[mythtv-users] The $99 frontend is here. Is this too good to be true?

[Michael Cook]

"Steve Peters - Priority Electronics" <steve at priorityelectronics.com> writes:

> The following link is a company on ebay selling a 1.8ghz Pentium M system
> with 1gb ram and 2gb compact flash memory for the hard drive in a complete
> mini itx system that measures 13" by 11" by 3" and it's all only $99 with
> free shipping....Includes power supply and everything.
>
> What am I missing here. How is this company to do this for only $99.00? Or
> is this the best deal you ever heard of? They seem to have very good ebay
> reviews.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-ITX-1-8GHz-iGoLogic-i3368G-LF-CPU-HTPC-Computer_W0QQitemZ220354063431QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDesktop_PCs?hash=item220354063431&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

FYI, mine arrived yesterday.  Haven't tried to get Myth running on
it yet, but here are two things I noticed:

1. The BIOS had a password.  The BIOS comes from Award.  I tried all
   of the backdoor passwords listed here
   http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml but none
   worked.  I managed to boot into Linux anyhow and then I ran this
   cmospwd utility http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd which told
   me the password was "realityi" (which indeed worked).

2. I haven't been able to get Linux (Fedora Core 10) to recognize
   the CompactFlash drive.  The BIOS recognizes the CF and starts
   booting from it, but then once Linux is actually running it
   complains that it can't find the boot device, and booting halts.
   When I boot from USB, I haven't been able to get Linux to
   recognize the CF drive.  I'll keep poking at it (any ideas?), but
   for now I'm just booting from USB.

More later.

Michael