Author Archives: Ronileco

Fixing Kaltura CE5

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Kaltura CE is a great product in a lousy suite, it offers some of the most advanced and high end features for a video platform, it’s free and open sourced.

Back to our subject, the problem is with the suite, things like the installation script and installation process, the VMWare package and other small pieces that destroy the entire puzzle for the entire community.

Luckily, I have been installing quite a few of those and this post will show how to fix some very common errors and hopefully get you closer to your Kaltura CE working perfectly.

Installing Kaltura CE

  1. Download the svn package and use it rather then the VMware image, the latest might have other less common errors.
  2. Try to install: using the installation manual. Use “sudo” or root user to bypass some known issues.
  3. Take a close look of what’s written on the screen, the installation script does some preliminary checks for Kaltura prerequisites.
  4. Some of the most common missing prerequisites are:
    • Several modules in apache mostly the mod_cache_file, module rewrite and Memchached.
    • Pentaho or ETL packages.

    * You can see the prerequisites here.

  5. Check the installation log for errors. located on /kalturaCE_v5.0.0/ open the log file something like: install_log_12.06.2012_21.14.44, check to see if any errors occurred.
  6. If you see any errors, try to fix them and reinstall until the log is clean and you see installation success.

Making it work

Now after we know the installation is done for sure there are some common issues that usually arise.
One is where no analytics are present on the KMC, I’ve already written about it in this post.
Now we can check Kaltura log for fatal errors and common notices.

Checking the log

Kaltura API log is the main log we’re interested in. it’s located at /opt/kaltura/log/kaltura_api_v3.log, open it and examine it. use “shift + g” on less to go to bottom.

If you don’t see anything then you are okay, search the log file for “fatal” or “err” strings to see if there are any.

Now let’s take a closer look on the log.
Use “less /opt/kaltura/log/kaltura_api_v3.log”
Now take a look, you should see the occasional permission issue on permission id’s 571, 633 and 17.

Some thing like:
[kPermissionManager::addPartnerGroupAction] NOTICE: Permission item id [571] is not of type PermissionItemType::API_ACTION_ITEM but still defined in partner group permission id [117]

[kPermissionManager::addPartnerGroupAction] NOTICE: Permission item id [633] is not of type PermissionItemType::API_ACTION_ITEM but still defined in partner group permission id [117]

Those issues can be resolved and keep your log nice and clean by deleting two lines from the DB using the next steps:

  1. Log in to mysql console and use ‘kaltura’ DB:
    mysql -u root -p
    use kaltura; 
  2. delete the two buggy rows from the DB.
    delete from permission_to_permission_item  where permission_id = 117 and (permission_item_id = 633 or permission_item_id= 571);
    * You can select the rows before using:  select * from permission_to_permission_item  where permission_id = 117 and (permission_item_id = 633 or permission_item_id= 571);

I haven’t experienced any issues after this changed and it shouldn’t effect your system.

memcached module error

You might find other issues on you log like the memcached module. which is cache for PHP and apache, those aren’t critical errors but you want your cache to work.

If you see these error lines on kaltura_api_v3.log:
NOTICE: /opt/kaltura/app/infra/general/myCache.class.php line 39 – Memcache::connect(): Server Your.Server (tcp 11211) failed with: Connection refused (111)

WARN: /opt/kaltura/app/infra/general/myCache.class.php line 39 – Memcache::connect(): Can’t connect to Your.Server:11211, Connection refused (111)

To fix this just check closely that you have memcached module installed and loaded on your apache, you can see the memcached configurations on: /opt/kaltura/app/alpha/config/kConfLocal.php

If you still suffer issues check that your firewall is open for such connections, although it shouldn’t matter if you’re working on localhost.
Some helpful threads on memcached are:

I think that three errors on a single post are more then most can handle so I’ll stop here.

If you encounter any other issue or error, feel free to leave a comment below.

BBpress analytics adventures (WordPress forum)

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In the last 2 months or so, i’ve been crunching, debugging and developing on top of BBPress 2.0 and it has been an amazing ride.

To start with BBPress is a WordPress plugin, once installed takes your WordPress from a blogging management system to a robust forum system with all the basic features needed for a forum and tons of room for your imagination and features.
To see some examples on BBPress check the on{X} forum I’ve been working on or check BBPress showcases.

Forum landing page

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Kaltura Falcon SaaS Version Released

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In some exciting news, Kaltura has just released her sixth edition Falcon to their SaaS offering and now the count down for Kaltura CE 6.0 has started.

The new version includes a new KMC look, which is much more trendy and is totally driven by search, the buttons layout was improved and there is a lot more going on in the back end.

As for the community edition, Kaltura usually takes her time releasing the community editions. It takes couple of months to test, package, ship and write the much needed documentation.

Well… At least the count down has begun, and we’re all sitting at the edge of our sits waiting for CE 6.0

You can read more about Kaltura Flacon release on the official kaltura post.

Feel free to share your thoughts and experience with the new Kaltura Falcon.

Kaltura CE5 Analytics

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Kaltura CE is one of the best video management systems (VMS) and content management system (CMS) out there.
To start off it’s an open source project meaning it’s free and you get a really extensive system with all the features needed for a rich content project.
To find out more about it check Kaltura community site.

In a recent project of mine I was asked to fix some Kaltura analytics issues on CentOS release 6.2 (Final).

Recognize the problem

When you log in to the KMC Dashboard, you don’t see any analytic. After going in to the reports section no analytics can be found.

Kaltura CE5 Analytics Not Working Image

Kaltura CE5 Analytics Not Working

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Business and Pleasure

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Business and Pleasure, Pleasure and Business, should go together but rarely do.

To most people Business is the opposite of Pleasure, they tend to think of it as a dry subject, filled with flattery and politics and never fun.

Than there is Pleasure, which everybody loves and always gets you back to your latest vacation or time away from business.

I always believed business should go with pleasure, and pleasure with business this is how great things get done. When you love your business you’ll find pleasure in it, and if you find pleasure in something I suggest go and make it a business.

In the words of  a great business pleasured man Steve Jobs:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.“

This way everybody wins.

I’m currently pursuing after my love and passion, becoming an independent entrepreneur and a developer for things I want to do. Finding my way in the world.

The road is going to be rough, but I love what I do, and I get my pleasure from my business.

Things can’t get better than this.