Install Broadsign Control Edge Server on Linux

Before installing Broadsign Control Edge Server on a computer with Linux, there are several steps that can be taken to ensure the installation proceeds quickly and efficiently.

Broadsign Control Edge Server is compatible with the following 64-bit Ubuntu versions:

Supported Linux Versions

  • Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 LTS (Minimum Install)
  • Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS (Minimum Install)
  • Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 LTS (Minimum Install)

Tip: See Ubuntu Release Cycle for official supported Ubuntu versions.

Ubuntu 22.04 Hardware Acceleration Differences

With the support of Ubuntu 22, the Broadsign Control hardware acceleration performance undergoes notable changes compared to Ubuntu 20 and earlier versions. The key differences are as follows:

  1. Supported Hardware:
    • Hardware acceleration is now supported on Comet/Ice/Amber Lake (NUC10) and subsequent models in Ubuntu 22. This is a significant enhancement compared to Ubuntu 20 and earlier versions.
  2. Performance Issues on Ubuntu 22:
    • Using hardware acceleration with 60 FPS video on older hardware, such as Comet/Ice/Amber Lake (NUC10) and earlier, may result in performance issues. Broadsign recommends to either disable hardware acceleration or opt for 30 FPS video playback.
    • On Kaby/Appollo Lake (NUC7) and earlier, Broadsign recommends to set the environment variable LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965, which will force Broadsign Control Player to use the Intel i965 driver.
    • For Coffee/Amber/Whiskey Lake (NUC7) and earlier, hardware acceleration is not functional for H265/HEVC video with high-depth color profiles, such as 10bit/channel 422.

The hardware acceleration issues mentioned above do not apply when hardware acceleration is disabled in the player's configuration, which is the default setting.

Tip: See Ubuntu Release Cycle for official supported Ubuntu versions.

We recommend you have the following behaviors enabled on your PC's BIOS:

  • Restart on failure – Recovers from an unexpected power failure.
  • Do not halt on failure – Allows the server to boot without a keyboard or mouse.

To deploy Broadsign Control Edge Server on Ubuntu, we recommend the following:

Partitioning

While deciding how to partition your hard drive, keep in mind that all Broadsign Control Edge Server files and content are kept in /opt/broadsign/ directory by default. We recommend that you maximize the amount of storage on the partitions where the /opt/broadsign directory is installed.

  1. Remove CD and reboot to begin second stage of installation.
  2. Log in using the created user name and password.

Installing Ubuntu

  1. A minimal server installation should be selected as the installation type.
  2. When prompted to “Set up users and passwords”, create a user of your choice.

User

When creating a user, do not use “bses” as a user. The installation of the software will create a “bses” user for you at a later step that will be responsible for executing Broadsign Control Edge Server.

Password

By default, the password for root is locked in Ubuntu. This means you cannot login as root or use the su command. Instead, the installer will allow the created user to use the sudo command.

  1. Execute sudo apt-get update to update the OS.
  2. Execute sudo apt-get install ssh to install ssh.
  3. Execute sudo apt-get install hal. This will install the hal package which allows the software to identify the hardware present.

Disabling services you don't need improves system security as well as system performance. The only service which we recommend to run is openssh server (sshd).

Note: You must have a Broadsign Community account to download the installers. If you do not have one, please contact your sales representative. Also, you must have administrator privileges to install the server.

After Ubuntu is installed as recommended, the following steps will enable Broadsign Control Edge Server on a Linux system:

  1. Download the Broadsign Control Edge Server package from the Broadsign Community.
  2. Place the edge server package (named bsedgeserver-*.deb in the /tmp directory).

  3. Install the package by executing the following command:

    $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Broadsign Control Edge Server is installed as a service on system. It can be manually started and stopped by the root user with:

systemctl start bses-broadsign

systemctl stop bses-broadsign

Note: Whenever the system is rebooted, Broadsign Control Edge Server will automatically start.