Ubuntu

rogerwa

rogerwa

Commander
Joined
Nov 29, 2000
Messages
2,339
Re: Ubuntu

My experience with UBUNTU has been in my HTPC (home theaterPC) project. At my house, we do not have cable and in any case we are too cheap for TIVO. So I decided to build one myself. My requirements were to have something relatively inexpensive, that would look like a set top box, not need to be wired to the network, and be totally functional with a remote control.

What I ended up building was a Dual core pentium D system, with 512MB, 250GB, a Hauppauge 150 tuner card, and a Trendnet 443i wireless PCI network card. For OS I used Ubuntu Edgy and then used the MythTV PVR software (www.mythtv.org).

MythTV is an incredibly sophisticated and robust PVR software. I have experimented with BeyondTV and for the most part it matches or execeeds it flexibility and capability. Forget MS MCE as it does not even compare to these two products.

As it stands, I have this system running in my living room with a single tuner. I can record or watch live TV very similar to the Tivo box. If I am recording a program I can also start watching it before it is done recording. I plan on adding a Hauppauge 500 which is a dual tuner card. This owuld give me a three tuner system that would allow me to record three programs at once, or record two and watch Live TV, or even to due PIP with the liveTV. I do not have a keyboard or mouse connected.

This was all done in a well ventilated near silent HTPC case.

The Ubuntu was the easy part. the only challenge I had was getting the wireless card to work with a static IP. dynamic IP was easy, but the static required a little research. Also important was thoroughly reasearching hardware selections for compatability. Nvidia is definitely the choice for video cards under linux, vs ATI. Driver support is much much better. Also, there is quite a bit if information in which wireless cards are supported.

So far the WAF (wife acceptance factor) has been positive. she can schedule all her recordings from a TV guide type interface on an Intranet site that the Myth box hosts. this is in contrast to running downstairs and programming the VCR.
 
CalicoKid

CalicoKid

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 27, 2002
Messages
1,599
Re: Ubuntu

I've been using Ubuntu for a few months. I got Automatix which was nice for getting media programs. My big complaints would be no drivers for my Canon printer (HP seems to be better supported?). Restarting to switch from Windows and back, No access to my Windows drives... I know it can be done but haven't sat and figured it out. My display is off center too so I have to mess with the monitor between Windows and Ubuntu. I also need to clean up my boot screen.

Despite all that I like how quickly it boots up and runs, I use it for all my internet browsing I just don't trust Windows security wise.
 
Plainsman

Plainsman

Rear Admiral
Joined
Apr 2, 2006
Messages
4,062
Re: Ubuntu

If I run this from the CD, should all my hardware, like wireless, work?
 
R

rwise

Captain
Joined
Jul 5, 2001
Messages
3,205
Re: Ubuntu

most of the "live" CD's do a good job of detecting things like networks. The only thing any of them have trouble detecting is my Video card, still works but the resolution may not be what you want without trying a few things. Knoppix (Live DVD) for instance is one that doesn't do good setting up my display on this POS 5 Y/O gateway. Have fun they are free to download, and even pass around, just google "linux live" and start downloading! Personal settings are hard to do with a "live" disk, however the Knoppix allows a config floppy that will save some changes (to the floppy). Also Knoppix can be loaded completely to ram, if you have enuf (the cd takes 1 gig).
 
B

beerfilter

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
305
Re: Ubuntu

I've been playing with Linux for several years,myself.
I curently have no running machines with Microsoft products on them,and,I don't really care if I ever get them fixed.

I started with RedHat 9,and have run it a lot of my "garbage can machines",and,rigs built from whatever happened to be lying around.

All of these are older hardware(socket 7 Intel/Amd,socket 370/slot1,etc..,cpu's).
Linux is a dream on this old school hardware,and,my current rig is a p3 500 MHz,256MHz ram.
I would like to build a "modern machine",but,this rig does just fine for email and surfing.

Not to mention,the older machines make pretty decent file and MP3 servers,but don't do so well for video/graphics files,due to limited resources.

A lot of newer wireless cards are not supported natively under Linux.
If you have 1 of these closed source anachronisms,there IS hope,in a little program called NDISWRAPPER.
NDISWRAPPER allows you to use a Windows 2000,or,XP,driver,under Linux.
Google it.
 
i386

i386

Captain
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
3,548
Re: Ubuntu

YABUT... ndiswrapper isn't going to help much with the live cd. The last time I trued Ubuntu on my laptop it was a major pita to get wireless working with my broadcom bcmxxx. I think the biggest hurdle is that broadcom doesn't want their firmware released into a Linux distro you you have to go get it yourself. Other wlan chipsets may me supported right out of the box though. Also I think there's a newer version of Ubuntu out than I tried. Who knows what they fixed. Those live CDs are great to keep in your arsenal of tools.
 
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