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Messages - Stutch

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16
Oops, that is not the motherboard in use on my core.  I forgot that ended up replacing it due to wanting the 4 16x PCI express slots for future raid expandability...  I am actually using the K9A2 Platinum 790FX AM2+ ATX Motherboard http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1332

Colinjones - As far as playing DVDs on the core, I can't get the sound to work; it has the integrated Realtek ALC883 which doesn't seem to work at all.  I wasn't too concerned about this fact though since this system is my core.  I would have to get the sound working on it to do an appropriate test on movie playback quality.  In that case, is there an easy way to get my sound working?  I will also attempt a crossover cable directly to my media device and see if that works (God help me if it does.).  I have played DVD's locally on the media device internal DVD players without issue, but I haven't tried coping the DVD to the local system.  I can see how that test would help eliminate the network as an issue.  I'll give it a shot as well.  I'm still green to the Linux world, which is a problem for me.  I'll look at dmesg to see what is going on, and post it on here as I'll have no clue what I am looking at. :)

Niz23- I will have to see if the whole system freezes or just the playback.  I’m thinking it is just the playback though. The internal NIC on my core is in use on the public facing network.  I have a separate gigabit NIC in place for my internal 192.168.80.0/24 network.  Would that eliminate the issue with the shared IRQ for the Nic and video card?  Also the issue is on both the Intel and AMD based media directors, so I assume your concern is with the Core being an nForce based motherboards.


17
Hello again.  First of all, please forgive me for the long post.  I am very passionate about getting this system working so that I can help others. 
I've been troubleshooting this particular problem for 3 months now and I am running out of ideas.  When attempting to watch movies (ripped to the core system) on my diskless media devices, playback stutters periodically.  Considering that my intention is to move my entire DVD Library to this core system, the performance is absolutely critical.  Being an IT Infrastructure professional, I took a pretty hard core approach to correcting this issue.  (I like buying big toys.)

First, I thought maybe it was a disk access speed issue, so I dedicated four 250 GB drives in a hardware raid 10 configuration for the Linux MCE OS.  I then created a separate (hardware) raid 5 LUN for my media.  This resulted in no improvement on the media directors during playback; however they do seem to boot up quicker. 

Next I replaced my Linksys Gigabit switch with a Cisco Catalyst 3550 (Layer 3) Gigabit Switch and a few cat 6 certified patch cables to plug the systems directly into the switch.  I did see notable improvement after this change.  Movie play back still stutters on occasion, but it is far less severe. 

I have a core set up and running like a scalded dog, the config is below:

Motherboard: MSI Platinum AM2
RAID controller: 3Ware PCI-Express x16 SATA II Controller Card RAID
Processor: AMD Phenom 9950 2.6 GHz Quad Core
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4gig memory
Case: Norco RPC-4020 4U
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W
Video Card: MSI Video Card Nvidia Chipset
NIC: Intel Gigabit Ethernet
Hard Drives:
System: Western Digital Caviar 250GB X 4 Raid 10 configuration
Data: Western Digital Caviar 1TB X 8 Raid 5 configuration

Here are my current Media Directors:
Media Directors:
-1 MSI Media Live x64
-3 Generic PC x86(Testing)

What I think may help is increasing the MTU size for the media network.  I can do that easily enough on the switch, however, what would I need to do on the core /media directors?
Would this even help me?
Is there something else that I may be missing that could cause my video playback preformance issues?
I love you guys.

18
Help Wanted / Re: Ordering DVD from LinuxMCE website
« on: October 22, 2008, 04:50:42 pm »
I'm in the same boat as you.  I ordered the same $5.oo DVD back in August, and still haven't received it.

Very irritating.

Order Details - Aug 23, 2008 10:59 PM EDT
 Google Order #769161671136393

 Shipping Status  Qty Item  Price
  Not yet shipped 1LinuxMCE 0710 - Both 32 bit and 64 bit installer DVDs  -  9GB LinuxMCE 32 bit installer DVD and 9GB LinuxMCE 64 bit installer DVD, sent via First Class mail $5.00
Tax (OH) :$0.00
Total:$5.00

Kind of feel fleeced.

19
Installation issues / Re: Problem with X-Setting on TV
« on: September 25, 2008, 11:21:45 pm »
Hey,

Can you verify and repost that link again?  I can't get there. 

20
Installation issues / Re: Installation on MSI K9N2GM-FD
« on: September 20, 2008, 06:43:02 am »
Hello Damien,

I had a similar issue with the 64 bit installer on an MSI motherboard as well.  To fix it, I had to update the bios.  The funny thing is that the dos version of the bios update utility acted like it worked, however I came to find out days later that it actually hadn't.

Your best bet is to load XP on this machine temporarily.  This will accomplish two things.  First of all, you can isolate whether the problems you are having are hardware related or some quirky issue with Linux.  Secondly, if XP loads successfully, you can use the MSI update utility to update the bios and validate that it completed successfully.

I am a huge fan of MSI boards, and I am running about 6 or 7 of them here at the house, including the K9A2 Platinum for my core.

Good luck.

21
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 07, 2008, 09:32:01 pm »
Excellent.

I realized what I was doing wrong.  I was formatting the hard drives but not partitioning them first.

After I figured that out, I was able to partition the hard drives using FD, and then properly format them.  When I started up LinuxMCE the radar detected all 5 drives.

Now I am at the point where I am loading up the first Media Device (MSI Media Live).   Will keep you updated on progress.

Thank you Thom and Colin!!

22
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 06, 2008, 03:30:02 am »
Ok, I think I understand partially what you are telling me.  Under the device tree, I only see one hard drive, which is the drive that installed the OS on.  The other 5 drives are not detected automatically.
So here is how my raid is configured:

3Ware 9650se SATAII Raid controller:
8 Western Digital SATAII Terabyte Hard Drives - Configured as a single 6TB Raid 6 disk.
Due to restrictions in either the OS or my BIOS, I enabled auto carving on the raid controller.  This causes the 6TB drive to be carved up into 1TB drives (6 total) and presented to the OS as such.

Linux MCE is installed on /dev/sda 0,0,0 .  What do I have to do to the other 5 drives to make them show up?  Do I need to do anything under Kubuntu before running the LinuxMCE disk?

After the LMCE is installed, if they do not show up automatically, what information do I need to enter into the template to make the hard drive function?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

23
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 06, 2008, 12:43:39 am »
I miss spoke.  I have only one hard drive showing up under the device tree with the generic name "Hard Drive" and another device called "9650".  I happen to be using a 3Ware 9650 Raid controller.

Can I manually mount these drives in such a way that LinuxMCE can utilize them?  How do I make LinuxMCE detect these drives, is there something that I can do?

24
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 05, 2008, 04:10:50 pm »
I see only one hard drive under the device tree, and that is called 9650, which is the model of my raid controller.

Should I see all 5 drives under here?

25
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 05, 2008, 03:13:21 pm »
I am still having an issue.  When I install Kubuntu, I can see all 5 hard drives under the system configuration, and I partition and format them as directed in this forum.  They are mountable and I have full access to the drives.  I did not mount them in this most recent attempt because of what I learned in this series of posts.  However, after the LinuxMCE installer is completed, I see 10 drives, 5 that are identified and 5 that are not.

1) Can anyone explain to me why the LinuxMCE installer is duplicating my disk drives?

2) How should the additional drives show up within Linux MCE?  Shouldn't I be able to select one of these drives as the destination when ripping movies?

3) Is it possible to manually mount / configure hard drives in Linux MCE?  Perhaps create a mount point that allows these drives to show up in the window for Managed Drives?

Thank you!

26
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 04, 2008, 08:00:51 pm »
I will give that a try this evening.  Thank you!

27
Installation issues / Re: No drives show up in Orbitor on core
« on: September 04, 2008, 07:25:10 pm »
Mighty Lord of the LinuxMCE,

Do these drives need to be partitioned and formatted in order to be detected by LunuxMCE?  (My assumption is yes.)

28
Users / Re: Setup additional harddrive
« on: September 04, 2008, 04:58:21 pm »
long story! (but it wasn't from all the 'hand wringing' over LMCE :) )

Hey, I believe you completely.  I have about 12 years of experience in IT, which is coming in handy, and a stout determination in making this work.   Granted I am complicating the issue with the hardware raid that I am putting in place, but still, it can be a bit overwhelming for even an experienced IT person to undertake.

As soon as I do have it working, I intend to FULLY document every single step that I take to build a massive CORE so that others can learn from my experience.

We have over 300 DVD's that I intend to rip to disk, as well as looking at the home automation and security modules as well.

All I need to do is get these hard disks to show up and I can move forward!

29
Users / Re: Setup additional harddrive
« on: September 04, 2008, 07:41:40 am »
Thank you for the advise colin. Yes, these are all SATA hard drives, with no date on them.   I will reinstall Kubuntu one more time, and have the drives partitioned and formated before installing LinuxMCE.

I will also try plugging on of the unformatted drives into the system to see how it reacts.

Broken hands?  Wow.  You are way too dedicated  :D

30
Users / Re: Setup additional harddrive
« on: September 04, 2008, 07:08:11 am »
This is a fresh build system.  There is no media on the drives yet, I am just trying to get my core set up.

I have a hybrid system up and running, and after about a month of research, I figured is was time to build a beastly core to store all my DVD movies on.

So, lets say that I wipe this box and start over again.  I'll start off by installing Kubuntu, and then should I partition and format the other 5 drives? 

After that can I install LinuxMCE on the system?

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