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webOS

The tvlabs connect command uses the Ares SDK to connect with webOS devices on the TV Labs platform as if they were in front of you.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure that the webOS CLI Tools are installed.

If you have not installed them before, you can install through npm. Otherwise contine to Connecting.

npm install -g @webos-tools/cli

After installing, ensure ares and ares-setup-device are in your shell PATH.

Connecting

Before attempting to connect to a webOS device with tvlabs connect, ensure that the "Development Mode" application is installed from the webOS store, and you are logged in to your development account with Development Mode enabled. This will require restarting the device.

webOS Development Mode App

Security Note

You will be signed into your developer account, and all installed applications will persist, until development mode is disabled.

Run the tvlabs connect command, which will setup the device using the Ares CLI tools.

webOS Connected

After seeing a successful vendor connection, run ares-device -i -d tvlabs to confirm the device has been setup correctly.

webOS Device Info

Port Mapping

The port mapping when tvlabs connect is running and connected to a webOS session is as follows:

  • Local port 9922 to webOS device port 9922 (SSH)
  • Local port 9991 to webOS device port 9991 (Key Server)
  • Local port 9222 to webOS device port 9998 (Web Inspector)

Installing

Package your application ipk file and run ares-install -d tvlabs path/to/the/ipk/file.ipk. The application will install, and then run ares-launch -d tvlabs com.your.app.id to launch the application.

Important

Replace path/to/the/ipk/file.ipk with the path to your applications ipk file, and com.your.app.id with your application ID.

Web Inspector

The Chrome web inspector is available to use on webOS. To begin a inspector session, first ensure that you have a version of Chrome installed that is required for the device you are in a session with. A list of which Chrome versions are compatible with which TVs can be found here.

Navigate to chrome://inspect within the Chrome browser.

info

The webOS inspector runs on port 9222 by default, but can be configured by setting the -i argument.

tvlabs connect -i 5678

If a session is active and connected to the local machine via tvlabs connect, the device will appear on this page. If nothing appears in the inspector list, ensure that you have installed a development application and it is open & running on the webOS device.

webOS Inspect List

Click "Inspect" to open the inspector window.

webOS Inspector View

Troubleshooting

If application installation fails, please ensure that the device storage is not full.

If tvlabs connect fails on vendor connection, please ensure that development mode is enabled.

If tvlabs connect fails with "No pre-paired key", or cannot make a connection after trying the above steps, please contact TV Labs for support.