[mythtv-users] Tips to make my MythTV box feel less like a computer?

[Ben Lancaster]

Hey.

I have an FC5 based Myth box using RatPoison for the WM (can  
thoroughly recommend it), but I was wondering whether there were any  
more "bare bones"-esque settings I can change? I'm thinking:

1) On-boot loading screens (the one where it's starting services etc)
2) GDM Login window
   - rarely gets seen (autologin), but I think I'm right in thinking  
that this is what sets ratpoison's background colour/picture?  
Ideally, I'd like to change this to the background image used in the  
Retro theme (as that's the theme I use) - easy to do in KDE/Gnome!
3) Replace the mouse cursor with a 1px black dot, or better yet, get  
rid of it completely - my ratpoisonrc pushes it off screen as soon as  
the first app launches, but until then, I have a nice black mouse- 
arrow onscreen!

I'd also like to speed up the boot times quite a bit, as this takes  
ages on my 2.8Ghz 64bit machine! Here's what I've got in there:

# chkconfig --list | grep on
acpid           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
anacron         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
atd             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
autofs          0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
avahi-daemon    0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
avahi-dnsconfd  0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off
bluetooth       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cpuspeed        0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
crond           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cups            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cups-config-daemon      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on     
5:on    6:off
firstboot       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
gpm             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
haldaemon       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
hidd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
httpd           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
iptables        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
irqbalance      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
isdn            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
kudzu           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
lm_sensors      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mdmonitor       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
messagebus      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mysqld          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
mythbackend     0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
netfs           0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nfs             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nfslock         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
ntpd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:off   5:on    6:off
portmap         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
readahead       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:on    6:off
readahead_early 0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rpcgssd         0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rpcidmapd       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
sendmail        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
smartd          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
syslog          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
xfs             0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

A worthwhile Wiki entry methinks!

I should add that I use this machine via VNC quite a lot too (for day  
to day stuff computer stuff).

Thanks in advance,

Ben