Installing MythTV On Dell Hybrid Studio With Ubuntu 8.04

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This HowTo describes how to install MythTV on a Dell Hybrid Studio computer running Ubuntu 8.04 (a.k.a., Hardy Herron). This article focuses on configuring the MythTV frontend. While the Dell Hybrid Studio is more than powerful enough to run a combined frontend/backend system, it would require a USB or Firewire video capture card.

Contents

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Install Ubuntu

The Ubuntu 8.04 LiveCD doesn't include support for the Intel Integrated Graphics 965GM chipset. To avoid unplesentries you need to press F4 at the boot screen and select Safe Graphics Mode. You can then start the LiveCD version of Ubuntu 8.04 and install Ubuntu normally.

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Install Intel Video Drivers

Ubuntu8.04 includes version 2.2.2 of the Xorg Intel Video Drivers. Unfortunately they don't support the Intel Integrated Graphics 965GM chipset and Ubuntu will be installed with the vesa drivers (which don't work well with MythTV).

And updated version of the Xorg Intel Video Drivers (version 2.3.2) are available on the Debian website at http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xserver-xorg-video-intel. They depend on the libdrm version 2.3.1 available at http://packages.debian.org/sid/libdrm2.

At this point you should be able to autodetect your video chipset and generate an xorg.conf file. Temporarily stop gdm and exit to the command line: 

mv /etc/rc2.d/S30gmd /etc/rc2.d/backupS30gdm
reboot

Login to your computer at the command line based longin and run 

X -configure

This will generate a new xorg.conf.new file in /root. Ensure it works by running 

X -config /root/xorg.conf.new

Assuming it works, copy it to the /etc/X11 directory 

mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.orig
cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The Intel 965GM sometimes sees a phantom LVDS screen and scales the output accordingly (1024x768 by default). To disable scaling use: 

Option     "LVDSFixedMode"    "false"

in the "Device" Section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

You may also need to define a dummy TV output and LVDS (laptop built-in LCD display) monitor stanza in your xorg.conf file, since the 965GM tries to use them by default. (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=610407 for information) 

Section "Device"
   Identifier "Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller"
   Driver "intel"
   BusID  "PCI:0:2:0"
   Option "LVDSFixedMode"  "false"
   Option "monitor-TV"     "TVOutput"
   Option "monitor-LVDS"   "LVDS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier "Generic Monitor"
   Option "DPMS"
   HorizSync 28-60
   VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier      "TVOutput"
   Option          "Ignore"        "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier      "LVDS"
   Option          "Ignore"        "true"
EndSection

Test your new xorg.conf file by running 

startx

Assuming all is working, re-enable gdm 

mv /etc/rc2.d/backupS30gdm /etc/rc2.d/S30gdm
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Configure Dolby Digital Audio

The Dell Hybrid Studio's S/PDIF optical output can be configured with just a few settings.

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MythTV

The following settings should work:

MythTV Audio Settings
Setting Value
AudioOutputDevice ALSA:spdif
AC3PassThru checked
MixerDevice ALSA:default
MixerControl PCM
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Xine

If you use xine to play videos in MythTV, you will need to configure it to use dolby digital passthrough

Retrieved from "http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Installing_MythTV_On_Dell_Hybrid_Studio_With_Ubuntu_8.04"
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