Finally getting there (was "Unsure, still, what's wrong)

[tekoholic]

dude, don't do lvm with linuxMCE. it will not recognise the LVM slices..

Well then!!!  I guess I might just be on the right track...

I figured this out too late...

Haha, as have I, it seems!!  Well, the hard lessons are the most effective ones!!  Lol...

Wish I'd thought to mention that part of the setup days / weeks ago!!  Anyhow, I think it might be a good idea to place info to this effect on the wiki and forum...  LVM has become a standard setup for many (myself included), for the sake of ease of expansion.  That being said, many will set it up during Kubuntu install, or at least prior to installing LMCE, and may cause themselves the same (or similar) problems...

To your knowledge, is there any issue with using the Kubuntu DVD, rather than the CD?  I always try to avoid CD images anymore, as the DVD's are usually a whole lot more complete...

Thank you, again.  Now, at least I do know that I'm fixing some issues, if not all of them...

I'll post progress as I can!!

edit:  Any idea what version of the nvidia driver is bundled?  My 7300 GT usually gets 1024x768 with 4000~ fps all day long under the newer 2 versions, but is only getting <1000 at 800x600 with the one the LMCE installer put in, at least for the duration of the install...

[tschak909]

should not be a problem. However, when LinuxMCE is installed, you should not use APT beyond that point, because there might be a situation where you will cause package conflicts with the kubuntu repository, and the LinuxMCE update packages that get automatically downloaded. This can happen for example, if you install slimserver via apt to upgrade it.

this software is still very much in transition, and things like this have popped up, and a workaround will no doubt be done..but in the mean-time, watch what you install.

as for expandability... you can set up linux-md RAID arrays, and the web-admin site has a facility for this. Do keep in mind that with LinuxMCE, it automatically switches to your least-filled drive anyway when you add new storage, so the whole issue of needing to do LVM becomes somewhat moot and the resulting disks can be removed easier. You've also got the option of using NAS as well.

-Thom

p.s. are you sure the nvidia driver is being loaded?? check your xorg.conf to make sure vesa isn't being incorrectly loaded... As for me, I put in an 8600GT, and had to install the vendor drivers (basically, install, go through AV wizard, let it roll through the LMCE launcher, DO NOT LET IT PASS THROUGH THE BOOT PROCESS WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE AV WIZARD AFTER INSTALLING THE DRIVERS AND REBOOTING BECAUSE THE X WRAPPER WILL UNDO YOUR CHANGES!)

the next version of LinuxMCE (due VERY SOON NOW) should have much newer drivers that support the current crop of cards in the retail shops.

[tekoholic]

should not be a problem. However, when LinuxMCE is installed, you should not use APT beyond that point, because there might be a situation where you will cause package conflicts with the kubuntu repository, and the LinuxMCE update packages that get automatically downloaded. This can happen for example, if you install slimserver via apt to upgrade it.

Doing this install EXACTLY to defaults.  I'll worry about adding other things (phpmyadmin, azureus / vuze, few other things that should not conflict) AFTER it worx, and I've backed the system up...

as for expandability... you can set up linux-md RAID arrays, and the web-admin site has a facility for this. Do keep in mind that with LinuxMCE, it automatically switches to your least-filled drive anyway when you add new storage, so the whole issue of needing to do LVM becomes somewhat moot and the resulting disks can be removed easier. You've also got the option of using NAS as well.

As I've learned...  But, of course, that's what this project is all about, for me, is learning.  I intend to install these for home-owners in the area, so I'll need to know the system inside and out, before I get started.  I will use LMCE's RAID facilities to create the 3-disk set for local disk performance' sake.  I've already got an old system in place for nothing but to act as NAS for now, and hopefully a bit of extra horsepower once LMCE is clusterable (maybe with the next updates???).  I've got a few other old 500-700Mhz machines as well, for use as MD's (and future clustering) eventually, but I've run out of good memory at the moment.  Won't be long, I'll get some more...  Add to that the 3 notebooks we'll use as diskless MD's as well, and we'll have one heluva' setup!!  That does bring up another question, though:  If I put HDD's in each of the MD's (of course the notebooks have them already), will LMCE recognize the free space, and make use of it, as well???  Can they act as slave-backends, in the MythTV concept of thought???  That would be beautiful...  Basically, it could all act similarly to the Coda FS (virtual RAID over network), by my imagination...  Oh, beautiful dreams...

p.s. are you sure the nvidia driver is being loaded??

VERY sure...  I did allow the LMCE installer to install the driver IT found appropriate, rebooted, and went NO further without checking...  Will install the 100.14.11 driver once I've gotten thru the AVWiz...  Already aware of the bugs in 100.14.19, and even though I had it working (sorta'), I won't tempt fate this time around (at least until I've got the system fully working and backed up)...

Thanx again...

[tekoholic]

OK, now that install has completed...

Install went better than it has in prior attempts.  All updates HAVE been downloaded and installed.  All seems to be working, at least so far as I've tested...  Have NOT yet set up the RAID set, as it will not detect the unpartitioned space for it's use (I guess it needs to be partitioned).  As well, I've not yet tried to boot up a remote MD...  We'll see how that goes in a bit.

The Nvidia Driver that LMCE installed is working on the VGA port@ 1024x768:60, with UI2 / Overlay (haven't yet tried Alpha Blending).  However, I cannot get the AVWiz to come back up on boot, to try transferring video-out to the Svideo port for the TV (supposed to be my ONLY display), or to try the Alpha Blending...  I've not yet tried holding the shift button down during boot.  That's next...  If it worx, I'll not even mess with the other driver attempts!!!

[tschak909]

holding down shift during boot is the best way to get to the AV wizard if you do not have a Fiire Chief remote.

-Thom

[tekoholic]

holding down shift during boot is the best way to get to the AV wizard if you do not have a Fiire Chief remote.

As I was already informed...  It worked!!!!!  I'm now running the LMCE-default Nvidia driver (still unsure of version #, but if it worx, who cares?!?), 800x600-60 (had to manually edit xorg.conf for res better than 640x480-60) on s-video to TV, using UI2 with overlay (unsure if Alpha Blending will work, but this even looks a bit better, IMHO), and it's GREAT, that I didn't have to fight with the other buggy driver install issues!!!!!

Anyhow, does anyone know about how long it will take, to activate the spare drive (partition) on a 3-separate-disk, 28.8G per partition RAID-5 set? 
edit:  Never mind...  I decided to stop it in progress, after almost 3 hours, and turn them into RAID-0 (didn't like the fact that RAID-5 only gave me 2/3 the space to begin with...).  That took about an hour to complete, but it's done now...

As soon as RAID is set up, I'll be venturing into the remote, diskless MD setup, again...
edit:  OK, here's where I'm having my first real problem, again, but differently than before...  I decided to stick with using VMware images for testing sake.  The one I'm using has a 2G vHDD, intended for swap, and the vNIC is bridged to my wireless (just to untether, for the moment).  The vSys boots, but never gets to the Announce step, freezing at "eth0: Link Up".  I let it sit there for nearly 2 hours the first time, it's been sitting there for nearly an hour on this second, and I'm going to go ahead with an attempt on my real notebook at this point.  Here's crossing my fingers...

Thanx again, Thom, for all your help.  I've learned alot, and am attempting, each time I see an opportunity, to assist others with my new-found education and experience!!!

[tschak909]

I'm very glad you were able to get it running. I do hope that this system becomes easier to install, with time. If the evolution of Linux is any indication, this WILL happen.

As for testing media director functionality, I have not tried doing vmware, but I would imagine using a bridged-ethernet type setup would be most optimal.

-Thom

[Zaerc]

There is a page in the wiki about using vmware that you might find useful: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Testing_with_VMWare

[tekoholic]

I'm very glad you were able to get it running. I do hope that this system becomes easier to install, with time. If the evolution of Linux is any indication, this WILL happen.

As for testing media director functionality, I have not tried doing vmware, but I would imagine using a bridged-ethernet type setup would be most optimal.

Ooh, I wouldn't say I've quite got it running, just yet...

There is a page in the wiki about using vmware that you might find useful: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Testing_with_VMWare

Here's where I'm at with things:

I gave up on VMware, as I couldn't get it past the point I mentioned.  However, I was able to get my Wife's notebook to come up as diskless MD via PXE.  Her's is the off-brand, and is working well (although video card is crap, UI1 is it for her).  Tried with my own (the pavilion dv6423om), and things went great until reboot.  At that point, it halted with an error similar to "nvidia: NVIDIA module taints kernel".  Haven't gotten it up since...  As well, however, during the creation of these 2 images, the Core went somewhat haywire on the display, and since, it cannot load it's own Orbiter.  I get an error, "Not starting device 20 OnScreen Orbiter - binary is not found, probably it is in the middle...", and have not been able to troubleshoot it further.  Wondering if maybe I'll have to install a newer Nvidia driver?  I thought I had gotten away with avoiding that mess again...  Anyhow, I'll troubleshoot further as time permits, and post back results as I come across them.

Thank you both for all your help!!