[mythtv-users] Frontend Appliance, Maybe

[scram69]

On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 9:18 AM, Ken Mink <ken.mink at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/5/13 11:39 PM, scram69 wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 11:52 AM, Ken Mink <ken.mink at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello All,
>>>     There's been a number of posts about low power or small frontend
>>> boxes. I
>>> thought I'd share some info on my current project and get some feedback
>>> on
>>> the viability of it.
>>>
>>>     Years ago I used 1st gen AppleTVs as MythTV Frontend boxes. They were
>>> small, quiet, and reasonably cheap. They have a NVidia GPU that was
>>> supported by XvMC. However, they could only handle up to 720p and there
>>> was
>>> no support for HDMI audio. With XvMC being EOL'ed in Myth and more and
>>> more
>>> 1080(i/p) content, I switched to NVidia ION based frontends. I tried,
>>> unsuccessfully, to sell my ATV1s and they ended up on the parts shelf.
>>>
>>>       I recently I discovered that a lot of ATV1s were being re-purposed
>>> as
>>> XMBC boxes by replacing the Mini-PCIe WiFi cards with a CrystalHD cards.
>>> I
>>> prefer the MythTV frontend to XBMC(just a personal preference). Since
>>> MythTV
>>> supports CrystalHD, I figured I give a whirl. I currently have Ubuntu
>>> 12.04lts with MythTV 0.25.3 and NVidia 304 running on a ATV1. MythTV is
>>> playing SD recordings fine with HDMI audio. I haven't tackled LIRC yet,
>>> I'm
>>> just using a keyboard.
>>>
>>>       I haven't ordered a CrystalHD card yet. How is MythTV's support for
>>> CrystalHD? I've been googling and there's not too much info. It all seems
>>> to
>>> relate to XBMC.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ken
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
>> Ken,
>> Looks like there is support for the 970015:
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Crystalhd
>>
>> I have put one into my ATV1.  It's currently running CrystalBuntu,
>> based on 8.04.  What process did you follow to install 12.04 on your
>> ATV?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Steve
>>
>>
>>
> I installed 12.04 by using a virtual. I created a virtualbox system with a
> HD sized and partitioned the same as the ATV1. I then installed 12.04 into
> partition 4(/boot) and 5 (lvm pv). Once the install was complete, I rebooted
> to a rescue disk and dd'ed the partitions to an external usb drive.
> I then used the atv-bootloader recovery disk to boot the ATV1. Once
> atv-bootloader recovery is up, its disk can be removed. I then attached the
> external usb drive and dd'ed the partitions in.
> After the dds completed, I installed atv-bootloader to the recovery and
> osboot partitions. I then created a boot_linux.sh script that would boot the
> kernel stored in sda4(/boot).
> If the boot_linux.sh script is right and atv-bootloader is set to manual,
> 12.04 comes right up. The only gotcha I ran into is that you need to clear
> out the udev net rules for the nic from the virtual. It causes the atv's nic
> to show up as eth1.
>
> It's not an elegant method, but it does work.
>
>
> Ken
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the instructions.  Why did you install into a VM as opposed
to just installing into an appropriately sized partition on the
external drive?
Did you use the boot_linux.sh from this thread?
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/atv-bootloader/3kGiSRAA3G4/discussion

Steve

-- 
________________________
"destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem"