HTPC Build Log

May 2008

I actually gave up on MythTV during the 06/07 summer. My combined frontend/backend was running very hot, and the automatic shutdown/restart was not reliable. It would frequently startup and never shutdown - hot system, hot weather = bad.

Recently my work sold off some old dell PCs, so I grabbed one and started making it into a standalone backend.

This time I used mythbuntu (started with 7.10 and now on 8.04). Most of the hard bits I originally had seem to have gone. The plan is to use the new PC as a standalone backend in a different room, and the old combined system as a frontend only.

Issues

DVICO card detected but doesn't work Turns out to be a known issue. Haven't tried on 8.04

New Airstar2 doesn't work Since the DVICO didn't work, I got another airstar2 since that was so easy last time. Well, the new one refused to tune. Returned it, 2nd new one had the same issue. Turns out you need a "DC filter" cos the "new" airstar 2 outputs DC to power an aerial, and if the DC comes back, it locks the tuning part of the card.

CF to IDE adapter Tried my CF to IDE adapter in the frontend, but it just didn't work. Tried booting froma USB thumb, that worked but was too slow. Tried a different CF card, and it worked a bit, but then the mythbuntu boot process stopped. You could probably fix it with some research into kernel options etc, but instead I got a CF to SATA adapter and a new fast CF card, and that just worked out of the box.

The current status is that I'm finalizing all of the automatic shutdown and restart stuff on the backend (including WOL so the front end can start it). Apart from the new CF to SATA setup, I've also got a 500Gig HD since the 250 was getting full. I'll probably stick the 250 and the 500 into the backend before I really start using it !

Wed Oct 5, 2006

Most of the bits arrived or were picked up today. The only thing not here is the compact flash to IDE adapter (theory being I can run the OS off CF)

  1. motherboard only supports 1 case fan, the case has 2. Looks like I need a new cable for that.
  2. audio pinout on internal cardreader vs motherboard is different. Bugger.
  3. cable management is going to be an issue no matter how careful I am.
  4. was supplied 1x1Gig instead of 2x512Meg (to allow dual channel to work). Not going to worry too much.
  5. No audio cable supplied with DVD.
Got it all installed but haven’t put the tuner cards in yet.

Thu Oct 6, 2006

Download knoppmyth as my initial test setup.

Antec’s NeoHE has this great modular cable system, why not provide some short cables ? my HD and DVD are probably 3 inches from the PSU and yet I have like 24 inch cables to route.

Cable routing didn’t go to well. The best I managed was to stick a cable tie holder to the bottom of the case in the wrong spot. At least I learnt those suckers have STRONG glue. It’s not going anywhere !
Turned on the power. Nothing.
Started unplugging things and got to the stage where if nothing was plugged into the modular power plugs it would boot (to the "No system disk" message). Anything (SATA HD, IDE DVD) plugged into the modular plugs no go.
I concluded a dud PSU.

Fri Oct 7, 2006

Took the PSU back to the supplier. Also took the case with the motherboard - you never know. They plugged the PSU into another board and it worked. Added a SATA HD - still worked. Lucky I brought the Motherboard !
Plugged back into my motherboard and got the same as last night. They agreed there is a problem and have kept the system to investigate. Could take 3-4 days, so there goes the weekend I had planned.

Wed Oct 11, 2006

Over the past few days I've got hold of a crappy set of rabbit ears and installed the DVICO card in my "normal PC" and used the packaged software, works fine under windows. I've tried Knoppmyth (without reading any docs etc) and got an analog picture. I've installed Fedora core 5 on a spare disk just to see how the installation compares to older versions.
I've been gathering readmes and howtos from various places - I'll create links to them soon.

Fri Oct 13, 2006

Swapped the PSU over - It's now an Antec Truepower2.0 430w. Much bigger than I really wanted, but it's what they stock (and had in stock). Anway, plugged it all back together and it works perfectly. I also swapped the 1 stick-o 1 Gig for 2 * 512 (for DDR) and got the CD audio cable.

Cable management seems like it might be ok - the PSU only has a fan on the bottom (facing the CPU). I can put all the cables in between the PSU and the 5.5" bays which I think will be ok.

Started the install as per http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/. First sign of trouble was no mouse pointer when it had all intalled. I let the upgrade step run while I went to bed hoping that would fix it...

Sat Oct 14, 2006

...But it didn't.

A bit of googling (quite hard with no mouse) led me to add: Option "HWCursor" "off" To the "Device" section for the videocard. I've now got a mouse pointer.


What a day of confusion. More than once I though of just buying MCE and be done with it, but I've made progress. I was having all sorts of trouble getting anything going. I wasted some time figuring out if Fedora knew about my cards - The DVICO one seemed ok, but the Technisat didn't match what assorted web pages had led me to believe I should see. Eventually I had one tuner going in MythTV but while the second one was recognised, it couldn't get any channels. Then I lost everything expect channel 2, all sorts of strange things. I'm fairly certain most of it is down to a dodgey antenna cable - rabbit ears to card - I can get that card going, try to use my passthrough cable, can't get the second card up.

Eventually I've got both tuners working in MythTV pretty much out of the box. I still need to play around and configure mythtv (especially the remote control which I haven't touched yet), but the base setup is ok.

Sun Oct 16, 2006

VFD is up and running useg "lcdproc" from http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net. Setup tips found via google led to digitmedia.oreilly.com. I took the sample there, merged it into what came with lcdproc and ended up with this: LCDd.conf.

The full sequence of steps is:

The client has lots of different options, L and T are pretty random selections. Once it's working, you can install it somewhere sensible, try different options to the client etc. Looks like you should be able just to telnet to the parallel port and send commands to the server, so new clients should be a breeze (he says without actually trying it yet ;-). I'm thinking temperature readings and time would be the most useful.


Started looking at the remote and the keyboard. Looks like the MS remote will be fine, but the keyboard wont. I'm not going to waste time on this, both tuner cards came with remotes, and wireless keyboards (like the one I'm typing on now) work out of the box on Linux, so I'll put the MS stuff back in it's box and try to sell it off.

Mon - Wed Oct 18, 2006

Looks like I'll be able to return the MCE keyboard/remote. Once done I'll buy a "standard" wireless kbd that I can use on everything. I've pulled out the DVICO remote (looks better that the Technisat one), and follwed the LIRC instructions. Got that working ok, had to make some minor mods to the config so MythTV knows what to do on the buttons. Once finished I'll document it all properly.

My biggest concerns right now are:

Coming up soon is the fact the motherboard has no TV out. Found one solution which is a VGA to Composite converter on a PCI card (just for power). I think this might be better than a new video card. I'm also wondering whether to put an 80mm fan in the case (front input). A nice quiet one and then slow it down some more just to suck in a bit more air. I don't know that heat is a problem yet cos I haven't run it with the lid on.

Compact flash conveters arrived today, but I so far booting etc is fast and so I might not bother. Ideally I'd like to boot the OS off the card and leave MythTV on the disk, but all the docs are to use the CF for everything.

Wed - Mon Oct 23, 2006

Not much to report. Joined the myth tv mailing list. Did a bit more research on the CF issue. Got a power cable so now one of the LC03 60mm fans is connected to the motherboard, the other to the "fan only" connector of the PSU - when the PSU decides it is hot it fires up it's own fan plus the extra 60mm. I'm not getting temperature readings "out of the box", so I'll need to investigate that.

The other thing I'm seriously considering is adding a bracket with power supplies to the back of the case, then putting a quiet 120mm fan into the back of the cabinet the unit will be housed in.

-Sun 05Nov06

Quite the myth-tv mailing list (too much noise: I'll keep watching it via the web though. Got a video card with TV out, made LCD start automatically at boot, configured icetv for populating schedule info, configured mythweather. Tried to setup xine as the DVD player, but it has no sound and is not stable.

Issues remaining:

Sat 16Dec06

Long time no log...

Since my last log

Alsa

Some googling led me to think there was a conflict between the snd-hda-intel driver and the cx88 (Dvico) driver. Added the following to /etc/modprobe.conf: install cx88-alsa /sbin/modprobe snd-hda-intel; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install cx88-alsa Which says: when someone tries to install the cx88-alsa module, load the intel one first, then the cx88 (without trying o load intel again). Since making this change, sound has been perfect.

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