Author Topic: Blargh. About to give up.  (Read 8083 times)

dh

  • Veteran
  • ***
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Blargh. About to give up.
« on: April 27, 2012, 06:37:47 am »
I think I'm done playing with my current hardware setup.  It's just too painful to get working.  Could anyone point me to a semi-modern, 1080p capable hybrid configuration that I won't have to futz with?

Mainboard
Vid Card
Sound card (if needed)

Thanks.

dh

  • Veteran
  • ***
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2012, 07:28:36 pm »
Nobody?   Does anyone have a newish hybrid core?  If so, what are your specs?

D

Marie.O

  • Administrator
  • LinuxMCE God
  • *****
  • Posts: 3676
  • Wastes Life On LinuxMCE Since 2007
    • View Profile
    • My Home
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2012, 08:22:11 pm »
I don't have a new-ish hybrid, but my latest MD is specified in the Sandy Bridge article on the wiki.

l3mce

  • NEEDS to work for LinuxMCE
  • ***
  • Posts: 1084
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2012, 01:20:51 am »
If you tell me what your current hw is, we can start there and give you a cheap/nobrainer answer.
I never quit... I just ping out.

dh

  • Veteran
  • ***
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2012, 07:08:01 pm »
If you tell me what your current hw is, we can start there and give you a cheap/nobrainer answer.

Current hardware:

CPU    AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9GHz    
Mainboard    ASUS M3A78-EM    (on-board sound)
Video card    ASUS EN9400GT (HDMI)

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/User:Dh

l3mce

  • NEEDS to work for LinuxMCE
  • ***
  • Posts: 1084
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2012, 07:44:35 pm »
That setup is great. I know you were in chat last night but I was in and out.

I am left wondering if you disabled the onboard nvidia chipset in bios?
I never quit... I just ping out.

seth

  • Guru
  • ****
  • Posts: 485
  • A day w/o LinuxMCE is like a day w/o sunshine!
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2012, 09:59:22 pm »
I use this motherboard as a core:

Core - Basement

NZXT Gamma Black Case - 580 Watt Green 80 power supply
Asus M3A78-EM Mother board
1x AMD X2 5000+ Dual core 2.6GHz
2G RAM - OCZ
1x LiteOn DVD-CDRW
1x Seagate 500GB SATA drive (OS Drive)
2x Western Digital 500GB SATA drive (media)
1x Hitachi 1TB SATA (media)
1x Seagate 2TB SATA (media)

I am currently using 10.04 and the ATI card onboard is what is hooked to the monitor in the server room.

Before that I was using a PCIe Nvidia Card I think the 8200 or sometthing. You do have to go into BIOS and set up the onboard devices to use the PCIe slot first.
Also, if you are using multiple drives like I am, make sure they are in the correct chained order in the BIOS hard drive setup screen. For some reason, if left to itself the BIOS will not assign the drives based on order of which SATA port it is plugged into. I even had my cables numbered 1 thru 5 using ports 1 thru 5, and it still shuffled them about. But if you go into the BIOS and identify them based on the order you want the system ( and therefore Grub) to see them, manually order the drives.
 
Currently with the almost latest 10.04 install DVD LMCE-1004-20120412224425879.iso, the ATI card is functioning well, but this server sits in a closet in my office, if you intend to use it for your main viewing as well as serving PC, keep using your Nvidia card.

Best Rgeards,

Seth

p.s.  If I get a chance this evening, I will post the exact order the graphics choices need to be in, into this post.

l8r
".....Because Once you've LinuxMCE'd....."
System stats located at my user page:

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/User:Seth

dh

  • Veteran
  • ***
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2012, 10:55:39 pm »
That setup is great. I know you were in chat last night but I was in and out.

I am left wondering if you disabled the onboard nvidia chipset in bios?

Onboard video is disabled.

The only problem with the setup is the sound distortion I'm getting with digital output and some slow-down/choppy video with high bitrate encoding.  This was _not_ a problem with 0810 or without digital audio, so I am guessing there is a alsa/pulseaudio issue, but I can't figure it out.

Here's the link to the diagnostics I've acquired so far in 12.04:  https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+question/195585.

I've previously sent you a bunch of diagnostics from the 10.04 build, but the distortion in sound is identical.  I just got in some optical links, so I'm going to try to bypass the HDMI tonight and see if I can get clean sound out that way.  However, I think it's a driver issue, as I'm getting the distortion even on the headphone out via front panel.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2012, 11:00:09 pm by dh »

dh

  • Veteran
  • ***
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Blargh. About to give up.
« Reply #8 on: May 02, 2012, 11:01:31 pm »
I use this motherboard as a core:

Core - Basement

NZXT Gamma Black Case - 580 Watt Green 80 power supply
Asus M3A78-EM Mother board
1x AMD X2 5000+ Dual core 2.6GHz
2G RAM - OCZ
1x LiteOn DVD-CDRW
1x Seagate 500GB SATA drive (OS Drive)
2x Western Digital 500GB SATA drive (media)
1x Hitachi 1TB SATA (media)
1x Seagate 2TB SATA (media)

I am currently using 10.04 and the ATI card onboard is what is hooked to the monitor in the server room.

Before that I was using a PCIe Nvidia Card I think the 8200 or sometthing. You do have to go into BIOS and set up the onboard devices to use the PCIe slot first.

Currently with the almost latest 10.04 install DVD LMCE-1004-20120412224425879.iso, the ATI card is functioning well, but this server sits in a closet in my office, if you intend to use it for your main viewing as well as serving PC, keep using your Nvidia card.

Good to know someone has this working, but I was hoping to use this as a hybrid.  Have you ever used the digital sound out on this motherboard?