Dom Barnes’s Blog

I like linux. Its a fun platform to try out, and you can’t beat the price. It will run happily on low spec machines, and cos its a *nix OS, you can use it for a file server, web server, lots of stuff easily. But this is about one thing specifically.

I’m still running my MythTV box, only now its in a different room, and its mainly just a backend system for me. I record stuff to watch later on my main laptop. But before I could use it, it needed to be on my network. So that means wireless. I bought a Wifi PCI card on eBay and got it today. I was a little unsure about the setup cos I didn’t know whether I needed to install some more software or drivers, so was prepared a little to haul it near the router to wire it in. So I installed the card, and booted up. After logging in, I moved the mouse to the Network icon in the menu bar, expecting to have to at least select the other ethernet connection. But much to my surprise, it gave me a list of available Wifi networks. I plugged in my key and voila! Connected.

Now compare this to the XP installation. Its all the same up to the boot. Then the New Hardware wizard kicks in, and there is a requirement to install software and drivers, choose whos configuration setup to use, and probably a reboot.

Now I thought XP was meant to support a lot of hardware, yet I seem to find that when it comes to Wifi hardware, you almost always have additional drivers and software to install, and yet Linux, which is often stated as being a little behind the curve, as there is no one being paid to work on it, handled my new hardware with no problems at all.

So I’m quite happy now, on my network, enjoying the internet and updating software to my hearts content, while I record TV. Thanks Linux

Well Its been about a week since my last MythTV update. So far, I’ve got it working and have done some recording. Here’s what happened.

I had Ubuntu beta 8.06 installed and installed MythTV, along with the plugins and themes, which I did from the command line. I went through the backend setup and configured for my TV card.

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Day 4

I’ve made some progress since my last blog post. I was having issues with installing Ubuntu while hooked up to TV via the TV-out port on my ATI Radeon 7000. So I went over to my gf’s parents house and hooked the machine up to an LCD monitor. I have a bit more sucess this time. I got the installer working.
I was using the alternative install for my install as i didn’t need the LiveCD part. I booted up, and started to go through the install process. I got as far as copying and setting up the system and then it hung at 6% progress. I waited and finally got an error message which was no help at all. I tried once again and got the same thing.
This whole process took about 30 mins each time so I had just wasted an hour on this. My only solution was to go home and look into things.

After a bit of googling I found a possible issue. It might’ve been a bad burn. I checked my MD5 checksums on the ISO and CD after burning and had no issues. They were fine. I decided that I would try the 8.06 beta version as well. So I downloaded the ISO via BitTorrent (one of the many LEGAL uses!) and did a trial install in VMWare on my Macbook Pro. It went fine so I burnt a disc.

Day 5
Back at Katie’s parents house now. Trying the disc I just burnt. After a long wait, still no luck. Failed. So I tried one last thing. It was suggested that sometimes fast CD burns can cause problems, so I quickly burnt a new version of the 8.06 beta onto a CD with Disk Utility, this time selecting a 10X burn speed compared to the normal 24X.
I waited for the burn to finish and booted off the disc. All I can say is the difference was very noticable. The boot was a lot quicker this time. I launched the LiveCD and installed from there. Install didn’t take that long and I was soon happy to be greated by the Ubuntu login screen.

By this time it was late and almost time to go home. I did a quick update and also turned on VNC so I could manage this from remote.

I got home, and hooked the PC up to the TV again. No signal what so ever. So I fired up Chicken of the VNC and tried to log on. Now, I had reason to think it should work. I tried it back at the other house, and had no trouble. But for some reason, back home there was no luck.

So now I’m stuck again. I’ve bought a VGA to S-video and composite cable from eBay and will hopefully be able to get a picture on screen with that, at least long enough to get auto login set up and vnc working. Once thats done, I’ll get MythTV installed and get working.
I also need to get a new hard drive. I’ve got a 40GB drive in there now, and obviously need a bigger one. I’ll probably get a 200GB drive, and maybe clone Ubuntu across to it rather than clean install. That then gives me a a spare IDE connection for another drive.

Again we wait to fix unforseen issues.

Day two

Got a keyboard and USB adapter. Plugged in and boot. Blank screen. Lovely.

Need to check boot order. F2 to launch BIOS  - no effect. Pulled out CMOS battery and boot.

We’re in. OK, hard drive detected, cd drive detected. Check boot order.  Floppy, CD, Hard disk. Good. Reboot. Problem with CD drive. Change BIOS to ignore and swap cd to other drive. Works.

Install Ubuntu. Loading screen.
SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 15df9320

Google. Reboot and check disc. (This may take some time) - Errors found in 1 files Tried CD in different drive.

“Cannot operate in Low Graphics Mode” - Now I need to select my monitor.  Well its a TV, so I’ll just try a monitor at 800×600. OK. Blank screen.

Damn, Reboot.  Try again.  Different resolution.  Blank screen.

Damn. This isn’t looking good.So maybe the disk is bad. Heaven forgive me, I’ll install XP.
1 hour later and I’m downloading the first of 88 software patches, but I’m installed.  I guess the disk is fine.

Day 3
I think that my issue is running it through a TV for install.  Maybe the X11 engine can’t load properly.  So I’ll download the alternative CD without the LiveCD and do a text based install. CD is inserted and I boot.

Install in text mode please. And now my screen is flickering like crazy. Its trying to display the image but its not got the right frequency.  So I’m stuck.

I tried frantically hitting Enter in the hopes that an installation would eventually start up. Not so true.
Solution: Friday I’m going to my gf’s parents house to borrow their monitor so I can get Ubuntu installed and get the necessary drivers for my ATI Radeon 7000 card. Hopefully it will work when I come back here.

Today I picked up my box which will soon become my MythTV box. I decided to build a PVR for myself a few months back but just needed the supplies.

So far I have the TV tuner card, an Hauppage Win-TV PCI card, a graphic card, Radeon ATI AGP. I just needed the box. Well today I picked up a Dell Optiplex GX300 which will become the nervecenter of the whole operation.

I started by removing the old SCSI drives, and SCSI card from the motherboard. Then stuck in the Ubuntu CD and booted the system up. And what did I see? Keyboard error. So of course I need a keyboard to boot.  So I went round to borrow a keyboard from my gf’s dad. Just my luck, he only had a USB keyboard, and this PC doesn’t seem to play well with USB keyboards. So I need to get a USB to PS/2 adapter from work tomorrow. I might get a keyboard too just in case.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get ubuntu installed and MythTV setup. If not, then I might have to look at another base pc to build from.