[mythtv-users] Lean Distro for Myth-Frontend

[Sasha Z]

Arch Linux is much less user friendly than Mandrake or Ubuntu or
Fedora. On the other hand, it is very minimalistic and has a very very
very knowledgeable user community. I cheated and copied an existing
HDD installation on another computer to my file server and then
started modifications from there. My AIM is "kleptophobiac" as well,
so if you want to go down that road, I'd be happy to help.

I've been thinking about writing up an Arch Wiki entry on how to do
diskless machines. I never bothered with trying to have a single root
to have a bunch of frontends. I only want two frontends and at 1.2GB
each... who cares about that little space? That's barely more than a 1
hr recording.

If you're comfortable with the command line and editing configuration
files, Arch may be for you. It is amazingly simple. It has pretty good
documentation. It has some of the best devs out there.

www.archlinux.org

Read the wiki entries on the basic principles of Arch and come back
and let me know if you're up for a new adventure. Let me tell you,
diskless clients are fun. They're easy to move anywhere in the house,
they're quiet, and they're cheaper!

-Sasha

On 6/19/06, Matthias Thyroff <Matthias at thyroff.net> wrote:
> Am Montag, 19. Juni 2006 15:40 schrieb Sasha Z:
> > I use NFS for a diskless client. I usually use about 1.2GB total, root
> > and var. Of course, that includes multiple window managers and web
> > browsers for when I feel like using the computer for other things.
> > This is on Arch Linux.
> >
>
>
> That was what I had in mind. At first I tried ltsp, which is meant to make
> thin x-clients. It is working, but I can't get sensors to work - all the
> stuff generated and mounted in tempfs at boot makes life too complicated.
>
> Then I tried the diskless package and found similar problems: There also the
> intention is to get a common read only root directory and tmpfs directories
> for etc, etc. for each client. But I have only 1 client, so I thought I could
> have a dedicated root directory on an nfs share for my myth frontend, and
> then, on the frontend computer, work as if it had a hard disk (install,
> configure... without the added complexity of being able to boot another 1000
> myth frontends from the same root directory...).
>
> When I tried to set up my own "fat client" based on a running dapper
> installation, it seems that the problem I have is udev: I am using the root
> nfs over the network interface already but then udev is started and wants to
> rename the network interface, which is busy, so boot hangs there. But I
> suppose I need udev (usb sticks, DVD disks...)?
>
> So it is not as easy as using a dapper installation and changing pxe, dhcp and
> fstab. How did you do it in Arch Linux? Is there a Howto?
>
> Thanks for the advice,
>
>         Matthias