Messages

1

Users / Re: Newbie question on system setup

« on: November 21, 2008, 07:34:18 pm »

I appreciate it seth. I think that I am just going to suck it up and run winblows MCE. After reading for two strait days I just don't see enough hardware support for modern hardware. A lot of systems that work perfectly are still running the same mother board that is in the video and I just don't have the time to spend configuring the system just to get the onboard hardware to work (it would be different if I could actually still buy the MB that is guarenteed to work). I am not bashing the devs, it just seems like their aren't enough of them to do all the work need to have regular releases with newer kernel versions to support the hardware on the market. The hardware issue was the deal breaker for me (manually configuring a lot of hardware modules can just be too much of a pain this is why people use distros like kubuntu instead of gentoo). I shouldn't have to buy a used MB on ebay to get a fully functioning system. I will continue to check back here periodically to see if there are any new versions. It might be benefital forthe devs to merge with another distro to get the kind of manpower the need to get everything done. Devs keep up the good fight this system has great potential.

2

Users / Re: Newbie question on system setup

« on: November 21, 2008, 05:30:51 am »

colinjones,

Thank you for your reply. Please let me start by saying that I am not trying to drudge up any bad blood, or especially not burn a bridge with someone that post actively in the forums when it comes the network setup. I know that it can be a touchy subject in these forums, I have spent a lot of time reading about this and I do see the benefit of the default setup for LMCE, but I am not sure if I want to use it entirely the way it was designed (my main reasons for this are a single point of failure, the system will not always be on, as for the traffic sniffing I just prefer to have things separated, if I had a layer 3 switch this would not be a problem for me). Ok, enough about that.

-For the hardware I completely agree with you about Nvidia. Linux support for it is so much better from the kernel to the porprietary drivers it is just better, and compiz is awsome    and so much easier to set up with Nvidia cards. I will look into the chipsets, most likely they either supported out of the box or require a newer kernel which is something I am comfortable doing (I'm a desktop Gentoo user and have re-built kernels before although never on a kubuntu based box).

- The only reason that I am getting this much RAM is because some of the things that I intend to do with this box (Media Center to start) may not work, or work easily enough that I don't have to listen to my wife complain about it. This can be a deal breaker. If so I will end up configuring the box with Windows Vista MCE and she can scroll through as many menu's as she wants, but she won't get any of the home automation that I would like to eventually set up. As for the 8200, it is onboard and seems to be the chipset on most of the midrange MB' on newegg at least that don't run ATI (I shop there often).

 - I will definatly do some searching for the HDMI Keyboard shortcuts, thank you I would not have thought of that.

 - I am not sure why I would have to rebuild a clean system since the network just separates the PC's and the LMCE associated devices. As long as I have enough LAN ports in the LMCE network and I can properly configure the router to allow bidirectional traffic to those specific devices, it should work just fine. The only thing would be that the PC's off of the wireless router would not be able to access anything on the wired router without configuration. I admit that this setup is a convoluded way of setting up LMCE.

- Can the web admin console save the passwords and re-send them as needed, (I would think that the sessions would time out after a while, not sure though) I don't want to have a keyboard hooked up to the system it will be in my living room


Thank you for letting me pick your brain, and please excuse the security nut in me regarding the network setup.

3

Users / Newbie question on system setup

« on: November 21, 2008, 02:33:19 am »

Hi all,

I am very interested in giving LinuxMCE a try and have a few question
(most of which have to some degree been talked about in the forums). I
would also kindly ask that you all take a look at my purposed setup.
Please note that I have never setup or used any kind of Media Center
solution before and have limited Linux experience, but I am not afraid
of the bash CLI.

Here are the specs for my purposed LMCE server (Hybrid, 1 NIC):

CPU: AMD Athlon 63 X2 5000 Black Edition
CPU Cooling: I am trying to find a passive cooler (less noise)
MB: BIOSTAR TForce TF8200 A2+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138113
Memory: 4 GB OCZ PC2 6400
Video: On Board GeForce 8200 (HDMI out to TV)
Sound: On Board Sound
Capture Card: Either PVR 150 or 500
HDD's: couple of SATA drives I have at the house
Optical Drive: Standard DVDR I have at the house
Remote: Standard windows MCE remote to start and maybe a Fiire Chief
later

This will be connect to my (US) Comcast cable provider via their
provided Scientific Atlantic HD DVR (sorry I don't remember the model
number). I have 2 questions here. I read in the forums that there are
known issues with HD contend due to Comcast encoding the signal and they
also don't use standard signaling for the channel mapping. I am not so
concerned about HD content, I just want to get all of my content. The
way I would like the system to work is to plug the DVR into the LMCE box
(via S-Video or IEEE or whatever) and be able to view all of the
channels that I pay for with Comcast, more than just 2-99 and be able to
record one show while watching another. I would like this to be done
through the LMCE interface TV guide and not the Comcast provided guide
on the DVR. Is this possible, and is this type of setup documented
fairly well so that someone with limited experience can set it up?

Here is my purposed network setup:

The reason I am going to ask about this is because of all of the LMCE as
DHCP/no DHCP, Router/no Router talk in the forums. From the outside to
the inside, there will be a cable mode providing connectivity to a DLink
wireless router that will serve DHCP to all of the PC's on my network
(bare with me). This will be only for PC's only (no offence to the devs,
but I don't want my banking information routed through a device that is
sniffing traffic out of the box) no PXE devices will be connected here.
Connected to one of the LAN ports on the wireless router will be DLink
wired router (LAN port on wireless router to the WAN port on the wired
router with the wireless router providing a static IP to the wired
router). Behind this wired router will be the LMCE and my NAS (DLink
DNS-323). The LMCE will be setup with one NIC in the standard
configuration (serving DHCP and routing traffic for UPNP support). All
devices that will connect to the LMCE, things like Media Directors, will
be physically connected to the LAN ports on the wired router. The wired
router will be set up with NAT so that the computers to the wireless
router will still be able to connect to the file shares on the NAS
(minimal script modification will be required here). I know that this
may seem a bit convoluted, but I really do want to separate the LMCE
server from the PC's in my house that users access. I can't see why this
setup would not work, can you?

The next concern that I have is access to Netflix Watch it Now service.
I have read that basically the only way that this will work is either to
buy a Roku Netflix player, or run a windows VM on the LMCE. Is this
true? Supposedly Netflix made the Roku code open source, could the LMCE
team use that code to make an update for LMCE, or is the DRM just too
much of a pain to work out?

Lastly (I swear) I have configured my NAS (Dlink DNS-323) with access controls, i.e. users and groups. Does LMCE have built in support for this? I would prefer not to have wide open file shares on my network.


Thank you all for your support