Messages

1

Installation issues / Re: KDE desktop is too big for screen

« on: January 22, 2009, 03:09:59 pm »

Zaerc,  perhaps we got off on the wrong foot in this subject...
For what it's worth I apologize for being a bit cantankerous in my posts towards you.
I know it's frustrating answering the same questions over and over again, and TBH I'd never even heard of overscan till it was brought up in this topic.

As I said before I don't just go asking questions without at least doing a couple searches using different terms and sources. I searched the forums for "desktop too big", "left side off screen", and a couple other variations that returned no useful information. I checked the wiki under "known issues", "desktop issues", "desktop too big" and other variations of those terms also to no avail. I tried asking in the IRC channel but got no response for the entire time I was logged on (I wasn't logged on for too long as I had to reboot into windows for something else)

I guess I could have waited a couple more hours in IRC to see if someone would have come off idle and tried to help me, but I needed a file off my windows drive and I had told MCE to not even bother with that drive and I had been warned elsewhere to not mount drives manually.

To sum it up I'm sorry for being argumentative. From what I've heard from other people you're a great guy who likes to help people, I just felt at the time that you could have been a little more helpful and a little less coarse in your responses.

From now on I'll try even harder to not post any issues I may have unless absolutely necessary. And perhaps if you're getting a little stressed about the same questions being asked over and over again you could let someone else post instead?

I have no hard feelings against you man, I've been there and I know you feel like a broken record sometimes. Hopefully you can forgive my ignorance and we can just put this behind us...

2

Installation issues / Re: KDE desktop is too big for screen

« on: January 22, 2009, 07:28:55 am »

Oh yawn.

Once again I appreciate your effort in adding useful information to this subject

As far as everything else goes, I got it working by switching the input to VGA instead of component (vertical size was fine after that) and changing the screens size and position within the TV itself (never occurred to me to try that till Colin posted)

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Installation issues / Re: KDE desktop is too big for screen

« on: January 21, 2009, 01:27:53 pm »

I don't post issues without first searching to see if it's covered in another topic. I know forum etiquette and I know it's bothersome if someone asks a question that's covered elsewhere. You know, forum etiquette also states if you really can't add anything to the conversation you shouldn't post, else ye be flagged as a troll/flamer
I did search for the desktop issue but apparently I didn't use the correct search terms. I'm sorry to have bothered you're uber eliteness/guruism with my newbish question and obviously instead of posting a link to the topic where it was covered elsewhere someone of your stature has to post telling me to search for it (which i had done but found no results)

I bow to your greatness and applaud your unwillingness to help with this issue (though I did appreciate your help in my other topic)

4

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use (solved, but new question asked)

« on: January 21, 2009, 12:12:38 pm »

Ok well everything was fine, I just picked a wrong setting when I was setting up the extra HDD's (told it to only use it when I tell it to or something of that sort)
I've changed a couple things
Did a complete reinstall cause when I tried installing the latest Nvidia drivers it hosed the whole install (I think I went wrong when I told it to reconfigure x-windows or something like that)
I've also reinstalled a couple more times cause I kept messing up some settings (I didn't want it to manage my windows drive at all, but I accidentally kept telling it to)
I'm now using my HDTV's VGA input instead of component and the screen issue is almost fixed (still just a tad too far off on the left)
Hooked up my PC via ethernet so I'm now posting via MCE instead of windows

I still need to know EXACTLY what to chose when I install the latest Nvidia drivers so I don't hose this install (as it's almost perfect) but other then that I think I've got everything setup how I'd like (though i still don't know how to hook it up via wifi instead of my ethernet)

5

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use (solved, but new question asked)

« on: January 21, 2009, 07:48:09 am »

hrmmm...
Well, Im in windows right now (every time I post it's in windows)
but when i reboot I'll see if I really messed anything up (and I wont mount the drives any more if I didnt screw up MCE)

I don't know if I mounted the drives or not. just was browsing in KDE and tried opening one of my HDDs and a little green arrow showed up in the lower right corner afterward. when i went back into MCE it saw all my video files

6

Installation issues / KDE desktop is too big for screen

« on: January 21, 2009, 07:02:51 am »

As the subject says, my KDE desktop is too large for my screen
I think it's best described in a picture (sorry about the quality, i took this picture in a hurry)

As you can see all four corners are extended off the screen, so I can't see my full desktop. AFAIK MCE fits perfectly on the screen, just KDE that doesn't.

While I'm at it, I might as well ask a networking question
Is it possible to connect MCE to the net via my wifi. I've tried configuring it but it only gives me WEP encryption and won't even list any SSID's for me to connect to.

7

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use (solved, but new question asked)

« on: January 21, 2009, 06:47:34 am »

I got the video files working for the most part. I had to go to KDE and mount each HDD then it worked as it should (the video issue was a real PITA to work around [still not fixed] just had to predict where I needed the mouse cursor on certain windows and drag them within view.)

Gonna make a new topic regarding the new issues I have, thanks again colinjones.

(and FYI i actually formatted the wrong drive once on accident when reinstalling windows [as I have 2x 250gb seagate PATA drives]. So this time I made sure I had the drive model# and serial# written down before I installed so I wasn't making any mistakes [FAQ FTW])

8

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use (solved, but new question asked)

« on: January 21, 2009, 04:11:23 am »

As i said in a previous post, this is a test of MCE before I build an HTPC specifically for MCE itself. I'm using my *main rig* hooked up to my HDTV.

Yes, windows was already installed on this PC. What I thought was MCE would have put the bootloader on the main (windows) drive so I could dual boot windows/linuxMCE

I'm not technically inept, I've worked with PC's for over 15 years now (and dabbled in linux a couple times, all of them installed grub/lilo on the main drive so I could dual boot). I fixed it just after posting by setting my HDD boot order in the bios (and it doesn't matter with PATA drives which is master/slave so long as the bios is set to boot from whichever drive you want to boot from) The only problem with this is I still can't dual boot cause grub doesn't have my windows install as an option (will google to figure out how to edit it in)

As far as MCE itself goes, It boots, it loads the wizard, everything went fine.
Can't watch commercial DVDs cause I don't have decss (i think that's what it's called) installed, so I'll have to get that once I get networking going.

I'm having an issue with the KDE desktop now though, MCE is fine and fits the screen perfectly, but when I went to the KDE desktop to setup my wireless and do some other things it's too big for my screen (the *start bar* for lack of a better term is below my screen, the icons are off to the left so I can't even see them etc.) Will post a pic as soon as I reboot into MCE. If it helps I'm running it off my component video to a 42" 1080p HDTV

Another issue I'm having is it's not finding my video files off another HDD (750gb formatted as NTFS). My videos are x.264 mkv's (i've found this to be the best to encode my home movies off the HDR-CX7 handycam cause I can add different audio tracks like commentary and [my favorite] the benny hill theme music over the scenes of my kids chasing each other) I went into the KDE desktop and tried mplayer but that just gave me a host of errors and played the videos in slow motion.

Once I get all this figured out I'll start adding my hardware to the wiki because AFAIK most if not everything works (cant test wifi cause I cant get to the top of the desktop). It shows my bluetooth adapter, but i haven't had a chance to test it (want to fix the resolution issue first)

9

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 21, 2009, 12:13:06 am »

Dunno if I should start a new thread or not so I'll continue it here till suggested to make a new one

Got it to install (apparently the disks were perfect, it just didn't like my Samsung SH-183L (sata) burner to install from.
Hooked up my Lite-On SHM-165H6S onto a USB HDD enclosure (hoping it'd work) and it did!

Now for the problem...
Everything installed fine, got to the prompt to remove the CD and hit enter, did that and the system rebooted (everything fine so far)
or was it?
It booted straight into windows. I thought it was installing it's own bootloader but apparently not.
Is there some way i can install a bootloader (grub/lilo) while being totally inept at anything Linux related (cmd prompts are not my friend)

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Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 20, 2009, 09:11:18 pm »

Well I'm starting the burn now.
BTW: i asked if disks have a minimum burn speed (i know they have a max)
The reason I asked was because When i put my disk in the burner it show up as

And I guess disks do have a minimum write speed. I started the burn with a 1x setting but it's burning @ 4x...
The machine I'm installing on is the same one I'm burning it on (my "main rig") hence the over-the-top components

11

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 20, 2009, 11:11:05 am »

Seriously, do a search for IO errors on the forums - you will see that 99/100 it is a bad burn due to too high speed.

I thought verifying the burned medium against the .iso (using imgburn) would have detected any anomalies in the burned copy...
as I said though, I'll give burning @ 1x a try and see how it goes (and if that doesnt work I'll use better [more expensive] medium and burn @ slowest speed)

Do some disks have a minimum burn speed (the generic ones I've been using say 4x/8x in imgburn though their rated @ 16x on the label)

Gonna d/l the i386 iso tonight and burn it in the morning so I can give it another go. Only reason I wanted the 64bit version was I was going to upgrade to 4gb ram, but it's really not needed right now as I don't have any other 64bit OS's

Thanks for your continued help colinjones, is there a way I can rep you for your awesomeness (don't see a button to do so anywhere)

12

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 20, 2009, 09:53:54 am »

I downloaded the AMD64 torrent (faster then an http/ftp mirror)
I burned @ 8x on a 16x disk and I verified the burn against the .iso (and just forced a recheck in utorrent to make sure a bad piece didn't slip through)
I was using some generic dvd-r's but I'll try and burn @ 4x (disks lowest rated speed reported via imgburn, might even give 1x a try and wait the ~1hr). If that fails I'll use one of my verbatim lightscribes and see if that doesn't fix the issue

If that doesn't work, should I try the i386 install or would that not make a difference?
If all else fails is it possible to install kbuntu and then install MCE over that (and is it a PITA to do it this way?)

sorry for asking so many questions, MCE just looks like the perfect HTPC OS for my needs and I'd really like to give it a trial before dropping the $$$ for an HTPC right now just to find out I don't like the OS for some reason or another

13

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 20, 2009, 05:36:40 am »

Had a slight problem durring install, everything went fine till it tried copying files over to the HDD (I/O errors)
Gonna try a USB burner to see if that doesn't resolve the issue (as the one i'm using is sata and maybe it has problems with the sata controller on this board)

14

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 20, 2009, 01:21:04 am »

Well I don't see most of my hardware listed
My current rig is
C2D E6300
gigabyte 965p-ds3 mobo (onboard audio to be used and possibly the NIC if the next item listed doesnt work)
airlink+ 802.11 b/g usb dongle (just says IEEE 802.11g wireless LAN in device manager, IIRC it worked in knoppix & ubuntu though if it won't work I have a netgear dongle I'll try)
8800gts 320
Some bluetooth USB dongle (shows up as an ISSC bluetooth dongle)

I'm just using this for testing purposes till I can build an HTPC rig that's more suited to MCE
If I get it to run I'll be sure to add to the wiki any working hardware

15

Installation issues / Re: Questions on which version to use

« on: January 19, 2009, 01:49:21 pm »

I'm fairly certain my hardware is capable, It's a C2d 2gb ram (soon to be 4 cause I'm pulling matching sticks from another rig) and an 8800GTS.
No BLUray or HD-DVD players so I dont think that will be an issue

What is the "in place upgrade option"?