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NymphCast GUI Setup Guide

NymphCast GUI (NC-G) is a configuration of the NymphCast receiver that supports the playback of all media content, including video output, while also displaying a GUI that allows for the direct selection of media content shared using the NymphCast MediaServer.

This document covers the steps required to set up a NymphCast GUI receiver system.

Features of NymphCast GUI

When the receiver is configured in NC-G mode, the following features are supported:

  • Playback of all media content.
  • Control with NymphCast clients (including the Player).
  • NC-G GUI window is shown when playback is not active.
  • EmulationStation functionality.
  • NymphCast Apps.

The audio and video playback quality and other details are dependent on the underlying hardware.

Requirements

In order to set up an NC-G system, the following hardware and software requirements have to be met:

  • System running a supported operating system (Linux, Windows, others are experimental).
  • Audio and video output (including hardware acceleration) configured in the OS.

For detailed requirements, see the Compiling NymphCast Server manually documentation.

Binary installer

For Raspberry Pi single-board computers (SBCs) a binary installer (for legacy Buster & current Bullseye) is provided on the 'Releases' page. These are .tar.gz files containing the binary files for NymphCast Server and dependencies.

Simply extract the archive and run the contained install.sh script:

tar -xvf nymphcast_server-<version>-<platform>.tar.gz
cd nymphcast
chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

During this process any needed dependencies will be downloaded and installed using Debian's package manager.

The installer will also ask whether to install a systemd service for NymphCast service, and ask which mode to configure the service for. For GUI mode, choose gui here.

GUI configuration

When setting up NymphCast server for the (experimental) GUI mode, the necessary resource files (in the .emulationstation folder) are by default located under src/server. This can be overridden in two ways:

  1. Copy the src/server/.emulationstation folder to the home folder (~/) of the user running NymphCast Server.
  2. Pass the path to the folder containing the .emulationstation folder as a command line option.

Note: In order for shared media files and the NymphCast entry in the GUI to show up, at least one NymphCast MediaServer instance must be active on the same network and sharing files.

Setup: Linux

These instructions are targeted at Linux-based systems, as well as Linux-compatible environments, such as MacOS and BSD. NymphCast has been tested on:

  • Debian-based distros (e.g. Ubuntu, Mint, Raspberry Pi OS)
  • Arch-based distros (e.g. Manjaro)
  • Alpine-based

1. Download the project

To use the current development version, use Git to clone the project, or obtain an archive of the project. To quickly get an archive file and extract it, use the following commands. This downloads a copy of the latest revision, extracts them to a folder and moves the command line into that folder:

wget https://github.com/MayaPosch/NymphCast/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
tar -xvf master.zip
cd master

2. Run installer

Inside the root of the NymphCast project folder, we find the install_linux.sh file, which is a shell script that can be executed to start the installation process, as well as the compilation of the project if needed:

./install_linux.sh

This will:

  1. Install any dependencies required.
  2. Compile NymphCast Server (if not compiled already).
  3. Install NymphCast Server.
  4. Install a system service (systemd/OpenRC) to auto-start the NymphCast Server.

During the installation, the question is asked which configuration of NC to use. Choose gui here to get the NC-G configuration.

Alternatively, it's also possible to compile the server separately, and optionally install it and the associated system service:

./setup.sh
cd src/server
sudo make install
sudo make install-systemd (or install-openrc)

By default, the generic nymphcast_config.ini configuration is installed. Either edit this file to match one of the other provided configuration files, or copy it over (and renaming).

Setup: Windows (with MSYS2)

These instructions are targeted at Windows platforms that have the MSYS2 environment installed.

1. Download the project

To use the current development version, use Git to clone the project, or obtain an archive of the project. To quickly get an archive file and extract it, use the following commands. This downloads a copy of the latest revision, extracts them to a folder and moves the command line into that folder:

wget https://github.com/MayaPosch/NymphCast/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
tar -xvf master.zip
cd master

2. Compile

Inside the root of the NymphCast project folder, we find the setup.sh file, which is a shell script that will install any required dependencies and compile the server:

./setup.sh

After this, the nymphcast_server.exe binary can be found in the src/server/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32 folder or similar, depending on the exact MSYS2 shell used.

Other platforms

  • The NymphCast Server is experimentally supported on MacOS, though there may be issues with some dependencies (installed via HomeBrew).
  • On BSD, GNU Make must be used. No automated dependency installation is provided yet.