Hello everyone, I am Normand, from Repentigny (near Montreal) in Quebec, Canada.
(sorry for the poor english, i am a french canadian!)
I am trying to give a seccond life out of an old PC and use it as a Linux MCE for my father's house.
Computer:
ECS K7S5A pro M.B.
AMD Athlon 1700+ CPU
512 Mb ram DDR (2x 228)
IDE 160Gb Hard drive
Ati Radeon 9200 AGP Video Card (for testing, I'll be upgrading to Radeon HD3450 on similar with HDMI output.)
LG generic DVD/CD/R/RW writer/reader
To come:
Hauppage tuner HVR-1600
Ati Radeon HD3450 with HDMI
PCI USB 2.0 card
1TB external drive(s) for Data
Since I lived all my life with M.S. Os from DOS to Win7... I know NOTHING about linux except the name and
stuff I've read and tutos I've watch on youtube on the main concepts of it... I am still really good with
computers and I know a lot about programming (working in the industrial automation domain) but now, I
need help!
Before you throw rocks at me, i've searched for 6 hours on how to solve the issue without bugging anyone
but I've not foud the solution.
So, here it goes:
I've installed Linux Ubuntu 8.10 from the LinuxMCE 8.10 Final package. Everything went fine, after installing
a device manager I checked that all my hardware had drivers for it and nothing seemed to be missing there.
I ran the LinuxMCE installer and I was asked to reboot and I did
-The M.B. self check see
-I see "Booting from: dev\bla bla bla" ... "Starting up please wait".
-BLACK SCREEN
-Descending beeps after 20-25 seconds
-nothing for 20 secs
-Screen returns and I see Loading scripts
-kinit: "No resume image, doing normal boot..." and it stays the same for 10-15 secs
-Then, BLUE SCREEN with AVW saying "failed to setup x"
I am running from VGA (I know this can be an issue when running other outputs)
After some reading, I am trying to extract the Xorg.config file.. I'll be back with it in my next
post!
Have a nice day,
- Normand
Hi, try to manually install the ati drivers.
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Intrepid_Installation_Guide
BR Daniel
I'm on it, thanks...
How can I download Catalyst 12.1 from the command prompt?
(I don't know how to go back to the GUI)
I tried to load the KDE and Gnome desktop from the command prompt with no result
other than flickering screen
I'll reinstall everything from the beginning I guess and download the drivers in the GUI
before installing LMCE...
Be back in 2 hours :P
Normand,
If you go the installing Kubuntu (either 810 or 1004, whichever you prefer) and then upgrade to LinuxMCE (810 or 1004) using the installer script method, you can:
Install the synaptic package manager from a terminal (a/k/a command prompt in Windoze speak) with the following command;
sudo apt-get install synaptic
... from there, it should be easy to use the synaptic package manager (a GUI app) at least get the open source ATI drivers, until you can download and install the propriety ones.
Once you have your Kubuntu install stable,... you can then run the LinuxMCE installer script to switch over from Kubuntu to LinuxMCE. You do not want to install the Gnome Desktop metapackage, or too many other packages you don't need, as Gnome Desktop (Meta package) will overwrite the KDM login manager and cause potential conflict headaches.
By the way,...
You probably want to install LinuxMCE 10.04,... I just noticed you listed the Hauppauge HVM-1600. Before Ubuntu 9.10 or so, that card was not well supported in the Ubuntu Linux family of distributions. In 10.04 it should automatically be recognized by the OS.
Radeon driver support is also better in later versions of Ubuntu (for the most part). You don't want your first foray into Linux to be having to compile and install the drivers for the Hauppauge card, or hunting around for how to set up the video card...
I've been there and done that, and I had about 7 years of Linux experience at that time... No fun, I'll tell you...
I tried.. I really did try to manually install the "restricted driver" but
system crashed and now can't go back to GUI again :(
Someone has a better idea? maybe I should install MCE from a
newer ubuntu release? or maybe I should cry in the corner of the
room?
See my post about trying 10.04...
Sorry for that... for some reason, your post was not showing when I wrote mine!
Probably an "f5" issue! :P
So if I get it right, to install V10.04, I have to Download the Kubuntu 10.04 iso
and then run obscure commands in terminal to load LinuxMCE 1004 from the net...
is that it ? (I went to the wiki and tried to understand)
Not exactly...
Install Kubuntu 10.04 from a burned ISO,...
- After you have it up, make sure to go into the mixer (the speaker icon will get you there).
- Make sure to check the menus in the mixer to enable you to view all channels.
- Unmute EVERY sound channel.
- Turn up the volume on all the sound out, but leave the sources (mics, etc) with the volume or boost down.
K>>Applications>>Utilities>>Terminal
(You might want to make the terminal background translucent so you can see through it later)
In the terminal type:
sudo apt-get install synaptic
Enter your password and enter a Y to allow it to install...
Then:
- Fix your graphic card's driver by using synaptic (Google for the model and Kubuntu 10.04 to be sure) to install the proper drivers, or get them from the ATI website and follow their instructions.
- Play back a sound or video from the internet to make sure your sound is working 100%.
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Installing_1004
Or just highlight the below (each separately) and paste it into the terminal (the transparency helps).
sudo -i
wget -q http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-1004/src/new-installer/mce-install.sh && chmod +x mce-install.sh
./mce-install.sh
reboot
When I enter this command
wget -q http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-1004/src/new-installer/mce-install.sh && chmod +x mce-install.sh
Nothing happens... I am confused ???
Never mind... not used to cammand prompt anymore :P
MCE is installing at the moment...
From the net, I read that my video card is not supported
by Catalyst (too old!) so I'll stick with the open source
drivers for now and I'll upgrade when I'll change the Video
card.
In that case get an nVidia card... LinuxMCE has better nVidia support.
My systems all have embedded Intel, which has (passable) support with LinuxMCE 10.04.
By the way,... you wouldn't have seen anything after the long command. That just opens up the files on the LinuxMCE install file server.
It's the script that does the work of actually installing...
QuoteBy the way,... you wouldn't have seen anything after the long command. That just opens up the files on the LinuxMCE install file server.
It's the script that does the work of actually installing...
I realised that just after my first post about that! Thanks anyways!
So after a long long waiting for installation, I got the same Server X message :o
I'm going to try to revert to generic drivers to again cause I think that MCE automaticaly
installs ATI proprietary drivers...
need to eat first :P
Tried with an old nVidia Mx440 card...
After reinstalling V.8.10, got the same xsever problem.. finaly changing
a few letters in xorg.conf resolved this issue for now...
I changed "nvidia" to "nv" in the config file and voilà!!!
Now I'll retry v 10.04 with this setup... Linux is a long thing to learn!
Good to see you've been met with success...
I was going to suggest trying an nVidia card or the open source ATI card drivers...
Once you get over the Linux learning curve, going back to Windoze makes Windoze seem like a juvenile, video gaming operating system.
Linux has all the power of a computing center's operating system with unmatched scalability & flexibility... And it costs nothing...
A few simple things to remember,... In Linux, everything is a file... Partitions are loaded as mount points and not given drive letters,... even if the X-server goes down, the rest of the system is usually running (and can be used to kill off the offending application too... Hiting Alt+Ctrl+F1 for a terminal and using killall -9 offending-programs-name is your friend, as is the top command),.... you don't need a virus scanner because (a) the system architecture tends to stop proliferation of viruses, and (b) programs are not set to run on download without permission (generally speaking),... and NOT because there are so few Linux machines out there (the Internet practically runs primarily on Linux (although saying that might spark a flame war).
Linux rewards learning... Knowledge is power...
Amen! :D
I'dd like to ask... how can you run on ATI's open source drivers?
I read a lot about it but couldn't figure how to do it!
Look for them in the Distro's repository. The easiest way to look through the repositories is with the graphical software installation and update tool, in Ubuntu's case they use synaptic for the non-KDE UIs. In Fedora and other RPM based distros it's YUM (stands for Yet another Update Manager).
A few things...
1. Get a decent nvidia card.
2. All of the installing and reinstalling in the world is going to result in the same failure, as the avwizard actively replaces it during load.
3. What you will want to do is replace "fglrx" with "radeon" in the xorg.conf.pluto.avwizard because your card is not supported by the better driver.
4. if that does NOT fix the problem, look on the forum for ATI. I have there a process to purge the fglrx drivers and use the native radeon.
5. Get a decent nvidia card.
Good luck!
@ #1 & #5 ... That tells me that the AV wizard needs tuning...
PS: Don't give me the LCME is an appliance speech & don't be a hater... peace.
Yes... I have 4 months invested in that very thing.
What about you?
EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeexactly.
Good day.
Please see my post in the other thread re: self-righteousness...
I've been helping people switch to Linux for a decade ...
Nobody's got nothing on me...
I booted linux up for the first time less than 2 years ago, and I'm doing development work... so... I have that on you.
re self-righteousness... see hypocrisy. You don't understand how the system works, and presume to make unrealistic suggestions... then start a pissing match because "everyone keeps telling you the same thing". It is your self righteousness that is the problem... not everyone elses.
It's like walking into a surgery center giving advice with no medical background other than treating your own illness.
The system, was DESIGNED, to work this way. It is the GOAL of the project to achieve this DESIGN in an evolving environment. No, the entire foundation of the code will not be rewritten because you want it to work differently.
Self-righteous indeed.
btw... since I began this exchange with you, I have added these unique PCI IDs to the card detection routine.
00C0 00C1 00C2 00C3 00C8 00C9 00F1 00F2 00F3 00F4 00F5 00F6 00F9 014F 016A 01D0 01D1 01D2 01D3 01D6 01D7 01D8 01DD 01DF 02E0 02E1 02E2 02E3 02E4 038B 03D0 03D1 03D2 03D5 03D6 042C 042E 053A 053B 053E 05E0 05E1 05E2 05E3 05E6 05E7 068F 05EA 05EB 060A 060B 060C 060D 060F 062A 062B 062C 062D 062E 064A 064B 064C 065B 06C0 06C4 06CA 06CD 06D1 06D2 06DE 082F 06DF 06E3 06E7 07E0 07E1 07E2 07E3 07E5 084F 08A5 0A20 0A22 0A23 0A26 0A27 0A28 0A29 0A2A 0A2B 0A2D 0A34 0A35 0A60 0A62 0A63 0A64 0A65 0A66 0A67 0A68 0A69 0A6E 0A6F 0A70 0A71 0A72 0A73 0A74 0A75 0A7A 0CA0 0CA2 0CA3 0CA4 0CA7 0CA8 0CA9 0CAC 0CAF 0CB0 0CB1 0DC0 0DC4 0DCD 0DCE 0DD1 0DD2 0DD6 0DE0 0DE1 0DE2 0DE5 0DEB 0DEC 0DEE 0DF0 0DF1 0DF2 0DF3 0DF4 0DF5 0DF6 0DF7 0E22 0E23 0E24 0E30 0E31 1040 1042 1050 1051 1055 1082 1088 1091 0974 1094 1096 10C3 10C5 1200 1201 1203 1210 1211 1241 1244 1245 1247 1251 004E 009D 00CC 00CD 00CE 00F8 014A 014C 014D 014E 019D 019E 01DA 01DB 01DC 01DE 029A 029B 029C 029D 029E 029F 039C 039E 040A 040B 040C 040D 040E 040F 042A 042B 042D 042F 05ED 05F8 05F9 05FD 05FE 05FF 061A 061B 061C 061D 061E 061F 063A 065A 065C 06D8 06D9 06DA 06DC 06DD 0A2C 0A38 0A3C 0A6A 0A6C 0A78 0A7C 0CBC 0DD8 0DDA 0DF8 0DFA 0DFC 0E3A 0E3B 1056 109A 109B 10D8
Why are you wasting my time?
Quote from: JaseP on February 26, 2012, 04:09:27 AM
Please see my post in the other thread re: self-righteousness...
I've been helping people switch to Linux for a decade ...
Nobody's got nothing on me...
which is why you and all your wonderful skills are here in the forum instead of doing something of consequence like l3mce. Cue excuse making in 3...2...1....
i know we arent supposed to try and drive people away, but damn if don't need people wise enough to realize what they don't know. and that last line...what are you a 70's exploitation flick character?
oh well, breaktime over. back to doing useful things!
-golgoj4
I am really happy to enter the Linux world with such a bunch of mature people >:(
Please, I asked a question, could we please keep the topic on that question
unstead of going in the "mine's bigger than yours" area? Please!!!
As I said, I am experiencing with old cards I have before I go out and buy a
new 100-150$ card and realise that my system will never keep up!
I would like to know if my AMD 1200+ will be strong enough to do the basic
tasking that the MCE server asks from it... If not, I'll revise my strategy and
go for a brand new Micro ATX board with probably an AMD APU (if supported)
and onboard HDMI... For that, I need to first try it out!
I do realise that nVidia is the #1 choice for GPU on linux... but in AGP, they
are hard to come by at a decent price... Any suggestion on a WELL SUPPORTED
card that can take a huge load off the main CPU ?
- Normand
Let's say this: My test core for a while, which was able to do 720p MPEG2 display, was an ASUS B202. If you current computer is as fast as that, you shouldn't have a problem, apart from waits during Orbiter generation. Don't buy a 100-120USD card. You can get nVidia based cards which do VDPAU for way less than that. No need to get the latest and greatest. Just check with nVidia what VDPAU level they support.
Quote from: Normand_Nadon on February 26, 2012, 02:55:58 PM
I am really happy to enter the Linux world with such a bunch of mature people >:(
Please, I asked a question, could we please keep the topic on that question
unstead of going in the "mine's bigger than yours" area? Please!!!
As I said, I am experiencing with old cards I have before I go out and buy a
new 100-150$ card and realise that my system will never keep up!
I would like to know if my AMD 1200+ will be strong enough to do the basic
tasking that the MCE server asks from it... If not, I'll revise my strategy and
go for a brand new Micro ATX board with probably an AMD APU (if supported)
and onboard HDMI... For that, I need to first try it out!
I do realise that nVidia is the #1 choice for GPU on linux... but in AGP, they
are hard to come by at a decent price... Any suggestion on a WELL SUPPORTED
card that can take a huge load off the main CPU ?
- Normand
What can I say. Some of us developers dont appreciate trolls. As far as your problem, there is a reason when someone asks about video cards we say Nvidia and Nvidia only. Now, there is a whole line of cards made by NVidia that work, and not much else. And they really aren't that expensive. I got my 450gts for $80.
Lastly, you cant take an old car and expect it to do new things. Either you invest in the new car, or you enjoy the old one. Sometimes there is no middle ground and this is one of those times.
-golgoj4, a guy who paid attention to the hardware requirements and thusly does not have these problems.
@ Normand:
A card like the following:
eVGA e-GeForce 6200 Graphics card - 512 MB - DDR2 SDRAM
Ought to work just fine and you should be able to find one for under $40 US. You might have to get it online though.
You talk about Hardware requirements... I did not see anything really clear
on that subject.. only supposition that some setup could or have already
been used etc...
The most important thing for me if I buy another Graphic card, is that it
has to take most of the processing, like video decoding etc so that the
CPU only "works" on data transfer... That is the reason why I'll get a
Hauppage tuner to... so that the main CPU only has to transfer file
already converted in MPEG2 by the tuner to the network.
So.. Would you say a 450GTS could do that for me?
Any relatively modern graphics card will support hardware 2D & 3D acceleration. Even an embedded Intel chipset will do that. The real problem is compatibility with the LinuxMCE software stack... Until 10.04 it was a real issue getting anything other than nVidia GPUs to work (and one of the major reasons I had stayed away).
I don't think you'll have any major issues (performance wise) with your intended setup. Just stay away from ATI video. It's not supported well under LinuxMCE. If you want to do anything non standard with your setup, you'll likely have a tough time, especially with little Linux experience. Plus, the developers won't likely help you with that. There may have been someone in the wiki who got it working,... but they probably had to do a lot of work to get it to that state. That's why I suggested sticking to 10.04 for HVR-1600 support.
As for the hardware requirements being listed in a clear fashion,... You = preacher,... Me = choir.
PS: With an nVidia GPU and the HVR-1600 you MAY have to pass aboot parameter in the Grub2 setup. Someone mentioned that, and I've had issues with that in the past.
What do you mean? Like they would compete one with another
in the boot sequence?
I am right now in the process of building 2 HTPC (one for me and
one for my father) Mine would use the old AMD 1700+ I am talking
about since the beginning of this thread, and the second one
would be a brand new Micro ATX PC (my father wants blueray and
dual HD recording... I don't want to spend a lot on upgrading old
tech to fit his needs... if it can ever reach a suitable level of power
for his setup!)
I was looking at some AMD APUs and board, really cheap price for
interresting performance. The issue is that they all are running ATI
displays since they are AMD technology... Newer ATI cards are
supposed to be working with the latest Catalyst drivers for Linux.
What do you guys think about that? I also saw some onboard
GeForce setups but some say they are slower because the CPU and
GPU are figthing against each other for memory and ressources
on the board.
I already know that most of you will tell me to go with Geforce, but
I would like to have your opinion on newer ATI cards using the latest
Catalys drivers... Is it worth it?
If you get sufficient RAM, you don't need to worry about onboard nVidia chipsets and shared memory. Again, if you have the option from the beginning you want to go with nVidia. ATI is a problem under Linux, generally, and under LinuxMCE specifically. You might be able to get it working... after much crying and gnashing of teeth,... but you'll wished you hadn't. Before ATI, I would say to go with an embedded Intel chipset (other than the GMA500 or GMA600, PowerVR chipsets that don't work right in Linux). Intel chipsets in the GMA945 or its successors will be a good 2nd choice from nVidia chipsets.
The conflict between the HVR-1600 and the nVida chipsets is a somewhat well known. See here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1043884.html
Blueray support may not be there yet... I've taken a pass on blueray until it's better supported in Linux generally. I don't like the idea of re-purchasing all my media because of blueray, or getting a bunch of 4TB drives to store it all, either.
Oh.. so blueray is not supported yet... Bad thing for me!
Would a B.R. drive work for DVD until full BlueRay support
is achieved?
please tell me that I read correctly and that full Hd Video
is supported! (1080p h264?)
1080p is supported as long as your hardware supports it. But, they have to be supported devices to even work...
For Bluray:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/How_to_Select_Components_for_Your_LinuxMCE_Computers#Optical_Drives
If a blueray drive is a combo drive, I suppose it would work for DVD...