Mailing List Archive: Re: What's the best linux distribution if I'm ONLYusingMyth TV?

Re: What's the best linux distribution if I'm ONLYusingMyth TV?

Jun 4, 2003, 7:11 AM

Post #1 of 6 (1773 views)

On the machine I've got it on (An EPIA C3 800Mhz) which admittedly is
fairly slow it takes almost 2 hours to do kernel rebuild. To go from a
stage 1 install to finishing the "emerge system" took at least 12 hours) I
left it running overnight.

I tried to rebuild KDE (Including X and all the underlying packages it
needs) with a fair number of options included and had to stop it after 18
hours because I had to move the machine.

On that machine I don't think it's an exageration to say it would take days
to install a reasonable amount of software.

This is a very slow cpu but even so it can take *many* hours to install if
you want a fully functional kde system for example.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Pierre-Olivier Bouchard petecool@vl.videotron.ca
Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 09:37:40 -0400
To: john.burton@jbmail.com, mythtv-users@snowman.net
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] What's the best linux distribution if
I'm ONLYusingMyth TV?

john@www.jb99.com wrote:

> Also it takes at least ten times as long to install as any other
> distibution as it builds from source code. You are talking several *days*
> for a fully featured installation.

I had a 16-hour spot between recordings last week, and I was able to:
transfer all my recordings to another computer (by putting the
recordings hard disk in that computer), and use that hard disk to setup
my system. It was fully ready to record at least an hour before
"deadline". The computer is only a Celeron 1.1Ghz, if you're using
something more powerful (> Duron 1.1Ghz, P4 >1.6Ghz) it can only be shorter.

Now, I don't remember how long Mandrake took to install last time I did
it (it was quite a long time ago), but even with his Athlon 750Mhz, I
don't think we're looking at *several* days here :)

Pete

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Re: What's the best linux distribution if I'm ONLYusingMyth TV? [ In reply to ]

petecool at vl

Jun 4, 2003, 7:40 AM

Post #2 of 6 (1708 views)

Permalink

john@www.jb99.com wrote:

> On the machine I've got it on (An EPIA C3 800Mhz) which admittedly is
> fairly slow it takes almost 2 hours to do kernel rebuild. To go from a
> stage 1 install to finishing the "emerge system" took at least 12 hours) I
> left it running overnight.
>
> I tried to rebuild KDE (Including X and all the underlying packages it
> needs) with a fair number of options included and had to stop it after 18
> hours because I had to move the machine.
>
> On that machine I don't think it's an exageration to say it would take days
> to install a reasonable amount of software.
>
> This is a very slow cpu but even so it can take *many* hours to install if
> you want a fully functional kde system for example.

But you don't need KDE for Myth, the guy says he only wants to use Myth
on his computer. This reduces the list of packages to build somewhat.

I think your EPIA might be having some problems or something... my
P1-275 (overclock) did a kernel recompile (with gcc2.95, I admit -
double the time to compare with gcc3.x) in about 40 minutes. I don't
remember the EPIA 800 being that slow :(

Plus, IMHO, the extra performance he'll get out of his 750Mhz Athlon (If
you don't believe it, bring your RedHat/Mandrake/whatever CD's here, and
we'll test with my Celeron 500, and my Celeron 1100 - you'll see quite a
difference, like I did - on other, faster machines, I've had mixed
results, though) is well worth the extra setup time. He'll be able to
encode a step up in the resolution table, or with more bitrate, or with
MPEG-4 High-Quality, than with other distros. He's right in the place
where it does make a difference, IMHO.

Pete

Re: What's the best linux distribution if I'mONLYusingMyth TV? [ In reply to ]

jmk396 at psu

Jun 4, 2003, 8:11 AM

Post #3 of 6 (1725 views)

Permalink

Well, I'm only testing this setup out. MythTV looks VERY good, but until I
see it for myself I don't want to go all-out.

For now, I'll try Mandrake just to see MythTV in action.

If I decide to "finalize" a MythTV box then I'll be running an Athlon 1.0
GHz w/Happauge Win-TV card (on a KT7-RAID board). If I do this, then I'll
install Gentoo (because once everything is compiled I'm sure you don't need
to recompile very often).

This leads me to one last question... are there any super plain black
computer cases? I've seen the one link off mythtv.org, but it has drive
bays. If possible, I'd like one to just be a black box so it looks more
like a stereo component than a computer.

Thanks for everybody's help!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pierre-Olivier Bouchard" <petecool@vl.videotron.ca>
To: <john.burton@jbmail.com>; "Discussion about mythtv"
<mythtv-users@snowman.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] What's the best linux distribution if
I'mONLYusingMyth TV?

> john@www.jb99.com wrote:
>
> > On the machine I've got it on (An EPIA C3 800Mhz) which admittedly is
> > fairly slow it takes almost 2 hours to do kernel rebuild. To go from a
> > stage 1 install to finishing the "emerge system" took at least 12 hours)
I
> > left it running overnight.
> >
> > I tried to rebuild KDE (Including X and all the underlying packages it
> > needs) with a fair number of options included and had to stop it after
18
> > hours because I had to move the machine.
> >
> > On that machine I don't think it's an exageration to say it would take
days
> > to install a reasonable amount of software.
> >
> > This is a very slow cpu but even so it can take *many* hours to install
if
> > you want a fully functional kde system for example.
>
> But you don't need KDE for Myth, the guy says he only wants to use Myth
> on his computer. This reduces the list of packages to build somewhat.
>
> I think your EPIA might be having some problems or something... my
> P1-275 (overclock) did a kernel recompile (with gcc2.95, I admit -
> double the time to compare with gcc3.x) in about 40 minutes. I don't
> remember the EPIA 800 being that slow :(
>
> Plus, IMHO, the extra performance he'll get out of his 750Mhz Athlon (If
> you don't believe it, bring your RedHat/Mandrake/whatever CD's here, and
> we'll test with my Celeron 500, and my Celeron 1100 - you'll see quite a
> difference, like I did - on other, faster machines, I've had mixed
> results, though) is well worth the extra setup time. He'll be able to
> encode a step up in the resolution table, or with more bitrate, or with
> MPEG-4 High-Quality, than with other distros. He's right in the place
> where it does make a difference, IMHO.
>
>
> Pete
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

Re: What's the best linux distribution ifI'mONLYusingMyth TV? [ In reply to ]

latka at speakeasy

Jun 4, 2003, 11:20 AM

Post #4 of 6 (1730 views)

Permalink

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Klimek" <jmk396@psu.edu>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users@snowman.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] What's the best linux distribution
ifI'mONLYusingMyth TV?

>
> Well, I'm only testing this setup out. MythTV looks VERY good, but until
I
> see it for myself I don't want to go all-out.
>
> For now, I'll try Mandrake just to see MythTV in action.
>
> If I decide to "finalize" a MythTV box then I'll be running an Athlon 1.0
> GHz w/Happauge Win-TV card (on a KT7-RAID board). If I do this, then I'll
> install Gentoo (because once everything is compiled I'm sure you don't
need
> to recompile very often).
>
> This leads me to one last question... are there any super plain black
> computer cases? I've seen the one link off mythtv.org, but it has drive
> bays. If possible, I'd like one to just be a black box so it looks more
> like a stereo component than a computer.

Most of these have SBC's (single-board computers), so I doubt they'd have
enough oomph, but it may be a good place to start looking. You may be able
to buy just the case, and try to mod it to fit your own stuff inside.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2016997232.html

Re: What's the best linux distribution if I'mONLYusingMyth TV? [ In reply to ]

petecool at vl

Jun 4, 2003, 11:45 AM

Post #5 of 6 (1701 views)

Permalink

John Klimek wrote:
> If I decide to "finalize" a MythTV box then I'll be running an Athlon 1.0
> GHz w/Happauge Win-TV card (on a KT7-RAID board). If I do this, then I'll
> install Gentoo (because once everything is compiled I'm sure you don't need
> to recompile very often).

You're right, you only need to do so if/when you install security
updates. The bare system needed to run only myth isn't updated very
often (maybe twice or three times a year, and not all packages at the
same time)

> This leads me to one last question... are there any super plain black
> computer cases? I've seen the one link off mythtv.org, but it has drive
> bays. If possible, I'd like one to just be a black box so it looks more
> like a stereo component than a computer.

This one might work: http://directron.com/atc620.html
It takes a MicroATX motherboard only, though (you could trade/sell your
KT7-Raid and buy something like this:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=80&MODEL=MS-6390
, or the ECS L7VTM). That case also uses standard ATX power supplies.
This is the best, most stereo-component-looking case that I know of.

Pete

Re: What's the best linux distribution ifI'mONLYusingMyth TV? [ In reply to ]

latka at speakeasy

Jun 4, 2003, 7:35 PM

Post #6 of 6 (1740 views)

Permalink

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Klimek" <jmk396@psu.edu>

> This leads me to one last question... are there any super plain black
> computer cases? I've seen the one link off mythtv.org, but it has drive
> bays. If possible, I'd like one to just be a black box so it looks more
> like a stereo component than a computer.

This looks pretty plain:
http://www.knowledgemicro.com/detail.php?p=MB-MS6252&c=PG

Another cool looking MSI box (farthest thing from plain, but ...):
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/slim_pc/slm/pro_slm_detail.php?UID=431&MODEL=MEGA651