Difference between revisions of "HP Z556 Media Center"

Revision as of 14:44, 16 May 2007

This HOWTO is a step-by-step guide to getting the HP Z556 Media Center setup for use with Ubuntu 7.04 & MythTV.

HP Z556

Hardware Overview

This HOWTO aims to collect the multitude of tips regarding optimizing performance of your system for use with MythTV.

Installing the OS

Download / Burn / Boot

This walk through is based on Ubuntu 7.04 "Fiesty Fawn"

Download from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/news/Ubuntu704Beta

Installation Tips

For you file system choose either the XFS file system

After you boot into your desktop open a console and type

   restricted-manager

and check the nvidia display drivers let it go through its process and then restart

Getting the hardware to work

PCI Bus output

This is a lspci of the system

   01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600] (rev a2)
   02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 19)
   03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
   03:03.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder (rev 05)
   03:03.2 Multimedia controller: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [MPEG Port] (rev 05)
   03:04.0 PCI bridge: Hint Corp HB6 Universal PCI-PCI bridge (non-transparent mode) (rev 11)
   03:05.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006X 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
   04:08.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)
   04:09.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

All the hardware works with the default install of Ubuntu 7.04 except for the HD Tuner which needs a little tweak to get it to work. After hours of reading I find out HP modified this card to fit in the case and for some reason it doesn't auto detect the card and tuner.

ATI HDTV Wonder (CX23880/1/2/3 Chipset)

we need to extract the nxt2004 firmware

in a console type:

   sudo apt-get install linux-doc-2.6.20
   
   cd /usr/share/doc/linux-doc-2.6.20/Documentation/dvb
   
   sudo gzip -d get_dvb_firmware.gz
   
   sudo chmod +x get_dvb_firmware
   
   sudo ./get_dvb_firmware nxt2004
   
   sudo cp dvb-fe-nxt2004.fw /lib/firmware/

   sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add the following to the file:

   options cx88xx card=34 tuner=68

After a reboot this card should be working and "dmesg | grep cx" should output something like this:

   [   16.852541] ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge card (cx23416 based)
   [   17.048053] cx2388x cx88-mpeg Driver Manager version 0.0.6 loaded
   [   17.062557] cx2388x v4l2 driver version 0.0.6 loaded
   [   17.563559] ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw firmware (262144 bytes)
   [   17.911550] cx25840 1-0044: cx25843-23 found @ 0x88 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
   [   22.975399] cx25840 1-0044: loaded v4l-cx25840.fw firmware (16382 bytes)
   [   23.556039] ivtv1: Autodetected Hauppauge card (cx23416 based)
   [   24.219067] ivtv1: loaded v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw firmware (262144 bytes)
   [   24.485478] cx25840 2-0044: cx25843-23 found @ 0x88 (ivtv i2c driver #1)
   [   29.459922] cx25840 2-0044: loaded v4l-cx25840.fw firmware (16382 bytes)
   [   30.103888] CORE cx88[0]: subsystem: 1002:a103, board: ATI HDTV Wonder [card=34,insmod option]
   [   30.228420] tuner 3-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx88[0])
   [   30.284210] cx88[0]/2: cx2388x 8802 Driver Manager
   [   30.284244] cx88[0]/2: found at 0000:03:03.2, rev: 5, irq: 18, latency: 64, mmio: 0xce000000
   [   30.284351] cx88[0]/0: found at 0000:03:03.0, rev: 5, irq: 18, latency: 64, mmio: 0xcd000000
   [   30.290183] cx88[0]/0: registered device video3 [v4l2]
   [   30.290215] cx88[0]/0: registered device vbi2
   [   30.332260] cx2388x dvb driver version 0.0.6 loaded
   [   30.332266] cx8802_register_driver() ->registering driver type=dvb access=shared
   [   30.332272] CORE cx88[0]: subsystem: 1002:a103, board: ATI HDTV Wonder [card=34]
   [   30.332276] cx88[0]/2: cx2388x based dvb card
   [   30.358398] DVB: registering new adapter (cx88[0])

Testing NTSC Tuner Cards

in a console type

   dmesg | grep ivtv | grep 'video' | grep 'MPEG'

which should output something similar to:

   [   23.520549] ivtv0: Registered device video1 for encoder MPEG (4 MB)
   [   30.070392] ivtv1: Registered device video2 for encoder MPEG (4 MB)

this means your 1st NTSC tuner card is set at /dev/video1 and your 2nd at /dev/video2

• this will be needed for mythtv down the road so write it down.

Testing ASTC Tuner Card (ATI HDTV Wonder)

in a console type

   ls /dev/dvb/

you should see something similar to:

   adapter0

if you see this all is well for now and we can test all the card functionality later once myth is setup

External Links

• Manufacturer's website

• setup instructions in Ubuntu 6.10

• mythtv guide for Ubuntu