beta-problem with MD

[maverick0815]

@Thingie,

okay...lets take this one at a time....
can I assume you have the core running so far, or do you have issues with the avwizard there too?
Then, what kind of MD are you running? I didn't see your hardware so far. Perhaps if you can elaborate on that one, maybe we can figure out, what drivers you need...or what causes your issues.

[Thingie]

@Thingie,

okay...lets take this one at a time....
can I assume you have the core running so far, or do you have issues with the avwizard there too?
Then, what kind of MD are you running? I didn't see your hardware so far. Perhaps if you can elaborate on that one, maybe we can figure out, what drivers you need...or what causes your issues.

Ok maybe I should be more clear about my setup.
Core:
Intel mb (DG45CB) (http://www.intel.com/cd/products/services/emea/eng/motherboards/desktop/403009.htm)
Core2Duo 2.5GHz CPU
2GB ram
One 160GB sata HD
2 x NIC (one onboard and one PCI)

AV wizard worked just fine
I use the onboard graphics with UI1 and it runs very smoothly.

MD:
Intel mb (DQ965GF) (http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15033/eng/DQ965GF_TechProdSpec.pdf)
Core2Duo 2.2GHz CPU
2GB RAM
No HD
Nvidia 7600GS 512MB PCI-e
Audigy PCI

When loading AV Wizard 'Failed to setup X' message.

Thanks

[maverick0815]

I've had some troulbe too with getting nvidia drivers to cooperate. When you boot your md and finally the x-setup failed, try ctrl+alt+f1 or f2..it should give you the login
login there with linuxmce then do sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. when you're done with that, reboot and if thex-setup fails yet again, go again to the console like before and do a sudo nvidia-xconfig.
lets see if that will help

[maverick0815]

well, about my screensaver problem- it only occurs if the kde-desktop has been used prior to watching anything. In my case I just used my windows orbiter to regenerate the onscreen orbiter, because that seemed to be the easiest way for me to get it back

[levster]

I've had some troulbe too with getting nvidia drivers to cooperate. When you boot your md and finally the x-setup failed, try ctrl+alt+f1 or f2..it should give you the login
login there with linuxmce then do sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. when you're done with that, reboot and if thex-setup fails yet again, go again to the console like before and do a sudo nvidia-xconfig.
lets see if that will help

I am trying to go through these steps as I am also stuck on the blue scree with a "Failed to setup X" message. At ctrl+alt+F1 I cannot do ctrl-C. At ctrl+alt+F2 the prompt is sambahelper@moon42. It does not accept any password that I enter. Does it have it's own default password?

Never mind... Got the answer here:

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8700.20;wap2

Thanks to thezfunc and phenigma!

Lev

[team_steeze]

well, about my screensaver problem- it only occurs if the kde-desktop has been used prior to watching anything. In my case I just used my windows orbiter to regenerate the onscreen orbiter, because that seemed to be the easiest way for me to get it back

Did you get your screensave issue resolved? If not, next time you're in KDE, just hit Kickoff, go to System Settings, Desktop, and then under Screen Saver, uncheck Start Automatically.

[maverick0815]

@Levster
sambahelper has an empty password, so just hit enter
@team_steeze
thanks for the tip, I'll try that

[Thingie]

I've had some troulbe too with getting nvidia drivers to cooperate. When you boot your md and finally the x-setup failed, try ctrl+alt+f1 or f2..it should give you the login
login there with linuxmce then do sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. when you're done with that, reboot and if thex-setup fails yet again, go again to the console like before and do a sudo nvidia-xconfig.
lets see if that will help

Thx Maverick0815, that did the trick. I'm so happy to have a MD running after so many failures. 

[levster]

OK. After doing a bit of "running" around the forums, I was finally able to generate successfully my first MD. My MD is running on a Zotac IONITX-A-U Atom N330 board. Nothing extra. I can play video but the quality is sub-par, to say the least. AVIs come in fine, but the mkv files are terrible. Choppy, sound cutting out... Un-watchable.

What should I try next? Upgrade the video drivers on my MD?

I saw the very detailed installation explanation by thezfunk on:

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=8700.20;wap2     but did not go through the motions. The AV setup wizard completed and that is where I left it off.

I did not do anything extra on my MD other than apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade.

I know that the issue is not my network as I can stream mkvs to other PCs and my PCH box. I think that the Zotac is much more powerful compared to the PCH, and should easily be able to play MKVs.

By the way, my core is running on an AMD opteron 165 setup with 4GB ram and two 1 gig network cards (one on the board and the other PCI).

Please, any suggestions would be great!

[maverick0815]

As far as I know, VDPAU works only with MythTV so far. I haven't really come across instructions on how to get VDPAU for watching videos. I remember having read that totallymaxed did something like that in the LMCE-flavoured software his company is doing...

[phenigma]

As far as I know, VDPAU works only with MythTV so far. I haven't really come across instructions on how to get VDPAU for watching videos. I remember having read that totallymaxed did something like that in the LinuxMCE-flavoured software his company is doing...

niz23 has provided patches to the current system to enable VDPAU in Xine and therefor through videos selected within orbiter.  The patches have been merged into SVN and I would expect they will be available in the next round of builds.  For for information see: http://trac.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/383

I've been running with VDPAU on my Zotac IONITX-A-U all week without any issues.

J.

[levster]

As far as I know, VDPAU works only with MythTV so far. I haven't really come across instructions on how to get VDPAU for watching videos. I remember having read that totallymaxed did something like that in the LinuxMCE-flavoured software his company is doing...

niz23 has provided patches to the current system to enable VDPAU in Xine and therefor through videos selected within orbiter.  The patches have been merged into SVN and I would expect they will be available in the next round of builds.  For for information see: http://trac.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/383

I've been running with VDPAU on my Zotac IONITX-A-U all week without any issues.

J.

Phenigma,

As I understand, the following is a step-by-step instruction as to how to "enable" HD playback on Zotac boards:

How to setup VDPAU on MD My setup is a Zotac Atom 330 ION.

1. Make changes to /include/config/hardcoded.php to allow setting of auto and vdpau support as HW acceleration through lmce-admin
2. Setup MD as usual. Configure it and verify that video and sound is working as it should. Not HD content though. That´s what we is going to solve.
3. Add Avenard repot to /etc/apt/sources.list if it is not there.
4. Add Brandon Schniders PPA repo from Launchpad.
5. apt-get update
6. apt-get install nvidia-glx-185 (this is important otherwise the next step will remove your already installed nvidia driver)
7. apt-get dist-upgrade (will install some new binaries including updated mplayer packages from Avenard and libxine-1.1.16.3 with vdpau support from B Schnider)
8. Modify /etc/pluto/xine.conf, change video.driver:xv to video.driver:auto (must be done otherwise xine always start with xv based rendering)
9. Same as above but do it in /root/.xine/config (don´t know if this step is really necessary)
10. Reboot MD

When it comes up test a mpeg-4 HD movie.
If you have a ION gpu or equivalent you can also test mpeg-2 content.
Seems like mpeg-2 content use more cpu compared to mpeg-4. About twice as much.
It´s not much since a 1080P mpeg-4 with vdpau offload use around 5% cpu.

Can you explain the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 9th step in a bit more detail? I am not sure I understand due to my lack of Linux experience, what it means Make changes to /include/config/hardcoded.php to allow setting of auto and vdpau support as HW acceleration through lmce-admin and so forth. I think that just a little more detail would do. Also, are there any other steps that need to be performed?

Thanks,

Lev

[phenigma]

Can you explain the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 9th step in a bit more detail? I am not sure I understand due to my lack of Linux experience, what it means Make changes to /include/config/hardcoded.php to allow setting of auto and vdpau support as HW acceleration through lmce-admin and so forth. I think that just a little more detail would do. Also, are there any other steps that need to be performed?

This is not supported by the devs in any way untill it's released and I don't really recommend this is if you don't know what you're doing but...  if you really can't wait.

1) The file to edit is on the core under the /var/www/lmce-admin directory, it's part of the webadmin configuration.
3) Add the avenard repo, see: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ZOTAC_ION
4) I think brandons builds are in the nvidia-vdpau launchpad ppa repo, google search should find it with instructions for adding it.
9) Do the same as step 8 only to the file referenced in step 9.

Step 1 is performed on the core, all other steps on the MD that has vdpau capabilities.

J.

[levster]

This is not supported by the devs in any way untill it's released and I don't really recommend this is if you don't know what you're doing but...  if you really can't wait.

I do not mind waiting for the official release, as long as it is not too long. I definitely do not want to screw up the core...

[levster]

Any idea when the 810 beta 2 will be released? As I understand it that version is supposed to fix some of the issues that are in the 810 beta relating to MKV playback.