[mythtv-users] ECS Liva for frontend - brief report

Larry Kennedy lunchtimelarry at gmail.com
Wed Dec 31 00:23:51 UTC 2014


On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 6:38 PM, Ozzy Lash <ozzy.lash at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 12:50 PM, Karl Newman <newmank1 at asme.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 8:52 AM, Ozzy Lash <ozzy.lash at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Nov 15, 2014 at 2:54 PM, Roger Heflin <rogerheflin at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> If you are using a mce remote you will need to replace fedora's
>>>> kernels and compile a kernel.org (or mod fedoras kernel) to fix an
>>>> usb3 issue around the mce receiver, since that device does not have a
>>>> bios option that will allow you to downgrade usb to 2.0.
>>>>
>>>> Other that that trouble mine worked fine, and same as you I had it
>>>> fail to boot after initial install, I rescue booted and modified the
>>>> dracut conf file so that the modules needed for the internal storage
>>>> were built into the initrd before I did my initial updates.
>>>>
>>>> I did have to put tape over all of its little lights (power on, and
>>>> network lights) as it is annoying in a dark room.
>>>>
>>>> Mine is working fine with both the 1080i mpeg and 1080i x264 recordings.
>>>>
>>>> Given everything else on the market I still might buy it at its
>>>> current price given its tiny size, and the fact that it works on
>>>> everything I have tried to play.
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Nov 15, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Calvin Dodge <caldodge at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > When I saw the 2G/32G (RAM/SSD) model on sale at NewEgg for $109.99,
>>>> > it seemed like it was worth a try to replace the used Dell in the
>>>> > living room.  So far it's working fine, with about 40% CPU usage (dual
>>>> > core) while playing HD video (MPEG 2 from HDHomerun).
>>>> >
>>>> > I had only one install glitch - it couldn't find the disk partitions
>>>> > on reboot after I installed Fedora 20.  So I just booted from the
>>>> > install flash drive, went to rescue mode, chrooted to /mnt/sysimage
>>>> > (where Fedora mounts filesystems for a rescued system), then ran "yum
>>>> > update".
>>>> >
>>>> > Now it's doing great as a frontend system, and it should pay for
>>>> > itself in a couple of years due to the power savings.  My wife will be
>>>> > happy that it can be hidden behind the TV, rather then sitting on the
>>>> > floor for all to see.
>>>> >
>>>> > Unfortunately, the sale is over, and the price is back up to $179.99
>>>> > (the 2G/64G model is $199.99).  But some may still find it worth it
>>>> > for the ease of setup (no playing around with nonfree kernel modules
>>>> > or weird settings).
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856501007&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-
>>>> >
>>>> > Calvin Dodge
>>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>>> > http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
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>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
>>> I got one of these a few weeks back at $129.  I'm using debian unstable,
>>> and really didn't have too many problems.  The kernel was already 3.16 so
>>> the mce remote problem had already been fixed.
>>>
>>> I've got to say that it is very snappy compared to my first gen ION
>>> frontend that it is replacing.  I see they are back to $109.  Might have to
>>> get another to replace an aging frontend in the bedroom (or at least to
>>> have as a hot standby).
>>>
>>> There are a few "wish it hads".  An SPDIF output would be nice for
>>> hooking to older recievers.  Built in IR would be nice, or an internal USB
>>> header so you could de-case a mce remote an mount it in the box. And my
>>> eyes and hands are not good enough to connect the antennae to the wireless
>>> card.  I had to solder them under a magnifying glass.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>
>> Hi Bill,
>>
>> Thanks for the tip on this, I picked one up. However, I'm having a heck
>> of a time getting it to boot from the MMC flash disk. I ran grub-install
>> with the i386-pc target but the BIOS doesn't recognize it as a valid boot
>> target. Also tried x86_64-efi but still no luck. My partitions are as
>> follows (recommended per Gentoo):
>>
>> Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name    Flags
>>  1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                  grub    bios_grub
>>  2      3146kB  137MB   134MB   ext2            boot
>>  3      137MB   674MB   537MB   linux-swap(v1)  swap
>>  4      674MB   31.3GB  30.6GB  btrfs           rootfs
>>
>> Any tips?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Karl
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>>
>>
> Well, I installed using a usb thumb drive using the debian testing 64 bit
> net install iso.  I accepted all the defaults, so it is a pretty simple
> layout.  I think you have to use the 64 bit version because of uefi.
>

Thanks for this tip.  Indeed, the O/S must be 64-bit or the system will not
boot.  Not being familiar with UEFI, I was unaware and was trying
unsuccessfully to load a 32-bit O/S.

For those perhaps interested, I used Rufus to create the USB stick.  I
chose a GPT partition scheme for UEFI.


> Here is my /etc/fstab, if it helps,  The usb partitions are, I think left
> over from the installation process:
>
> # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> #
> # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
> # device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
> # that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
> #
> # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
> # / was on /dev/mmcblk0p2 during installation
> UUID=b326121e-74b7-4f23-920d-cba00e20c43e /               ext4
> errors=remount-ro 0       1
> # /boot/efi was on /dev/mmcblk0p1 during installation
> UUID=98EA-2BE4  /boot/efi       vfat    defaults        0       1
> # swap was on /dev/mmcblk0p3 during installation
> UUID=77cb8549-be7c-4b38-9d43-e7f6e5800696 none            swap
> sw              0       0
> /dev/sda1       /media/usb0     auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
> /dev/sda2       /media/usb1     auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
>
> After installing I pulled the thumb drive and it booted right up.  Some
> others have reported success with other distributions (Fedora 20 I think)
> and mentioned something about having to boot into rescue and chroot and do
> a yum update.  Not sure about gentoo.  I think debian is using grub-efi to
> be able to boot with the uefi bios.  You might look to see if there is
> anything about installing gentoo on a uefi system.
>
> Bill
>
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>
>
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