[mythtv-users] Pundit/MythFE Distribution ready for testing!

[Steve Davidson]

First, a point of clarification: the current distribution should be
considered EARLY ALPHA.  If you download it, you WILL need to tweak
settings and change some things to match your environment.  Some things
are broken, lots of features are not yet implemented.  If you want a
stable platform, you will want to wait for the beta release, if not the
production release.  It is working for me now; my daughter is watching a
cartoon that she recorded last night as I am typing this.  

The current distribution was compiled specifically to meet my needs: 
Running on an Asus pundit as frontend only.  Booting from compact
flash.  The kernel is very minimal, it only contains support for the
things that I require.

I am looking for early testers who aren't afraid to get their hands
dirty, who will give me feedback on how to make things better, and who
will assist in making this a great little distribution.

That said...

On Tue, 2003-06-24 at 10:16, Henk Poley wrote:
> > Van: Max <max-mythtv-users at lasevich.net>
> > 
> > I am currently testing it via a hard drive. Yeah it is a bit noisier, but
> > saves me the trouble of gettng CF. CD is probably not the best choice
> since
> > you WILL need to make a few changes to the OS.

Currently this is true, though I am working on simplifying the
configuration process.  Max is my first guinea pig^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
tester <g>, and has been giving me some great feedback. (Thanks Max!)

> 
> Steve Davidson, could you make a version that loads it to RAM? It's not
> that big. Unmount the partition and invoke hdparm so it shuts down the HD.
> This way anybody can recycle an old HD for a frontend. Probably even
> cheaper than CF + IDE converter?

This is the ultimate goal - to boot from CF or any other read-only media
and run completely in RAM.  The current image is in ext2 because things
are rapidly changing - I don't want to have to deal with cramfs, JFFS,
burning ISOs, etc in order to make small changes.  The image will work
on a hard drive; that's what I used during early development.  I see no
reason why it couldn't be net booted, though I haven't taken the time to
test this (yet).

> 
> It will still boot from CF and people can have a 'silent' system. Most will
> not mind a 'noisy' bootup, I guess. Bads thing is that HDs tend to fail
> when not used for a 'long' time.
> 
> Maybe split the kernel + modules to a 'floppy' image. You could then burn
> it to CD and just pop it out after booting. A bit like Movix. Mythix?

This could certainly be accomplished, though I wouldn't recommend it at
this stage.  Floppy won't work, it's about 50 megs worth of stuff <g>.

> BTW, Steve why didn't you compile CD support in into the kernel? Probably
> because you won't need it. But what overhead does it add? Could it
> interfere with with something, or? Modules _are_ bigger on the disk, AFAIK.

Because I don't need it (see above).  It doesn't add much overhead at
all, I just wanted see how small I could get the kernel.  True, modules
are bigger on disk, but if I don't need to load the modules, I don't
need them taking up space on my CF card... <g>

Ideally, the kernel would only contain enough support to boot; other
modules could be loaded after the system was up and running.  I will be
seeking input from all testers regarding required kernel features.

> 
> Just some hints/request, I don't mean to push it or anything. I know how
> irritating that can be... ;-)

Not at all, the input is welcome.

== Steve