(NOTE: There are some Wiki markup language issues and a few other items that need to be included on this page. STILL IN PROGRESS)
A) Pretty much followed the procedure for installing, just taking
all the obvious or default values, and ignoring anythingxe that seems to complicate the installation.
B) During the installation process there will be an
option configure the backend. This seems to be pretty much worthless at this time, and it is more effective to take care of this after the new installation is booted.
C) I recommend after booting the new installation
to immediately back up the original version and then edit
/etc/apt/sources.list
copy all the lines originally in this file to below, and change these copies from
....
http://archive[12].....
....
to
....
http://us.archive[13].....
....
This should approximately double the number of lines in the file, the originals, and the modified. Then do an
sudo aptitude update
from the command line (or possibly the equivalent from the GUI 'synaptic' tool. ) This will give access to the USA ubuntu archives as well as the defaults, making the .deb package system more robust.
D) Click Applications / Mythbuntu Administration / Drivers
and install the Proprietary NVidia video card drivers. See below for more detail on this.
E) You can make a quick check that the Hauppauge capture card
is working correctly, that the drivers are installed etc. with VLC. Click Applications / Multimedia / VLC Then from the VLC control panel select Open / Open PVR and towards the bottom of the interface there is a place to enter an extensive specs for VLC to run. Enter:
pvr:/dev/video0:channel=0:norm=ntsc:size=640x480:frequency=561250
And hit enter. This should tune in channel 28 / KCET if you are in the Los Angles, CA, USA area. You can adjust the norm and frequency as needed if you are not, using broadcast frequency information from Wikipedia if needed.
F) When configuring the Backend of MythTV,
(click Applications / MythTV Backend Setup) in general march through the menu of choices, and for basic setup mostly take the defaults presented. There seem to be 2 main points just to get interaction with the capture card working properly:
For 'Capture Card Setup', with a Hauppauge PVR...,
make sure it is not the default 'Analog V4L capture card',
but select 'MPEG-2 encoder card (PVR-x50, PVR-500. )'
or you will never pick up any TV broadcasts.
(You will get a black screen. ) scan for available channels.
See below for more detail needed on this.
You know this is being done when a popup shows
progress on scanning for the available channels.If this process is understood, the last two points above will be easier to setup on your own. Details on them may be added to this or some other page on this site in the future.
1. Boot the mythbuntu CD
2. Select English (or appropriate language)
3. Select "f6" and pick all options ("acpi=off", "noapic" and "nolapic")
with the up, down and return keys, then press the escape key.
4. Select Mythbuntu live environment
5. Select (double click) from the desktop the 'Install Mythbuntu' icon
6. When the 'Welcome' panel comes up, leave the default 'English' selected
unless you want another language. (note that it specifies 15 steps)
7. Click on forward.
8. When the 'Where Are You' panel comes up select "Los Angeles"
(or what ever is appropriate) with the mouse.
9. Click on forward.
10. When the "Keyboard layout" panel comes up, leave the 'USA'
country and default layout as they show up.
11. Click on forward.
12. Ignore the "Starting Up the Partitioner" popup.
13. When the "Prepare disk space" panel comes up I selected
'Guided - use entire disk' You may need to make some other
choice if you plan to dual boot the computer.14. Click on forward.
15. Fill in appropriate information on the "Who Are You" panel.
16. Click on forward.
17. When the "Advanced Installation Type" comes up, leave the default
"Standard Installation" selected.
18. Click on forward.
19. When the "Infrared Remotes and Transmitters" panel comes up, select
a) "Enable a Remote Control"
b) For "Remote: " select "Hauppauge TV card"
c) Leave "Generate Dynamic Button Mappings" selected if it is automaticly set.20. Click on forward.
21. Ignore the "Additional Drivers/Firmware" panel.
22. Click on forward.
23. Look over the "Ready to Install" panel.
24. Click on "Install".
25. Wait while the installation process proceeds, with progress bar displays
26. Ignore the "Configure Guide Data/Backend" panel.
27. Click on "Finish".
28. When the "Installation complete" popup appears click on "Restart now".
29. Remove and store the installation disk.
30. Close the CD tray.
31. Press the "Enter/Return" key to proceed with the reboot.
1. from the MythTV GUI menu, press the 'escape' key, usually in the upper left hand corner of the keyboard.
2. To the "Could not connect to the master backend server--
is it running? Is the IP address set for it in the setup program correct?" popup, press enter/return (OK)
3. Myth question 'Do you really want to exit MythTV?' arrow down to
'Yes, Exit now' and press enter/return
4. Mouse click on the 'Applications' from the task bar at the top of the screen .
5. From the Applications menu mouse select 'System'
6. From the 'System' menu mouse select 'Hardware drivers'
7. When prompted for the administrative password enter the password
you selected, press the tab key twice, and press the enter/return key.
8. From the resulting 'Hardware Drivers' panel mouse click on the box below
'Enable' for the 'NVIDIA acclerated graphic driver'
9. From the resulting 'Enable driver?' panel, with a message about
'NVIDIA acclerated graphic driver', mouse click on enable.
10. Wait while the 'Downloading package files' panel displays a progress
bar graph.
11. When a 'Changes applied' popup appears, mouse click on close.
12. When the 'Changes applied' popup vanishes, mouse click on close
for the 'Hardware Drivers' panel.
13. If you decide you really wanted to use the computer in question for a desktop instead of a media server, you will want to perform the following steps to install Firefox plugins. These steps are based on http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2008/04/things-to-do-on-your-new-ubuntu-804. html[14], the first results from doing a search on http://www.google.com/linux[15] for 'ubuntu 8.04 java plugin'.
14. If you want to use the command line method to install these plugins:
a. Left mouse click on 'Applications' in the upper left hand corner
of the screen.
b. Select (CHAIN OF GUI STEPS GETTING TO A TERMINAL WINDOW TO BE FILLED IN) c. At the command prompt enter
#sudo aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree \
libflashsupport sun-java6-{fonts,jre,plugin}
d. If prompted, enter your administrative password.
e. Wait for the installation to complete.
f. Exit the terminal window.15. If you want to use the Synaptic GUI tool to install these plugins:
a. Left mouse click on 'Applications' in the upper left hand corner
of the screen.
b. Select 'System'.
c. From the 'System' menu left mouse click on 'Synaptic'.
d. If prompted by a popup form, enter your administrative password.
e. For each of the packages flashplugin-nonfree libflashsupport
sun-java6-fonts, sun-java6-jre, sun-java6-plugin,
repeat the following steps:right of 'Search:'.
install, left mouse click on the square to the left of it's name.
package, left mouse click on 'Mark for installation'.
f. When you have completed the list of plugin packages to install,
left mouse click on the the green check shaped 'Apply' icon.
g. Wait for the packages to complete installation. h. When the packages have completed installation, left mouse click
on 'File' in the upper left hand corner of the Syaptic Package Manager GUI frame.
i. Left mouse click on 'Quit' to close the Synaptic package management tool.
16. Left mouse click on the 'Applications' item in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
17. Left mouse click on 'Network'.
18. Left mouse click on 'Firefox Web Browser'
19. With Firefox go to the WWW web page http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome[16] and verify that Adobe Flash is working properly by following the instructions on the page.
20. With Firefox go to the WWW web page http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml[17] and verify that Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is working properly by following the instructions on the page.
21. Mouse click on the 'Applications' from the task bar at the top of
the screen.
22. From the Applications menu mouse select 'System'
23. From the 'System' menu mouse select 'MythTV Backend Setup'
24. A 'MythTV Setup Preperation' popup will appear.
25. Mouse click on 'OK' to approve closing any running MythTV backend process.
26. From the backend configuration menu, with
'1. General' highlighted, press enter/return.
27. From the resulting 'Host Address Backend Setup' panel
accept the defaults by pressing enter/return with 'Next>' highlighted.
28. From the 'Local Settings', for USA and no cable, make sure that
'TV format:' is indicated to be 'NTSC' and that 'Channel frequency table:'
is indicatted to be 'us-bcast'. In the Los Angeles, CA area these
should be the defaults.29. With 'Next>' highlighted, accept these values by pressing the
enter/return key.
30. On the 'Miscellaneous Settings' panel accept the defaults by
pressing the enter/return key with 'Next>' indicated by highlighting.
31. For the 'EIT Scanner Options' panel accept the defaults by
pressing enter/return with 'Next>' highlighted.
32. For the 'Shutdown/Wakeup Options' panel accept the defaults by
pressing enter/return with 'Next>' highlighted.
33. For the 'Backend Wakeup Settings' panel accept the defaults by
pressing enter/return with 'Next>' highlighted.
34. For the 'Job Queue (Backend-Specific)' panel accept the
defaults by pressing enter/return with 'Next>' highlighted.
35. For the 'Job Queue (Global)' panel accept the defaults by
pressing enter/return with 'Next>' highlighted.
36. For the 'Job Queue (Job Commands)' panel accept the defaults by
pressing enter/return with 'Finish' highlighted.
37. At this point backend configuration should return to the main menu.
38. Arrow down highlighting to '2. Capture cards' and
press the enter/return key.
39. On the 'Capture cards' panel, with '(New capture card)'
hightlighted, press the enter/return key, to configure
MythTV to use the Hauppauge card.40. On the resulting 'Capture Card Setup' panel, arrow down
until the 'Card type:' entry field is highlighted.
It typically will display 'Analog V4L capture card' by default.41. Right arrow, typically a couple of times, until the 'Card type:'
entry fields says 'MPEG-2 encoder card (PVR-x50, PVR-500)'
*This is one of the most important steps*42. Down arrow until 'Finish' is highlighted, and finish by
pressing the enter/return key.
43. Backend configuration should now return to the 'Capture cards'
panel, with it now displaying at the bottom of the selections:
'[MPEG:/dev/video0]'44. Press the escape key (usually in the upper left corner of the
keyboard) to return to the main backend configuration menu.
45. You should now be at the main backend configuration menu.
46. Down arrow until '3. Video souces' is selected by highlighting
of a graphic next to it.
47. Select it by pressing enter/return.
48. From the 'Video Souces' panel, make sure that '(New video source)'
is highlighted, and press the enter/return key.
49. From the 'Video source setup' panel, if you are not using any schedule source, down arrow until the selection field for 'Listings grabber:' is highlighted. Typically, this will initially say 'North America (ScheculesDirect.org) ....'
50. Right arrow, until the 'Listings grabber:' selection field says 'No grabber'.
51. Down arrow until 'Finish' is highlighted.
52. Press the enter/return key to return to the 'Video sources' panel.
53. Return to the main backend configuration screen by pressing the escape key. (Again, typically the key in the upper left of the keyboard.)
54. Verify that you are in the main backend configuration screen.
55. Down arrow to highlight the graphic beside '4. Input connections'.
56. Select '4. Input connections' by pressing the enter/return key.
57. From the 'Input connections' screen make sure that '[MPEG:/dev/video0] (Tuner 1)->(None)' is highlighted. If it is not, down/up arrow until it is.
58. Press the enter/return key.
59. On the resulting 'Connect source to input' screen, verify that 'Tuner 1' is displayed.
60. Arrow down until the input field for 'Display Name (optional):' is highlighted.
61. Enter something to indentify this mode for screen display when changing modes while watching TV. I suggest 'Tuner Input'.
62. Down arrow until the selection field for 'Video source:' is highlighted. It might display '(None)' by default.
63. Right arrow until the selection field for 'Video source:' is blank.
64. Down arrow until 'Scan for channels' is highlighted.
65. Start setting up for scanning for channels by pressing enter/return.
66. Verify that the 'Scan Configuration' screen displays 'Input: [MPEG:/dev/video0] (Tuner 1)', 'Scan Type: Full Scan', and 'Channel frequency table: us-bcast'
67. Make sure that 'Next>' is highlighted.
68. Press the return/enter key.
69. Wait while the 'Scan Progress' popup displays information on the scan.
*This is one of the most im,portant steps.
70. When the popup vanishes, you should be at a 'Scanning' screen. Down arrow until 'Finish' is highlighted.
71. Press the enter/return key.
72. You should now be returned to the 'Connect source to input' screen. Down arrow until 'Next>' is highlighted.
73. Press the enter/return key.
74. Accept the defaults for the 'Interactions between inputs' screen by making sure 'Finish' is highlighted, and pressing the enter/return key.
75. Verify that you are returned to the 'Input connections' screen. '[MPEG:/dev/video0](Tuner 1)->' should no longer display '(None)' alongside it.
76. Down arrow until '{MPEG:/dev/video0](S-Video 1)->(None)' is highlighted.
77. Select this configuration step by pressing the enter/return key.
78. Down arrow until the entry field alongside 'Display Name (optional):' is highlighted.
79. Type in what you want displayed while watching TV to indicate that you have changed to watching whatever is on the S-Video input to the capture card. I suggest 'S-Video Input'.
80. Down arrow until the selection field for 'Video source:' is highlighted.
81. Right arrow until this selection field is blank.
82. Down Arrow until 'Next>' is highlighted.
83. Move to the next step by pressing the enter/return key.
84. Accept the defaults on the 'Interactions between inputs' screen by making sure 'Finish' is highlighted and pressing the enter/return key.
85. Verify that you have returned to the 'Input connections' screen, and that the area alongside '[MPEG:/dev/video0](S-Video 1)->' is blank.
86. Down arrow until '[MPEG:/dev/video0]](Composite 1)->(None)' is highlighted.
87. Start configuring composite input connections by pressing the enter/return key.
88. Down arrow until the text entry field alongside 'Display Name (optional):' is highlighted.
89. Enter the message you want displayed to indicate that MythTV is now watching whatever is coming in on the composite input to your capture card/device. I suggest 'Composite Input'.
90. Arrow down until the selection field for 'Video source:' is highlighted. By default, it usually displays '(None)'.
91. Right arrow until this selection field is blank.
92. Down arrow until 'Next>' is highlighted.
93. Move to the next step by pressing the enter/return key.
94. Accept the defaults for the 'Interactions between inputs' screen by making sure that 'Finish' is highlighted, and pressing the enter/return key.
95. Verify that you have returned to the 'Input connections' screen, and that the area beside '[MPEG:/dev/video0] (Composite 1)->' is blank.
96. Return to the MythTV backend configuration main menu by pressing the escape key that is usually in the uppaer left corner of the keyboard.
97. Accept this level of configuration by pressing the escape key again.
98. When notified that "If this is the master backend server, please run 'mythfilldatabase' to populate the database with channel information.', press the enter/return key.
99. When a popup appears asking for your current login password to start mythtv-backend, enter the password.
100. Mouse click on 'OK'.
101. When asked if you would like to run mythfilldatabase, mouse click on 'OK'.
102. Mouse select 'Applications' from the task bar at the top of the screen.
103. From the 'Applications' menu select 'Quit' by mouse clicking.
104. From the button panel, mouse click on 'Restart'. This is to allow the proprietary NVIDIA driver to take effect.
When the system finishes rebooting, you should be able to simply select 'Watch TV' to do so!
1. From the initial MythTV menu screen arrow down till the graphic beside 'Utilities/Setup' is highlighted.
2. Press the enter/return key.
3. Arrow down till the graphic next to 'Setup' is highlighted.
4. Press the enter/return key.
5. Arrow down till the graphic next to 'Info Center Settings' is highlighted.
6. Press the enter/return key.
7. Arrow down till the graphic next to 'Web Settings' is highlighted.
8. Press the enter/return key.
9. Verify that you are on a screen with a top heading of 'MythBrowser Bookmarks Settings'.
10. Arrow down till 'New Bookmark' is highlighted.
11. Press the enter/return key.
12. In the 'Add New Website' popup, enter either an old or new 'Group' to associate the bookmark with.
13. Tab to the text entry field beneath 'Description:'.
14. Type in a description for the bookmark.
13. Tab to the text entry field beneath 'URL:'.
14. Type in the URL for the bookmark.
15. Tab to the 'Ok' button.
16. Press the enter/return key.
17. Repeat steps 10 to 16 as needed to enter the desired bookmarks.
18. Arrow down till the 'Finish' button is highlighted.
19. Press the enter/return key.
20. Press the escape key three (3) times.
21. Verify that you have returned to the 'Mythbuntu' MythTV main menu.
22. Resume use of MythTV
(Make sure it does not end abruptly at a heading!)