Date: November 25 2004
These are my trials and tribulations of the KnoppMyth install.
My Hardware:
Network card: Wireless Abocom or Admtek ADM8211 - cheapo wireless card
I found on eBay
TV Tuner card: Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 MCE (NTSC/NTSC-J
32552 REV B123) This is an OEM type card that I bought on eBay. It has an FM
tuner and was recommended for a home theater setup. Since it is missing the encoder
chip, it may not be that great.
My only beef about Linux is that you can't just double-click the
Setup.exe and get the software to install. Instead, you have to
spend hours digging through log files looking at error messages, looking them
up
on Google, recompiling programs, and downloading packges just to get a piece
of
software running. I
guess
it
is
an operating system for people who enjoy problem solving more than just having
something work. Kind of like building your own model airplane instead of buying
one off the shelf that just works.
Once it installed, lilo wouldn't boot. I booted off the CD and ran
the following commands:
su - root
mount -o rw /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
chroot /mnt/hda1
mount -t proc /proc proc
The network card was not detected, so I couldn't run the apt-get. Since
I am running version R4V5, I don't think I needed to update the lilo.
cd /etc
cp -p lilo.conf lilo.conf.bak
vi /etc/lilo.conf
Comment out the following line:
part: /dev/hdd1, typ: 7
lilo -v
umount /proc
exit
reboot
Make sure to remove the KnoppMyth CD, and you should be able to boot off the
hard drive.
At this point, I got the MythTV program to start up, but the PVR card
and Network card don't work, so I need to get them running first.
So I have a wireless ADM8211 network card that is not
working. I searched for a driver, then finally found one
at here.
I downloaded the latest version of the driver, which was
adm8211-20041121.tar.bz2. Reading the INSTALL file, I found out
that it doesn't support the 2.4 Linux kernel. KnoppMyth R4V5
uses the version 2.4 Linux kernel. The final version of the driver
that will support the 2.4 kernel is adm8211-20041111.tar.bz2.
Since there is no network to transfer the file, I had to copy it to a DOS formatted
floppy, then mount under Linux to copy to the hard drive.
mkdir /mnt/flop
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/flop
ls /mnt/flop
cp /mnt/flop/adm8211-20041111.tar.bz2 .
umount /mnt/flop
tar jxvf adm8211-20041111.tar.bz2
Extract Linux sources
cd /usr/src
tar jxf linux-2.4.25-chw.tar.bz2
rm linux
ln -s linux-2.4.25-chw linux
cd linux
make oldconfig dep
mv ~/adm8211 /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/wireless
cd drivers/net/wireless/adm8211/
make
make install
modprobe adm8211
lsmod
cd /etc/network/
cp -p interfaces interfaces.bak
vi interfaces
Add the following lines to the end of the interfaces file:
iface eth0 inet dhcp
or to set a static address:
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.99
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
wireless_essid my_essid
wireless_key my_wireless_key
wireless_channel 7
change the auto line to automatically start the eth0 interface:
auto lo eth0
ifup eth0
ping www.cdrom.com
to see if ethernet card works.
Need to get wireless card to start on boot, as well as set the network to
a static IP.
cd /etc
cp -p modules modules.bak
vi modules
Add adm8211 to the end of that file
cd /etc/mythtv/modules
cp -p ivtv ivtv.bak
vi ivtv
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 ivtv
options ivtv debug=1 cardtype=2 mpg_buffers=100
options tuner type=2 # NTSC tuner
options msp3400 once=1 simple=1
add below ivtv msp3400 sa7115 tuner
mount floppy
tar zxvf /mnt/flop/CVS-LATEST.tar.gz
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1443
http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Feb-2004/msg00292.html
IVTV Current version: ivtv-0.1.10-pre2-ck105i.tgz
http://ivtv.sourceforge.net/
Downloaded latest CVS of ivtv and installed. It contained the patch to get
my WinTV PVR-250MCE card working.
cd ivtv
cd driver
make
Some warnings show up, but they don't seem to be a problem.
make install
mythtv > mythtv.log 2>&1
Get error message "Couldn't find Xv support, falling back to non-Xv mode"
pthread_setschedparam: Operation not permitted
xvinfo
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
no adaptors present
vi /var/log/XFree86.0.log
My video card is an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
Detected as ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 AD [Radeon 9500 Pro] Rev 0
ATI Technologies Inc unknown chipset (0x4164) rev 0
KnoppMyth is running XFree86 Version 4.3.0 (Debian 4.3.0-0ds4 20030416150820)
Install the ATI driver per the instructions on this page. These are slightly
better than the instructions listed on the ATI site.
http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=22
Download the ATI Linux driver for the Radeon 9500 Pro running under XFree86
Version 4.3.0
wget
www.website.com/transfer/fglrx-4.3.0-3.14.6.i386.rpm
Need to install the alien package to convert the rpm file to a .deb.
apt-get update
apt-get install alien
Convert .rpm to .deb
alien fglrx-glc22-4.3.0-3.2.0.i586.rpm
Install the .deb package
dpkg-i fglrx-glc22-4.3.0-3.2.0.i586.deb
Got error message "trying to overwrite `/usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1.2', which
is also in package xlibmesa4-gl
This didn't work, so I had to issue
the following command:
dpkg-i --force all fglrx-glc22-4.3.0-3.2.0.i586.deb
Check to see that the module installed.
lsmod | grep fglrx
The module is not there, so you have to make sure it is there before you continue.
I had to manually install the module via these instructions:
cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
sh make.sh
cd ..
sh make_install.sh
Make sure that fglrx module loaded.
lsmod|grep fglrx
Mount POSIX shared memory in fstab. The ATI driver will not work unless this
is done. You will get an error about the ?GL
cd /etc
Add following line to /etc/fstab:
cp -p fstab fstab.bak
vi fstab
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
mount /dev/shm
mount | grep shm
Back up the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
cd /etc/X11
cp -p XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4.bak
Run the script to configure the monitor.
fglrxconfig
Enable Quad Buffer Stereo? n
Enable TV out? Y
TV type? 1. NTSC-M
FireGL Screen layout? 3. Clone Mode (2 screens - same content)
Select Primary and Secondary display devices? 1. (p) auto detect - (s) auto
detect
Monitor horizontal refresh? 7. 31.5 - 91.1; up to 1280x1024 @ 85 Hz - Actually,
I selected 4, which goes up to 75 Hz for now. The monitor was looking weird with
the really high refresh rate.
Monitor vertical refresh? 5. 60-100
Second monitor horizontal refresh? 1. 31.5 VGA Since this is a TV out, it will
be less than VGA
Second monitor vertical refresh? 2. 50-70 (VGA)
Modes for the first monitor? 321 (corresponds to 3 - "1024x768", 2 - "800x600",
1 - "640x480" in that order)
DRI restrictions? 1 - no restrictions
Application profile? 1. default
Advanced Graphics Features Settings: initialize xfree86-dga? y - I will try this
option. Not sure what it does.
export pseudo color visuals? n
syncronize buffer swaps with the vertical sync signal? n
Full Scene Anti Aliasing (FSAA)? 1. All (Visuals for 2,4, and 6 samples per pixel)
Force multi sample visuals for every OpenGL application? n
Disable FSAA Gamma? n
Customize FSAA Multi Sample Position? n
use external AGP GART module? n
Enable "AGP Locked User Pages"? y
Which storage method do you want to use? 0 - default (FireGL workstation boards:
fast)
Make sure you backed up the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
Shall I write it to '/etc/X11/XF86Config-4'? y
Cross your fingers and press CTRL + ALT + Backspace and XFree86 will restart
hopefully with the new ATI driver. If it doesn't you will have to troubleshoot
from a shell account.
Run glxgears to see that it is working.
glxgears
Running this before the ATI driver was installed gave me this error:
Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing
on display ":0.0"
The gears showed up with ~250 FPS. After the ATI driver install,
I was getting between 1200 and 1500 FPS. Nice performance increase.
Run fgl_glxgears to see if that works.
Before the ATI driver install, this didn't work. I got the same
error as above, plus "Error: couldn't get fbconfig". Afterwards,
it shows a 3D rotating box with gears quickly rotating on the surfaces. It
was performing at ~248 FPS. Nice!
xvinfo will now display pages of information.
glxinfo | grep rendering should output this:
direct rendering: Yes
Get information on OpenGL rendering
fglrxinfo
vi /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log
Shows error message: Qsettings: error creating /.qt
Fix by running the following commands
mkdir /.qt
chown mythtv:mythtv /.qt
Getting errors:
Unable to connect to database!
Driver error was [1/-1]:
QMYSQL3: Unable to connect
Database error was:
Unknown database 'mythconverg'
Rebuild the MythTV MYSQL database
cd /usr/local/bin/
sh
MythTV-sql
DBHostName=localhost
DBUserName=mythtv
DBPassword=mythtv
LocalHostName=mythfe1
mythtv-setup
clear ? yes
clear ? yes
All other values are default unless specified.
1. General
IP address: 192.168.1.98
Master Server IP address: 192.168.1.98
2. Capture Cards
Card Type: MPEG-2 Encoder Card (PVR-250, PVR-350)
Default Input: Tuner 0
3. New Video Source
Video Source name: Zap2It
XMLTV listings grabber: North America (DataDirect)
User ID: (my Zap2it user id)
Password: (my Zap2it password)
Click "Retrieve Lineups)
It fills in the Data Direct Lineup automatically.
4. Input connections
[ MPEG : /dev/video ] (Tuner 0) -> (Zap2it) This is the Video Source that you
set up in the last step.
Run mythfilldatabase from the command prompt to populate the database. You
are downloading several days worth of TV guide data, so expect it to be slow.
This is slow and may take 10 minutes or more.
Ran mythtv from command line. Was getting message"prebuffering
pause". The video is jerky and the audio sounds like it is in fast forward.
It jumps around and just sounds like it is skipping.
I checked top, and the CPU utilization is only around 15%, so that isn't the
problem.
Utilities/Setup > Setup > TV Settings > Recording Profiles
MPEG-2 Encoders (PVR-250, PVR-350) >
Default
Width: 720 (default is 480)
Height: 480
Bitrate: 5600 (default is 4500)
This fixed the video, but the sound is still jerky.
Another recommendation was to make sure the DMA (Direct Memory Access) is turned
on
for
the
hard
drive
Audio Quality
Type: Layer II
Bitrate: 128 (default is 384)
That fixed the sound and video from lagging and being all choppy.
Problem 11: Frame rate is slow and the pictures are not smooth.
Try some filters. Turned on kerneld
kerneldeint=10:1,denoise3d=12
The video works, but when I plug in my Windows hard drive and run WinTV2000, SageTV demo, GB-PRV, or GotAllMedia, the video is significantly better. I have been a big fan of Linux, but the quality level is just not there to make the machine into a PVR. If you find a way to get decent quality using MythTV, drop me an email. Now I just need to find a decent Windows PVR program.
Run KnoppMyth-frontend
KnoppMyth-install (install the program on the hard drive
KnoppMyth-auto
KnoppMyth-frontend (database setup)
KnoppMyth-main (main menu for setup program)
KnoppMyth-run
KnoppMyth-tz
KnoppMyth-upg
Useful links:
Keyboard Commands
for MythTV
TODO
Set up Samba to share files with other Windows PCs