I have a troublesome Media Director I am trying to get working. I realize that my problems are caused by attempting to use my existing hardware in that room and its limited connectivity. If I spent a couple hundred on a decent TV I know this card/hardware will output audio via DVI to HDMI cable easily.
Environment:
Dell Inspiron 531S (onboard video via VGA bios disabled), XFX HD 4350 PCIe (DVI, VGA, S-Video), RCA P52955 (ancient rear projection TV limited to S-video input), Denon AVR-1082 (S-Video capable of overlaying vol, etc on its monitor out S-Video), USB-UIRT 0038
Desired Setup: Typical newboot environment and ACPI functions, output from MD being S-Video and 5.1 audio via multiple 3.5mm jacks to RCA multichannel inputs of the Denon, USB-UIRT sending IR commands "on/off" to RCA TV since it is only a monitor, IR commands to Denon which will announce changes with its' own on-screen overlays.
Future Plans:
I would like to be able to add additional AV pieces to this location and use the Denon's inputs and multiple output options, ie - lmce ir controlled VCR connects to AV1 on denon which outputs rca AV to a capture card. I have a fairly small house and few users so the chances that more than one piece of AV gear is needed from this location are slight. If that changes I would move the AV gear to the server rack and add a capture device for each to the core or MD.
"Shoot Me in the Face" Issues:
AV Wizard crashes and does not produce a xorg.conf.
I likely have problems due to aticonfig/flgrx problems, multiple graphics cards being present, S-Video passing bad EDID information during setup, etc.
Rebuilting/reconfiguring this MD via web-admin or ssh has resulted in several broken installs that I have had to delete. These additions although gone from web-admin and orbiters are still present in tftboot type locations and pluto-main under the MAC address.
I would say that I am very familiar with the lmce environment, vague on basic linux environments and admittedly clueless on coding/programming.
Current Configuration:
To get media to that location I am booting the Dell via GeexBox on USB. This loads a setting saveable XMBC interface which accesses media on the lmce network via SMB shares. I have not been able to get IR commands working but I am not investing time and research into other software when I could be working on/learning lmce better.
/breath
What I would like to setup and and am hoping for help on:
Copy init, xorg, boot, etc configuration from the working USB and implant it into lmce under /usr/pluto/diskless/, tftboot and related locations.
Again, if I could code I would figure out what is breaking and fix it to make this a supported setup. What I have though is a working configuration and a desire to patch it into a semi-supported server/client core/md setup.
After backing up lmce and then cloning my core just to be complete, I plan to boot this dell as an MD which will then generate all the needed folders and devices. After it fails I then want to open /usr/pluto/diskless/ and begin replacing items and overwriting configurations to match what works under GeexBox. With what hopefully are non-system breaking changes I hope to boot this equipment under lmce and get full MD capabilities. More than likely I will need to set up this moon### with unique and unsupported boot scripts to avoid having these bandaids detected and overwritten.
I am currently looking for guidance in getting started on this, specifically if you were attempting the same what settings would you move over and how would you go about it? Once I have a start I will be on my own to google, wiki, study, etc until I am capable to ./make and compile the necessary changes myself.
Following my success and psuedo-coding I will share the what-works with the devs for their consideration and review. Perhaps something I discover may be helpful in making troublesome hardware work more smoothly ootb in future releases...
