[mythtv-users] Re: Question about diskless system

[Norman Lyon]

Right now, I'm using an MX440.  That chip seems good on my other back-end, and I
had nothing but problems when I used a TNT2 a few years ago with freevo (until I
got the 440).  Are you using your diskless system as a backend and frontend, or
just frontend?

Thanks,
Norman

Quoting mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org:

> What video card are you using?
>
> I believe that the video card (chip) could have quite an effect.  I am
> using a Pentium 1.8 and a FX5200 video card and have excellent
> diskless performance.  The diskless machine has no hard drive in it at
> all and runs well.  As a data point, I also have a AMD 3200 (backend)
> with a very old TNT2 and it is very slow when I use a frontend on it.
>
> I would vote for the extra memory.
>
> Dan
>
>
> On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:54:08 -0700, Norman Lyon <yourdog at poboxes.com> wrote:
> > I've seen from time to time folks talking about using a diskless setup, but
> I'm
> > having problems seeing what their results are like.  I just set up an old
> piece
> > of hardware to see if I could do it (since the spare hard drive I have is
> VERY
> > noisy).  It appears to work as a front-end, but it's slow when skipping
> ahead
> > or back.  This also could be due to the fact that I'm playing back 720x480
> on
> > an Athlon 650.
> >
> > Does anyone have performance data to provide on their diskless setups?  If
> I
> > were to rebuild to a Celeron D 2.5G and add a 878 grabber, would I still be
> > able to use this diskless setup and be happy with performance as both
> front-end
> > and a diskless backend (streaming to my other backend/database/etc)?
> >
> > For my config's sake, my primary backend is providing the NFS root image,
> and
> > I'm using the noisy hard drive to provide the etherboot zlilo image to
> netboot
> > off a PCI NIC (the on-board NIC is too flaky to use).  If I don't want swap
> > space or anything else on the hard drive, and I'm running XFCE (stripped
> debian
> > build) is 256MB enough, or should I keep it at 512MB just to be safe?  Or
> is
> > there a good reason why I should throw swap onto the noisy drive and just
> hope
> > that the 'hdparm -S' timeout keeps the drive dpun down (with either 256 or
> > 512MB)?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Norman