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remix
l33t
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Posts: 797
Location: hawaii
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 Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:12 am Post subject: Gentoo as a media center |
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does any of you here use gentoo as a media center?
please post a description about it, what you are running, any special modifications for certain things like
-boot faster
-special input devices (ir remote, gamepad, etc)
-which wm/de
-autoplaying/automounting cds
-applications installed
-application launcher
thanks...
i'm in love with gentoo (3 years and going strong), and i'd hate to switch to anything else.\
but right now i'm using a p4(133)/nvidia 64mb agp system running geexbox as my media pc, i don't believe in paying more for cable when there are so many free streaming resources on the net already 
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belrpr
Guru
Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 440
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:42 am Post subject: |
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On the moment I am creating my mythtv.
To boot faster I am looking in einit
http://einit.sourceforge.net/
I've read some wonderfull things about it but it is still in beta. But I will only use this for my frontend so no problem.
You can mod your bios to boot faster but that is dangerous. For the rest I use a ms remote which works perfect with lirc. |
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pdr
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Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Posts: 618
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:15 am Post subject: |
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I have audio and video files on server, "stream" with nfs. Front end is my normal workstation with fluxbox. Haven't organized the audio yet. Video is well organized using filesystem directories, and I have scripts to update my flux menu and when I play a video it gets "marked" or "unmarked" in the menus. Since I built the new-ish workstation haven't set up my ATI Remote (has kernel support) yet - don't really need it much, just use mouse/keyboard. By far the most work I've put in is in the video system.
Have a Dvico usb hdtv device but am waiting for Heroes to restart 23APR to work out a recording/transcoding system (1080i hdtv recordings are HUGE! - plus, my projector is native 720p so no sense storing higher resolution). |
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VoVaN
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Joined: 02 Jul 2003
Posts: 688
Location: The Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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| For anybody interested in a quick boot, I would recommend using squashfs for everything and use initramfs for root. I'm using diskless PC for playing media and I would say nothing improves boot time that much as squashfs. Even using diskless PC with full bloated KDE with squashfs over AoE looks the same as everything would be local on the HDD. Of course you can invent einit, but in this case I would prefer just using something like sys-apps/baselayout-lite. It really improves things. |
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Hobbes-X
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Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 823
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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| VoVaN wrote: | | For anybody interested in a quick boot, I would recommend using squashfs for everything and use initramfs for root. I'm using diskless PC for playing media and I would say nothing improves boot time that much as squashfs. Even using diskless PC with full bloated KDE with squashfs over AoE looks the same as everything would be local on the HDD. Of course you can invent einit, but in this case I would prefer just using something like sys-apps/baselayout-lite. It really improves things. |
Isn't squashfs read-only though? Are you talking about squashing the entire root directory, or just directories with lots of small files, like etc? That's an interesting idea I hadn't thought of... |
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VoVaN
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Joined: 02 Jul 2003
Posts: 688
Location: The Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Hobbes-X wrote: | | VoVaN wrote: | | For anybody interested in a quick boot, I would recommend using squashfs for everything and use initramfs for root. I'm using diskless PC for playing media and I would say nothing improves boot time that much as squashfs. Even using diskless PC with full bloated KDE with squashfs over AoE looks the same as everything would be local on the HDD. Of course you can invent einit, but in this case I would prefer just using something like sys-apps/baselayout-lite. It really improves things. |
Isn't squashfs read-only though? Are you talking about squashing the entire root directory, or just directories with lots of small files, like etc? That's an interesting idea I hadn't thought of... |
You're right, squashfs is readonly and that's the main reason why it could be so highly optimized. I mentioned already, that root is in memory (initramfs) and the rest is squashfs only. If you use bootsplash you actually using initramfs at boot time already, so just put complete root there except /opt /usr and probably something else. Actually if you have quite a lot of memory you can use tmpfs for /tmp and /var/tmp. There's patch for using tmpfs instead of initramfs as well for initial boot. I have the outdated post, but you can find some more details there. |
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Hobbes-X
l33t
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 823
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject: Re: Gentoo as a media center |
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| remix wrote: | does any of you here use gentoo as a media center?
please post a description about it, what you are running, any special modifications for certain things like |
I run a myth system too- it's an AMD 1.3Ghz with a lot of hard drives stuffed in a closet somewhere where it can be quiet with a couple remote frontends.
No special modifications for the moment, outside of a mythtv bootsplash and enabling parallel startup init scripts. Like belrpr, I'm looking into einit or a similar init system change. I'm also planning to replace the bios boot image, similar to this car pc.
| Quote: | | -special input devices (ir remote, gamepad, etc) |
I've used a modified Xbox controller, lirc and an IR remote, and a Gyration wireless mouse/keyboard combo. I usually end up using the keyboard, but a remote is nice to have.
Since one of the boxes is dedicated to myth, I just used something lightweight that I could find example configs for: fvwm, ratpoison or something similar will work just as well, the config just needs to be slightly different. On the system that needs to be multi-purpose, I just use KDE and have a myth-specific login to auto-run anything I need.
| Quote: | | -autoplaying/automounting cds |
Myth will do this when setup properly, it's not something particularly important to me, so I haven't done it yet.
| Quote: | | -applications installed |
I've got the majority of the myth plugins installed, mythvideo for file playback, mythdvd for DVDs and VCDs, mythmusic for a music player, mytharchive for burning DVD's and mythweather. Mythgame is a generic game and emulator frontend that can work for just about everything. My wife likes Super Tux, and I keep meaning to get around to getting mame and snes9x working, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
| Quote: | | -application launcher |
I use all the myth-plugins almost exclusively, but it's possible to add menu items to it by editing the menu's XML. Also, I've used irxevent to bind certain remote buttons to a script, like using DDE to shut a monitor off. |
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