E.3 Obtaining and Accessing the ShowMe TV Player on Solaris Systems

If you are using a PC to access the AnswerBook2 documentation, you do not need to read this section. PC users can view online videos using ActiveMovie, which is widely available but not supplied by Sun. This section includes the following topics:

• "E.3.1 Obtaining ShowMe TV Software"

• "E.3.2 Accessing ShowMe TV Software"

• "E.3.3 How to Install ShowMe TV on Your System"

E.3.1 Obtaining ShowMe TV Software

If you are using a Sun server, ShowMe TV is the supported movie player.

To view the videos that are included in the AnswerBook2 collection, Solaris system users need to install ShowMe TV software.

For information about downloading and decompressing the latest ShowMe TV software components, and about the user guide and the installation instructions, consult the information at the following URL:

http://sun.com/desktop/products/software/ShowMeTV/

For software installation instructions, consult the product release notes information on the web site.

If you do not have web access, you can obtain the ShowMe TV software (version 1.2.1) for Solaris 7 from the Solaris Computer Systems Supplement CD that accompanies the operating environment software. Contact your Sun sales representative to obtain the supplement CD if you did not receive it.

E.3.2 Accessing ShowMe TV Software

There are two ways to access the ShowMe TV software. The first way does not require any software installation procedure on your part.

1. If you or your system administrator has stored the ShowMe TV player in a mounted, exported file system, you can already access this software without any installation. Consult your system administrator to determine if this applies to you, and if the ShowMe TV player version is correct.

   If the exported file system is in your PATH variable, you should be able to type showmetv in a command window, and the ShowMe TV player will start. In this case, you can skip to "E.4.1 Configuring Web Browsers to Use ShowMe TV" and configure your browser to use the accessible version of the video player.

   If the exported file system is not in your PATH variable, you need to find out the showmetv executable's full directory path name from your administrator and then skip to "E.4.1 Configuring Web Browsers to Use ShowMe TV". You will need to enter the full showmetv path name to configure the executable in your browser.

2. If your administrator has not installed the ShowMe TV player in a mounted, exported file system, you will need to obtain or download the ShowMe TV product, and install the ShowMe TV player software on your local system.

E.3.3 How to Install ShowMe TV on Your System

If your AnswerBook2 server is not a network-mounted file server, the ShowMe TV software must be either copied via the FTP program from a server where the files are located, or downloaded from the web site (see "E.3.1 Obtaining ShowMe TV Software"), or loaded from the Solaris Computer Systems Supplement CD. You need to load the files into your /tmp directory so that you can install the software. If you are using the CD, follow the instructions in the accompanying installation booklet.

Instructions for using the ftp command to copy the software from a server are provided below. If you need further assistance, please consult your system administrator.

If the AnswerBook2 server is also a file server, you can copy the tar file using the Solaris cp command instead of using ftp.

1. Log in as the root user of your system. You must have root access to your system to install software on it. Type:

   hostname console login: root password: password

   Or

   hostname% su password: password

2. To retrieve the client software via FTP, follow these steps.

   1. Activate the FTP program by typing this command:

      # ftp servername

      Where servername is the hostname of the AnswerBook2 server.

   2. The FTP program will request that you type in your user name and password:

      Name: username Password: password

   3. While in the FTP environment, type these commands:

      ftp> binary ftp> get /smtvtmp/smtv.tar /tmp/smtv.tar ftp> bye

      The FTP program will close.

3. To extract the contents of the smtv.tar file, type:

   # tar -xvf /tmp/smtv.tar /tmp

4. Install the ShowMe TV package. Type:

   # pkgadd -d /tmp SUNWsmtvh SUNWsmtvr SUNWsmtvu

   The packages are installed in your /opt directory by default; however, the pkgadd command gives you the option to select a directory other than /opt.

5. Log out as the root user. Type:

   # exit

When you have completed the installation, you will need to configure your browser to use the ShowMe TV software. See "E.4.1 Configuring Web Browsers to Use ShowMe TV".