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

Albert Santoni GameGod at sympatico.ca
Fri Jul 4 17:10:44 EDT 2003


Responses inline below:

> 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.
>

> 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.
>

Yes, I am running TV out. I'm running a GeForce 2 MX, and was previously
using a GeForce 4 Ti4200. Both worked perfectly. I'm running Redhat 8 (bad
choice), so I used the RPMs off the Nvidia site, I believe.
To make TV-out work perfectly, I just had to add a couple lines to my
XF86Config... Worked with both the GeForce 2 and the GeForce 4....

> 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?

I'm using an SBLive! Value.... I'm not sure if I needed ALSA to make it work
with MythTV, but I downloaded and installed ALSA anyways. I followed the
instructions off the MythTV site, and it worked perfectly!
I'm not quite sure how to better answer this question.

> 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.

Redhat automatically detected my Ati TV-Wonder VE. To make the tuner picture
look right, I had to add a couple lines to my modules.conf file.... (tuner=2
card=64???)

> 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?

I have a $10 CAD remote/receiver. It's a Creative PC-DVD/Infra receiver
thingy.
I plugged it into my com-port, downloaded, and compiled Lirc. Then I ran the
setup for lirc, found my receiver in the setup menu, and off I went. To make
it work I had to add this to rc.local:
"/usr/local/sbin/ [pathtolirc]/remotes/creative/lircd.conf.creative"

> 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?

I live in Canada. When I found out that XMLTV wasn't working, I downloaded
the version that Isaac told us to. It works now.

> 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.

I'm using Redhat 8.... There were lots of little extra steps I had to do to
compile MythTV (modifying that damn themes makefile... I forget to do it
every release...) I didn't really like Redhat 8, but it's doing the job now.
I have compiled MythTV .7, .8, .9, and .10 successfully. I have never built
a CVS version.

> 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.

No, I'm not a Linux expert. But I have learned a lot from installing MythTV.
Use the gossamer-threads archive!
Use google groups!
I think now that I have the formula down, it'll be easier to completely
reinstall MythTV, but it is very hard the first time. My "fully working
MythTV box" is now an Athlon XP 2000+ machine. I used to run a P3-500.... To
upgrade my machine, I just popped out the old mobo/cpu, and popped in the
new mobo/cpu. I didn't even have to reinstall Linux! I also plan on adding
another tuner.

:)

If you have any other questions, just ask!




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