[mythtv-users] MythTV Install/Config woes (I need your 'expert tootilage'!)

Jeff Artz junk_inbox at comcast.net
Sat May 14 03:47:25 UTC 2005


[warning -- long-winded post!]

  Ok, I'm wiping out my backend server to hopefully get a clean, working 
install now.  This is my 3rd or 4th time installing from scratch on this 
machine -- the first couple of times were major learning experiences as I 
messed up the machine badly with numerous attempts at different 
configurations -- different video cards, capture cards, IR receivers, IR 
blasters, etc.  And then there's the installing wrong stuff, etc...  [btw: 
I'm new to Linux & Myth if you haven't already noticed!!!]

  With the third attempt, I decided to go the FC3 route.  Well, that was a 
bit painful.  And although i got Myth to run, it only tuned one of my cards 
(the 250), and the frontend would lock up if I tried to select the other 
card (the 350) by pressing the "C" key.  Add to that the fact that I just 
bought a PCHD-3000 card (I ordered it the day before the ruling about the 
broadcast flag.) and it doesn't seem to like FC3 too much (or at least the 
.10 kernel).  So I searched the archives and ended up reverting to the 
2.6.9-1.667 kernel as suggested in other thread(s).  After doing that, I was 
able to compile the driver, but it still didn't want to work properly for 
me...  (add to that the 'qt' bugs that make keyboard navigation impossible, 
and my system is all screwed up right now!!!)  (And since I haven't setup 
the IR receiver yet, the keyboard is my only control at the moment.)

  Anyways, I figure it's easier to start a clean install of FC2 from 
scratch, where things are known to be working well (qt, HDTV3000, etc...) 
and wait and upgrade to FC3 when things are a bit more stable...  I just 
hope all the APT-GETs work and everything is still available!  (btw: feel 
free to yell at me if FC3 is the better way to go...)

  So I'm hoping that this time will be the 'final' time that I make changes 
to my backend box!  I hope to be able to be using it as a 'live' system with 
at least one of my Sattelite receivers and HDTV by the end of the weekend... 
But that may be too much of an expectation!

  What I'm hoping to glean from all you fellow Myth gurus is any 
pointers/gotchas that I should know to help this install work from the 
get-go with the hardware that I have.

  Here's a list of my backend hardware:
    MB:   Syntax SV400 MB (Onboard AC97 audio, 10/100Lan, USB, IDE, chipset: 
NB: KT400, SB:VT8235)
    CPU: Athlon XP 1800+ (266FSB)
    RAM: 2x256MB DDR 400 (512MB Total)
    AGP: NVidia GEForce4 MX420 4XAGP
    PCI1: PC HDTV-3000 Tuner
    PCI2: PVR-350  (Model 48132)
    PCI3: PVR-250  (Model 48432)
    PCI4: -empty-  (occupied by an exhaust fan now)
    PCI5: Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI controller (ID:7)
    18GB SCSI HDD (ID:0) - Boot/Root/swap
    50GB SCSI x2 (ID:1,2) - LVM 100GB - Video
    20GB IDE - LiveTV Buffer only

  The onboard sound works fine, and the motherboard manual says that it's 
got spdif output, but it must be via the CNR header (which I don't have) as 
there's no 'onboard' spdif connector...  So since I've got one free PCI slot 
left, I'm thinking about putting a SB Live! card in to be able to have Dolby 
Digital i/o (if that's even possible when using PVR-350/PVR-250's...  I 
suspect not since they do hardware encoding...  Feel free to enlighten me!).

  I've also got a Pinnacle PCTV Pro tuner card (Conexant 878A), but it 
didn't work very well when I was trying it with the 350 and 250... It was 
slow and dropped alot of frames... Even at 480x480!   Not what I would have 
expected on a 1800+ machine, but I probably had something screwed up in the 
configuration...  And if I put in the SBLive!, I don't have room for it 
anyways!

  Here's how I have my drives partitioned currently:
      SDA: 18GB Disk
            /boot (100MB ext3)
            swap (512MB)
            /        (balance of drive)
      SDB: 50GB - LVM - /video
      SDC: 50GB - LVM - /video
      HDA: 20GG - xfs - /tvbuffer  (Live TV Buffer only)

  Should I move things around, perhaps putting the swap on HDA?  I'm also 
open to adding more/bigger IDE drives... I've got several I could use at the 
moment...

  I think I've typed more than enough (way too much I think...)  If you've 
read this far, then a big THANK YOU to you, and THANK YOU for any/all 
suggestions to put me back on track...

  Jeff 



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