Experience from a user that is moving on.

[gwyden]

I should start out by saying I saw the article on Digg. I was interested more in the fact that the interface looked pretty and would be more pleasing to the wife then the Myth install i had running so I found a spare HDD sitting around and went to work. 

The install of Ubuntu 6.10 was simple once all the interesting bugs were identified and dealt with (required the use of a usb drive, a second windows machine to download packages, and a lot of patients). Not a LinuxMCE problem, and as the linux guys at work point out, my problem.

Now Ubuntu 6.10 is installed, patched, and I am ready to begin the LinuxMCE install. The install went without a hitch and following the guide was immensly helpful. I wanted to replace the DHCP server so I told it yes be the DHCP server and I provided the local subnet instead of the default that was provided. Also Selecting the Ubuntu Desktop to be the default for bootup.

Media Center was started and after the bootup process (starting of services, etc) I got the AVWizard. Select all things that should have meshed up with the projector I was using I also selected the "Static Images" gui to lessen the complication of the initial gui. After the reboot I noticed that the MCE box was no longer on the network. After a little searching on the system I found out that the interfaces file was overwritten(or re-written) by the install so I corrected the problem and started again.   

Now the initial "Basic Gui" is not very pretty. So i go to the admin site and select the No AlphaBlending Gui. Kaboom media center just shows a black screen and when I go and look it is not using the NVIDIA drivers as it should it is now using the VESA drivers. Using things found on the forum i am able to finally resolve this and hey the gui looks pretty-ish. The text on the buttons do not line up there are some where the shadow of the text is off from the white text and may of the buttons are either oversized or undersized (specifically in the advanced sections) and the background is changing (which is a nice touch).

Now the HDD that is on the drive has the folders needed for the videos i wanted to test with and so I go to videos, and there is nothing but two empty folders there. After working with linuxmce(4 and 5 also helped a little) we found out that the HDD was not detected nor was it flagged as a "unknown device". So after adding it by hand and then deleting it and re-running the Radar scripts (the names escape me right now) i get a nice pop-up onscreen that a new device was detected and what do I want to do with it. So I configure it and Low and behold my video is finally listed in the videos.

Up to this point I have been using a mouse and keyboard to do all of my configuring. Once in the video it plays perfectly, menu overlay and everything. Very pretty. But I notice I can't do anything to the video. I can't pause, I can't stop. So i start researching why this would happen and I can not find anything so I figure maybe it is trying to use the remote I told the admin i was using to do all of it. And I find out that it doesn't support my PVR-150 with the attached remote.

At this point it has been a full week (two full weekend days/nights, 1 work week day, and all my spare time in the morning and at night) and I am officially fedup with dealing with LinuxMCE. It looks to be a very promising product but with just the headaches listed above I am willing to make the wife deal with Myth again just to get the PVR back and working. 

[mikeofaustin]

Yep... I've moved on too. LMCE has the potential to be a great product. But it's not ready for the non-linux user. For me, I've spend many work nights up till 3 and 4 in the morning, and waisted a few entire weekends, googling, searching, etc.   It all goes back to that guy in the video.  No disclaimers at all.  I too, have gone back to mythtv. 
   I'm still here, watching, waiting, for 1.1, and even then, I'll wait for user's feedback.

[ddamron]

diddo here.... but:
1.1 looks right around the corner! check out the latest news...  Their getting ready, trying to be carefull with the words they've chose to use... (check out the diffs hehe )
just waiting for the URL... it would be a good idea to download Kubuntu 7.04 while we're waiting... it's based on that...

[mikeofaustin]

Well... I'll let ya'll be the guinnee pigs.  I've got my mythtv just the way I like it, and I'll be <insert your favorite curse word here> if I spend another night up till 4 in the morning with out having a high confidence...

Things I'd like to see fixed;

Mythtv. Period.
video vesa
text within menu's dont' "lead off" the screen
network

....these are only a few things, that I can remember anyway.

BTW, I found the diff/svn/svn site one time, and lost it.... 

[ddamron]

They've addressed most of your concerns in 1.1, VESA and MythTV for sure...
I'm downloading 1.1 now, I'll be your guinea pig... will let you know how my install goes..
I have myth working perfectly also, (in Ububtu Fiesty) , I've got a dual boot, just in case...

Dan

[cckrobinson]

Where's the link for the 1.1 download.  I can't seem to find it.

[ddamron]

www.linuxmce.com right on the main page, it's a torrent...

[ddamron]

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3689587

Cheers

[gwyden]

I am also downloading the 1.1 install but before I begin I will wait to hear from you =)  now to start all over getting wireless working in 7.04 =)

[ddamron]

well, so far, so good...

Kubuntu did an update just before the release, and it broke the cache disc..
not too hard to fix though, just go through /etc/log/mce-installer*.log files and find all the dependencies it couldn't fix,
copy /etc/apt/sources.list.dbackup to /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install (all the missed dependencies)

then for safety, I did a
sudo apt-get update

Once this is done, restart the installer...

I accidentally stopped my install (my bad) I hit CTRL-C to try to copy something from the terminal output, and duh!
anywho, I played with the broke install for a bit, it actually worked quite well, considering it was not fully installed...
I really like the new Startup app... this alone will help alleviate a whole bunch of problems... you can look at the logs, start the backend seperately from the front end, test sql connection, all from a nice gui...  WAY TO GO!!

so now I've restarted my install.. one problem I have is that is wants to install flash player from macromedia... and downloading from that server is s-l-o-w, (this is where I made my boo boo)
anywho, she's downloading now, and hopefully it'll be finished here in a bit..

First impressions of 1.1:  500% better than 1.0, and I rate it (so far) at 8/10
oh, btw, the MD loads in another window in KDE's desktop, slick...

Good work and kudos to the dev team!

I'll update once I know more...

Dan

[Provide]

Thanks for the update, ddamron. I agree 1.1 blows 1.0 out of the water. I especially like the new MCE manager that allows you to easily configure the core as well as easily start and stop services.