The install

OK, things were kind of broken after I did an upgrade. By kind of I'm pointing my finger in ATI's general direction as they were all video problems.

Booting of a live USB seemed to indicate a rebuild might fix it so I decided I'd take the plunge and go 64 bit.

The base install went fairly well. Booted from the network (after weird PXE DHCP issues) and installed from a local DVD copy. Pretty much took the defaults except I added Gnome (I still favour KDE but backup's are good). Haven't mapped in my old /home yet, just incase.

So far the only tweak at a hardware'ish level is to set the model for the sound card to alienware. For some reason this permits the sound to work when I have the external speakers plugged in, but I can't see any 5.1 options. I'll worry about that later if needed.

Using the radeon driver I've got Kwin compositing working out of the box. There's a little frame tearing and it's nowhere near as smooth as when I used fglrx on 11.2. Will have to see if ATI's going to play nicely in the near future, but for now the base desktop is working.

Installing Skype was a pain. Fortunately I had a reference box I could look at to discover I needed
zypper in libqt4-32bit libqt4-x11-32bit libpng12-0-32bit
to get the 32 bit dependencies working. Would be nice if they provided a 64 bit version for distro's other than Ubuntu.

The wireless (identifies as Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4353] (rev 01))card needs extra drivers/firmware so I've installed broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop from pacman. From memory that's the one I used in 11.2 so we'll see after a reboot if it works.

The first update from the applet installed flash and the ms-fonts. Seems to have gone ok, flash is working in a 64 bit firefox and chrome. www.kongregate.com works so my flash games are safe.

Now to install some games, etc and leave it for the night. Will have to see how it goes in the morning.

Wow long time no post...

Looks like I've fogotten about this site. Well, maybe some updates about moving to opensuse 11.3 64-bit will liven it up a little.

Quick point of note, due to hardware failures on the XPS 1730, and the replacement Alienware M17x, I'm now running:

Alienware M17X R2
4GB RAM
2 x 500 GB HDD
2 x ATI Mobility HD4870

(more specs to follow if they're relavent)

Shiny stuff

OK, before I get too serious with the software side of things, probably best to describe what the new notebook's like.

It's a Crimson Red Dell XPS M1730, a few weeks ago Dell had a 25% off special that made it really worthwhile getting. The specs are:

• Core 2 Duo T9300
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• 2 x 320GB HDD
• 2 x nvidia 8800M GTX 512MB SLI
• 17" 1920x1200 screen
• AGEIA PhysX card
  
• Dell 355 Bluetooth
• Blu-ray combo drive
• 4965 Wireless
• There's also a 1920x1200 external monitor to attach it to as primarily it's a portable desktop.
  

If I've missed anything important I'll add it to the list later.

First impressions of the package was the nice black XPS lining to the box. It's a little more attention than the other lines get. Hopefully it's a well supported product.

The next thing I saw blew me away. The size of the power supply is enormous. I've called them bricks before, but this thing's a paver. It's thicker than my portable hard disk and almost as big. There were a heap of cables and a really nice XPS folder with the manuals and lots of room for the swag of disks that came with the system. Another nice touch is the inclusion of a screen cleaning cloth (XPS branded of course) and some creative ear buds.

Finally we get to the notebook itself. Instead of being wrapped in plastic, there's a recyclable cloth bag surrounding it inside the foam supports. It's easy enough to unwrap and will probably be kept to ensure there's no dust getting in to it on long hauls.

The first thing to notice when powering it on is the glowing red speakers, the red backlight to the touchpad, the backlit keyboard and the LCD panel just above it. It's a Logitech game panel which is a nice touch. I've gotten used to having one on my G15 keyboard so having a portable display for system stats is great.

Surprisingly, the Vista install went very quickly. As it's the first time I've touched Vista, I don't know if it's the OS or how Dell's customised it. I'm assuming the latter.

Once Vista's finished doing its stuff, I'm in to the desktop and completely dissappointed with what I see. While it's no secret that I'm not a fan of Windows in general (other than how games run on it), I'd expected a little more that what I found, but I'll cover that in another post.

I've pulled down 3D Mark 06 to run through the demo and found I got just over 9000 3D marks. I've no idea if this is any good, but I've also found that SLI wasn't enabled by default. After enabling it I'm now sitting just under 12000. It's obviously better, but as I've not looked at windows based benchmarks for a while I'm hoping it's not to bad in general. If anyone happens to stumble across this and can let me know more about it, please do.

That's probably enough about the notebook. A brief summary is, so far, I really like it. It's just that it's no where near as portable as I'd hoped. At least it's not too far from the carpark to work.

I'm Baaack

Wow, it's been a while. I hadn't realised how long it had been since I'd touched this. Not even a 10.3 posting anywhere to be seen. It's amazing what a university course can do to your life.

Anyways, I'm back and this time I'm going to have a play with a couple of things. First of all I've just got (well a week ago) a brand-spankin' new notebook ready to throw some software at. For interest's sake and hopefully to give me a spot to find what I've done if I need to come back to it, I'll be throwing a couple of hints for vista up too. It's only on there for gaming this time. I'll also be messing with opensuse 11.0 and we'll see how it goes.

One last thing I'll be doing is trying to actually keep a regular update, but we all know how that will probably turn out :(

MythTV on openSUSE 10.2

OK, it's been a while, but here it is. This time, due to popular demand at work, here's a script that should install MythTV from a (KDE) default openSUSE 10.2 install.

The script will need to be run as root. If you wish to enable encoded DVD support, you'll need to uncomment a few lines in the script. Please, only do this if you know it's legal where you are. If you're not sure, I'd suggest you don't.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you uncover any issues with this and I'll adjust it as quickly as possible.

#!/bin/sh
mkdir /tmp/inst_myth
cd /tmp/inst_myth

#Install SMART
echo Installing SMART Package Manager
yast -i smart smart-gui

#Install DVD support
#If it is legal for you to enable DVD support where you are you need to uncomment the following three lines
#Do not do this if it is not legal, I hold no responibility if you do.
#echo installing DVD support
#/usr/bin/wget http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm
#rpm -Uvh libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm

#Prepare SMART Channels
#Delete any you don't want...
echo Preparing SMART Channels
mkdir /etc/smart/channels

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel
echo [beryl]>/etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel
echo name = beryl repository>>/etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/XGL/openSUSE_10.2/ >>/etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/beryl.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo [guru]>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo # rpm --import http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/guru-rpm.asc>>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo name = Guru 3rd party package repository>>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo baseurl = http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.2>>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo type = yast2>>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel
echo mirror = http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/suser-guru/rpm/10.2>>/etc/smart/channels/guru.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel
echo [guru-kde35]>/etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel
echo name = gurus kde 3.5 repository>>/etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel
echo baseurl = http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/kde35/>>/etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/guru-kde35.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel
echo [nvidia]>/etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel
echo name = nvidia repository>>/etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel
echo baseurl = ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel
echo type = rpm-md >>/etc/smart/channels/nvidia.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel
echo [opensuse-games-action]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-action repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel
echo baseurl =http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/action/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-action.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo [opensuse-games-adventure]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-adventure repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/adventure/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel
echo >>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-adventure.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel
echo [opensuse-games-board]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-board repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/board/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-board.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel
echo [opensuse-games-data]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-data repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/data/Generic/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-data.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo [opensuse-games-puzzle]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-puzzle repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/puzzle/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel
echo mirror = >>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-puzzle.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel
echo [opensuse-games-roleplay]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-roleplay repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/roleplay/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-roleplay.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel
echo [opensuse-games-stragegy-realtime]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-stragegy-realtime repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/strategy:/turn-based/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-realtime.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel
echo [opensuse-games-stragegy-turnbased]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel
echo name = opensuse-games-stragegy-turnbased repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel
echo baseurl = http://software.opensuse.org/download/games:/strategy:/realtime/openSUSE_10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-games-strategy-turnbased.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-non-oss.channel
echo [opensuse-non-oss]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-non-oss.channel
echo name = OpenSuSE Non-OSS repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-non-oss.channel
echo baseurl = http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/non-oss/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-non-oss.channel
echo type = yast2>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-non-oss.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/opensuse-oss.channel
echo [opensuse-oss]>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-oss.channel
echo name = OpenSuSE OSS repository>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-oss.channel
echo baseurl = http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss/>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-oss.channel
echo type = yast2>>/etc/smart/channels/opensuse-oss.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo [packman]>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo #key import>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo #rpm --import http://packman.unixheads.com/suse/10.2/gpg-pubkey-1abd1afb.asc>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo name = Packman 3rd Party Package Repository>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo baseurl = http://mirror.pacific.net.au/linux/packman/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/10.2>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://mirror.geht-schon.de/packman.links2linux.de/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/packman/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/packman/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://ftp.gts.lug.ro/packman/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://packman.unixheads.com/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo mirror = http://packman.sharewarestorage.com/archive/suse/10.2/>>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel
echo >>/etc/smart/channels/packman.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel
echo [schiele]>/etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel
echo name = schiele repository>>/etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel
echo baseurl = http://pi3.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/~schiele/suse/10.2>>/etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/schiele.channel

#Creating /etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel
echo [suser-jengelh]>/etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel
echo # key import>>/etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel
echo # rpm --import INSERT URL HERE>>/etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel
echo name = suser-jengelh repository>>/etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel
echo baseurl = http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.2>>/etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel
echo type = rpm-md>>/etc/smart/channels/suser-jengelh.channel

#Run the SMART update to get file information
echo Updating SMART package listings
smart update

#Install Myth Packages (without development and mytharchive due to dependency issue)
echo Installing MythTV/MySQL/Apache2
echo You will be asked to confirm the packages listings,
echo You may also be asked to confirm GPG keys, if you\'re a trusting kind of person, choose yes to all of these...
export MYTH_PACKAGES=`smart search myth*|awk '{ print $1 }'|grep -i myth|grep -v devel|grep -v archive`
smart install $MYTH_PACKAGES mysql apache2

#Prepare MySQL for starting on boot
echo Preparing MySQL
/sbin/chkconfig mysql on

/etc/init.d/mysql start

echo Please enter a new MySQL root password
echo This is a new password, you can use the same password as your root account
echo However, this is not recommended for security reasons
echo Please note that the password will not be displayed on the terminal
echo ""
read -sp "Enter new password: " MYSQLROOTPWD
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password $MYSQLROOTPWD
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h `cat /etc/HOSTNAME` password $MYSQLROOTPWD

echo ""
echo Creating MythTV database
echo Please enter the MySQL root password you\'ve just created when prompted

/usr/bin/mysql -u root -p <`rpm -ql mythtv|grep -i sql`

#Creating MythTV storage directories
#UID 1000 is used as this is the first user created on the openSUSE system, normally it's appropriate
mkdir -p /opt/mythtv/{recordings,music,pictures,games,posters,dvd,temp,video}
sudo chown -R 1000:users /opt/mythtv
sudo chmod g+ws /opt/mythtv
sudo chmod g+ws /opt/mythtv/

#Running MythTV Setup
/usr/bin/mythtvsetup

I hear an echo...

I know I've been quiet lately, but I've been busy with work and uni. Fortunately OpenSUSE 10.2 is supposed to be out just after my uni tests finish, so that will probably be my next entry. Let me know if there's anything needed before then.

Installing MythTV on OpenSUSE 10.1

OK, I've been asked several times for help with installing MythTV on OpenSUSE. So, here's a rough guideline on the method I've used to get it up and running. This was written for MythTV 0.19 originally, I've modified it for the 0.20 release. This also assumes you've gotten the Smart package manager up and running.

Installing the Software
First we'll need to install MythTV and MySQL (see my earlier post on installing smart)

Assuming you have the packman channel working and updated, all you need to do is run

smart install mytharchive mythbrowser mythcontrols mythdvd mythflix mythgallery mythgame mythmusic mythnews mythphone mythplugins myththemes mythtv mythtv-backend mythtv-frontend mythtv-setup mythtv-themes mythvideo mythweather mythweb

I've listed all the available packages here. Some may have pre-requisite packages which you may or may not be able to install. Adjust the list as needed.

Configuring MySQL
OK. Now that they're installed, you'll need to configure MySQL (which should be installed as a pre-req, if it's not already installed). Of course, if you've already configured MySQL, continue on to the database setup.

First of all we'll enable the MySQL service as it needs to be running on boot. We do so by issuing the command

sudo /sbin/chkconfig mysql on

and then we start it ourselves (unless you really want to reboot) by running

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

At this point it suggest that you setup some passwords. It's a really good idea to do so, so follow the on screen prompts.

Configuring the database

This bit is pretty easy, but it took me a while to find it in the docs as I found it easy to overlook. Just remember, when prompted for a password, you'll need to use the MySQL password you set above. You will now need to run

mysql -u root -p < /usr/share/doc/packages/mythtv/database/mc.sql

There, that's it. Wasn't so hard, was it.

Creating the directories

I prefer to run most of my stuff out of /opt. It's personal preference but this is how I've done it. I've set up the following directories
/opt/mythtv
/opt/mythtv/recordings
/opt/mythtv/music
/opt/mythtv/pictures
/opt/mythtv/games
/opt/mythtv/posters
/opt/mythtv/temp
/opt/mythtv/video

For those not familiar with the Linux command line, this is done by running these commands

sudo mkdir -p /opt/mythtv/{recordings,music,pictures,games,posters,dvd,temp,video}
sudo chown -R mythtv:users /opt/mythtv
sudo chmod g+ws /opt/mythtv
sudo chmod g+ws /opt/mythtv/*

This allows the directories and any files created in them to be read by all users and written to by the mythtv user. (OK, so users can write as well, it's easier that way)

Creating a channels.conf
Unfortunately in MythTV 0.19, the channel scanning was somewhat, broken. At least with my setup I couldn't reliably get any channel information into myth without resorting to the following method. This is fixed in MythTV 0.20 so you probably won't need to worry about it, but, I'll keep the information here just incase it's needed by someone.

If the dvb package is not installed already, install it now

smart install dvb

Now run the following command, substituting your au-canberra with your location.

dvbscan /usr/share/dvb/scan/dvb-t/au-canberra > /opt/mythtv/channels.conf

MythTV Setup
The time has arrived, now you actually get to run a MythTV command. Took long enough.

PLEASE NOTE: These are pretty much copy and paste instructions made for MythTV 0.19. Version 0.20 has changed a little. If there's enough interest, I may update these to make it a bit clearer for the newer version. At this point in time, the only things I can remember I've changed are the GL rendering options and using the inbuilt channel scanner to find the channels. These are the settings I've used for here in Canberra, Australia. Other areas/countries may require different settings.

To start the setup, just run

mythtvsetup

When prompted, select your language
Change the database settings if necessary (worked straight away for me). The settings are in the 1. General section

1. General
The first general screen shows the database configuration, make any necessary changes and select next
Set the directory to hold the recordings (/opt/myth/recordings)
click next
Change TV format to PAL
Change VBI format to PAL teletext
change channel frequency table to australia
click next
click next
click next
Change the number of jobs to 4 (just guessing, but gotta be better than one)
click next
set start auto-commercial flagging jobs to on
click next
setup any other jobs you want
click finish


2. Capture Cards
Select New Capture Card
Change card type to DVB DTV capture card (v3.x)
You should see the Frontend ID display the card
Adjust time outs if necessary (I've set mine to 1000, 5000)
Select Recording Options
Check Open DVB card on demand (This will allow the card to be used by other applications when not in use by myth)

3. Video Sources
Select New Video Source
Enter the name
Select the XMLTV Listings Grabber (Australia/tv_grab_au)
Select Finish
You will see an error regarding the listings. Ignore this for now as it's not installed yet.

4. Input connections
Select the DVB device setup in step 2
Set the name
Select the source created in step 3
click scan for channels
NB: you should be able to do a full scan now, if it doesn't work use the method below.
change the scan type to import channels.conf
enter the location of the channels.conf created above (/opt/mythtv/channels.conf)
click next
click finish
select a starting channel if you wish
click finish

5. Channel Editor
Leave this until we've got the XMLTV stuff working. This took me a little while to get sorted, but now I've done it, it's pretty simple. However, this will be the subject of another article.

At this point, if you try starting the backend, you'll get an error. You'll need to get the empty configuration file ready (aaarrrgh!)
sudo mkdir /etc/mythtv
sudo touch /etc/mythtv/mythbackend
sudo /etc/init.d/mythbackend start

Now you should be able to run mythfrontend and try it out...

I hope this has helped someone.

Installing and configuring the Smart package manager.

For those who haven't experienced the smart package manager, give it a go, it's worthwhile. You'll need to install the base packages smart and smart-gui with the following command

sudo /sbin/yast -i smart smart-gui

Once this is done, create the following files in /etc/smart/channels (you'll probably need to create the channels directory.

Create packman.channel with the following text (this will give you access to codecs and mythtv):

[packman]
name = Packman 3rd Party Package Repository
baseurl = http://packman.inode.at/suse/10.1
type = yast2
mirror = http://packman.inode.at/suse/10.1
mirror = http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/10.1
mirror = http://packman.rsync.zmi.at/suse/10.1
mirror = http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/packman/suse/10.1

and if you want to get the updated versions of smart, create a guru.channel file with the following:

[guru]
name = Guru 3rd party package repository
baseurl = http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.1
type = yast2
mirror = http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/suser-guru/rpm/10.1

There are a heap of other channels available, another one I highly recommend for users with nvidia cards is
nvidia.channel

[nvidia]
name = nVidia Binary Drivers
baseurl = ftp://download.nvidia.com/novell
type = rpm-md

Using this will allow you to upgrade your kernel without suffering the inconvenience of having to recompile the video kernel modules.

Anyways, I hope this helps a bit, feel free to comment and suggest more channels.

Welcome

Hi,

I've decided that I need to put what I've managed to figure out and get working under Linux in one spot so I've got a quick reference, so here it is.

When I'm not feeling lazy I'll occasionally add some of the tips and tricks that I've learnt about getting bits and pieces up and running in Linux. My distro of choice is . I've found it to be the most polished distro I've tried. I've had a look recently at Ubuntu and Kubuntu, played with Red Hat (all those years ago when they did desktop distros) and Mandrake (now Mandriva).

This being the case, I'll focus mainly on getting things to work with help from the great community out there. I'm hoping it will help someone else, but I guess if worst comes to worst, it's a spot I can look for my doco. :-)

Z