[mythtv-users] Is there a MythTV ISO image w/ "universal"hardware support?

[Ray Olszewski]

At 10:32 AM 7/4/2003 -0400, Albert Santoni wrote:
>Compile kernels, locate obscure patches, and operate CVS?
>For the record, I've had to do none of the three, and I have a fully working
>MythTV box with remote.

This response would be more instructive if it included some technical 
details. Like --

1. Are you running to TV out? If so, what video card, and how did you get 
it working without downloading and compiling anything special (like the 
nvidia stuff, which includes a kernel module)? My own experience says that 
this is the step that most demands difficult, time-consuming customization.

2. What did you do about sound? Are you running the standard kernel sound 
driver, or do you have a kernel that has alsa modules pre-compiled?

3. What did you do about video? Did you find a kernel that includes all the 
required V4L stuff? I assume you are not using an IVTV card, since that too 
does seem to demand the more complex approach Vernon sketched out.

4. Were you also able to get a kernel that had LIRC pre-compiled for it? If 
not, how did you get a remote working?

5. Where are you located (what country, I mean, not your street address)? 
If you are in the USA, how did you dodge the recent XMLTV bullet without 
updating to the CVS version?

6. As a general matter, what Linux distro are you using? And what version 
of MythTV? I assume you are using a version that was pre-packaged as 
binaries for your distro, but please correct me if that asumption is wrong.

>Lighten up... MythTV looks like a hard and long journey, but it's not THAT
>bad.

I've learned over the years that words like "good" and "bad" (and "easy'" 
and "hard") often say more about the writer than what he or she is writing 
about. You and Vernon might easily be looking at very close to the same 
sequence of work but judging its difficulty differently. Or you may have 
different standards for "fully working MythTV box".  Or you may be much 
more expert in Linux generally than Vernon and forgetting what it is like 
to be more of a novice.

> > On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 22:05, Vernon Graner wrote:
> > > Ok, from reading the discussions here, it seems that there are some
> > > "relatively" standard hardware combinations that seem to function quite
> > > well with MythTV. However, in all my searching for ground-zero setup
> > > instructions, it seems that in order to have a MythTV box, you have to
>be
> > > able to compile kernels, locate obscure patches, operate CVS, etc.

Given the frequency with which "fixed in latest CVS" appears here as a 
response to bug reports, I think a newcomer can be forgiven for thinking 
that moving quickly to CVS is a necessity. In many cases, it is not.

Whether "obscure patches" are needed or not depends mostly on the choice of 
TV-out card and vidcap card. Almost any TV-out card requires some kernel 
and/or X customization, as do the newer (IVTV) vidcap cards. alsa and lirc 
usually require some work too, though these modules should not qualify as 
"obscure".

Whether you need to be able to compile kernels or not seems pretty much hit 
or miss ... since I always compile my own kernels, I never looked closely 
at this one, but there do seem to be a lot of reports on this list from 
people who needed to replace a distro stock kernel with a recent one not 
customized for their distro.