Linux HomeVision project is intended to provide all the functions of the existing windows HomeVision software for those users that prefer to run Linux as their operating system. In addition, some existing features have been improved and many new features have been added. Details can be found by clicking the new features link on the left side of the page.

Requirements

I have tested and used the program on SuSE Linux 7.3, kernel 2.4.20 but see no reason why it should not work on other i386 linux versions.

The program is a byte-compiled tcl/tk script. Because of problems with the serial port access in earlier versions of Wish, you need version 8.3, patchlevel 8.3.2 or later or version 8.4, patchlevel 8.4.1 to use the program. The tcl/tk home is the Tcl Developer Xchange. If you don't want to compile your own tcl/tk, you can download the ActiveTcl binaries or get the appropriate Tclkit for your platform.

Installation

With wish or tclkit installed on your system, installing the HomeVision software is easy:
  • Download the homevision.tgz file from the download page and place it in a temporary directory (eg. /tmp). You may also want to download the LinuxHV Help System and one or more plugins.
  • Create a directory for the HomeVision software. This can be a system directory for multiple users to access the HomeVision controller (eg. /opt/hv), or just a directory in a single user's home space (eg. ~/hv): mkdir -p /opt/hv.
  • Change to the new directory: cd /opt/hv.
  • Un-tar the homevision.tgz file: tar zxvf /tmp/homevision.tgz.
    The tarbal unpacks into the following directory structure:
    • bin
      • hv
      • desktop
    • lib
      • homevision.prg
      • libtbcload1.4.so
  • Optionally un-tar the hvhelp.tgz file in the same location.
  • Run the homevision executable: /opt/hv/bin/hv.
  • A desktop communication tool similar to the Windows HV Desktop utility is also available. It is called desktop and can be found in the bin directory.
Note: The script expects the wish executable to be located in /usr/bin. If this is not the case in your linux setup, you can use a plain text editor to change the path in the first line of the bin/hv script. Alternatively you can pass the script as an argument to wish or tclkit, ie.:

wish /opt/hv/bin/hv
    or
tclkit /opt/hv/bin/hv

Installing a plugin is pretty much the same story:

  • Download the plugins you want to use.
  • If you downloaded the web plugin, un-tar it in the same directory where you put the homevision software: tar -C /opt/hv zxvf /tmp/webplugin.tgz.
  • Other plugins were not packaged with a specific sub directory name included in the file path names, so they should be unpacked in the /opt/hv/plugin or the ~/hvplugin directory.
Here's an icon you can use if you want to make an application link for easily starting the HomeVision software.

LinuxHV and HomeVision-Pro

All the information about differences between HomeVision and HomeVision-Pro I could get my hands on has been incorporated into the software. So, at least in theory, the tool should support the HomeVision-Pro. However, I don't have the possibility to check this for a fact myself. If somebody with a HomeVision-Pro is bold enough to give it a try, I would love to hear about their experience.

LinuxHV for Windows

 As mentioned earlier LinuxHV is written in tcl/tk. Because tcl/tk is a cross-platform scripting language, only a little extra effort was needed to make it possible to run the software under Windows as well. Some features may not be working under Windows, but at least the main functionality is available.

It may sound a bit strange to mention the possibility to run LinuxHV under Windows. After all, Custom Solutions Inc. provides Windows software for the HomeVision controller for free on their download page. However, the LinuxHV software has some capabilities that may be useful for Windows users as well. To use one of the additional features like multi-line copy/paste or object reordering, you can run LinuxHV and open a HomeVision schedule file that was created with the standard HomeVision software. After performing the desired action and saving the modified schedule it can be read back in the original HomeVision software to be used as normal.

Note: The LinuxHV Help System does not work on Windows.

Installing LinuxHV for Windows

To run LinuxHV under Windows, you need the following elements:

Installation procedure:
  1. Install tcl, if necessary.
  2. Unzip the LinuxHV software in a directory of your choice.
  3. When using TclKit, place the tbcload14.dll in the lib subdirectory of the LinuxHV directory.
  4. make a shortcut that runs <path_to_wish>\wish <path_to_linuxhv>\bin\hv (replace wish with tclkit if you are using TclKit).
Last modified: 3 October 2003, 21:32 CEST