Difference between revisions of "Alchemy LE Ubuntu Netboot"
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On the whole, the system is more than enough for a MythTV frontend. It is quiet, beautiful, and full featured. It is probably a little overpowered for most uses. It is pretty big, as big as my Yamaha receiver so you need to have space. | On the whole, the system is more than enough for a MythTV frontend. It is quiet, beautiful, and full featured. It is probably a little overpowered for most uses. It is pretty big, as big as my Yamaha receiver so you need to have space. | ||
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| + | One note: before turning on a system you got in the mail, always open it up. Turns out a stick of RAM had fallen out and was loose inside. I was lucky it did not jam in one of the fans. I stuck it back in and everything was fine. | ||
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| + | == Software == | ||
| + | I am a big believer in diskless frontends. I have a big (read noisy) server in the basement with 1.5TB of RAID5 disk and that is what I want to use for my front ends. So I want to netboot from the server so no hard disk needed in the frontends. I recently upgraded by server to Ubuntu Edgy Eft and discovered it has great support for net booting so that is what I wanted to use on my frontends. (I keep saying frontends; that is because I want to have two identical systems eventually, both booting from the same network filesystem.) | ||
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| + | Installing was tricky until I figured out how to do it. I tried installing to the hard disk, planning to copy the result to the server and then netboot it. This is when I discovered that the Linux 2.6.17 kernel does not support the newfangled PATA hardware in the 965 chipset. Why does Intel have to go an mess with something that has been working fine for years now and probably will be obsolete in a couple of years? So I booted the Ubuntu server install CDROM and it brought up the installer with no problems until it went to mount the CDROM (that it had just booted from) and said there was no CDROM--ARGHH! I then tried booting the CDROM, but then mounting a USB drive as the CDROM , but that did not work either, not sure why. Finally I tried what I should have tried in the beginning, a total net install with no CDROM. | ||
[[Category:Hardware]] | [[Category:Hardware]] | ||
| + | [[Category:Ubuntu]] | ||
Revision as of 04:22, 22 December 2006
Introduction
The Alchemy LE is a media center system built by Pcalchemy. It comes complete with Windows Media Center Edition installed. But it makes a great MythTV frontend, although it is quite expensive.
I configured the system at the most basic level (which is not very basic): lowest clocked CPU, 1GB RAM, no TV tuners (wanted frontend only), 320GB Disk (wish they had no disk option). One exception: got the Nvidia 7600GT because it has an HDMI port and advertises HDCP support; that would be perfect for my flat-screen TV.
Hardware
The system is based on a very nice case from OrigenAE: The X10 HTPC case. This case includes a VFD display with integrated IR receiver from IRTrans. The VFD/IR Rx has great support for Linux (a pleasant surprise). There is a front panel with USB, firewire, and card readers on it. The case looks very nice and blends in with my home theatre equipment.
Inside the case is an Intel motherboard (I believe it is the DG965WHMKR) that has a G965 Express Chipset. It has all kinds of goodies including optical audio out, many USB ports, and no chipset fan. Pcalchemy installed a Zalman heatsink/fan (something similar to the CNPS7700-AlCu LED) on the core2 duo CPU. The Nvidia 7600GT also got a Zalman heatsink fan installed on it. They are very quiet. The power supply is also very quiet. I am a little worried about the DVDROM drive; it sounds like it might not be as quiet as I like, but I have not yet had a chance to try it out because of problems with linux support for the PATA channel (see below).
On the whole, the system is more than enough for a MythTV frontend. It is quiet, beautiful, and full featured. It is probably a little overpowered for most uses. It is pretty big, as big as my Yamaha receiver so you need to have space.
One note: before turning on a system you got in the mail, always open it up. Turns out a stick of RAM had fallen out and was loose inside. I was lucky it did not jam in one of the fans. I stuck it back in and everything was fine.
Software
I am a big believer in diskless frontends. I have a big (read noisy) server in the basement with 1.5TB of RAID5 disk and that is what I want to use for my front ends. So I want to netboot from the server so no hard disk needed in the frontends. I recently upgraded by server to Ubuntu Edgy Eft and discovered it has great support for net booting so that is what I wanted to use on my frontends. (I keep saying frontends; that is because I want to have two identical systems eventually, both booting from the same network filesystem.)
Installing was tricky until I figured out how to do it. I tried installing to the hard disk, planning to copy the result to the server and then netboot it. This is when I discovered that the Linux 2.6.17 kernel does not support the newfangled PATA hardware in the 965 chipset. Why does Intel have to go an mess with something that has been working fine for years now and probably will be obsolete in a couple of years? So I booted the Ubuntu server install CDROM and it brought up the installer with no problems until it went to mount the CDROM (that it had just booted from) and said there was no CDROM--ARGHH! I then tried booting the CDROM, but then mounting a USB drive as the CDROM , but that did not work either, not sure why. Finally I tried what I should have tried in the beginning, a total net install with no CDROM.
