Hello and thanks for choosing KnoppMyth.  This document will describe what KnoppMyth is and how to install it!  Please read the entire document before doing an install even if you've installed before.  Some changes have been made.  

Q. & A.

What is KnoppMyth?

• Short Answer: KnoppMyth is Knoppix optimized for MythTV.
• Long Answer: Our vision is a distribution that makes it trivial to setup a set-top box.
  We've included everything that  believe is needing to reach this goal.
  And, in fact, the developers use this distribution on their own PVR's.
  

What is Knoppix?

• See http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

What is MythTV?

• See http://mythtv.org/

Cool!   So does this run completely from the CD?

• No. You can use the CD as a frontend, but KnoppMyth must be installed to the hard drive.

Will it ever run completely from the CD?

• Maybe.

So what else is included?

• MPlayer, NFS, SAMBA, Webmin, and more!

Why isn't program X included?

• I only installed what I thought was needed. This doesn't mean you cannot install it yourself:
  # apt-get update
  # apt-get install <packageX>

Why should I use KnoppMyth instead of dristribution X?

• Ease of installation. KnoppMyth can be installed in as little as 10 minutes (depending upon your hardware speed) then all you have to wait for is the first week of TV scheduling to be downloaded.
  If all your hardware is supported under Linux, you may not have to edit any configuration files.

Can I hook my boxen up to a television?

• Yes, that is how I watch TV. ;-)

So this is Debian?

• Knoppix is based on Debian testing and unstable.
  

Installation

• In your BIOS, set the system to boot from CD.
• At the splashscreen press:
  • for no TV out:
      <ENTER>
  • with TV out:
      tv<ENTER>
    This will set your video adapter to a resolution of 800x600.
    Note: You'll still need to edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to change the refresh rate or you CAN destroy your TV.
• Once the CD boots, you see 6 options.
  1. Frontend
  2. Auto Install
  3. Auto Upgrade
  4. Manual Install
  5. Reboot
  6. Quit
  I'll now go into detail describing what the first four of these do (I won't bother with the last 2).

  Frontend

  This allows you to use the CD as a frontend if you have a MythTV backend setup.
  You can select this option by pressing <ENTER>. After providing the requested information, the CD will boot X and start mythfronted.
  Note: Using the CD as a frontend is dependant upon the backend being configured with MySQL listening on the network.
  If you are running KnoppMyth as your backend server, Then on the backend:
  • Edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf, comment out 'skip-networking'. The backend will only accept the mythtv user with a password of mythtv.
    Before:
    skip-networking
    After
    # skip-networking
    
  • Restart MySQL(as root)
    # /etc/init.d/mysql restart
    
  • Reconfigure MythTV (as the mythtv user)
    $ mythtv-setup
    On screen 1 change 127.0.0.1(both instances) to the actual IP of the backend server.
    <ESC> out of the myth-setup.
  End of backend section.

  Auto Install

  This will automatically perform a complete installation of KnoppMyth.  Just provide the requested information in the various dialogs and sit back!  Auto install will only work on /dev/hda.  That is an IDE drive on primary master.  After the system reboots it will start X and KnoppMyth will open an Xterm and ask for the root password.  See post installation.
  

Auto Upgrade

**NOTE**  You must have performed a backup for Auto Upgrade to work.  This will automatically upgrade KnoppMyth from an earlier version (R3 or R4).  Just provide the requested information in the various dialogs and sit back!  After the system reboots it will start X and KnoppMyth will open an Xterm and ask for the root password.  See post installation

Manual Install

Manual install is recommended only for advanced users.  Currently if you have an SATA drive, you must use           Manual Install.  You will see two options 1. Partition and 2. Quit, on a new drive or a drive with an invalid partition table.  If you see six options, KnoppMyth recognizes the partition table.  Either way, you must partition the drive.  Select partition and create 4 partitions using cfdisk.  The first will be /, the second swap, the third /cache and fourth /myth.  I recommend 2.5 gigs for /, swap should be 1.5 times memory, /cache is used for the live tvbuffer.  I'd recommend 3 to 10 gigs depending how your tuner card and hard drive size.  Use the rest of the drive for /myth.  Ensure /dev/xda1 is bootable, write the partition table and quit cfdisk.  Once the partitions have been created, press <CTRL><ALT><F2>.  mkswap /dev/xda2 && swapon /dev/xda2.  Format /dev/xda3 and xda4 with the desired filesystem type.  Once complete <CTRL><ALT><F1>  and return to the installation.

Note: During the making of partitions, you can choose any fstype you wish, ext2 is recommended for the live buffer (hda3) and ext3 for the data (hda4).
# mke2fs -O sparse_super -m0 -i8000000 -L cache -M /cache /dev/hda3
This should yield some performance increase on /cache (used for the ring buffer)
# mke2fs -j -O sparse_super -m0 -i8000000 -L myth -M /myth /dev/hda4
(I highly recommend a journalling fs for /dev/hda4).

You should now see six option.  Choose 4.  Load config.  You should now see /KNOPPIX/knoppmyth.  Press <ENTER>.  If you have an SATA drive, change this to /KNOPPIX/knoppmyth-sata and press <ENTER>.  Next, choose 1.  Configure Installation.  Provided the requested information.  Once back to the main menu, select 2.  Start installation.  Verify the information and sit back.  Once complete, reboot the system.  After the system reboots it will start X and KnoppMyth will open an Xterm and ask for the root password.  See post installation.

Post Installation

Configuration


• Provide the root password.
  
• Configure your system time and date.
• Configure IP address.

At this point, select which package you'd like to install i586 (Pentium class processors, K6, C3, etc.) or I686 (PentiumPro class processors, PentiumPro and above, Athlon and Duron).  The default is i586 which is compiled w/ LIRC.  If you have an i686 class processor, select i686 then LIRC.  If you have an nVidia based video adapter which supports XvMC don't select XvMC at this time.  KnoppMyth will install the appropriate packages and start mythtv-setup. 

If you performed an Auto Upgrade, mythtv-setup will not be ran.  The database will be restored and configuration files along with /home will be restored.  Once this is complete, you don't have to reboot.  mythtv-setup will now run to update the database schema (if the version installed is greater than the version that was updated), you can just exit mythtv-setup.

To configure MythTV, you must complete at least steps 1 thru 4.  For now, I'll just refer you to the MythTV docs:  http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-9.html.  Once setup is complete, the installation script will run mythfilldatabase.  Once this is complete, mythfrontend will start.  If you have an nVidia based video card, now is the point at which we recommend installing the drivers.

<CTRL><ALT><F1>
log in as rooot.
cd /usr/src
tar xjvf kernel<TAB>
install-nv<TAB>
This will install the drivers and restart GDM.

NOTE**
If you have an nForce chipset or any nVidia card, before running the command below, you may want to edit /etc/X11/XFConfig-4 and add
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"     # This is only if attaching to a TV.**
For more options, please see: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-6629/README.txt
A sample XF86Config-4 for nVidia w/ tv out is in /etc/X11/




FS layout

KnoppMyth uses the following filesystem layout:

TEXT

IMAGE

/cache/cache (for the ring buffer) /myth /backup (used to backup the database, /home and /etc, so upgrading between releases will be easy!) /gallery (for your photos) /game (for games) /nes (for Nintendo emulation) /roms (for roms) /screens (for screenshots) /pc (for "regular" computer games) /screens (for screenshots) /snes (for Super Nintendo emulation) /roms (for roms) /screens (for screenshots) /xmame (for xmame) the binary is in /usr/games/xmame /cabs (for cabinet photos) /flyers (for flyer photos) /hiscores (for Hi-Scores!) /history (for gameplay history) /roms (for your roms) /screens (for screenshots) /music /tv (where recorded programs are kept) /video (for various video formats) /motion (MPEGs created my Motion are stored here) /tmp (temp space used by MythDVD)




Added software packages

• IVTV: The open source drivers for Hauppauge PVR-250 and 350.  See ivtv.sf.net for more as well as wiki for more information.  See ivtv.sf.net for more as well as http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Jul-2003/msg00366.html for information on getting the TV out to work.
• LIRC: So you can use a remote! LIRC is compiled to support Hauppauge tuners/remotes. The configuration file in /etc/lircd.conf is for the Hauppauge gray remote. lircrc in /home/mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc is for the Hauppauge gray remote. For more information on LIRC, see lirc.org. Source is in /usr/src/.  If you have a remote other than the gray Hauppauge remote, you need to recompile LIRC for that remote.
• MPlayer: The movie player!  Compiled for run time CPU detection.
• NFS as been configured to export /myth.  It is however not set to start on boot.
• Samba as been configured to export /myth.  It is however not set to start on boot.

Tips and Hints

• If you have the system hooked up to a TV, then **ENSURE** that /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 contains:
  HorizSync "30 - 50"
  VertRefresh "60"
• If you have your box hooked up to a TV and, when it boots, you see a message saying Press <RETURN> to see modes...... You'll need to edit your lilo.conf At the top, it should say vga=<XXX>, change it to vga=normal Don't forget to lilo -v when you are done ;)
• If you have problems or questions please visit the forum.  Before asking, we ask that you search the forum as you issue may have been address already.  You can also search the MythTV archive and the IvyTV archive.
  

Enjoy!
      Cecil and Dale