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

Sun Dec 14 23:38:06 UTC 2014

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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>>>
>>
>> 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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>
>
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.  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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