[mythtv-users] Need (suggestions for) lean mythfrontend

Paul Bender pebender at san.rr.com
Sun Jul 6 21:27:40 UTC 2008


Johan wrote:
> I put my hand on a mini PC, installed Ubuntu Hardy on it with Gnome 
> desktop and mythtv 0.21-fixes.
> Unfortunately it seems a bit underpowered. The system monitor displayed 
> takes 100% CPU (25% for system monitor and 75% for Xorg). It actuall 
> runs myth fine, up to the moment an OSD is displayed, then audio starts 
> to crackle and errors appear in the log. Guess it's running at its max.
> 
> So I need some recommendations to build a lean, custum built kernel and 
> if possible a minimized version of myth. All I need initially would be 
> the option to play live TV and recordings/movies. Nice to have: firefox
> 
> The box has 2 videocards, one built-in and one PCI FX5200. Would prefer 
> the built-in one (so I could remove the FX5200 and add a USB 2.0 PCI 
> card), but that is again a nice to have. It has only one PCI slot.
> 
> 
> Johan
> 
> below is the output of sysinfo:
> 
> System information report, generated by Sysinfo: 7/6/2008 10:10:56 PM
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsysinfo
> 
> SYSTEM INFORMATION
> Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy) release.
> GNOME: 2.22.2 (Ubuntu 2008-06-03)
> Kernel version: 2.6.24-19-generic (#1 SMP Wed Jun 18 14:43:41 UTC 2008)
> GCC: 4.2.3 (i486-linux-gnu)
> Xorg: unknown (13 June 2008  01:08:21AM) (13 June 2008  01:08:21AM)
> Hostname: johan-desktop
> Uptime: 0 days 3 h 24 min
> 
> CPU INFORMATION
> CentaurHauls, VIA Nehemiah
> Number of CPUs: 1
> CPU clock currently at 731.000 MHz with 64 KB cache
> Numbering: family(6) model(9) stepping(8)
> Bogomips: 1465.12
> Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr cx8 sep mtrr pge cmov pat mmx fxsr sse up 
> rng rng_en ace ace_en
> 
> MEMORY INFORMATION
> Total memory: 1003 MB
> Total swap: 1608 MB
> 
> STORAGE INFORMATION
> SCSI device -  scsi1
> Vendor:  ATA     
> Model:  FUJITSU MHV2040A
> 
> HARDWARE INFORMATION
> MOTHERBOARD
> Host bridge
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] (rev 05)
> Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia]
> PCI bridge(s)
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP] (prog-if 00 [Normal 
> decode])
> USB controller(s)
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a) 
> (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a) 
> (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
> ISA bridge
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
> Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686/A PCI to ISA Bridge
> IDE interface
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus 
> Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
> Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. 
> VT82C586/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT8233/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE
> 
> GRAPHIC CARD
> VGA controller
> Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 (rev 6a) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
> Subsystem: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1
> 
> SOUND CARD
> Multimedia controller
> VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
> Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller
> 
> NETWORK
> Ethernet controller
> Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
> Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RT8139
> 
> NVIDIA GRAPHIC CARD INFORMATION
> Model name: GeForce FX 5200
> Card Type: PCI
> Video RAM: 128 MB
> GPU Frequency: 250 MHz
> Driver version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  173.14.05  Mon May 19 
> 00:06:12 PDT 2008

It is possible that with the NVIDIA 5200's XvMC support, you can make 
SDTV work. However, with the built in video hardware, I doubt that you 
will have any hope of making it work. With that processor (even at 
faster speeds), MPEG2 hardware acceleration is needed for acceptable 
playback.

Building a custom, lean MythTV frontend distribution is not likely to 
make a significant difference. Compiling for the specific processor will 
give you a small performance increase over compiling for the i386, but 
nothing that will make a real-world difference.

However, if you want to give it a try, then you might try using MiniMyth 
<http://minimyth.org>. The binary version of MiniMyth is compiled for a 
pentium-mmx and is optimized for a processor with a small cache. In 
addition, if you are willing to compile MiniMyth yourself, then you can 
compile it for the VIA Nehemiah processor. In either case, all software, 
not just the kernel and MythTV, is compiled with the particular 
optimizations.


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