[mythtv-users] Backend suggestions please - h/ware & distro

[Robyn Lundstrom]

(e) Is anybody else running diskless frontends? I'm no linux guru, and just
want to get an idea of what I'm letting myself in for. Minimyth springs to
mind.

Yes. An old(er) Asus P3 with an Intel Pro1000-XT card (doesn't need GigE,
but that's the only card I had with a boot ROM). It works very well for
day-to-day use, though NFS makes a not-terribly-reliable root mount. I use
Gentoo, kernel 2.6.4.

Easy? No. I spent about 2 weekends setting this up, and another 2 debugging.


Big hint: don't try compiling anything on the frontend. Use chroot and do it
from the backend, or wherever your root NFS export is. Building anything on
an NFS mounted root partition works sporadically; it has a tendency to get
to ~80% and then start to throw "Stale NFS Handle" errors. At that point you
need to reboot, as you can't un/mount the parition (it is / after all). This
one thing cost me nearly an entire weekend of frustration.

You'll also need a tftp server (get the Berkeley one from kernel.org), and a
DHCP server (I use Windows 2003 Server <booh hiss>). 

Here's a Google search to get you started:
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=pxe+boot+linux

There's no one page in that search I used, it was more of an amalgam of
everything there. 

Kernel compile options are extremely important. "Kernel Level
Autoconfiguration" in Network Setup is the key to making the other needed
options appear.

As much of a PITA this is, now I can add (similarly configured) frontends
with impunity, and all of them diskless. I just cp -r the entire contents of
/tv/frontends/livingroom to /tv/frontends/newservername, change the
hostname, add the kernel to the proper place, and shazam, it's completely
ready to go (well, I'm sure I'm something, but you know...).

-Robyn