October 2011 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] Question about dpkg

by Andy Stewart

On 10/27/2011 12:41 AM, Randall Mason wrote: > Sometimes it only compiles for the currently running kernel. Are you > running the old one outside of the chroot jail? When you are in the > chroot jail, and run uname -a, what do you get? > > Randall Mason > randall(a)mason.ch <mailto:randall@mason.ch> HI Randall, You've hit the nail on the head. That's exactly the problem. uname -a returns the running kernel, and that must be why the building of the modules (as part of the oss-linux package installation) is grabbing a kernel other than what I desire. Thanks for the help! Andy -- Andy Stewart (KB1OIQ) Founder: Worcester Linux Users' Group Founder: Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group President: PART of Westford, MA (WB1GOF)

Oct. 27, 2011

Question about dpkg

by Randall Mason

Sometimes it only compiles for the currently running kernel. Are you running the old one outside of the chroot jail? When you are in the chroot jail, and run uname -a, what do you get? Randall Mason randall(a)mason.ch On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 2:28 AM, Andy Stewart <andystewart(a)comcast.net>wrote: > works great for my needs (older computers and software insisting upon >

Oct. 27, 2011

Question about dpkg

by Andy Stewart

HI guys, I have a bunch of files in a chroot jail which are used to create my remastered Ubuntu CD with ham radio applications. I installed oss-linux from its .deb package downloaded directly from opensound.com. I did this because OSS worked with this package but not the packages in the Ubuntu repository. I have removed alsa, pulse audio, and any other non-OSS sound software I could find. The result works great for my needs (older computers and software insisting upon access to /dev/dsp). Now, here's the interesting issue. In that chroot jail, I upgraded the kernel from 2.6.38-11 to 2.6.38-12 via the Ubuntu repositories. Doing this somehow wiped out my installation of oss-linux-<ver>.deb, so I attempted to reinstall it via "dpkg -i oss-linux-<ver>.deb". The error that I received indicated that it wanted to see the kernel sources for 2.6.38-11 (the old kernel). I can't get it to look at the new kernel sources 2.6.38-12. There some crufty file laying around somewhere and I can't find it. I even tried "dpkg -r" (to remove it), and "dpkg --purge", both to no avail. Does anybody have any idea where I should look? Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart (KB1OIQ) Founder: Worcester Linux Users' Group Founder: Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group President: PART of Westford, MA (WB1GOF)

Oct. 26, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Artz <junk_inbox(a)verizon.net> writes: Jeff> I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached Jeff> via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use Jeff> the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the Jeff> recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-) >> >> Interesting, no RAID. Did you do this for ease of expansion, so you >> just add a new disk and Myth simply starts using it? And I assume you >> don't care if you lose 150+ programs at a go if a disk dies, right? Jeff> I ran a Raid5 of 6 500GB drives for a couple of years. But then Jeff> I had a drive that was starting to fail, so I had bought a Jeff> replacement, and had powered down my system to replace the bad Jeff> drive. Well, when I did that, a 2nd drive went DOA with the Jeff> 'click-of-death'. No amount of recovery attempts brought things Jeff> back to life, so there I was with 2.5TB of Raid5'd recordings Jeff> gone.... Ouch, not fun. I can understand your desire to limit your losses. I guess with drives being so cheap now, RAID6 would make alot of sense with more drives. Jeff> So I re-built using Individual drives and Storage Groups. Now Jeff> if I were to lose a drive or two, I only lose SOME of my Jeff> recordings, not everything. Can't really object. I'm amazed at how many shows my Tivo now holds with it's 1Tb drive. Way more than I'll ever watch... >> Of course I'm running on a Tivo Premiere with a single disk so I'm >> toast too if it dies. I need to crack my case one day and make a >> backup... Jeff> I used to 'backup' my DishPlayer 7200's back in the day... but Jeff> it's much easier with MythTV. ;-) Having to crack the case is a pain I admit. But I love thr TiVo remote, it's the best one I've ever found bar none. It really just does the trick. >> I'm also using a Cable Card and a Cisco interface box because Tivo >> doesn't support the latest two way cable card standard. And that >> Cisco box keeps crapping out randomly and requires a reboot. Better Jeff> So this is basically an 'external tuner' for the Tivo? Sounds Jeff> like it could be used to feed a tuner for MythTV too... Jeff> Yes/No/Maybe? Is it SD or HD? (Sounds like SD) We're running an HD signal, but displaying to an old JVC Tube TV which is still going strong. Might replace it this Xmas, might not. Basically, with HD channels now, they have a cable card standard that allows you to get a listing of all your channels, but it only streams the ones actually being used at the time down your local cable loop, to minimize the bandwith used. So the Cisco box talks to the head end and says "I want channel 54" and the head end replies with "Tune to frequency X.y.z" which is either already streaming that channel, or which has just been setup to do that channel for you. The Tivo unfortunately doesn't understand this protocol for some reason so I need this extra box. Sucks in alot of ways, but it's better than the old cable box I used to have. Jeff> I had also tried tuning Clear QAM on my FiOS cable, but didn't Jeff> get anything except locals and the SD "Government" cable Jeff> channels, which are of no interest to me. And I get the locals Jeff> loud & clear via a roof-mounted UHF antenna. I suspect that Fios does the same thing, but I don't know. >> channel switching speed/accuracy than using an IR blaster though for >> sure! Jeff> Yeah, IR Blasting is somewhat of a science... When I was using Jeff> IR blasting, I managed to get things tuned up well enough that I Jeff> almost never had a bad channel change. But maybe it's because I Jeff> used an oscillescope to 'tune' my scripts to be 'pefect'... The thing I didn't like about the IR blaster was that it's so one way. The Tivo would just assume that the cable box was on the wrong channel and change it no matter what. The new setup uses a USB connection, so the Tivo asks for a channel and the Cisco tunes very quickly to the new channel, or just stays where it is. No annoying flashes or preceptable delays. Now I have to admit my Tivo Premiere feels *slower* for some operations compared to my older Series 2 unit. And last night I had it hang hard on me for about 5 minutes before it suddenly came back to life and started changing channels again. I hope it's not a disk dying or something like that... I should really take the time to pull it and make a backup. John

Oct. 24, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by Justin St. Marie

On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Jeff Artz <junk_inbox(a)verizon.net> wrote: > >Jeff> I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached > >Jeff> via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use > >Jeff> the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the > >Jeff> recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-) > > > >Interesting, no RAID. Did you do this for ease of expansion, so you > >just add a new disk and Myth simply starts using it? And I assume you > >don't care if you lose 150+ programs at a go if a disk dies, right? > > I ran a Raid5 of 6 500GB drives for a couple of years. But then I had a > drive that was starting to fail, so I had bought a replacement, and had > powered down my system to replace the bad drive. Well, when I did that, a > 2nd drive went DOA with the 'click-of-death'. No amount of recovery > attempts brought things back to life, so there I was with 2.5TB of Raid5'd > recordings gone.... > >>Sorry for the top post. I would go with RAID 6 over 5 with 7 drives. > So I re-built using Individual drives and Storage Groups. Now if I were to > lose a drive or two, I only lose SOME of my recordings, not everything. > > >Of course I'm running on a Tivo Premiere with a single disk so I'm > >toast too if it dies. I need to crack my case one day and make a > >backup... > > I used to 'backup' my DishPlayer 7200's back in the day... but it's much > easier with MythTV. ;-) > > >I'm also using a Cable Card and a Cisco interface box because Tivo > >doesn't support the latest two way cable card standard. And that > >Cisco box keeps crapping out randomly and requires a reboot. Better > > So this is basically an 'external tuner' for the Tivo? Sounds like it > could > be used to feed a tuner for MythTV too... Yes/No/Maybe? Is it SD or HD? > (Sounds like SD) > > I had also tried tuning Clear QAM on my FiOS cable, but didn't get anything > except locals and the SD "Government" cable channels, which are of no > interest to me. And I get the locals loud & clear via a roof-mounted UHF > antenna. > > >channel switching speed/accuracy than using an IR blaster though for > >sure! > Yeah, IR Blasting is somewhat of a science... When I was using IR blasting, > I managed to get things tuned up well enough that I almost never had a bad > channel change. But maybe it's because I used an oscillescope to 'tune' my > scripts to be 'pefect'... > > > > >John > > Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Oct. 23, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by Justin St. Marie

If you've got 7 drives I would go with RAID 6 over 5. On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Jeff Artz <junk_inbox(a)verizon.net> wrote: > >Jeff> I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached > >Jeff> via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use > >Jeff> the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the > >Jeff> recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-) > > > >Interesting, no RAID. Did you do this for ease of expansion, so you > >just add a new disk and Myth simply starts using it? And I assume you > >don't care if you lose 150+ programs at a go if a disk dies, right? > > I ran a Raid5 of 6 500GB drives for a couple of years. But then I had a > drive that was starting to fail, so I had bought a replacement, and had > powered down my system to replace the bad drive. Well, when I did that, a > 2nd drive went DOA with the 'click-of-death'. No amount of recovery > attempts brought things back to life, so there I was with 2.5TB of Raid5'd > recordings gone.... > > So I re-built using Individual drives and Storage Groups. Now if I were to > lose a drive or two, I only lose SOME of my recordings, not everything. > > >Of course I'm running on a Tivo Premiere with a single disk so I'm > >toast too if it dies. I need to crack my case one day and make a > >backup... > > I used to 'backup' my DishPlayer 7200's back in the day... but it's much > easier with MythTV. ;-) > > >I'm also using a Cable Card and a Cisco interface box because Tivo > >doesn't support the latest two way cable card standard. And that > >Cisco box keeps crapping out randomly and requires a reboot. Better > > So this is basically an 'external tuner' for the Tivo? Sounds like it > could > be used to feed a tuner for MythTV too... Yes/No/Maybe? Is it SD or HD? > (Sounds like SD) > > I had also tried tuning Clear QAM on my FiOS cable, but didn't get anything > except locals and the SD "Government" cable channels, which are of no > interest to me. And I get the locals loud & clear via a roof-mounted UHF > antenna. > > >channel switching speed/accuracy than using an IR blaster though for > >sure! > Yeah, IR Blasting is somewhat of a science... When I was using IR blasting, > I managed to get things tuned up well enough that I almost never had a bad > channel change. But maybe it's because I used an oscillescope to 'tune' my > scripts to be 'pefect'... > > > > >John > > Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > -- Justin St. Marie RHCSA, Network+

Oct. 23, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by Jeff Artz

>Jeff> I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached >Jeff> via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use >Jeff> the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the >Jeff> recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-) > >Interesting, no RAID. Did you do this for ease of expansion, so you >just add a new disk and Myth simply starts using it? And I assume you >don't care if you lose 150+ programs at a go if a disk dies, right? I ran a Raid5 of 6 500GB drives for a couple of years. But then I had a drive that was starting to fail, so I had bought a replacement, and had powered down my system to replace the bad drive. Well, when I did that, a 2nd drive went DOA with the 'click-of-death'. No amount of recovery attempts brought things back to life, so there I was with 2.5TB of Raid5'd recordings gone.... So I re-built using Individual drives and Storage Groups. Now if I were to lose a drive or two, I only lose SOME of my recordings, not everything. >Of course I'm running on a Tivo Premiere with a single disk so I'm >toast too if it dies. I need to crack my case one day and make a >backup... I used to 'backup' my DishPlayer 7200's back in the day... but it's much easier with MythTV. ;-) >I'm also using a Cable Card and a Cisco interface box because Tivo >doesn't support the latest two way cable card standard. And that >Cisco box keeps crapping out randomly and requires a reboot. Better So this is basically an 'external tuner' for the Tivo? Sounds like it could be used to feed a tuner for MythTV too... Yes/No/Maybe? Is it SD or HD? (Sounds like SD) I had also tried tuning Clear QAM on my FiOS cable, but didn't get anything except locals and the SD "Government" cable channels, which are of no interest to me. And I get the locals loud & clear via a roof-mounted UHF antenna. >channel switching speed/accuracy than using an IR blaster though for >sure! Yeah, IR Blasting is somewhat of a science... When I was using IR blasting, I managed to get things tuned up well enough that I almost never had a bad channel change. But maybe it's because I used an oscillescope to 'tune' my scripts to be 'pefect'... > >John Jeff

Oct. 22, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by John Stoffel

Jeff> I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached Jeff> via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use Jeff> the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the Jeff> recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-) Interesting, no RAID. Did you do this for ease of expansion, so you just add a new disk and Myth simply starts using it? And I assume you don't care if you lose 150+ programs at a go if a disk dies, right? Of course I'm running on a Tivo Premiere with a single disk so I'm toast too if it dies. I need to crack my case one day and make a backup... I'm also using a Cable Card and a Cisco interface box because Tivo doesn't support the latest two way cable card standard. And that Cisco box keeps crapping out randomly and requires a reboot. Better channel switching speed/accuracy than using an IR blaster though for sure! John

Oct. 22, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by Jeff Artz

>On Thursday, October 20, 2011 06:11:29 PM Jeff Artz wrote: >> >> Then about a year ago I switched to FiOS HD. So I now have two HD STB's >> from Verizon, feeding Hauppauge HD-PVR encoders (Component Video IN, USB >> Out >> [H.264 encoded]). I use Firewire for channel changes on the FiOS boxes. >> >Can you explain this setup more clearly? You are running USB out from the >FIOS >STB into a PVR card? I also have FIOS, i just run the coax out from the STB >a >PVR/HVR card. I also use firewire for changing channels. I used to have >comcast, but switched to FIOS and i was impressed with the number of ports >in >on the FIOS STB (comcast STB only had coax in/out and IR, nothing else). i >was >very happy to see firewire with FIOS, much easier than IR. > Gladly! In-between each STB and my Myth box is a Hauppauge HD-PVR box. This unit takes Analog Component Video (HD) and Digital Audio (Optical) from the STB, and encodes it to H.264 on the fly. It connects to your computer via USB. (You'd need one for each HD STB you want to record from -- I have two.) ;-) When I bought mine, they were about $220 each - looks like they haven't really come down much as the 'street' price seems to be around $200 each now. Here's a link to the MythTV Wiki for the HD_PVR: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/HD-PVR And here's a link to Hauppauge's page for the HD-PVR: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html >> For HD, the only current option is to feed Component Video from a STB >> into >> an Hauppauge HD-PVR. >> >Just curious, do you notice any small glitches in the audio and video in HD >recordings (or live TV)? Every so often spot glitches in the audio and >video >on HD, it's a bit annoying, sometimes it even crashes mythtv (or X). > I haven't noticed any artifacts of the H.263 encoding coming out of the HD-PVRs - but maybe that's because I run it at the highest bitrate (13.5Mbps). I do that because even at that rate, the files are only about 6GB/hr. >also curious to know what distro you used for the base install, mythbuntu, >fedora, etc ? I cut my teeth on Jarod Wilson's "MythTV on Fedora" guide a zillion years ago, and have stuck with it over the years. ;-) My backend is currently FC 13, and my frontends are running various versions, from FC 11 to FC 14... I compile from source - I'm running 0.24-fixes now, anxiously awaiting the release of 0.25 ;-) >> Oh, and you'll need a bit of disk space too! OTA HD broadcasts are >> 5-7GB/hour, and the HD-PVR's h.264 output is about the same size [maxed >> out >> at 13Mbps max rate]. I currently have 6.5TB of space on my backend - a >> bit >> overkill-- as I have over 1,000 programs recorded at any given time... >> ;-) >> >Yikes! Hehehe... My first 'production' backend was just a 18GB SCSI system/DB disk, and a pair of 50GB SCSI drives for Video... ;-) My current backend has a 60GB SSD for OS & DB, and 6.5TB of disks for Recordings and 500GB for 'Videos' - I've currently got 277 movies in my Video archive. ;-) >> Note that MythTV is *not* the cheapest, nor the *easiest* to setup and >> configure - actually, I'd consider it more of a 'hobby' and requires >> occasional 'care & feeding'... But the flexibility that it gives you far >> exceeds any other offerings -- Like commercial detection and >> auto-skipping >> them during playback - just to name one! >> >Agreed. This is very well said. > > Hehehe, thanks. ;-) I originally setup MythTV as I was using Dish Network and had two DishPlayer 7200 DVR's - one with the 'stock' 8GB drive (~6 hrs), and another with a 120GB drive (~100 hrs). They worked great, but you could only watch things on the actual unit you recorded it on... So I setup MythTV, and 3 frontends, and then I could watch anything on any TV, and had more disk space too... (eventually!) >- brad PS: My IRC nic is J-e-f-f-A and I'm on #mythtv-users pretty often... I run a proxy on my backend, so even if I'm not 'active', I'll see any message that my nic is mentioned in. ;-) Jeff

Oct. 22, 2011

Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info?

by Jeff Artz

Tim, I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-) Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: Tim Keller To: Worcester Linux Users Group Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 11:35 AM Subject: Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info? A 1,000 programs? Damn! So basically you've got entire seasons of shows cached up ready to watch? How do you have your disk space configured? Are you using a NAS or is it JBOD? On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 6:11 PM, Jeff Artz <junk_inbox(a)verizon.net> wrote: I know I'm chiming in very late... But I've been using MythTV for about 7 years now and one of the previous replies isn't -entirely- true... Although it is true that you can't just plop a satellite receiver card in your computer and pull in Sat TV directly to your computer [due to the encryption], you *can* use Sat tv with MythTV by using the company's STB to feed an analog tuner on your computer. I started out doing this exact thing - although with Dish Network - with MythTV in 2004. I fed the S-Video and Sterio audio from the receivers into Hauppauge tuners, and used IR blasters to change channels on the STBs. I ran with that configuration for the first 6 years or so! Then about a year ago I switched to FiOS HD. So I now have two HD STB's from Verizon, feeding Hauppauge HD-PVR encoders (Component Video IN, USB Out [H.264 encoded]). I use Firewire for channel changes on the FiOS boxes. I also have two Dual-tuner HD-HomeRun tuners for OTA HD [ATSC]. So you *CAN* use MythTV with Satellite TV, but you need to use their STB (Set-Top-Box), and feed the output from that into a capture device to record with MythTV. For SD (Standard Definition), the best picture quality/easiest setup is feeding S-Video and Analog audio into a Hauppauge PVR tuner (PVR-150, 250, 350 or 500) (500 is a dual-tuner). For HD, the only current option is to feed Component Video from a STB into an Hauppauge HD-PVR. Oh, and you'll need a bit of disk space too! OTA HD broadcasts are 5-7GB/hour, and the HD-PVR's h.264 output is about the same size [maxed out at 13Mbps max rate]. I currently have 6.5TB of space on my backend - a bit overkill-- as I have over 1,000 programs recorded at any given time... ;-) Note that MythTV is *not* the cheapest, nor the *easiest* to setup and configure - actually, I'd consider it more of a 'hobby' and requires occasional 'care & feeding'... But the flexibility that it gives you far exceeds any other offerings -- Like commercial detection and auto-skipping them during playback - just to name one! Jeff Artz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Clint Moyer" <cdmoyer(a)charter.net> To: "Worcester Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 6:25 PM Subject: Re: [Wlug] Myth Box Resources and HD DVR Info? You're not going to get Myth or any HTPC to work with DirecTV because there are no tuner cards that can unscramble the signal. Satellite TV requires a receiver from the vendor. We dropped DirecTV for over-the-air and TiVo and saved nearly $100/mo in the process. If you choose OTA, you'll want to consider the money and time investment for at least two PCs for Myth. TiVo will allow you to view recordings among all receivers on your LAN. Of course, there's a monthly fee for each TiVo... On Sep 15, 2011, at 11:07 AM, joel d <joelgroup(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I am re-working our TV to HDTV currently and trying to decide on a DVR. > Currently I use Charter's DVR and not impressed with their DVR > layout/features. > > Currently I am looking at either the DirectTV whole house DVR option > or building a Myth DVR box(s). > > Not sure I want to bite off the Myth though due to needing 2 machines, > tuner card, and chunks of my time (vs turnkey for an "appliance"). > > I have read the docs at MythTV website but am asking current Myth users: > > 1) Others are running for Myth hardware (front and back end specs) > > 2) Any estimates on install startup hours and monthly maintenance hours. > > 3) Any tips for a quick & smooth Myth install in late 2011 > > My current plans include a video source of HD via satellite from Dish > or DirectTV and am leaning towards a Samsung 55" LCD/LED set. > > I got the impression around three years ago that Myth was a "techie > time intensive" thing to setup and run. > I could be all wet on that impression or it may have changed. > > Thank you, > > Joel > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 22, 2011