[mythtv-users] MythTV/KDE

[Patrick M Geahan]

> Van: Matthew Crowe <mtcrowe at jupiter.wox.org>
> 
> Hello -- relatively new user, first posting.
> 
> I've been reading the MythTV discussion archives for part of the day
> today and there is a lot of discussion about this distro or that distro
> and getting things to work with XYZ, etc.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone had considered putting together a MythTV distro
> that installs onto a machine with as much info pre-configured as
> possible?

Yes, this has been considered. 

> There could be three flavors:  MythFull which contains the frontend,
> backend, and database and is a "complete" solution

Nope, unless you would want a _really_ small ISO. Having some script ask
what you want to use it for at boot time is easier to maintain. 1 ISO
instead of 3...

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> Van: Dwight Hubbard <dhubbard at dwightandamy.com>
> 
> I think it would be easier to implement python or perl script to
> essentially do all the steps mentioned in the installation document.
> 
> I'm visuallizing something that acts like a wizard and handles each step
> in turn...

Yes, off coarse we should make a better installer, but that's not the point
he made. Booting a working system from CD is nice.

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> Van: Ray Olszewski <ray at comarre.com>
> 
> I've seen this topic come up here from time to time, even in the short
> time I've been on the list. I think the general consensus (or at least
> the consensus of the people with the needed skills)  has been that
> creating and maintaining a complete distribution would be a lot of work,
> work that would divert energy from the main focus of developing MythTV
> itself.
>
> Among the things a complete distro would have to do are:
> 
> 1. Stay up to date on security problems and fixes (since even a 
> "stand-alone" MythTV host requires a network connection, at a minimum to 
> get TV listings).

No need to, use Knoppix, or better Morphix (kinda like "modular Knoppix").
It will revert to Debian when hdinstalled (yes, that removes the
autodetect-on-boot stuff). Knoppix is widely known for it's outstanding
hardware detection. Morphix is spin-off from Knoppix, it adds modularity so
you can (more) easely add software packages to the CD.

And I guess everybody can run "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade" when put on
your harddisk, the installation questions for Debian are pretty clear most
of the time.

> 2. Be easily configurable for the variety of equipment used and usable
> with MythTV. Since this requirement extends to the need for patched
> kernels (to handle TV-out on Matrox cards, for example), unofficial mods
> to XFree86 (to handle TV-out on ATI cards, for example), and inintegrated
> kernel modules (ALSA, LIRC, maybe wlan-ng if the system uses prism-based
> WiFi), it is fairly demanding.

Knoppix/Morpix account for most of these hardware.

Knoppix: ALSA, WLAN, standard kernel (about everything sane enabled)
Morphix: as above plus nVidia drivers
unsure: TV-out on Matrox cards, TV-out on ATI cards, LIRC
not included: V4L2

Yes, you would need to add some stuff. But the framework of autodetecting
is there already. About all of the hardware detect stuff we add can go
straight into Knoppix an Morphix, so I think we might even get some thelp
there.

Heck, even some guy from Morphix and one from "MediaPackKnoppix" have
looked at incorporating MythTV. This hasn't been done since it indeed takes
a lot of time to get some decent general support. But AFAIK, bttv based
tv-cards are already supported, so most people (not me though) who run
MythTV on a "nVidia + ethernet + bttv" system could be reached if you
'just' put the MythTV Debian packages on the CD.

> Even doing something this restricted in scope would be a lot of work ... 
> the security issue still remains, for example. I do not expect to see it 
> any time soon.

What security issue?

> What we do have, though, is prepackaged versions of MythTV for some of
> the big-name Linux distros. Properly packaged rpms or debs or whatever 
> accomplish much of what you want, I think. This doesn't get you the
> latest fixes from CVS, of course ... but neither would a MythTV ISO,
> unless it were updated amazingly often.

Off coarse not, but you should be able to get one of the prepackaged Myth
updates by apt-getting, urmpi, sourcerer or whatever distro you want to
base it one.

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> Van: Paul K. Dickson <nixdude at myrealbox.com>
> 
> If I were going to, I would base it on Knoppix.

Hey :-)