The Ultimate Pre-Built MythTV Box?
Installing Linux for MythTV on the
HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center
Contents:
|
Initially Posted: 28 December 2005 Updated for Fedora Core 6 / MythTV 0.20 on 12 April 2007 NEW: Discuss this article on the Linuslate.com Forums The Old (FC4) Version is Here. Please Read The DISCLAIMER  Photo: HP. Used for educational purposes. HP's z555 ships with Windows Media Center. Will it run Linux/MythTV? |
MythTV is
cool. Really cool.
But unlike many other Linux applications, you can't just stick an
install
disk in that old '486 t and have it fill a need.
MythTV
takes hardware -- good hardware. I decided that if I was ever
going to build a MythTV box, it had to basically do it all. I
already had a TiVo, so simply reproducing TiVo's capability made no
sense to me. The system also had to look like home theater
equipment. With these thoughts in mind,
I started spec'ing out
hardware: Dual Tuners, Motherboard with surround
sound,
Silverstone case... I quickly passed $1300 for a cost estimate, and the
project went on hold. Then came a deal I couldn't --
Uhhh, well I guess I could have passed up, but I
didn't.
CompUSA had the HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center on
closeout.
Here was all the hardware I wanted, in a nice looking case -- for less
than it would have cost me to build. But would it run
Linux? Would Linux and MythTV support the z555's
hardware?
I took the
gamble.
Why MythTV?
Why not just leave Windows Media Center? The purpose of this page is not to discuss Windows vs. Linux. I am a "Linux Person" and I wanted my PVR to have UNIX functionality. For example, the ability to re-encode what I have recorded without restrictions. I also find the concept of having to run anti-virus software on my TV somewhat troubling.
Why Fedora?
The Fedora Project represents the cutting edge (but perhaps not bleeding edge) of Linux. Due to the hardware on this box, you need pretty close to the newest drivers for many things. Your Debian Woody disks aren't going to help you much. Fedora Core (Soon to simply be called Fedora) is a good mix of quality, standardization, and recent drivers. Yes, there are less commercial-like, more true to the GNU/Free software philosophy distributions. Yes, there are distributions with more included drivers, There may even be more stable, better tested distributions (emphasis on may), I feel that Fedora is the best combination.
NOTE: What is detailed below does contain proprietary code.
Back to Contents
PCI Hardware:
Click here to see the output of (Link to Be fixed soon)
Back to Contents
USB Hardware:
Many modern PC's contain gadgets connected to internal USB connectors. These boxes push the envelope.
Click here to see the output of (Link to Be fixed soon)
Note that you will have yet one more device if you have a drive installed in the Media Bay.
Back to Contents
Fedora Core Installation:
Obviously, we start with an normal install of Fedora Core 6:
IMPORTANT: Before beginning the install, go into the BIOS (F1) and Set the PATA/SATA setting from Enhanced to Combined. This is only done for the install. After the install, set this back to Enhanced, or the DVD/CD Drive will have no DMA. This will result in DVD frame dropping, and the inability to burn DVD's.
The 'nofb' and 'text' options may be needed if you are connected to a TV (s-video or composite) for the install. If you are connected to a Monitor, go ahead and try a GUI install. I recommend sticking pretty close to the suggestions on the "Fedora Myth(TV)ology" site for configuring your disks with one exception; I used /var/video as the mount point for the MythTV video storage partition. Why? /var/ is the "proper" or "classical" location for things like buffers and spool files. MythTV is basically a big TV buffer.
I split from Jarod Wilson's recommendations in another way too... I used Gnome.
Follow Wilson's package options, and make sure you install all relevant development stuff. (X, Gnome, Legacy).
After the install, reboot and catch the machine at the grub boot screen. Hit 'a' to add options, and then append 'single' to the end of the kernel parameters. This will prevent the system from trying to start X, and drop you to a single user shell. From here, follow the directions below to install the nVidia drivers.
When this is done, reboot, and go through the RedHat Firstboot. Don't forget to create the mythtv user.
Now that the system is up, we need to let it go out and do an update. Obviously, this requires a network connection. See below to get either the WiFi or Ethernet connection working. Then, in a terminal do:
For the rest of the system setup, we will tackle things one subsystem at a time:
IMPORTANT: There's a nasty bug in the FC6 installer that will result in an i586 kernel, instead of an i686 kernel, getting installed on 32-bit x86 systems, including this one. Catch this early, and get the right kernel installed, or you will end up redoing the nVidia driver installation, and ndiswrapper over and over. These 2 drivers have to be re-loaded every time you change the kernel.
Back to Contents
Wireless Keyboard:
Identified as: BTC USB Multimedia Cordless Kit.
This is handled in hardware on the z555, and is recognized as a standard 105 key keyboard. It can be used in the BIOS and in the install. The "Multimedia" keys along the top also produce standard key codes. xmodmap will allow you to map them as desired.
Back to Contents
nVidia GeForce6600 Video:
Go to: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html and download the Latest Linux IA32 drivers. I found it worked great to put them on a flash card to transfer to the z555. Prior to the first actual boot, copy the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-xxxx-pkg1.run file to the HD, and run it. If you are in Single User mode, you will get errors about an inability to detect the run level. Acknowledge the error, and continue. The 1st attempt to install a driver will fail, and it will ask you if you would like it to attempt to download a driver for your kernel. If you are on a wired network, you can try this. If you are on a wireless network, it will fail since we have not gotten the wireless card working. I recommend you select No, (or let the download attempt fail), and it will inform your that it is attempting to build a module for your kernel. As long as you installed the development packages, this should succeed. When you reboot you should be greeted with the nVidia logo when X starts. If you have difficulties, check the nVidia forums. The nVidia personnel there are excellent, and I have always been able to solve my problem by scanning the forums. In some cases, the driver versions listed on the drivers page are not the latest or best versions for a particular card. If you have difficulties check the forums to see what version is best for your card.
Back to Contents
Setup for an HDTV or HD Monitor via HDMI/DVI: Getting the nVidia driver settings correct for your HDTV can be tricky, but the newer nVidia drivers have helped greatly. While some monitors work fine at standard PC resolutions, you will need to dive your 16:9 monitor at a proper 16:9 resolution for things to look right. Here's a few hints:
Network -- Wired Ethernet:
The Ethernet port is identified as: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 19).
Due to the location of my system, I am not using the Wired Ethernet port. Drivers are loaded with the install, and it should be easy to do a normal network configuration using the normal GUI.
Back to Contents
Network -- Wireless:
The z555 contains a PCI 802.11b/g WLAN card identified as: Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]. This is NOT supported by the prism54 driver in Fedora Core 6, Work is progressing on the SoftMAC driver for this card, but it is not there yet. We still need to use ndiswrapper.
Audio:
The Sound Sub-system is identified as: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) is a standard that replaces the AC97 codecs for digital audio. This card is supported in FC6 - including, with the configuration detailed here, Surround Sound through the S/PDIF connectors. Ready? Let's hit it:
Dual NTSC Tuner Card:
The 2 tuner NTSC card is a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE with the backplate (and IR port??) removed. The card has MPEG encoding hardware for each tuner. This is supported by the ivtv project. The drivers are included with current kernels, we just need to grab the firmware.
Why MythTV?
Why not just leave Windows Media Center? The purpose of this page is not to discuss Windows vs. Linux. I am a "Linux Person" and I wanted my PVR to have UNIX functionality. For example, the ability to re-encode what I have recorded without restrictions. I also find the concept of having to run anti-virus software on my TV somewhat troubling.
Why Fedora?
The Fedora Project represents the cutting edge (but perhaps not bleeding edge) of Linux. Due to the hardware on this box, you need pretty close to the newest drivers for many things. Your Debian Woody disks aren't going to help you much. Fedora Core (Soon to simply be called Fedora) is a good mix of quality, standardization, and recent drivers. Yes, there are less commercial-like, more true to the GNU/Free software philosophy distributions. Yes, there are distributions with more included drivers, There may even be more stable, better tested distributions (emphasis on may), I feel that Fedora is the best combination.
NOTE: What is detailed below does contain proprietary code.
Back to Contents
About
This Document:
First and foremost, this document is NOT A HOW-TO. Instead,
this
document
describes some of the z555's hardware, and what I had to do to get it
to work under Linux (Fedora, specifically.) Various parts of
this document are also applicable to other z55x - series boxes, such as
the z540,
z545, z552,
z553, z555, z556, and z557. Most of what is here is actually
compiled
from other sources on the web. I relied heavily on Jarod
Wilson's
"Fedora
Myth(TV)ology"
site.
I am not going to reproduce Jarod's instructions. Rather; I
am going to assume that you follow his (excellent) instructions, and
reference this page for the specifics of the HP z555.
A WORD OF WARNING: I don't mean to be condescending, but I must warn
the
reader that installing Linux and MythTV on this system is not for the
impatient or the inexperienced. It is about as far from "Plug and Play"
as imaginable. If you are new to Linux, I strongly suggest trying
getting a few installs under your belt with more conventional PC
hardware before your tackle this system.
NOTE: I am still getting things to work on this
box. This page will be updated as I learn
more. If you can provide input, or you have a (relevant)
comment, please register and post on the Linuxslate.com
Forums:
Back to Contents
A
Few Notes about Overheating:
Recently, my z555 succumbed to Hard Drive and power supply failure,
most
probably due to the fact that these boxes run very hot. Prior to
installing a new HD, I drilled out
the holes in the HD mounting plate, and drilled many additional
ones. I also drilled out some of the inside of the
case.
Felt furniture feet, which I added to the existing feet, raise
the unit slightly. All this is an attempt to
improve
airflow into
the unit - i,e.
around the hard drive. Be careful adding
more
fans. You can cause
flow starvation in parts of the unit,
or simply recirculate hot air inside the unit. Mods
should
concentrate on allowing more air into
the unit.
Back to Contents
Basic
Hardware:
The basic hardware is a Dual Core Pentium 4 @3.0GHz supported
by
an Intel Chipset.
There is a single 7200 RPM 250G HD connected via SATA, and a
LightScribe CD-R/RW DVD±R Drive connected via PATA
(IDE).
LightScribe is only supported in Windows, but who spends an hour
designing a label for every TV show they burn to disk anyway?
The best way to learn about the rest of the hardware is to examine the
output of the
lspcicommand, and the results of
cat /proc/bus/usb/devicesThe results of these are detailed below. Each system, and how it is supported will be described latter.
Back to Contents
PCI Hardware:
Click here to see the output of (Link to Be fixed soon)
lspci -v(Will open in a new Window)
Back to Contents
USB Hardware:
Many modern PC's contain gadgets connected to internal USB connectors. These boxes push the envelope.
Click here to see the output of (Link to Be fixed soon)
cat /proc/bus/usb/devices(Will open in a new Window)
Note that you will have yet one more device if you have a drive installed in the Media Bay.
Back to Contents
Fedora Core Installation:
Obviously, we start with an normal install of Fedora Core 6:
IMPORTANT: Before beginning the install, go into the BIOS (F1) and Set the PATA/SATA setting from Enhanced to Combined. This is only done for the install. After the install, set this back to Enhanced, or the DVD/CD Drive will have no DMA. This will result in DVD frame dropping, and the inability to burn DVD's.
The 'nofb' and 'text' options may be needed if you are connected to a TV (s-video or composite) for the install. If you are connected to a Monitor, go ahead and try a GUI install. I recommend sticking pretty close to the suggestions on the "Fedora Myth(TV)ology" site for configuring your disks with one exception; I used /var/video as the mount point for the MythTV video storage partition. Why? /var/ is the "proper" or "classical" location for things like buffers and spool files. MythTV is basically a big TV buffer.
I split from Jarod Wilson's recommendations in another way too... I used Gnome.
Follow Wilson's package options, and make sure you install all relevant development stuff. (X, Gnome, Legacy).
After the install, reboot and catch the machine at the grub boot screen. Hit 'a' to add options, and then append 'single' to the end of the kernel parameters. This will prevent the system from trying to start X, and drop you to a single user shell. From here, follow the directions below to install the nVidia drivers.
When this is done, reboot, and go through the RedHat Firstboot. Don't forget to create the mythtv user.
Now that the system is up, we need to let it go out and do an update. Obviously, this requires a network connection. See below to get either the WiFi or Ethernet connection working. Then, in a terminal do:
yum updateSince the update will affect the kernel, and X, we will have to repeat the installation of the nVidia drivers and possibly the networking drivers.
For the rest of the system setup, we will tackle things one subsystem at a time:
IMPORTANT: There's a nasty bug in the FC6 installer that will result in an i586 kernel, instead of an i686 kernel, getting installed on 32-bit x86 systems, including this one. Catch this early, and get the right kernel installed, or you will end up redoing the nVidia driver installation, and ndiswrapper over and over. These 2 drivers have to be re-loaded every time you change the kernel.
Back to Contents
Wireless Keyboard:
Identified as: BTC USB Multimedia Cordless Kit.
This is handled in hardware on the z555, and is recognized as a standard 105 key keyboard. It can be used in the BIOS and in the install. The "Multimedia" keys along the top also produce standard key codes. xmodmap will allow you to map them as desired.
Back to Contents
nVidia GeForce6600 Video:
Go to: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html and download the Latest Linux IA32 drivers. I found it worked great to put them on a flash card to transfer to the z555. Prior to the first actual boot, copy the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-xxxx-pkg1.run file to the HD, and run it. If you are in Single User mode, you will get errors about an inability to detect the run level. Acknowledge the error, and continue. The 1st attempt to install a driver will fail, and it will ask you if you would like it to attempt to download a driver for your kernel. If you are on a wired network, you can try this. If you are on a wireless network, it will fail since we have not gotten the wireless card working. I recommend you select No, (or let the download attempt fail), and it will inform your that it is attempting to build a module for your kernel. As long as you installed the development packages, this should succeed. When you reboot you should be greeted with the nVidia logo when X starts. If you have difficulties, check the nVidia forums. The nVidia personnel there are excellent, and I have always been able to solve my problem by scanning the forums. In some cases, the driver versions listed on the drivers page are not the latest or best versions for a particular card. If you have difficulties check the forums to see what version is best for your card.
Back to Contents
Setup for an HDTV or HD Monitor via HDMI/DVI: Getting the nVidia driver settings correct for your HDTV can be tricky, but the newer nVidia drivers have helped greatly. While some monitors work fine at standard PC resolutions, you will need to dive your 16:9 monitor at a proper 16:9 resolution for things to look right. Here's a few hints:
- Don't forget to tell the MythTV that
you have a 16:9
monitor. This is done in the Settings for the Front End.
- HDTV's are TV's. While they generally support some PC resolutions, for 16:9, they may want to be driven at a standard TV resolution - i.e. 720p, 1080p/i, etc.
- They want to process and scale everything. While the panel does have a physical (native) resolution, it may be difficult/impossible to drive them at this resolution. Expect overscan.
ModeLine "1280x720@60p" 74.25 1280 1320 1376 1650 720 722 728 750I also have:
Option "NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck"You will probably need a correct modeline that your monitor likes. Make a copy of your /etc/Xorg.conf file, and then try modelines until you get one that your monitor likes. Several resources are listed below:
Option "TVStandard" "HD720p"
- Jarod Wilson's page about HD
- MythTV Wiki HD Modeline Database
- XFree86 Video Timings HOWTO -- by Eric S. Raymond - Too theoretical and obsolete, but a good read to get the theory.
- XFree86 Modeline Calculator -- With the newer nVidia drivers you probably do not need this, and there are other Modeline Calculators out there, but I found this one to be the most helpful.
Network -- Wired Ethernet:
The Ethernet port is identified as: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 19).
Due to the location of my system, I am not using the Wired Ethernet port. Drivers are loaded with the install, and it should be easy to do a normal network configuration using the normal GUI.
Back to Contents
Network -- Wireless:
The z555 contains a PCI 802.11b/g WLAN card identified as: Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]. This is NOT supported by the prism54 driver in Fedora Core 6, Work is progressing on the SoftMAC driver for this card, but it is not there yet. We still need to use ndiswrapper.
- Be sure you have the full, and proper kernel source installed. This can be obtained from http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/source/SRPMS/
- Install the kernel source RPM.
- Go to: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/ and download the ndiswrapper source (Big Green Button).
- Reference
http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2005/08/19/smc-2835w-v3-and-smc-2802w-v2/
for more help. What follows is an adaptation of that,
combined
with the official
ndiswrapper installation instructions.
- make DISABLE_USB=1' and install with 'make DISABLE_USB=1 install'.
- Apparently, the card is the same as an
SMC Medalion
MD41300. Obtain the Windows drivers from here.
Select WinXP Home, and unzip the
resulting file someplace convenient.
(You can also try http://www.smc.com/files/AV%5CDR_2802wV.2_WHQL.zip)
- Go into Drivers/WinXP. You should see at least the following files:
2802W51.sys 2802W.cat 2802W.inf
- In the directory with these files, do:
ndiswrapper -i 2802W.infCheck it with
ndiswrapper -lThis should indicate:
2802W : driver installed
device (1260:3890) present
- Do:
modprobe -r prism54
depmod -a
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper
- Check /etc/modprobe.conf It should contain a line:
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
- If it isn't there, add it.
- Prevent the system from loading the prism54 modules by doing:
echo "blacklist prism54" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
- This will create a wlan0 interface for the wireless card. Either delete eth0, and use the GUI network settings program to find and configure wlan0, or tell ndiswrapper.You can configure this interface in the regular RedHat GUI Network utility (or from the command line with iwconfig, and ifconfig, if you would like).
- Test the interface by pinging somebody.
- NOTE: If you change to a different kernel, you will need to re-do these steps starting with the rpmbuild.
- restart the interface or reboot.
- You should now have a wlan0. You can configure this interface in the regular RedHat GUI Network utility (or from the command line with iwconfig, and ifconfig, if you would like).
- Test the interface by pinging somebody.
- NOTE:
If you change to a different kernel, you will need to
re-do these steps starting with the rpmbuild.
Audio:
The Sound Sub-system is identified as: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) is a standard that replaces the AC97 codecs for digital audio. This card is supported in FC6 - including, with the configuration detailed here, Surround Sound through the S/PDIF connectors. Ready? Let's hit it:
- Reference the
entry for Intel HDA on the Alsa-project site for more
details.
- Add/Fix lines in /etc/modprobe.conf. Here's the relevant section of my /etc/modprobe.conf
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel model=6stack-digout
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
- Start the sound server (if not already running), and insure that it always starts at this run level:
/etc/init.d/alsasound start
chkconfig alsasound on
- Run alsamixer, and unmute/set volumes as you
wish. If
you are using the digital (S/PDIF)output, don't forget to unmute it.
This option may not be shown by default in some mixer apps.
- OK - here's the part that caused me quite a bit of lost time. The .asoundrc or asound.conf file. I have no clue about this file, so please don't ask. I now use the asound.conf file from . Note that I have only the /etc/asound.conf file, and none in the mythtv user's directory.
- Now test both the analog and S/PDIF outputs with aplay:
aplay -D analog /usr/share/sounds/startup3.wav
aplay -D spdif /usr/share/sounds/startup3.wav
- In the MythTV Front End settings, Under general, set the audio settings as follows:
- If you are using the digital outputs, you probably want Music Playback (Mythmusic) audio to go to the SPDIF outputs. Set this in Music Settings.
- Troubleshooting
- Check the mixer settings.
- Check your audio systems' settings.
- There seems to be some sort of bug that requires me to turn off S/PDIF, then try to play something using that port, and then turn it back on before it will work, One reader that was experiencing the same problem, had the idea to run a script during boot that turned off the S/PDIF smixer setting, played a 5 channel .wav file, and then turned on the S/PDIF mixer setting. I have not gotten this to work.
Dual NTSC Tuner Card:
The 2 tuner NTSC card is a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE with the backplate (and IR port??) removed. The card has MPEG encoding hardware for each tuner. This is supported by the ivtv project. The drivers are included with current kernels, we just need to grab the firmware.
- Get
the firmware.
NOTE:
You
need the encoder and audio firmware, but not the decoder. In
addition, I suggest making symlinks, and not renaming the firmware
files.
- At this point, /lib/firmware/
looks like this:
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 376836 Jan 7 23:25 HcwFalcn.rom
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 14264 Jan 7 23:25 HcwMakoA.ROM
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jan 7 23:28 v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw -> HcwFalcn.rom
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Jan 7 23:28 v4l-cx25840.fw -> HcwMakoA.ROM
- Load the modules
with modprobe, or just re-boot.
- Check dmesg, and make sure the firmware is loaded.
- An easy way to test it is to just run gmplayer, choose <Open File>, select <All Files>, and navigate to /dev/video0. You should see live TV. You can change channels with itvt-tune -c <channel number>. Similarly, the other tuner should be on /dev/video1. The FM radio works too. FM radio apps for Linux are beyond the scope of this article.
- Setup
the card in MythTV Setup. The setup is straight
forward. Remember to add the second tuner as another card.
Back to Contents
ATSC Tuner Card:
The ATSC tuner card is a modified ATI HDTV Wonder card. It is modified in the sense that (as with the NTSC card) the backplate is removed and all of the connectors other than the ATSC RF connector are absent. Additionally, the card has a subsystem PCI ID of 1002:a103 instead of 1002:a101 as the "out of the box" cards do. The ATI HDTV Wonder is listed supported by the Linux DVB Project. With the release of the 2.6.15 kernel, this HDTV capture card is supported. Details can be found at the MythTV Wiki. The card cannot currently be used as a 3rd NTSC tuner. Only the digital portion is currently supported. The card is reported to support unencrypted Digital Cable channels (QAM).
The Remote, and IR control:
The IR Subsystem is identified as: Tatung eHome Infrared Transceiver. USB Vendor code 1460 ProdID 9150
Note: I am not currently using this to control a cable box. That should work, but is untested.
The IR subsystem is supported by recent versions of lirc. This should be correctly detected, but we still need to setup the configurations files.
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VFD (Vaccum Flourescent Display), Front Panel LED's and Front Panel Keys:
The VFD is connected to one of the internal USBhubs. The VFD identifies itself as: Manufacturer=HP Product=HP VFD Front Panel Board Vendor=1460 ProdID=0024. The front panel is a USB HID Device. It can be found on /dev/input/event0 As a HID device, the keys produce normal keystrokes. I haven't actually done it yet, but you can use xmodmap to map them as you desire. I am still figuring out how to talk to the VFD and LED's. A reader reported that he was able to get something on the display using the imon drivers, but without modification I doubt that this will work. Others are working on it too, so perhaps there is hope.
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Multi-Card reader and Removable Drive Bay:
The Multi-Card reader is a standard USB 2.0 Mulit-Card Reader. Fedora Supports it without doing anything special.
For reference it is identified on the USB bus as: Vendor=058f ProdID=9360.
The "Personal Media Bay" is really just another USB 2.0 connector.
In MythTV Front End, under Photos >> Settings, you may want to add:
:/media
to the locations where it looks for photos. This will allow pictures on cards that are inserted into the Card Reader to be viewed in the photo viewer.
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ACPI (Sleep/Suspend):
This box uses a lot of power. It would be really nice to get (at least) suspend to RAM working. Unfortunately, I do not have this working. Any help from someone experienced with ACPI would be much appreciated.
I did however, find one simple thing I had to do to get the machine to power off properly after doing a shutdown. It would go through a shutdown, and report "Acpi_power_off called", but never actually turn the power off. It seems that the Intel HDA module interferes with ACPI. Prior to powering the box off, the snd_hda_intel module must be removed. Open /etc/rc0.d/S01halt, and add the following line just after the section that referes to "Save Mixer Settings":
Back to Contents
Other Notes and Issues:
None at this time -- Really.
Links:
Discuss this article on the Linuxslate.com Forums
HP z555 Specs and Motherboard info
MythTV Home Page
Fedora Myth(TV)ology
Previous Version of this artice (Fedora Core 4)
All trademarks/tradenames are the property of the companies that own them.
ATSC Tuner Card:
The ATSC tuner card is a modified ATI HDTV Wonder card. It is modified in the sense that (as with the NTSC card) the backplate is removed and all of the connectors other than the ATSC RF connector are absent. Additionally, the card has a subsystem PCI ID of 1002:a103 instead of 1002:a101 as the "out of the box" cards do. The ATI HDTV Wonder is listed supported by the Linux DVB Project. With the release of the 2.6.15 kernel, this HDTV capture card is supported. Details can be found at the MythTV Wiki. The card cannot currently be used as a 3rd NTSC tuner. Only the digital portion is currently supported. The card is reported to support unencrypted Digital Cable channels (QAM).
- Since the card has a slightly different ID, the cx88xx module needs some help identifying it. Basically we are saying no matter how the card Identifies itself, treat is as a ATI HDTV Wonder. We do this by adding:
options cx88xx card=34to
/etc/modules.conf
- Now for
the firmware. There is a perl script included in
the Documentation that will
grab the Firmware for you. Make sure you have the Kernel Docs
installed:
Then run the script:
yum install kernel-doccd /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-2.6.20/Documentation/dvb
Put the firmware in with the others:
perl get_dvb_firmware nxt2004
cp dvb-fe-nxt2004.fw /lib/firmware/
- Load the modules with modprobe, or just re-boot.
- Check dmesg, and make sure the firmware is
loaded. Note that for
this card and the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 card, (3 tuners
total),
there must be 5 total firmware loads. Don't even try to
continue
until the ivtv section of dmegs shows that the cx88[0] module is
loaded, and is forced to card type 34, and that the dvb-fe-nxt2004.fw
firmware is
loaded.
- We can test the card using DVBscan. DVBscan is part of the DVB-apps package. Install it with:
yum install dvb-apps
- Run BVDscan with a command like:
/usr/bin/scan /usr/share/dvb-apps/atsc/us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSBFor over-the-air ATSC or
/usr/bin/scan /usr/share/dvb-apps/atsc/us-Cable-Standard-center-frequencies-QAM256for digital cable.
- Do not be alarmed by "tuning failed!!!" messages. It simply means that no signal was found on that particular frequency. If this shows lock on at least some channels, you can be pretty sure the card is working.
- Click here
for more help on using DVBscan. Note that if you are only
using
the card in MythTV, we do not need to do a test capture of video, or
mess about with a "channels.conf" file. Just setup the card
in
MythTVSetup as
follows, and test it by watching Live TV in MythFrontEnd.
- In MythTVSetup, configure it like this
--> Capture Cards
New Capture Card
DVB DTV Capture Card (v3.x)
DVB Card Number: 0
DiSEqC
Description: LNB
LNB Preset: Linear (N. America)
LNB Type: Standard (Voltage)
<Press Escape>
Recorder Options
Wait for SEQ start Header - checked
Open DVB card on demand - unchecked
DVB Tuning Delay: 0
<Press Escape>
<Press Escape> - Note the part about the DiSEqC settings. Configuring it exactly as indicated is necessary for the tuner to work.
- Proceed to Video Souces, and define a source,
- Proceed to
Input Connections, and do a Channel Scan (VSB for an
antenna, or QAM for cable). This should find at least some
channels. You will have to use the channel editor to delete
channels that are for some reason unwatchable, or unwanted.
- There is a
page on
the MythTV wiki for this card. That page is the
source for
the above settings. Reference it for more detail if necessary.
The Remote, and IR control:
The IR Subsystem is identified as: Tatung eHome Infrared Transceiver. USB Vendor code 1460 ProdID 9150
Note: I am not currently using this to control a cable box. That should work, but is untested.
The IR subsystem is supported by recent versions of lirc. This should be correctly detected, but we still need to setup the configurations files.
- Add the following (if needed) to /etc/modprobe.conf
alias char-major-61 lirc_mceusb2
- lircd.conf files for various remotes are included
in the
documentation direcories. Just copy over the correct one:
- Load the module (if needed)
modprobe lirc_mceusb2
- Then do:
service lircd start
chkconfig lircd on
- We can now check our remote by running irw.
Run irw and press
some keys on
the remote; the pressed key function should be listed out.
Use <control-c> to get out of irw.
If this
works as root, but not as the mythtv user, just fix the permissions on /dev/lircd
- Download my
mceusb MythTV lircrc file
and install it in /home/mythtv/.mythtv
Make sure it is just called lircrc
Check the permissions. It needs to be
accesible by
the MythTV user.
The
original lircrc file
for the mceusb2 remote is here.
- Your remote should work now in MythTV. If it does not, reference the lirc install page, or on the "Fedora Myth(TV)ology" site.
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VFD (Vaccum Flourescent Display), Front Panel LED's and Front Panel Keys:
The VFD is connected to one of the internal USBhubs. The VFD identifies itself as: Manufacturer=HP Product=HP VFD Front Panel Board Vendor=1460 ProdID=0024. The front panel is a USB HID Device. It can be found on /dev/input/event0 As a HID device, the keys produce normal keystrokes. I haven't actually done it yet, but you can use xmodmap to map them as you desire. I am still figuring out how to talk to the VFD and LED's. A reader reported that he was able to get something on the display using the imon drivers, but without modification I doubt that this will work. Others are working on it too, so perhaps there is hope.
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Multi-Card reader and Removable Drive Bay:
The Multi-Card reader is a standard USB 2.0 Mulit-Card Reader. Fedora Supports it without doing anything special.
For reference it is identified on the USB bus as: Vendor=058f ProdID=9360.
The "Personal Media Bay" is really just another USB 2.0 connector.
In MythTV Front End, under Photos >> Settings, you may want to add:
:/media
to the locations where it looks for photos. This will allow pictures on cards that are inserted into the Card Reader to be viewed in the photo viewer.
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ACPI (Sleep/Suspend):
This box uses a lot of power. It would be really nice to get (at least) suspend to RAM working. Unfortunately, I do not have this working. Any help from someone experienced with ACPI would be much appreciated.
I did however, find one simple thing I had to do to get the machine to power off properly after doing a shutdown. It would go through a shutdown, and report "Acpi_power_off called", but never actually turn the power off. It seems that the Intel HDA module interferes with ACPI. Prior to powering the box off, the snd_hda_intel module must be removed. Open /etc/rc0.d/S01halt, and add the following line just after the section that referes to "Save Mixer Settings":
rmmod -f snd_hda_intelWhere you add it is not critical, but that seemed as logical a place to do it as any. Now the box will actually power off when it is supposed to.
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Other Notes and Issues:
None at this time -- Really.
Links:
Discuss this article on the Linuxslate.com Forums
HP z555 Specs and Motherboard info
MythTV Home Page
Fedora Myth(TV)ology
Previous Version of this artice (Fedora Core 4)
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