Revision as of 20:35, 8 June 2008

Other openSUSE version

Introduction

• Best hardware support available today with kernel 2.6.25 - compared to openSUSE 10.3 (kernel 2.6.22) - what's new in 2.6.23, what's new in 2.6.24, what's new in 2.6.25
• Software installation (package management) is improved in openSUSE 11.0 and super fast. (libzypp)
• openSUSE 1-click install technology, packages or package bundles can be installed with 1 click (No need to compile)
  • mythTV packages are available as a bundle with 1-click install on pacman
  • restricted formats (proprietary, patented formats) like MP3, Codecs, encrypted DVD support etc. are available with 1-click install on opensuse-community
  • proprietary video drivers for both AMD/ATI and NVIDIA are available with 1-click install
  • additional packages for the advanced user are also available with one 1-click install from software.opensuse.org (e.g. lcd support)
• New and super fast installation, completing in roughly just 35 minutes (including mythTV software)
• Improved ACPI functionality for suspend and wake-up to reduce power consumption
• Good openSUSE, mythTV documentation and a friendly community ;-)

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SUSE Linux, one of the oldest Linux distributions, was originally developed by a German company. SuSE is an acronym in the German language for “Software und System-Entwicklung” which translates as software and system development.

The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. With the launch of the openSUSE project, openSUSE is now developed in an open model—public development builds, releases, and sources will be posted frequently and users will have access to the Bugzilla database for defect reporting.

For rich, reliable and secure home computing like mythTV, there's no better choice than openSUSE. It features an easy-to-install Linux operating system that includes most of the required mythTV components standard in the box. While the official mythTV documentation attempts to be as distribution-agnostic as possible, this document is geared specifically toward building a mythTV system on the openSUSE Linux distribution.

openSUSE, in combination with the PackMan (thanks Herbert Graeber for building the rpm's) repository, provides you with an easy installation and all the latest packages of the mythTV rpms, ivtv, lirc, xmltv, php, mysql, mplayer, xine and many more that are necessary for a fully functional mythTV box.

While mythTV can take quite some time to install, the result will be a fast box that can do nearly anything to entertain. Furthermore, the system is incredibly reliable, and if you leave it on, you can expect runtimes that last for years with little to no maintenance to be done (aside from updates if desired). We've also experienced that the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) for mythTV is enormous. As soon as you start playing with it, you need a second box because it becomes the most mission critical system in your house. I hope this document will help you in your quest for your ultimate mythbox. Remember this: "MythTV can be a time machine; hours can disappear for no reason at all."

Installing mythTV all starts with good hardware. The first requirement is a machine capable of running openSUSE x86 or x86-64 and that can be connected to the Internet. You will also need a decent audio card and a video card, a hard drive with as much storage space as you desire, as well as a TV tuner capable of performing hardware-level video encoding. Many people run mythTV without any problems on older hardware; however, if you are planning on doing anything with high definition video or complex transcoding jobs, you will need to have sufficient memory and processing power. Check this wiki and the mailinglist before you purchase any new hardware.

You might also find it useful to look at http://www.silentpcreview.com/ if you build a machine for your living room, in order to get advice on low power-consumption, low noise setups.

more

Subscribe to the mythTV users mailing list

mythTV user mailing list www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

mythTV user mailing list archive www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/

Chat with other mythTV users

IRC irc.freenode.net #mythtv-users

Initial system setup and considerations

For users new to Linux, the supported version of openSUSE may be the best choice—you'll get complete end-user documentation, installable media for x86 and x86 64-bit systems, plus 90 days of end-user installation support. Others just download openSUSE from one of the sources.

openSUSE ships with a number of different file systems, including ReiserFS, Ext2, Ext3 and XFS, from which to choose at installation time. Each file system has its own advantages and disadvantages that can make it more suited to a scenario. Professional high-performance setups may require a different choice of file system than a home user's setup.

Earlier versions of openSUSE used ReiserFS as the default filesystem. From openSUSE 10.3 and on, ext3 is the default file system.

Use ext3 as your default file system. Consider using XFS for your video data. XFS is very good at manipulating and deleting large files and performs well on high-end hardware.

Make sure you understand what hardware you have - especially if you have issues an need to Google.

lspci -v and lsusb and hwinfo

Install mythTV software on openSUSE

STEP (1 of 4) - repositories

Add the required software repositories

STEP (2 of 4) - multimedia

This will install the Restricted Multimedia Formats ranging from MP3 Codecs to playing Encrypted DVDs

Install Restricted Multimedia Formats for KDE users

Install Restricted Multimedia Formats for GNOME user

STEP (3 of 4) - requirements

Install the prerequisite packages with zypper by copying and pasting the following into a terminal (as root)

sudo zypper in alsa audit-libs dvb flac gcc ivtv ivtv-firmware kernel-source libao libdvdread3
sudo zypper in libid3tag lirc mjpegtools mysql php5 python xine-ui xmms fame libcdaudio libfame lame MPlayer
sudo zypper in phpMyAdmin pvm transcode xvid apache2 yast2-http-server apache2-mod_php5

STEP (4 of 4) - mythtv

This will install the mythTV packages for both frontend and backend from the packman repository.

Install mythTV from packman

Configure openSUSE

Adding a mythtv user

Create a mythtv user that you are gonna use to run the software.

sudo useradd mythtv -mG users,video,audio,cdrom
sudo passwd mythtv

YaST - user management - expert options - login settings - check autlogin

openSUSE 10.3 Manual - Managing users with YaST

Synchronize your system clock (NTP)

To get the correct start and stop times for programming, it's very important to setup NTP (Network Time Protocol). NTP is a protocol designed to synchronize the clocks of computers over a network.

1. Configure the NTP Client

YaST -> Network Services -> NTP Configuration

2. Ignore the warning when selecting Automatically start, there is no significant delay.

NTP daemon -> During Boot -> Check "Use Random Servers from pool.ntp.org"
Click Advanced Configuration -> Security Settings -> Check "Open Port in Firewall" -> Finish

Disable services

Disable some services you don't need

Firewall

A basic MythTV box should not have any problems running with the firewall turned on however you will probably save yourself a lot of headaches if you disable it completely. This is especially recommended for new users. If you do need to enable the firewall, you will at the very least want to enable SSH, Secure WWW (HTTPS) and WWW (HTTP) checkboxes to enable those services.

If you plan to run separate front end and back end servers you will need to allow those ports through on under "Other Ports". Add TCP ports 6543 and 6544 to allow the MythTV protocol access through the firewall, and TCP 3306 for mysql.

AppArmor

If you're not paranoid about security, I recommend to disable AppArmor on your machine.

Disable other services you don't need

Beagle search engine from the control centre

Audio setup

Most sound cards are automatically recognized by openSUSE and do not need any specific configuration. Most of the time, everything is auto detected during the installation and usually just works.

Remote Control (LIRC)

LIRC is the package that allows you to decode and send infra-red signals of many commonly used remote controls. openSUSE 10.3 ships with LIRC 0.8.2. To use LIRC, you need a configuration file for your remote control. A list of supported remote control is available on http://lirc.org/remotes/

If you can't find a configuration file for your remote control on the lirc page, it does not mean that your remote control is not supported but there is no configuration file for it yet. You don't have to be a developer to create a configuration file by using irxevent and mode2. More info about these LIRC programs can be found on http://lirc.org/html/programs.html

If you have created a new configuration file for a remote control, please send it to the LIRC team.

• /etc/sysconfig/lirc = Hardware config file

You must install the lirc kernel modules package that corresponds to your installed kernel.

sudo zypper in lirc-kmp-default

# uname -r
2.6.22.13-0.3-default

You must edit this file so that lirc knows which device to use. For example, if you have a PVR-150 make the following changes:

LIRCD_DRIVER="default"
LIRCD_DEVICE="/dev/lirc"
LIRC_MODULE=lirc_i2c

See PVR150 Remote for more information.

• /etc/lircd.conf = LIRC remote control configuration file that maps scancodes to logic functions (like value to play, poweroff, pause etc.)

• lircrc = Application specific mapping of the remote functions (play, poweroff etc) to the app specific functions for mythTV, mplayer and or Xine

Every application that you want to control with your remote (and has support for remote control) needs it's own lircrc configuration file.

The lircrc maps the keynames defined in lircd.conf (example: poweroff) to an application specific function (example: exit application). Make sure that the key names in lircrc should correspond with the same button names in lircd.conf.

• mythTV = /home/user/.mythtv/lircrc

• xine = /home/user/.xine/lircrc (TODO: check if this is correct)

• mplayer = /home/user/lircrc

ln -s ~/.mythtv/lircrc ~/lircrc

The LIRC deamon (lircd) is not started automatically by default after a reboot.

As root start 'yast2 runlevel', select lircd and make sure it's started at boot time.

The lirc deamon does not start without a configuration file. Please make sure your create the configuration file before you start lircd.

• Visit the http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes website and download a setup file for your remote.

• Copy/rename the file to /etc/lirc.conf.

• Start /etc/init.d/lirc deamon and try irw, irxevent, mode2

• TODO: howto get a sample ~/.mythtv/lircrc - google for a lircrc for your remote - try the mythtv remote control wiki pages

• there can be only one, make sure you have 1 lircrc file for mythtv. Create links to it.

• the ~/.mythtv directory is user specific and created in the users home directory when he starts mythfrontend for the first time and ask for an ip address of the backend. If you don't have a ~/.mythtv directory, start mythfrontend first. The directory is hidden, try ls -al.

example: /etc/lircd.conf

Play      0x00007be9

The lircrc is application specific, here your define that the 'Play' key is the same as function 'P' (P is by default Play in mythfrontend)

example: ~/.mythtv/lircrc

begin
    prog   = mythtv
    button = Play
    config = P
end

Integrated LCD or VFD panel (LCDProc)

• Install LCDproc and configure your device

LCDproc is not part of the openSUSE distribution, but a rpm is available:

- download LCDproc rpm from opensuse.org