[mythtv-users] Moving from KnoppMyth to Mythbuntu

Nick Rout nick.rout at gmail.com
Mon Jul 21 21:40:50 UTC 2008


On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 5:56 AM, Allen Edwards
<allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com> wrote:
> Andrew Close wrote:
>> On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Colin McGregor <colin.mc151 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> As noted in another post to this list I have run into issues with the
>>> new version of KnoppMyth (version 5.5), which has me wondering "Is the
>>> grass greener on the other side". I have briefly played with Mythbuntu
>>> on my long suffering, often abused test box, and was basicly happy
>>> with what I saw.
>>>
>>> So, I am wondering what sort of pitfalls await me if I choose to move
>>> from KnoppMyth R5F27 to Mythbuntu 8.04?
>>>
>>> I am assuming the easiest route would be to install Mythbuntu 7.10, as
>>> it, like Knoppmyth R5F27 also runs MythTV 0.20, then take Mythbuntu
>>> 8.04. Right?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for any suggestions / advice.
>>
>> i'm still running KnoppMyth R5F27 on my production box.  but i
>> purchased all new hardware for an HD capable MythBox and have been
>> playing with MythBuntu 8.04.  aside from some hardware issues i'm
>> having (new Intel Chipset and onboard video, grumble grumble) i like
>> the distro.  the control center is a nice centralized feature that i'm
>> guessing will mature and grow.  install/config went very smoothly, but
>> there are little differences.  i don't like the default locations of
>> tv/video storage in MythBuntu, but i'm sure that can be tweaked.  you
>> may want to check out the MythBuntu forums/wiki for what others have
>> to say.  my understanding is that 8.04 is somewhat buggy compared to a
>> pretty rock solid 7.10.
>> overall, i think the move from KnoppMyth to MythBuntu is a fairly
>> lateral move, although i do like the direction MythBuntu is heading...
>>
>
> I don't find 8.04 so much buggy as extremely different and undocumented.
>  There are some things that didn't work for me with 7.10 that work fine
> on 8.04.  I documented a number of the more difficult problems in posts
> to this list so that, and others posts, may be helpful.
>
> I had a big problem with the video.  Not sure if it is what you are
> referring to but what I did was disable the nvidia propritary drivers in
>   mythsetup and load them with envyng.
>
> Allen
>
>

Having made the move, I don't like mythbuntu:

* default install on a fresh hard drive made one partition with data
buried in /var/lib/mythtv - oh wait there is also data in
/var/lib/mytharchive, wtf? There was no documentation to tell me where
data would be placed so i couldn't manually partition and make a
separate data partition as i simply didn't know where to mount it
until I had done the install and looked at how it was all set up.
Yuck.

* mytharchive doesn't work because the right directories aren't made on install

* flash streaming doesn't work as (1) the versions of ffmpeg and
libavcodec installed do not have mp3 support, even after specifically
telling mythcontrolcentre to install from medibuntu repos; and (2) the
command line in the streaming script is wrong. Sloppy sloppy sloppy.

* mythbuntu runs the backend as user mythtv and the frontend as the
user you create on installation (in my case 'nick'). When you set up
the grabber in mythtv-setup, it puts the config file in
/home/nick/.mythtv/Freeview.xmltv (where nick is the user and Freeview
is the video source name you allocated). The trouble is that the
backend running as mythtv does not look in nick's home directory, it
looks in its own, ending up with an error 512 (FAILED: xmltv returned
error code 512.) when mythfilldatabase is run. sloppy sloppy sloppy.

* knoppmyth has nice little menu items to turn the box off or reboot.
In mythbuntu I have to ssh in. WTF, this is supposed to have a 10 foot
interface! Similarly knoppmyth has nice keyboard shortcuts to turn the
backend off and on, start mythsetup and turn the front end on and off.
Not a 10 foot interface, but nicer than having to ssh in.

* the mythbuntu section of the ubuntu forums reminds me of the blind
leading the blind. There are lots of "mythtv doesn't work for me I
installed an unnamed version of it on unknown hardware and the
un-named tuner card doesn't seem to work" posts. I'm sure there are a
lot of very knowledgable and hard working people in the mythbuntu
team, both devs and support, but there is not a lot of evidence of it
in the forums sometimes, especially when contrasted to the knoppmyth
forums.

Overall buntu strikes me as sloppy compared to knopp. I will be
testing R5.5 soon and hopefully going back.


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