[mythtv-users] Sell mythtv "set-top" boxes
Ray Olszewski
ray at comarre.com
Mon Jun 2 13:06:01 EDT 2003
Preliminary comment, mainly to others: I'm focusing on Debian-Sid here
mainly because it is what Ben and I actually use. I'm not presuming that it
would be the best base for a MythTV custom distro. The "best" choice is,
almost undoubtedly, whatever distro the person who actually volunteers to
do the work is most familiar with.
I'm just using Debian-Sid here as an example, to try to make vague
discussion a bit more concrete. And please remember, my basic view is that
the idea of a custom distro is too ambitious for a volunteer effort ... the
best way to prove me wrong is to volunteer, then actually to do it.
My actual interest, BTW, is in developing a Linux-based VDR (perhaps Myth
based, perhaps not) that could be sold profitably, not a giveaway distro.
But like others here, I haven't been able to craft a working business model
to make this possible. Since such a system would have known hardware, a lot
of the software issues I raise here as concerns would vanish. And since it
would have an associated revenue stream, ongoing support would be easier to
provide. ut that's another (though related) topic.
At 07:42 PM 6/2/2003 +0200, Ben Bucksch wrote:
[...]
>>And, on top of that, there are things like the nVidia proprietary driver,
>>which you have to get from nVidia and you (often) have to compile locally.
>
>Similar with the kernel. The kernel (and nvidia stuff) would probably have
>to be dealed with differently.
Yeah. As I think about this more, I suspect a Myth distro would have to
maintain its own kernel-image package, once that already includes alsa
drivers, the nVidia stuff, ivtv, and any other kernel-level stuff the
maintainer wanted it to support. Once the user has to start compiling his
or her own kernels or modules, we're out of the realm of naive user.
Also, I've assumed the distro would use a pre-packaged Myth. Given how
slowly changes migrate from CVS to packages, probably the distro's
maiontainer would either need to support accessing CVS in some automated
way, or pre-package Myth more often than we now see done.
This keeps sounding more and more like work, and tedious, uninteresting
work at that. Perhaps you see why I'm skeptical about a maintainer
volunteering for this.
>>You mention a Debian config. (Woody or Sid?)
>
>unstable=sid
>
>>Perhaps you would consider taking the time to turn it into an install
>>script that a user can run
>
>hm, maybe. If I can remember which steps were needed. (The desktop install
>was like 2 years ago, the server maybe 2 months, a long time to remember
>*every* step). It would have to be dead-simple for me to be capable to
>write such a script, no user interaction, but I guess the Debian installer
>already does everything needed there (network config, timezone, keyboard
>layout etc.)
No. It does far from everything necessary. Offhand, I can think of these
things that are needed (and I doubt the list is exhaustive), but are not
handled (or not well) by either the Debian scripts or the Myth installer.
1. Installing the v4l stuff. You need to choose among bttv, ivtv, the one
for the ATI capcard, and maybe others.
2. Installing sound. Configure the alsa drivers for your sound card, at a
minimum. Maybe doing something with btaudio or an equivalent, depending on
your hardware.
3. Setting up TV out. For nVidia cards, this involves installing a kernel
module and making some changes to XF86Config-4 that debconf does not handle
at the moment.
4. Adding the unofficial repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list .
>>The next step ... making a customized Debian install iso (or floppy set)
>>would be fairly easy once the install script itself were written.
>
>Actually, the install image would probably be a lot easier (both for the
>creator and the user) than the install script, but I fear the bandwidth
>required. With "install image", I mean a tar.bz2 with the root filesystem,
>to be extracted from a working Linux system, possibly a Debian boot disk
>or Knoppix or whatever you like.
Well ... something on this scale pretty much assumes an iso image (or a
physical CD). It could be built on the existing Debian-Woody install CD, I
imagine, once a script (and a customized kernel-image) were ready.
Remember, though, that a CD drive is not a design requirement of a MythTV
host (mine lacks one; I installed Debian on it using install floppies,
since my junk box is full of spare floppy drives).
This makes me think of the last possible gotcha in this process: what is a
"typical" or "vanilla" Myth system, as contrasted with what you call "edge
cases"? I doubt there would be consensus on this ... in practice, people
here (me included) seem to see a "basic" Myth system as "one almost like
mine". I've tried here not to be too narrow (for example, including both
bttv and ivtv), but even my implied list may leave out very important things.
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