• Registered: 2011-02-01
  • Posts: 15

Topic: Flash won't show on Infocast, but does on Chumby One

Just recently got both an Infocast and Chumby One to see what's possible with the devices. I created a very simple "hello world" flash file and named it "controlpanel.swf" and put it on a USB drive. When I boot with that drive on the Chumby One, it shows my "Hello world" just fine. But when I try the same drive on the Infocast, the screen just goes black after the Insignia boot screens.

Any ideas on why it would work on a Chumby One but not the Insignia?

In case it's needed, my SWF can be downloaded from:
http://www.zifty.com/images/HelloWorld.swf
It's saved as Flash 8/AS 2.0

The code is the same as the code on the Chumby flash development example.
http://wiki.chumby.com/mediawiki/index. … op/Example

My InfoCast is running SW 1.0.5.

BTW, I'm purposefully naming it controlpanel.swf because my ultimate goal is to write something to run in place of the control panel.

  • Registered: 2011-02-01
  • Posts: 15

Re: Flash won't show on Infocast, but does on Chumby One

I should add that if I ssh into the InfoCast and do stop-control-panel and then chumbyflashplayer.x -i HelloWorld.swf, it works. For some reason, just not as a replacement for the controlpanel.swf. Is there some other bit of initializing of the display or the flash player that the real controlpanel.swf does?

  • Registered: 2011-02-01
  • Posts: 15

Re: Flash won't show on Infocast, but does on Chumby One

Did figure something else out here.. If I boot with the USB drive, once it gets to the black screen (when my controlpanel.swf should be running), if I ssh in and run "switch_fb.sh 0", up pops my "hello world" flash program. But, it appears that once a minute, the InfoCast resets the display and it goes black again. Issuing yet another switch_fb.sh 0 gets it back, but only until the next reset.

Any ideas on how to fix this or work around it?

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,197

Re: Flash won't show on Infocast, but does on Chumby One

A movie that's masquerading as the Control Panel needs to do something to keep the system lockup watchdog at bay.

Basically, you need to write a small file every 15 seconds or so to let the system know that you're alive, otherwise the system will restart the Flash Player.  The watchdog watches the modification time of the file and will restart if it hasn't been touched in a minute.

This file is "/tmp/movieheartbeat" - you can use the ASnative to write files to simply write a "1", based on a setInterval() handler.  There's brief discussion about this in this post.

Another way to defeat the watchdog is to remove the file "/tmp/flashplayer_started".

I recommend taking a look at the script "/usr/chumby/scripts/start_control_panel".

Here's a helpful link, just in case you haven't discovered this page.  This is the file the Control Panel uses to do most of the low level things it needs to do to the system, and would be required to make a comprehensive Control Panel replacement.

Duane's Website