Messages

16

Installation issues / Re: Abit IP35 Pro Issue or install issue

« on: September 13, 2008, 05:08:02 am »

Good suggestions from both of you. 
Here is what I have found:
Both HDDs appear to be alive and well.  No errors on them.  I used something called smartctl to check the drive status.  Every other utility I spun through has echoed the same.  I can also see all the data on these drives if I use a connection other than internal sata.  When I hooked up the drives in an external usb or external sata I could see and read all data.  These drives were not hooked up in an array of any sort as a side note.  A memory check showed that there were no issues there either.

So long story short, this is looking more and more like a hardware issue.  The thing that I can't figure out though is why I would be able t see the drive on my post screen but then be unable to access it when I'm in any sort of operating system.

I don't currently have any spare drives sitting around other than an old IDE.  That really wouldn't help my in diagnosing this issue however.  I could however probably leverage it to be the main drive for a short time as I get things sorted out, using the other drives externally, but I've already ordered a couple new drives to set up in an array.  Looks like I might be throwing a new motherboard on that list as well.

I did notice that newegg had a lot of ill reviews for this MB due to quality and then RMA (which I'm outside of the 30 days by a couple of months now anyway).  Therefore I would recommend to stay away from this board, or at least think twice, if you were considering.

thanks again guys for your great suggestions.

17

Installation issues / Abit IP35 Pro Issue or install issue

« on: September 12, 2008, 04:10:28 pm »

So it's been a long couple of nights as I try to get down to the bottom of this one with not a great amount of payoff, so I thought I would solicit the community for some suggestions.

The other night while taking a look at my movies I noticed that some that existed in my personal home were not showing up on my list, even though I was using that user.  I have no idea how long this has been going on for, but there it was.  I decided it would just be quicker to move those files over to the public repository.  Suddenly I have no videos.

Not a problem, I decide I'll restart the server and they should be back.  It wouldn't reload however, got stuck on one of the startup scripts.  I wish I could remember, but something along the lines of serial I think (In relation to SATA drives?)

Anyway, I figured what the heck, let's try a reinstall, I slipped in the DVD and booted off of it.  It found the current install, asked me if I would like to keep the home directory.  I said yes.  Then it stops.  I saw on the screen say "Error: no hard drive found" and then finally "find: ./var not found".  It stops there. 

So now I'm left with nothing.  I tried a couple more times with the same results.  Sometimes it would stop on "Error: no hard drives found' and halt, sometimes it would get to the next stage.

So at this point I'm not sure if I have a hard drive failure (both of them?), motherboard, or something else. 
I updated the BIOS, no change
I plugged each of the drives into an external adapter and hooked them up to ubuntu on my laptop.  They read, everything is still there.  So hard drive failure is out thankfully.
I plugged them back into the server, ran ubuntu off the DVD and checked for drives, nothing there.

So I've got a couple of ideas for when I get back tonight including plugging the external drive into the server and see what happens, but for the moment, though I would like to move things off this drive, I don't have anything large enough to move them too.

So I'm reaching out.  Any other ideas from everyone here.  I didn't see this issue around anywhere.

As stated above, I'm running an Abit IP35 Pro motherboard and a couple of WD 55GB sata drives.

18

Users / Re: Stability survey

« on: September 10, 2008, 10:54:59 pm »

It's true that a great deal of the "stability" issues are not really LinuxMCE itself but either hardware or outside software being utilized by the system.  Most people won't be able to tell the difference and so the answer to this poll will likely be misleading.

19

Users / Re: Stability survey

« on: September 09, 2008, 04:48:03 pm »

Working my way through some issues again this week.  All videos disappeared after moving a couple around on the file system.  Before that it was movies showing up in my music catalog.  Had to reset for both, but this last time it hung up on some script. 
With what I read in the forums I went for a reinstall boot off the DVD (i386) which never made it through. 
End result: I'm dead in the water for the time being. 
When she works, she works great.  When she doesn't, it seems like trouble for days.

So I'm going to cast a vote for flaky.  But don't get me wrong.  I still love the system and I expect these kinds of hang ups.  Its the price you pay for a system like this that is both open source and incredibly featured.

20

Users / Re: ATT Uverse

« on: August 12, 2008, 07:57:29 pm »

I don't have any solutions for you, but I do appreciate you posting your concerns with the ATT service.  They've been stopping by my place the last couple of weeks and trying to get me signed up.  While I'm still on the fence, this provides some of the real world implementation knowledge that I like to have before buying.  If you have any other concerns/problems please do post them.

21

Users / Re: Any RAID gurus in here? (more RAID problems)

« on: August 05, 2008, 03:19:48 pm »

I don't see a GS524NA on Netgear's site, but I have the Netgear JGS524.  I think we're talking the same thing.  Mine has been running rock solid for about a year and a half now.

22

Developers / Re: A Letter to All Members of this Community

« on: July 22, 2008, 04:13:56 pm »

I agree with Thom 100% on this one.  I'll go as far as to even say continued contributions to the project are needed and a requisite to your voice in the community. 

Many seem to have forgotten that this is a group of volunteers.  Do you know a friend who works on cars, house repairs or something of the sort? Do you invite him over to your house, have him do your work without praise or compensation and then tell him what he could have done better? No, you don't! Why do people seem to think that's the way things can work here?

Creative criticism is good.  The community needs a great deal of feedback and debugging for it's incredible amount of functionality.  And I know from personal experience that the process can be very aggravating at times.  You make a sizable investment and sometimes it doesn't pay off. 

I'm one of those who believes that the expectations set by the demo video were extremely high.  You think you can run out, buy or build a cheap computer, hook it up and show it to your friends later that night.  It's just not going to be the case.  My expectation for this project has always been that I'm going to be working on tweaking this system for the next 10 years of my life, maybe longer.  If I can get a couple of things running to show off before then, that's great.  I've personally been amazed by this project from the beginning and fully appreciate the people donating their time to it.

23

Users / Re: Calling all graphic artists... Want to help finish the new playlist editor?

« on: June 28, 2008, 12:18:45 am »

I'm glad to see something happening with the playlist editor, it really needs some help to become usable. 

I would like to add some suggestions though for the design.
I think a lot of us have an incredible amount of media files to sort through 

• Is this interface going to make use of id tags to categorize in folders? If so, how would those folders be traversed. 
• Or instead would it just be hard drive folders as the organization structure.

The MD interface obviously makes use of some sorting by gene, group and such, but I'm not even sure if it allows the ability to create a play list there.

my $.02

24

Users / Re: Home Automation Experiences

« on: April 10, 2008, 03:34:48 pm »

Alright guys, here is my $.02 and some may or may not like it.

I would like to re-iterate tschak909's point about not fixing what isn't broken.  What he says is completely true about the system, but keep in mind that not everyone has had a smooth ride here.  Your patience and determination will be rewarded however.  I've seen a great deal of people come in here after watching a youtube demo or otherwise, throw some of their old, or just some unsupported, hardware at it and make a very nasty time for themselves.  Ultimately becoming frustrated and blaming the application. 

so what I would like to do is set some expectations.  Right now this IS a geek's project imo. We are making incredible leaps and bounds in all  directions for the smarthome,  but you're also working with beta products here, sometimes things don't work right away; usually they can be "fixed" if you get involved with the program and just hang out a little bit. 

That isn't for everyone,  DeeMee, you would seem to be a good candidate in that regard.  Can I ask one thing though, please drop the '$' using in Microsoft's name.  We're not trying to draw any battle lines here with other MCE's.  Windows has provided a good application which we can continually gauge our own again.  I think we can beat them on just about every front, we don't need to resort to name calling.

25

Developers / Re: GSD/Ruby Developers Conferences

« on: April 08, 2008, 07:47:23 pm »

MarcoZan,  for the recordings that are being made/have been made I agree that this is a good idea.  I know that we've posted meeting minutes before, but I have not seen any posted recordings yet.

26

Developers / Re: GSD/Ruby Developers Conferences

« on: April 08, 2008, 07:09:35 pm »

Just stating again that I am looking forward to this conference and would like to add my name to that list.

27

Developers / Re: Developer Conference - April 5th

« on: April 04, 2008, 03:22:31 pm »

I can setup a webex session as well, but i think that my account is limited to only 10 users.  looks like we have a good chance for more than that.

28

Users / Re: What does your Linux MCE setup look like?

« on: April 04, 2008, 02:21:21 am »

That is a great idea, and I think something of what we've heard before. 
It is difficult to build a "hardware database" as I think others have referred to it though.  A lot of the information in the wiki can change, but there is seldom a dedicated age maintainer.

Pictures and descriptions of setups sounds like a great idea.  Again, I think that comes down to user activity in the forums.  I'll try and do something of my own setup (small as it is). 

Others users have done just that, for instance here is ddamron's: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/User:Ddamron

I think a roadblock for the pictures is that, well, there isn't a lot to take a picture of.  The lighting controls are on the wall.  the md sits by the tv, and that's about it.  Experiencing the system is the difference.  Perhaps it should all be in video

29

Users / Re: b5 or final anytime soon?

« on: April 04, 2008, 02:13:59 am »

I think we're reluctant to say without any real final word ourselves.  It is close, but I would recommend just installing the latest and getting used to it a little bit.  If it shows up tomorrow... well, upgrade

30

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Advanced Lighting Controls

« on: April 04, 2008, 02:09:13 am »

  I swear, that's not mine!

...Must have been auto-generated...


...alright, it's mine...but the ladies love it.