[mythtv-users] MythTV Installer Usability: An Analysis

[ffrr]

Dewey Smolka wrote:

>At this point, it takes me only an hour or two to set up a Knoppmyth
>machine, while one based on Fedora takes the better part of a day. But
>my first attempt at MythTV, through Knoppmyth, took me more than a
>week to get running, and several weeks before I had it running how I
>wanted.
>
>  
>


Oh boy doesn't that strike a chord with me right now!  I have had mythtv 
working, in 'test' mode on a Mandriva box for a while, and about a week 
ago, I setup a Knoppmyth box. I am at the peak of frustration with a few 
issues right now, and I hope I can see some light emerging at the end of 
the proverbial tunnel.  But it's 3 steps forward, 2 steps back, so much 
of the time.

How about this example this morning?  I recently got my remote working. 
It's a Twinhan USB remote that looks like a second keyboard to linux.  
Remapped a few keys and it works.  BUT, this morning I rebooted the 
computer, and the main keyboard doesn't work.  I unplugged the USB 
remote/keyboard and rebooted, and now the main keyboard works.  Looks 
like it decided to not bother with the real keyboard when it found the 
USB one as it booted. (when I was using the remote before, I just 
plugged it into the USB without a reboot, and that left both working--- 
until the reboot)

As I expected, a lot of my frustration is at the lack of tools. Not 
being a super-linux-guru, I didn't know the command line ways to do 
certain things that are all done with a nice GUI in Mandriva and other 
full distributions.  Installing a file manager (mc) is something I 
should have done straight away, as is turning on nfs and sharing all 
important directories out to my Mandriva computer.  Getting mythweb 
running has also helped.  

I wonder if I should install VNC or something like it?

Anyway,  learning lots of stuff as I go....