FAQ

This FAQ is for specific Galleon issues. For any general HME or TiVo issues, it is recommended that you explore the TiVo Community Forum or the TiVo Customer Support.

  1. What is the JRE?
    The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a technology developed by Sun Microsystems that allows programs that are written in the Java programming language to run on different operating systems. The Galleon program can run on any operating system that has at least a 1.4.2 JRE.
  2. The JRE installation fails during the Galleon installation
    If you have older versions of the JRE installed, remove all of them and reboot. If you already have the 1.5 JRE installed, you can uncheck the option in the Galleon installation wizard.
  3. Outdated Java
    It is recommended that you use the latest 1.5 JRE. To determine the current version of your JRE installation, hit the Windows-key and R, enter cmd /k java -version and hit OK. If your version is not the latest, uninstall every Java you may find in Start->Settings->Control panel->Add/remove Programs (for Windows) Reboot your PC. Use a tool such as RegCleaner to clean the Windows registry after uninstalling old Java versions. Get the latest version of the JRE from Sun and install it on your system.
  4. Can Galleon run with the TiVo Desktop?
    Yes, Galleon and the TiVo Desktop software can run on the same PC.
  5. Which ports do Galleon use?
    Galleon needs access to the following ports for it to work
    • 1099 (TCP): Used for Java RMI for letting the configuration GUI talk to the server.
    • 7288 (TCP: Used for accessing the applications on the local network.
    • 5353 (UDP): Used for multicast DNS (Rendevouz) protocol.
    • 1527 (TCP): Used by the embedded database.
    • 2190 (UDP): Used by the HMO protocol for ToGo Back.
    • 8081 (TCP): Used by the HMO protocol for ToGo Back.
    The firewall on your PC needs to be configured to allow traffic on these ports. If you do not have a firewall on you PC, then you do not have to configure anything for these portst to work. If these ports are not available, Galleon will attempt to use the next available port. You should not have to configure your router for these ports, since that would pose a security risk.
  6. TiVo Desktop can see my TiVo but Galleon doesn't show on TiVo
    The TiVo Desktop and Galleon uses totally different network protocols to communicate with your TiVo recorder. Galleon and other HME applications usually dont appear on your TiVo if your firewall is not configured properly. It is sometimes necessary to first start Galleon and then reboot your TiVo to see the Galleon applications. Try the TiVo HME Quickstart demos to confirm that HME apps work on your TiVo.
  7. The apps disappear from my TiVo frequently
    Make sure that your routing hardware is capable of supporting the protocol that HME uses: multicast DNS (also known as rendevouz). Try to restart your TiVo while Galleon is running. Upgrade the firmware of your network hardware to the latest versions.
  8. I have multiple network interface cards and TiVo does not show Galleon:
    Java might not choose your private network interface address as the default. What is needed is to determine the IP address of the network interface of your private network. Configure the server in the GUI with your private network interface address.
  9. How do I restart the Galleon service?
    Go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services
  10. How do I run other HME apps with Galleon?
    • Copy the jar file of the app into the Galleon "hme" directory. For apps in the TiVo SDK, this will be the samples.jar file.
    • Add an entry for the new app in the launcher.txt file. When you open the launcher.txt file in a text editor, you should see something like the following: 
      #com.tivo.hme.samples.music.Music music 
#com.tivo.hme.samples.weather.Weather 
#com.tivo.hme.samples.skullbones.SkullBones 
#com.tivo.hme.samples.videobackground.VideoBackground 
#com.tivo.hme.samples.effects.Effects 
#com.tivo.hme.samples.tictactoe.TicTacToe
      A '#' symbol means that the line it begins should be ignored by Galleon (or the HME SDK launcher program). This is referred to by programmers as a 'commented out' line. Some of the lines are plain english comments providing information about what the file and commands in the file do. Some are actual commands. Removing the # from the beginning of the line "uncomments" it, and allows Galleon to 'see' it and, subsequently to execute the command.
    • Restart the Galleon service.
  11. Other HME apps dont work in Galleon
    Galleon uses the latest version of the TiVo HME libraries. The HME apps will only work if they have been compiled against these libraries. Contact the developer of the app for the latest version.
  12. Do I need to uninstall Galleon to upgrade to the next version?
    No, the Galleon installation wizard can upgrade existing installations. All of you configuration settings will be kept.
  13. Galleon isnt working; how do I found out what is wrong?
    Galleon keeps several logs in the Galleon logs directory. By default these logs only record interesting information and errors. You can enable more detailed debug information by using the File/Properties menu option in the Galleon configuration GUI.
  14. The logs show errors about port not being available
    Enable the ports needed by Galleon on your PC's firewall.
    Use the     FPort tool to determine what process has grabbed these ports and close that program.
  15. How do I cut-and-paste URL's into the configuration GUI?
    The standard Windows edit shortcuts are supported
    • Copy: Ctrl+C
    • Paste: Ctrl+V
  16. I want to reinstall Galleon but I dont want to loose my configuration settings
    All of the configuration settings are stored in the file configure.xml in the Galleon conf directory. You can make a backup of that file, uninstall and then reinstall Galleon. Then stop the Galleon service, copy the configuration file back and restart Galleon.
  17. Galleon doesnt work with MP3 files on a network share
    The Galleon service does not run under your user account. The Galleon service will not be able to see any mapped drives you may have. You can change the user that Galleon uses to run under or you can give the Galleon service account permissions to access the share. The preferred way of referring to network shares are: \\pc\share
  18. The iTunes plugin does not work:
    The iTunes library defaults to: "C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml" (Windows) Where {user} is your username. The path needs to point to the iTunes playlist library file. If you have moved your user settings to another location, you will have to edit the default path.
  19. TiVo plays an error message when I try to listen to streaming radio stations. The streaming audio doesn't work. There are several possible reasons
    • The format of the stream is not supported. Only MP3 streams are currently supported by TiVo.
    • An unexpected error occurred while accessing the remote server. Try again later.
  20. When I try to listen to a station on www.shoutcast.com, I get the following message: Too many requests. Try again tomorrow.
    Shoutcast sends this response when someone at your location has attempted to tune into more than 600 stations in a 24 hour period. Unfortunately, Shoutcast defines your location to be anybody from your class C network! To reduce the chances of this happening, the Galleon Shoutcast app is configured to only request a maximum of 20 stations per reload period which is defaulted to once a day. You can read this discussion about the issue.
  21. The Shoutcast listings never show the stations I am interested in:
    The Shoutcast module will only download the top 20 stations in each genre you have selected as listed on www.shoutcast.com. As an alternative you can create .m3u or .pls playlist files with the URLs of your favorite online stations. These playlists can then be added to the Galleon music or playlist apps.
  22. The internet image are out of date. The internet images arent using the reload value I have specified:
    All of the internet content are placed in a queue and are scheduled based on the global server reload value or the reload value for each item in the configuration file. Galleon will attempt to download the internet content as close to the reload period as possible. However, the download times can be affected by many factors including
    • the speed/quality of your local network,
    • the speed/quality of your internet connection,
    • how busy Galleon is,
    • how busy the PC server is that Galleon is running on,
    • the accuracy of the date on your PC,
    • the regularity at which the remote web site publishes the images.
  23. XP service pack 2:
    The internal firewall blocks Galleon from working. There is no notification of any sort, despite the box being checked that asked for notification. Created an exception for TCP port 7288.
  24. The Galleon service does not want to start:
    To test whether your Galleon installation is correct, disable the Galleon service and then run Galleon directly at the command prompt:
    C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\run.cmd
  25. The Galleon service does not want to start: The logs complains about service already installed
    Uninstall the Galleon service using the following script:
    C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\uninstall.cmd
    Re-install the Galleon service using the following script:
    C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\install.cmd
  26. I edited the configuration file but Galleon didnt pick up the changes:
    If you edit the configure.xml file directly you have to restart Galleon manually. If you use the GUI to make configuration changes, all the changes are saved to the configuration file and take immediate effect without requiring a restart.

  27. I cant get the Windows installation wizard to run:
    Try and install Galleon without the installation wizard. Download the zipped version of Galleon.
    Extract the files into:
    C:\Program Files\Galleon
    Install the JRE.
    Add the JRE bin directory to the SYSTEM PATH environment variable.
    Run the following script to install Galleon as a service under NT/XP:

    • C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\install.cmd
    • Start the Galleon service using Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, "Galleon", right-click, Start. OR for older versions of Windows:
      C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\run.cmd
  28. Why do the thumbnails show up so slowly:
    It depends on what kind of photos you are viewing. If they were imported from a digital stills camera then Galleon will use the thumbnail generated by the camera. If Galleon cannot find the thumbnail, then it has to generate the thumbnail by scaling the entire image in real time which is much slower. Once the thumbnail is created, it is cached and subsequent views are significantly faster.

  29. I am getting a lot of "out of memory" errors in the logs:
    You can play with the memory allocation by editing the following text file:
    C:\Program Files\Galleon\conf\wrapper.conf
    There are two settings you can change:

    wrapper.java.initmemory=64
    wrapper.java.maxmemory=64
    I suggest you increase the initmemory to 64 and the maxmemory to 128. Restart the Galleon service after you made the changes.

  30. The JRE installation program is hanging:
    This is usually caused by another instance of the Java JRE running. Those will appear as either "Java" or "Javaw" in the list of processes. It is recommended to kill those processes if you experience installation problems.
  31. How do I determine the current version of Galleon:
    The version is displayed in the configuration GUI. The configuration file also has the current version.
  32. After running the installation wizard, TiVo does not show the Galleon menu options:
    It all depends on how your network is configured to allow the protocol from Galleon to get to your TiVo. Try to ping your TiVo from your computer. If that doesn't work then you have a network or firewall problem. Make sure if you have XP that the built-in firewall (or any firewall such as Zone Alarm) isn't blocking traffic on your LAN. You can explicitly configure your IP Address using the server option in the Galleon configuration GUI. Consult the TiVo support on networking issues.
  33. The installation wizard complains: The Galleon Service could not be installed:
    The installation wizard was not designed for Windows 98 and Windows ME, so you will have to make a few manual changes. Firstly, after you have run the installation program, you need to rename the following file:
    C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\run.cmd
    to
    C:\Program Files\Galleon\bin\run.bat
    You also might have to make the DOS environment size larger. If you create a desktop shortcut for run.bat, you should be able to change it there. The easiest thing to do is bring up the properties of your DOS window by clicking on the right mouse in the title bar. Then goto the Memory Tab. Increase the Initial Environment to something like 2048 or 4096 or something. Quit the DOS window and re-start it. Trying rebooting if it still doesn't work. If after rebooting it still doesn't work modify your config.sys's SHELL= line to: SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /P /E:XXXX
    where XXXX is 1024, 2048 or 4096 and reboot your computer. The objective here is to increase your environment just enough to allow Java to run without wasting memory so you want to pick the lowest number that will allow you to run.
  34. The configuration data has all kinds of weird characters which I cannot read:
    The values in the XML file is URL encoded to allow for special characters to be used which clash with the XML standard. There are many online resources which you can use to URL decode the values.
  35. Why is the Windows installer program so large? (32MB):
    The Windows installer also includes the Sun JRE (16MB).
  36. The organizer is not picking up my new MP3 files:
    The organizer caches the MP3 tag data and will periodically refresh the cache.
  37. Developing your own apps:
    The Galleon source code includes a file called "Developers.txt" which explains how to create your own apps. The best way to learn to code a app is to look at the code of an existing app that is close to what you have in mind.
  38. Could not update Galleon server:
    If you press the Apply button in the configuration GUI, you get the message: "Count not update Galleon server" This means that the GUI could not communicate with the Galleon server. Check that the Galleon service is running.
  39. How do I port Galleon to another platform:
    The Galleon source code includes distribution configuation files for Linux and OS X that was used for JavaHMO. The Galleon forums also have discussions by users who have attempted porting the code to various platforms.
  40. The email plugin does not work:
    The email app will only download mail that has been flagged as unread/new by the mail server. Also if you have another client pointing to the same account, for some protocols, that client might cause the new email not to be flagged anymore. Check that you have specified the correct address for the email server. The server address must not include any protocol information such as: http://someserver.com. If the log indicates an authentication error, then it is likely that either the username or password is incorrect for the email account. The current version of the email plugin does support secured connections. If you download your mail from the mail server with your regular email program, you must tell it to leave a copy on the server. Otherwise, the plugin will never display any incoming email.
  41. The Audio organizer takes forever to finish:
    The organizer needs to read the ID tags of each MP3 file in your collection. For very large collections this will take some time. After all of the tags have been read, the files then have to be categorized and sorted. The tag information is cached and will only be refreshed when the reload period expires.
  42. The internet images plugin does not work:
    Confirm that the URL you have configured does load in a browser on the PC that is running Galleon. The URL must point to the address of an image and NOT a web page.
  43. The RSS plugin does not work:
    Confirm that the URL you have configured does load in a browser on the PC that is running Galleon. The URL must point to the address of valid RSS feed. The plugin currently supports the following standards: RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.0 / RDF, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3
  44. Why does the wrapper.log has the following entries: Unable to execute Java command. The system cannot find the file specified. (0x2) / Unrecognized VM option '+UseAdaptiveSizePolicy'
    It probably means that your JRE is not installed correctly. To test that it is correct, open a command prompt and type the following command:
    java -version
    The response should show the JRE version 1.5.0 without any errors. If not, check that the bin directory of the JRE is in the system PATH environment variable, for example for Windows: PATH=C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.5.0_03\bin";%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%
    Otherwise, reinstall the JRE.
  45. The logs contain these kinds of errors: de.vdheide.mp3.ID3Exception, de.vdheide.mp3.FrameDamagedExceptions
    This means that an mp3 file is corrupted in some way.
  46. The logs contain these kinds of errors: java.io.IOException: Too many open files
    You have exceeded the capacity of the server. Try organizing the files into subdirectories.
  47. My wireless network looses the Galleon apps: Try Galleon for Beginners
  48. How to configure Galleon on a headless system?
    It is possible to remotely configure Galleon. Simply append the IP address of the PC running Galleon to the command to launch the configuration GUI.
  49. I get a file not found error for GoBack video files:
    Thats the standard error message the recorder will give for every possible error that could occur. It usually doesnt mean it could find the file, it is most likely that the file is not in the correct format.
  50. What is the TiVo timeout that can be configured from the Server Properties dialog in the configuration GUI?
    TiVo added a timeout feature in 7.2 which will jump back to live TV after 15 mins of inactivity in an HME app. HME apps need to respond to the timeout to tell TiVo not to timeout. This is useful as a screensaver, but some folks have TV's where screen burn is not a problem, so they can use this option to disable timeouts. By default if you have enabled the music player screensaver, Galleon will not allow TiVo to timeout to live TV while you are playing music. If the app is anywhere else, like on a menu and the timeout occurs and you have not disabled the option, then Galleon will allow TiVo to timeout.
  51. The email app doesnt work with Gmail?
    The Email app support Gmail. Make sure that you have enabled POP access in the Gmail settings. Also, you need to use the POP3S protocol. You username needs to be you full Gmail address.
  52. The Galleon data is out of sync with my system.
    Galleon will regularly interrogate your system to keep its information about your media files in sync. Wait for several hours to see if the problem gets fixed by itself. If not, you can reset the Galleon database by stopping the Galleon service, deleting everthing under the Galleon data directory and then restarting the Galleon service.
Copyright © Leon Nicholls 2005