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MythTV Prototype 3

OH DEAR! THIS IS A BIG DOCUMENT AND IT IS LARGELY OUT OF DATE. I WILL UPDATE IT IN THE FUTURE, PROBABLY BASED ON MYTHBUNTU

So here I go again with another MythTV prototype. However, this time I am going try and get things close to a production system so I can use it in my home cinema, this means I will need an HTPC case which matches my A/V equipment.

I am also going to switch from KnoppMyth to Ubuntu and try to create a minimal install with just what is required to support my MythTV on my hardware.

HTPC Cases

These are the dimensions of my existing A/V equipment I want to match closely too.

DeviceLengthWidthHeight
Arcam AVR250420mm435mm145mm
Arcam DV78350mm435mm80mm

These are the dimensions of the case I found which have the features I wanted and are supported by Linux, although the reports of Linux compatibility are unconfirmed as of October 2006 but some forums are reporting success.

CaseLengthWidthHeight
SilverStone LC10M429mm430mm163mm
Zalman HD160435mm420mm160mm
Zalman HD135435mm425mm135mm

I prefer the slimmer Zalman HD135, but some PSU's may be a problem according to online reviews. The SilverStone LC10M is well supported, the dimensions are a better match to my A/V kit and it is far less expensive than either of the Zalman case. So I chose the LC10M.

As quiet running is a design requirement I have opted for the SilverStone TruePower 300W Silent Fanless Aluminium PSU to go in the case.

Online Shops (UK)

References

Hardware

Existing Components

Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus - Socket "A"(462)

  • DRAM Clock - 133MHz
  • DRAM Timing - manual
  • DRAM CAS Latency - 2T
  • Bank Interleave - 4-way
  • Precharge to Active - 2T
  • Active to Precharge - 6T
  • Active to CMD - 3T
  • DRAM Queue Depth - 4 level
  • Write recovery time - 1T
  • DRAM Command Rate - 2T
  • DRAM DQS Length - Default
  • AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 266mhz FSB

References

Sony Sony DRU-710A or Sony DRU-700A

XFX GeForce FX 5200 256MB DDR (PV-T34K-UA)

Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-T PCI Freeview receiver (909)

USB 2.0, Firewaire PCI Card

Required Bits

Optional Bits

Ubuntu and MythTV Resources

Hardware Resources

Install Ubuntu 7.04 Alternate

The following steps are just a guide to installing a Ubuntu command-line system:

  1. Install a command-line system
  2. Choose a language: English
  3. Choose a location: United Kingdom
  4. Detect keyboard layout: No
  5. The origin of the keyboard is: United Kingdom
  6. Keyboard layout : United Kingdom
  7. Hostname: pvr
  8. Disk space to partition: Manually partition
  9. Create new 2.0G partition for "/" of type "ext3" and bootable
  10. Create new 1.0GB partition for swap (your RAM size)
  11. Create new partition using the remaining space for "/var" of type "xfs"
  12. Select a city in your time zone: <your city>
  13. Is the system clock set to UTC?: Yes
  14. Full name for the new user: Personal Video Recorder
  15. Username for your account: pvr (Do not use "mythtv")
  16. Choose a password for the new user: <secure password>

Compact Flash and DMA

Very few Compact flash to IDE adpaters support DMA!

If your compact flash to IDE adapter does not support DMA then you need to use the "ide=nodma" kernel option otherwise the system will encounter timeouts when accessing the compact flash card.

  • During the install press F6 and add "ide=nodma" to boot parameters.
  • During the reboot, interrupt Grub by pressing 'ESC' and add 'ide=nodma' to the kernel options to prevent the DMA timeouts on the compact flash card delaying the boot process.

Why XFS?

XFS is my recommended filesystem for storage of media files based on some background reading I did. See the references below. Putting everything in /var on the hard disk reduces the activity on the Compact Flash drive.

References

Post Installation

The first thing to do is install SSH so the remainder of the setup can be conducted from the comfort of a Workstation. 

 apt-get install ssh

Hostname

 echo pvr.home.flexion.org > /etc/hostname
 /bin/hostname -F /etc/hostname

 vi /etc/hosts

 127.0.0.1       localhost
 127.0.1.1       pvr.home.flexion.org pvr
 
  # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
  ::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
  fe00::0 ip6-localnet
  ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
  ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
  ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
  ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Boot Configuration

Essentially the Myth box has no console so it is essential to edit /etc/default/rcS and set FSCKFIX=yes, to prevent fsck problems from hanging your boot waiting for you to press "y" on a nonexistant console.

References

Essentials

 apt-get install less file ntp tree psmisc vim dnsutils pciutils bzip2 zip unzip telnet

If you need e-mail delivery use this combo, otherwise the installation mailutils will also install exim4. 

 apt-get install nullmailer mailutils
  • Smarthost
    • relay.plus.net

Wireless

 sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

 auto ra0
 iface ra0 inet dhcp
   wireless-essid YourSSID
   wireless-key s:YourASCIIWEP

References

Relocate '/tmp'

As I am running from a 2GB compact flash card I want to ensure that anything which might want to write to /tmp is writing to somewhere with plenty of storage. So I create a sym-link as follows... 

 sudo mkdir /var/tmp/relocated-tmp
 sudo chmod 777 /var/tmp/relocated-tmp/
 sudo chmod +t /var/tmp/relocated-tmp/
 sudo rm -rf /tmp
 sudo ln -s /var/tmp/relocated-tmp /tmp

Repositories

 sudo -s -H
 echo "## Essential repos" > /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo " " >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "## Updates and bug fixes" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty-updates main restricted universe multiverse " >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty-updates main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo " " >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "## Security Updates" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty-security main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty-security main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo " " >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "## Backports" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty-backports main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty-backports main restricted universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo " " >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "## Proposed" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 echo "#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty-proposed restricted main universe multiverse" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

Medibuntu

 wget http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
 wget -q http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | apt-key add -

MythTV

 echo "## MythTV 0.20, libdvdcss, mplayer and more" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/superm1.list
 echo "deb http://home.eng.iastate.edu/~superm1 feisty all" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/superm1.list
 echo "deb-src http://home.eng.iastate.edu/~superm1 feisty all" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/superm1.list
 wget -q http://home.eng.iastate.edu/~superm1/80DF6D58.gpg -O- | apt-key add -

 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get upgrade

Kernel

Lets grab all the relevant kernel stuff since we will need this later and it will also ensure we don't get any unneeded i386 kernel packages when the 'nvidia-glx' package is installed. 

 apt-get install linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic linux-restricted-modules-generic 
 reboot

Kernel Clean up

You will end up with unneeded kernel packages the following will remove them. 

 apt-get remove linux-headers-2.6.20-15-generic linux-image-2.6.20-15-generic linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-15-generic

Tweaking Grub

My Mythbox will be connected to a 1024x768 display so I enable that video resolution ASAP. 

 vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

Change... 

 timeout         3

...to... 

 timeout         1

Change... 

 # defoptions=quiet splash

...to... 

 # defoptions=quiet splash vga=791

 update-grub 
 reboot

Hard Disk Tuning

Disable DMA for CF adapter?

I use a compact flash card for /dev/hda to reduce power consumption and noise. But my old IDE to Compact flash adapter didn't support DMA (although the compact flash card I have does), therefore I needed to disable DMA in the kernel options and then then optimise hard disk and optical drive options using hdparm during the boot.

If your CF adapter does support DMA, then these changes are not required.

So, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add 'ide=nodma' to the kernel options... 

 # kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro ide=nodma

...and run... 

 update-grub

...to make sure subsequent boots aren't delayed by DMA timeouts on the CF card.

Now add the following to '/etc/hdparm.conf' to optimize disk performance. 

 # Compact Flash
 /dev/hda {
         mult_sect_io = 4 
         dma = on
         interrupt_unmask = on
         io32_support = 1
 	write_cache = off
 }

 /etc/init.d/hdparm restart

References

Xorg

 apt-get install fontconfig openbox obconf xserver-xorg xterm xvattr xloadimage

Nvidia Graphics Cards and Xorg

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card you need to install the drivers. 

 lspci | grep nVidia

You should get the output similar to the following: 

 0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

Install nvidia drivers. 

 apt-get install nvidia-glx libxvmc1

Choose the screen resolutions you want when prompted. 

 dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Choose the 'nvidia' driver when prompted. 

 nvidia-xconfig
 apt-get install msttcorefonts ttf-freefont xfonts-base gsfonts-x11 xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi
 fc-cache -f -v

After these steps install check your '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' file is using the 'nvidia' driver instead of the open source 'nv' driver and that the nVidia logo is disabled. 

 vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Sample 

 Section "Device"   
          Identifier      "Generic Video Card"
          Driver          "nvidia"
          Option          "NoLogo" "true"
 EndSection

XvMC

Now ensure that the XvMC wrapper is pointing to the Nvidia XvMC library. 

 cp /etc/X11/XvMCConfig /etc/X11/XvMCConfig.backup
 echo /usr/lib/libXvMCNVIDIA.so.1 > /etc/X11/XvMCConfig

Setting up Remotes

My Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-T PCI Freeview Tuners and SilverStone LC10M case have Infrared receivers. I use the iMON Remote which came with the LC10M case, but I have instructions for setting up both remotes.

Install MySQL

 apt-get install mysql-server
 mysqladmin -u root password <PASSWORD>
 mysql -u root -p

Enter password: (the new mysql root password you just created above). You should see: 

 Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
 Your MySQL connection id is 7 to server version: 5.0.22Debian_0ubuntu6.06log
 Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
 mysql> quit
 Bye

 cp /etc/mysql/my.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf.backup
 cp /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-5.0/examples/my-small.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

References

Install MythTV Prerequisites

These package include DVB, DVD and Audio/Video Players, Codecs and Utilties that MythTV requires or are just generally useful, but not installed as dependancies. 

 apt-get install dvbstream dvb-utils xmltv xmltv-util
 apt-get install libdvdcss2 regionset cdrecord
 apt-get install mplayer-nogui mplayer-fonts w32codecs xine-ui libxine-extracodecs vlc
 apt-get install transcode avifile-utils avifile-mad-plugin avifile-mjpeg-plugin avifile-vorbis-plugin avifile-divx-plugin avifile-win32-plugin avifile-xvid-plugin
 apt-get install a52dec faad faac lame mpeg2dec sox toolame libdts-dev libxvidcore4

mplayer requires a little tweak to enable real time priority. 

 vi /etc/rc.local

Add the following line to the bottom of the file *before* the 'exit 0'... 

 echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq

Install MythTV

 apt-get install mythtv mythtv-frontend mythtv-backend mythtv-database mythtv-doc mythtv-themes

Enter the the password for the MySQL administrator account 'root' when prompted.

Lets enhance the 'mythtv' user by adding the account to the useful groups, changing the shell to 'bash'. 

 sudo /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend stop
 sudo usermod -G adm,audio,dialout,cdrom,floppy,dip,plugdev,lpadmin,scanner,video,admin mythtv
 sudo usermod -s /bin/bash mythtv

Change the 'mythtv' shell account password to 'mythtv' 

 sudo passwd mythtv
 Enter new UNIX password: 
 Retype new UNIX password: 
 passwd: password updated successfully

Change the 'mythtv' MySQL user account password to 'mythtv'. 

 mysql -u root -p mysql
 mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('mythtv') WHERE user='mythtv';
 mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
 mysql> quit

 sudo vi /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt

Sample 

 DBHostName=localhost
 DBUserName=mythtv
 DBName=mythconverg
 DBPassword=mythtv

As the 'mythtv' user running the following to configure MythTV. 

 startx
 mythtv-setup

mythtv-setup must be run in order to complete MythTV installation. You must run mythtv-setup as the 'mythtv' user in order to complete mythtv configuration. Note that this program requires an X display, so you must either login to an X session as the 'mythtv' user, or otherwise arrange for that user to have access to your X display.

You must complete all four steps presented in the program.

Once you have done this, you may start the backend by executing the following command as root: 

                                                                                                                                                        
 sudo /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend start

Setup MythWelcome 

 mythwelcome -s

Change the command to start which starts 'mythfrontend' so it logs activity to a file. 

 mythfronted --logfile /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log 

 sudo cp /etc/logrotate.d/mythtv-backend /etc/logrotate.d/mythtv-frontend
 sudo vi /etc/logrotate.d/mythtv-frontend

change mythbackendend.log to mythtvfrontend.log

We should also make sure that the "Myth Transcode Daemon" starts up everytime the system boots. 

 sudo vi /etc/rc.local

Add the following line to the bottom of the file *before* the 'exit 0'... 

 /usr/bin/mtd --daemon

Test the basic MythTV system by running... 

 mythwelcome

...from the Terminal Window.

If everything works, lets move on to running MythTV automtically at boot.

Minimal Graphical Auto Login

Complete these steps below as 'root'. 

 sudo -s -H
 cd
 apt-get install build-essential
 echo -e "int main() { \n execlp( \"login\", \"login\", \"-f\", \"mythtv\", 0); \n } " > autologinmythtv.c
 gcc -o autologinmythtv autologinmythtv.c
 strip autologinmythtv
 cp autologinmythtv /usr/local/sbin/

 sudo cp /etc/event.d/tty1 /etc/event.d/tty1.bak
 sudo vi /etc/event.d/tty1

Replace... 

 respawn /sbin/getty 38400 tty1

..with... 

 respawn /sbin/getty -n -l /usr/local/sbin/autologinmythtv 38400 tty1

 exit

The execlp system call invokes the command "login -f mythtv" and replaces the current processing context with this invocation. The man page for login describes the action of the -f argument. Compile this tiny C program using the GNU C-compiler:

The above will cause the user 'mythtv' to be logged in automatically on the first virtual console. The -l <alternative login> argument to getty substitutes the default /sbin/login program with the one we compiled earlier. The -n tells getty to not prompt for a user ID.

If we reboot, the init process will automatically login the user 'mythtv' on the first virtual console and a command shell will by started. User 'mythtv' must still type in the startx command to initiate the graphical desktop. Let's automate starting X.

Complete these steps as 'mythtv'.

If the 'mythtv' users login shell is /bin/bash, the first commands to be executed will always be listed in the file, ~/.bash_profile. We can add the startx command here but this causes problems, since the .bash_profile will be used in other situations such as when one is logging into a second virtual console or when opening an xterm. Instead we append the following lines: 

 echo -e "if [ -z \"\$DISPLAY\" ] && [ \$(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]; then \n startx \n exit \nfi" >> ~/.bash_profile
 ln -s ~/.bash_profile ~/.profile

Any new login shell started on the first virtual console will automatically initiate a graphical desktop. The surrounding if statement ensures that login shells launched from the desktop, or initiated in virtual consoles other than the first one, do not immediately start up a new GUI desktop.

Now whenever the machine boots, user 'mythtv' is automatically logged into the first virtual console, a bash login shell is initiated, his ~/.bash_profile is sourced, and startx is invoked -- all without any user interaction or prompting for passwords. Neat, huh?

We can go further by making use of the ~/.xinitrc file to initiate particular desktop applications. 

 wget http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/images/c/c1/MythTV_logo.png
 vi ~/.xinitrc

Sample 

 # Load the MythTV Logo
 xloadimage -onroot -center /home/mythtv/MythTV_logo.png &
 
 # Turn the monitor Power Saving Off
 xset s off &
 xset -dpms &
 
 # Disable the blue chroma on TV out
 # xvattr -a XV_COLORKEY -v 0
 
 # Wait for the MythTV backend...
 until [ -e /var/run/mythtv/mythbackend.pid ]; do
         sleep 2 
 done
 
 # Start mythwelcome
 mythwelcome &
 exec openbox

 chmod +x ~/.xinitrc

The first two lines disable DPMS so your TV won't blank The next line removes the blue chroma colour if TV-out is used. Then mythwelcome is started and finally the openbox window manager is launched. 

 sudo reboot

References

Apache and PHP

Install Apache 2.0.x, PHP 5.1.x and phpMyAdmin 2.8.x. Useful for fixing any database issues should they arise and also ensure that when the 'mythweb' package is installed it will use PHP5 instead of PHP4. 

 sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 phpmyadmin libapache2-mod-php5 libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

 sudo vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

 TimeOut 45
 KeepAlive On
 MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
 KeepAliveTimeout 2
 ServerName yourserver.com:80
 ServerAdmin webmaster@yourserver.com

 <ifmodule>
 StartServers        1
 MinSpareServers     1
 MaxSpareServers     2
 MaxClients          32
 MaxRequestsPerChild 384
 </ifmodule>

Essential Plugins

I consider the plugins essential for my Mythbox. 

 sudo apt-get install mytharchive mytharchive-data 
 sudo apt-get install mythdvd mythvideo 
 sudo apt-get install mythgallery 
 sudo apt-get install mythmusic 
 sudo apt-get install mythweather 
 sudo apt-get install mythweb

Once mythweb is installed, you unfortunately have three more steps to complete.

Look at your /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt. Take note of the information listed in it. You will have to update the username and password in /etc/mythtv/mythweb-htaccess.conf. 

 sudo vi /etc/mythtv/mythweb-htaccess.conf

Edit /etc/group. You will have to add www-data to the mythtv group. 

 sudo usermod -G mythtv www-data

The ownership isn't properly set on /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/data and mythweb-htaccess.conf. Set them correctly by 

 sudo chown www-data /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/data/
 sudo chown mythtv.www-data /etc/mythtv/mythweb-htaccess.conf

Lets make some directories which are missing and fix up some broken directories... 

 sudo mkdir /var/lib/mythmusic
 sudo mkdir /var/lib/mythpictures
 sudo mkdir /var/lib/mythicons
 sudo mkdir /var/lib/mytharchive
 sudo mkdir /var/lib/mythvideocovers
 sudo chown mythtv.mythtv /var/lib/myth*
 sudo chmod 775 /var/lib/myth*
 sudo chmod +s /var/lib/myth*
 sudo rm /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/data/tv_icons
 sudo ln -s /var/lib/mythicons /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/data/tv_icons 
 sudo rm /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/data/music
 sudo ln -s /var/lib/mythmusic /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/data/music 
 sudo chmod 777 /var/lib/mythicons

Storage Locations

MythDVD

Within the Setup section of the MythTV frontend, you need to specify the storage location for your DVD rips (MythTV -> Setup -> DVD Settings -> Rip Settings

MythGallery

Within the Setup section of the MythTV frontend, you need to specify your image storage location (MythTV -> Setup -> Image Settings).

MythMusic

It should simply be a matter of setting up your audio storage directories within the MythTV Setup section (MythTV -> Utilities/Setup -> Media Settings -> Music Settings

MythVideo

Within the Setup section of MythTV, configure your movie storage directory (MythTV -> Utilities/Setup -> Media Settings -> Video Settings -> General Settings 

 vi /var/www/index.html

Sample 

 <HTML>
 <HEAD>
 <TITLE>redirect</TITLE>
 <META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
 CONTENT="1;URL=/mythweb">
 </HEAD>
 <BODY>
 This page has moved. You will be
 automatically redirected
 to its new location.
 If you aren't forwarded
 to the new page,
 <a href="/mythweb">
 click here</a>.
 </BODY>
 </HTML>

Non-essential Plugins

 sudo apt-get install mythbrowser 
 sudo apt-get install mythcontrols 
 sudo apt-get install mythflix 
 sudo apt-get install mythgame 
 sudo apt-get install mythnews
 sudo apt-get install mythphone

I do not install the MythPhone plugin because the Dapper package for Myth 0.20 cause mythphone to segfault when mythfrontend starts.

Channel Logos

These a UK specific instructions, but 'mythautoicon' is designed for use in other regions. Take a look at the authauoicon README if you are outside the UK. 

 wget http://www.syzygy.eclipse.co.uk/files/mythautoicon_v0_2.tar.bz2
 tar jxvf mythautoicon_v0_2.tar.bz2
 cd mythautoicon_v0_2
 vi mythautoicon.py

Change the 'icon_dir_mythtv' setting as follows. 

 icon_dir_mythtv = '/var/lib/mythicons'

 ./mythautoicon.py

Follow the prompts to match up the channels with logos. 

 cp -R icons/* /var/lib/mythicons/
 sudo chown -R mythtv.mythtv /var/lib/mythicons/*
 sudo chmod -R 755 /var/lib/mythicons/*

References

Shutdown and Wakeup

References

Mpeg Res detection

 #!/bin/sh
 mplayer -frames 0 -nosound -nolirc -nojoystick -nortc -quiet -identify -vc null -vo null -ao null $1

GBPVR

$Id: MythTV,v 1.11 2008/04/11 08:50:21 martin Exp www-data $

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