LinuxMCE Forums

General => Installation issues => Topic started by: mukmaster on December 15, 2009, 08:49:08 pm

Title: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on December 15, 2009, 08:49:08 pm
Hi there, I'm a newbee so maybe some of my questions are a bit stupid   :-X
I tried to find solutions for several installation isseus but did not find ones that quite fit (however.. I havn't read the over 100 pages of topics  ::) )

I intend to install MCE 8.10 on a brand new machine and the following problems occured:

-(trying the DVD install) Installation almost completes but fail at the end reporting GRUB install failed
Then I tried to first install Kubuntu 8.10 (wich worked fine) and proceed with the 2 CD's for lmce. I get the message 'caching cd' wich takes about 5 minutes, then the installer just dissapears.

- I get the problem that my HDMI television won't stay the primary display, at some step during the installation the screen turns black en stays so. If I connect a regular pc monitor this problem doesn't occur
- when I tried to use a beamer instead, the resolution jumped instantly to over 3200, causing text to be unreadable and thus making further troubleshooting a no-go

I spended many hours trying to install, so a few good tips would come in welcome!


Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on December 15, 2009, 09:05:37 pm
Oh.. I failed to give some details about the machine I'm installing on..

Motherboard:      MSI AM3 790FX-GD70
                        (AMD 790FX+SB750 chipset)
Processor:          AMD Phenom2 X4 965
Graphics:           ASUS 9800GT/DI CUDA 512
Memory:            4x 2048GB DDR3 Buffalo
HDD:                 2TB Hitachi SATA drive

I assume none of these specs should give couse for any problems (I somewhere read something about HDD of 2TB and larger could cause problems.. the installation of Kubuntu 8.10 went seamlessly though)

Edit: graphics card description corrected
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: pedplar on December 15, 2009, 10:52:22 pm
If your using the 2 cds to install lmce, then you need to install kubuntu 7.10, not 8.10.  your bets chance is to download the 8.10 beta2 of lmce.
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: bongowongo on December 16, 2009, 02:13:08 am
Try to install like the following stated under internet installation
Follow this very very very very very carefully.

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/LinuxMCE-0810_beta

After installation of the CD of Kubuntu 810 you need to get into a console, you know what a console is?
There you need to type the following also stated in the box and followed by an enter:

Code: [Select]
sudo su - #This might ask for the password you specified earlier during the install of kubuntu.
aptitude update
aptitude dist-upgrade
wget -c http://deb.linuxmce.org/ubuntu/new-installer-beta2.tar.gz
tar xvf new-installer-beta2.tar.gz
cd new-installer
./pre-install-from-repo.sh
./mce-install.sh
./post-install.sh
reboot
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on December 16, 2009, 02:41:27 pm
Would the aptitude dist-upgrade not replace 8.10??

(Yes, I'm using console when something can't be resolved otherwise, my knowledge of commands is still very small - but learning fast  ;D)
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: Marie.O on December 16, 2009, 03:21:58 pm
Would the aptitude dist-upgrade not replace 8.10??

(Yes, I'm using console when something can't be resolved otherwise, my knowledge of commands is still very small - but learning fast  ;D)

No. The difference between apt-get upgrade and dist-upgrade is, that upgrade will only upgrade existing deb packages without installing additional packages. dist-upgrade will install new packages as well, for example new kernels, if you have the linux-image-generic for example.
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on January 04, 2010, 07:14:55 am
After numerous problems I found a way to install without any problems:

First I installed Kubuntu 8.10 using the alternate cd. Then I installed MCE using the script Bongowongo posted (thanks a lot for that  :) )

Now I have a new set of things that puzzle me, but I think I will find solutions along the way for them:

-characters are way to small / unreadable on HDMI television, though resolution cannot be set higher then 600x800 though my philips hdtv is detected ?!
-No sound (though I had sound under Kubuntu)
-I get the control interface on the tv but found no way to switch to media screen. The only way yet to watch a movie is by browsing a drive and select 'play'
-while playing I don't get the controls via mouse like it should.
-when I choose to start the audio/video wizard again, I get a message a restart is needed. It does the restart but then the wizard doesn't appear; I just end up at the control interface again.

I assume some of these problems are due to misconfigurations and not knowing the right input methods. However I'm planning to buy some extra hardware to the system when it works convincingly.

Any tips are of course very welcome!
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: theteju on January 05, 2010, 08:08:31 pm
hello there,

I am not an expert but after a lot of troublesome procedure I am finally able to get my system up and running.

I would recommand to read this post, which helped me a lot.

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8838.0

also, I would recommand few additional steps to avoid future troubles.

1. please set up initial set up (first time "sara" comes up) with VGA connection to your monitor. pick basic settings on first setup. Remember you can always change this settings later on once the first setup configured successfully. So pick basic gui, simple audio etc and add user name and room set up.

2. once you have everything working under basic with VGA settings try to run AV wizard again and now pick HDMI, UI3 this will also install latest nvidia driver for you automatically and should work just fine.

3. I installed latest alsa package before installing linuxmce.. gave me optical audio out with no trouble.

If you are going to use any tuner card. I would recommand hold them until everything runs fine.. and add your additional component one by one.

One key thing is ,, be ready to often reboot or reload your router after every single steps. i know it takes time but worth it.( I prefer reboot)

also,, if you are newbiee really,,, read wiki and more and more stuff will make sense to you.

there are some tutorials by a user name pandaman on youtube about linuxmce ,, what can I say,,  he is my mentor !!!

I am loving it.

hope this helps..

Take care.

Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: nite_man on January 05, 2010, 11:03:29 pm
My two cents. Be sure that nVidia driver is installed. It should be done automatically but check it. If not you have to install it. Then choose DVI/HDMI output and 720p or 1080p resolution. When I installed beta1 I couldn't set 1080p. 720p only. Also IMHO installation using scripts is more clear and easy then CD/DVD.
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on January 25, 2010, 07:37:24 pm
Update:

After I did a clean new install (I installed Kubuntu from the dvd and then the internet-installation script, so I was able to choose the partitions this way) I succeeded in getting the AVWizard up (though it was a bit difficult since I had no HDMI display initially)

Success!!!

Now the next steps are to getting hdmi audio up. Firstly, I want to see it work on the tv (a Philips plasma), if that works I' going to buy a Denon receiver to link it up with.

Question: I havn't got the (internal) blu ray player to play blu ray disks yet. It does play dvd's though. Are there any extra configurations needed?

Many thanx!
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: Marie.O on January 25, 2010, 09:07:12 pm
BluRay playing is not (realistically) supported.
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on February 03, 2010, 08:23:07 am
Thanx a lot for the tips so far.. I think I'm almost there!

I read a lot about issues with the AV wizard, especially when it comes to HDMI.. and I seem to have a problem thats not covered anywhere yet!

The problem is the AV wizard doesn't switch to the HDMI output of the graphics card, and I have a clue what the problem is also: This card has THREE DVI outputs.. (beside an SVGA output also). Two of them are DVI connectors and one actual HDMI connector. So I'm pretty sure I can't switch to the correct connector simply because the wizard only supports two DVI outputs (and the third being the one I need). Of course I could use a DVI-HDMI adaptor, but I would like to use the actual connector, since I also want to use the audio output via HDMI. Is there maybe a way to manually configure this?

The graphics card I use is a ASUS 9800GT/DI CUDA 512
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: l3mce on February 07, 2010, 08:49:05 am
Judging by the card, your first DVI must be on-board. Disable the on-board vid (dvi 1) from the bios.

You will be left with 2 dvi and and a vga to work with.
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: mukmaster on February 08, 2010, 06:14:10 am
The mobo doesn't have onboard graphics..
the card just doesn't put out any signal to the tv (I even don't get a message on the tv about any unsuported mode.. nothing.
 I thing I'll try to get an other type of graphics card, maybe I get lucky then.
Title: Re: numerous problems installing lmce..
Post by: Marie.O on February 09, 2010, 12:18:58 am
Make sure to have the monitor turned on, before switching on the PC. Also, in my experience, the counting starts at the bottom. Maybe that helps. Other than that, a plain old regular nVidia 2xx card will work just fine.