Slackware/MythTV How-To and IVTV Driver Info

[Anonymous]

First, i'm posting a link to the Slackware Linux and MythTV HOW-TO that i've been working on.  It still needs some work, but hopefully it will benefit someone.  First it gives an overview on installing Slackware linux in preparation for MythTV.  Then it walks you thorugh installing and setting up MythTV and its components.  Its written for PVR-250 and PVR-350 users.  I'm not a linux guru, so there are probably things in there that would make die hard linux users cringe, but it should help people that are new to linux as well as new to mythTV.  Afterall the diehard linux fans shouldn't need the guide.  Anyway, here's the link:

http://home.comcast.net/~homebrewracing/Mythtv.txt

Also i have some links to modified IVTV drivers for PVR-350 users so that the tv-out is more stable when displaying the MythTV OSD.  These versions of the modified drivers by Chris Kennedy have worked good for me.  I can't guarentee they'll work for everyone, but they seem to fix problems for me that were common amonst PVR-350 users.  

 http://kmos.org/~ckennedy/ivtv/ivtv-0.1.10-pre2-ck63p.tgz
I've been using this one up until today.  Worked great, instead if freezing occasionally during FFWD's and REW's the screen goes green for a second tthen returns.  Not ideal,  I realize, but a great improvement.  No more lock ups.  

 http://kmos.org/~ckennedy/ivtv/ivtv-0.1.10-pre2-ck69l.tgz
This one i downloaded today to try based on my readings.  Has worked good so far, but i'd say give me few more days to test it.  

I'm not an expert regarding how these drivers work or which ones work the best, i'm just giving my experience with them.  It seems to me that each number series, for instance 70, are relatively the same with slight changes.  Major changes to the driver normally occur on a new number.  Therefore, all of the 70's should perform very similar, ie if 70f locks up for you, they all probably will.  Again, i dont know if that is fact or not, just seems to be a pattern in my limited experience.  With this in mind, i had freezing problems with 70j, so i wouldn't recommend trying any of the ck70? drivers.  Also, just because the driver is newer with a higher number, doesn't mean its better.  Thats why i'm working with 69l right now instead of say 75a.  The guy working on it makes various changes, some work, some don't.   I try to follow the threads on the IVTV mailing list as best i can to make decisions on which version to try next.  You can follow the threads here:

 http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/current/threads.html


You can find all of Chris Kennedy's IVTV driver versions here:

 http://kmos.org/~ckennedy/ivtv/


Again i'm no expert on any of the subjects mentioned.  Just trying to help others out with the experience i've had so far.   Hopefully someone will benefit from this.

-Kevin

[Homebrew]

Doh i forgot to login again. Anywho, that was me.

-Kevin

[rampy]

Doh i forgot to login again. Anywho, that was me.

-Kevin

GJ Kevin/homebrew... appreciate you taking the time/effort to document your steps along the way and willingness to share info re: ivtv driver revisions..

Is it ok if I "mirror" a copy of the how to locally here?

rampy

[Anonymous]

yeah thats fine rampy.  Sorry i didn't reply earlier.  I must have forgot to checkthe box for email notificaiton of replies.  Hopefully it will benefit someone.  After school lets out, i'll put some finishing touches on it.  May take a little time though, i've had so many projects on hold i'd like to catch up on.

-Kevin

[rampy]

yeah thats fine rampy.  Sorry i didn't reply earlier.  I must have forgot to checkthe box for email notificaiton of replies.  Hopefully it will benefit someone.  After school lets out, i'll put some finishing touches on it.  May take a little time though, i've had so many projects on hold i'd like to catch up on.

-Kevin

Oh no prob... Well I posted a copy here
...  after spending some time looking at it more thoroughly (trying to format it -- i'll be hyperlinking some stuff later) I must say you must have worked very hard  :casstet:  at making the document (and getting mythtv to work on your distro/box) :P  

Thanks again for taking the time to do it.  I realize it takes a lot of effort and commitment to contributeto teh community to put that together.  I don't think I realized when I first skimmed it, how long and detailed/involved it was =)

once again, good job...

rampy

[Homebrew]

Thanx.  I tried to include any information i could find that may be relevant.  Eventually i'll add some troubleshooting info to it. I'll also clean up the bit about installing linux.  My goal is to make it so someone with no linux experience can get MythTV setup and running.  Hopefully it will make it to that point.

-Kevin

[zonen]

Well I saw this site and figured I'd give it a shot.  Here is my problem, I installed the mythtv package and got it running but I am having a problem running mythfilldatabase and mythbackend.  Keeps telling me I might need to change my master ip settings to get the backend running correctly.  my comp is behind a linksys router, not sure if that makes a difference.  Any help would be great. 

[bouchecl]

Well I saw this site and figured I'd give it a shot.  Here is my problem, I installed the mythtv package and got it running but I am having a problem running mythfilldatabase and mythbackend.  Keeps telling me I might need to change my master ip settings to get the backend running correctly.  my comp is behind a linksys router, not sure if that makes a difference.  Any help would be great. 

Have you run myhtvsetup before running mythfilldatabase?

Make sure of two things. Your computer running the master backend server should have a fixed address (not DHCP). Then when you run mythtvsetup,  set the IP address to the fixed ip address of you gave your computer. Do not set it to 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1'.  For instance zeus, my myth box, is  192.168.1.40 (I'm behind a Linksys NAT box too).

Hope it helps.