The realisation of a room sized all-Linux Access Grid node has been hampered by the need to use software designed to run under Windows to configure the echo canceller. The ClearOne company (formerly Gentner) provides GWARE software to configure its XAP400 echo canceller. The GWARE software is designed to run on various Windows platforms, whereas we would like to run it on the GNU/Linux platform.
Previously, builders of all-Linux AG nodes using the XAP400 have needed to have a spare Windows machine on hand to run the GWARE software whenever some adjustment to the XAP400 configuration was required.
An alternative approach has been to install VMware Workstation for Linux (from VMware) on the Linux based display machine, which can then host a Windows installation into which the GWARE software is installed. While this approach is quite robust and useable, it may not always be suitable; both the Windows and VMware software should be appropriately licensed (at some cost). Furthermore, installations using Xen to simulate a multi-machine node are not currently able to host the additional Windows OS needed to install GWARE.
This project aims to enable GWARE to run under WINE, an Open Source implementatin of the Windows API running on Linux. Documentation available here consists of:
These documents detail the methods used here at UQ Vislab, where the system is currently being evaluated on our experimental AG node. While the GWARE software has now been running without issue for some time, potential users should regard it as beta software.Other Clearone products
ClearOne's GWARE software is intended to apply to their XAP800
hardware,
as well as the XAP400. In the absence of an XAP800 here for testing, we
are
unable to confirm whether the same methods can be applied to it.
Similarly, ClearOne's AP-WARE software is intended to configure their AP400 and AP800 hardware. Although we are able to run the AP-WARE software itself using the methods described here, we don't have either the AP400 or AP800 available on site for testing.
In this testing phase, any reports of success or problems would be appreciated (to ag-tech@mcs.anl.gov email list).