[mythtv-users] pcHDTV 3000

[Paul Bender]

> On 2/5/06, *Yan Seiner* <yan at seiner.com <mailto:yan at seiner.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Right now my backend is on a FC2 server, and the frontends are
>     KnoppMyth....  I've been thinking of developing a Myth distro (more for
>     kicks than anything else) - based on busybox (since Myth is really a
>     single user type app anyway), and just throwing in only those things
>     you
>     need.  Sort of a KnoppMyth / LFS type of thing.  Base it on Kdrive
>     instead of full-blown X.  If I could find a Qt developer willing to work
>     on this, I'd be willing to try it on Qt/Embedded, and run it
>     straight on
>     an accelerated framebuffer with no X at all....  Build a cross-tool
>     chain for it, and then writing some automated scripts so it builds
>     specifically for your architecture/CPU.  I bet you could fit the whole
>     thing on a smallish flash card < 64 MB, set up the root to be read
>     only,
>     and run with no local drive at all - and no noise...
> 
>     Any takers/interest?  :-)

I do a similar thing with MiniMyth <http://linpvr.org>. It is designed 
to use PXE boot over the network, but it can be made to run from a local 
flash card as well.

It has a GAR based build system for building the cross-tool chain, the 
packages and the final distribution. It builds both the Myth backend and 
Myth frontend, but only includes Myth frontend in the final distribution 
since it is intended for a diskless frontend. In addition, it builds and 
includes several Myth plugins as well as MPlayer and Xine. Also, it 
includes a lightweight window manager (aewm) but does not run it by default.

In builds for VIA EPIA and ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboards, becuase that is 
what I have. It can build a general build that runs on all VIA EPIA 
motherboards as well as the ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboard, or flags can be 
set to optimize for a specific motherboard and microprocessor (including 
either x86 or x86_64).

It uses busybox for most of its utilities (it does not use the module or 
init utilites from busybox, because of some problems with the busybox 
versions). It uses unionfs to make the root file system read-write 
rather than just read-only.

Occasionally, I think about trying to reduce the size of Qt and X. 
However, since the whole image fits in less than 64MB, I have not had 
any reason to switch from Qt + Xorg to embedded Qt + Kdrive.