# [My project] Your opinion, help and advice

## canabix67

Hi all...

Ok, it might be unusual, I don't know, but well, I thought it would be a nice idea.

I've got a massive project that I'd like to setup in the next sort of year or two.

Right let me explain then, Im going to move into a new house soon, and wish to computerize the whole house.

Here are the finish products I wish to have:

          HTPC in the living room

          Wireless laptop running gentoo obviously

          Two or three Thin client around the house where needed.

                  o One in the kitchen that will run Myth TV and other multimedia software with a touch screen instead of mouse and keyboard.

                  o One in the master bedroom, pretty much same goal (myth TV, music etc)

                  o One in the office for work so only emails and other work related software.

          Remote control to control the whole installation (Logitech Harmony)

          A myth TV Backend in the basement that would serve the whole house with satellite HDTV

          A server in the basement with loads of storage that would serve the thin client with gentoo via LTSP (thanks bugg_tb)

          A PBX asterix

          A firewall, proxy under Gentoo

          A windows box able to run gentoo via LTSP (thanks bugg_tb)

Well here is my idea at the moment. I might change that, I might not.

I was wondering what you thought about it, and as I never tackled such a large scaled project, in which direction I should work.

I guess Ill have to learn loads of networking tricks, but dont know which ones

Ive got some other ideas, as in integrating a Windows desktop in the middle of all that, but is it possible to have the equivalent of a citrix that would connect onto gentoo do deliver applications such as mailing client, internet and office?

Well, I guess you got the idea, Im looking for some advice, some pointing in the right direction sort of thing

I will, in the future, create some sort of detail plan that I will post here to show more accurately what I wish to do.

So, what do you think about my idea? Does it deserve a thread?

Anyway, thanks all for reading, and thanks to all of you who will follow this thread.Last edited by canabix67 on Fri May 04, 2007 12:34 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## bugg_tb

There are Citrix style replacements, depending on what you needed, a whole desktop or just application forwarding, for example a remote desktop style infrastructure could be done with NX or FreeNX or VNC quite easily.

The only thing I would be uneasy about it the wireless capability, don't forget even if a card is rated 54mb/s it wont get near that speed(unless I've missed something over the last 12months) so you'd have to think about network implementation if your running multiple myth tv frontends from a server elsewhere as it could quite possibly become saturated, especially if your trying to send HiDef stuff.

Hope some of that makes sense. Good Luck

Tom

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## canabix67

Only thing that would be wireless would be the laptop that will be used more for entertainment (not really TV) but music and video.

Anyhow, I'm already thinking about wiring the whole house to get a net socket in each room. so that will not be a problem.

Regarding freeNX, NX and VNC, is it multiuser as well?

What I'd like to do is havong the windows machine to connect to the Gentoo server and get the Gentoo desktop from there, which means someone else might already be connected to it somewhere else under his own session, is that easily doable?

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## bugg_tb

Yeah it runs completely separate desktops, so you can connect as many seperate sessions as you like, if you just want certain apps you could looking to X11 forwarding over SSH, or for stuff like email run thunderbird or whatever locally and serve the mail from a central server

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## canabix67

Ok so basically, it will be the same as the thin client.... is that it? only difference is that I will need another type of software, but will I need another type of server?

I mean, I've seen I need a NX server for NX, but for the thin client it will not be a NX server would it?

Just popping my questions as they come a'right?

Just wondering as well, on the server side of things, how far can I go with it, i mean, can I have only one hardware computer with the MythTV backend + Firewall + proxy + application server? or would that be too much for one machine?Last edited by canabix67 on Fri May 04, 2007 12:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## bugg_tb

If you want to run completely thin client look into something like the LTSP project that runs terminal servers from a main server. It dishes out X sessions like Terminal Services for Windows, it will also connect to Windows servers if you want to run a Windows based backend.

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## canabix67

Windows backend?? Never!! I just fancy a desktop under Win for gaming and testing purposes...

Brilliant!! Thanks to bugg_tb I came accross LTSP.

So this will be my application server....  :Surprised: )Last edited by canabix67 on Fri May 04, 2007 12:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## bugg_tb

Just to clarify then... if I understand correctly all the servers would be linux, and most of the clients would be linux/thin client and the odd windows box with the ability to serve linux to the box for games and testing?

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## canabix67

Well yeah,

Server: Gentoo

Thinclient: LTSP from server

A windows box that can serve applications from the Gentoo server via LTSP

The windows box will have for purpose to configure the Harmony Remote which apparently is not supported under Linux yet, and some other software unavalaible under the penguin.

It will go through the Gentoo firewall//proxy//server though

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## Hobbes-X

 *canabix67 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Right let me explain then, Im going to move into a new house soon, and wish to computerize the whole house.
> 
> Here are the finish products I wish to have:

 

 :Very Happy:  This is almost exactly my plan that started about two years ago! (Only yours does not include wiring and drywalling an 1800sqft basement...  :Wink: )

I've currently got: 

A Master mythbackend in a basement network closet, w/ firewire HD capture

Three remote PXE booting thin(ish) clients, one bedroom, one library, one office

3000ft of Cat5e installed   :Exclamation: 

The master backend serves DHCP, BOOTP, DNS, NFS/Samba, web and the like, along with about 900GB of storage. I say the clients are thin-ish because rather than booting directly into a netmounted root, it runs a network shared grub list so I have the option of booting a local Windows partition or running the network shared myth setup. DHCP serves IPs based on a mac address, and clients get sent a customized grub.list based on IP, so that a box meant as an appliance doesn't need to select how to boot, but can go directly to myth. (Also lets me specify custom kernels for each box to help with boot time)

So far, everything runs fine on the one server- it's an Athalon 2400+ IIRC. Load average isn't a problem as long as you're capturing from a hardware capture card of some sort like the PVR250's or over firewire. If you use a frame grabber like a bt878, you'll need something with quite a bit more oomph. Mine never sees more than a couple remote X apps, plus two recordings, plus the standard network stuff like DNS. Extra RAM helps a lot with lots of concurrent low-demand threads.

Once I've finished the basement, I'm planning on adding Asterix- I haven't decided if I'll put this on another box or not. I wanted to get this integrated with Myth's caller ID notification with something like: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+tips+MythTV+integration

I keep imagining all sorts of other add ons like tying the notification (it's not caller ID specific) into the doorbell and using MythZoneminder

My wife recently accepted a new job downtown, and her 'new job present' will most likely be an HP Pavilion Dv9000, so I'll be trying out the wireless laptop too. From what I've read, wireless can handle at least one video stream without too much issue, and HD video streams are very close to the limit for 802.11g, so you can expect pausing issues.

I'm not sure what I'll do for a remote- I haven't found exactly what I like yet. (The Harmony is close though...)

I'd say get your main server working first- at least hardware and software wise. The automated network stuff can all be tackled bit-by-bit as you have time. For example, I started out with just the myth server and a projector. Then I added some hard drive space and a single remote-boot client with a static IP.  Then I added dhcp, then more hard drive space for another client, etc... It follows a pretty natural order.

One thing as far as terminal servers go, you'll need applications running locally for Myth. X sees raw video bits AFAIK, and the bandwidth necessary to carry video will crush a terminal server  :Smile:   I use VNC to administer the server (it's headless) and streaming video over it does not work (Video gets uncompressed from the file, rendered by myth, recompressed by VNC, then uncompressed again on the other side... you end up with a frame every three or four seconds, plus you lose sound, which is a bit of a deal-breaker  :Smile: 

You can setup a VNC terminal server for regular desktop apps though, and it works well. Another (already mentioned) option is remote X sessions via SSH, and using Xming and putty you can get Xapps on a Windows desktop  :Smile: 

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## Hobbes-X

Also, while we're on over-the-top myth topic, I keep thinking about saving up to do this, maybe using a custom job flag to mark recordings to be rsync'd over wireless out to the car?

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## canabix67

 *Hobbes-X wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I'd say get your main server working first- at least hardware and software wise. The automated network stuff can all be tackled bit-by-bit as you have time. For example, I started out with just the myth server and a projector. Then I added some hard drive space and a single remote-boot client with a static IP.  Then I added dhcp, then more hard drive space for another client, etc... It follows a pretty natural order.
> 
> 

 

Right let me give you more details about the starting point then....  :Smile: 

At this minute, I leave in London, UK, I've got a Laptop (HP-ZD8060US) running Gentoo 24/7 for the last 2 months...  :Smile: 

Running update regularly, emerging, cleaning etc.... Some sort of test machine... sandbox if you want...  :Smile: 

I've accepted an offer in France, and I'll be moving in my Girlfriend's appartment.

There, I've got My computer and my girlfriend's one which needs motherboard renewal..  :Smile: 

So my plan when I move in is to setup the computer as a mythTV box.... It's got what it takes even tough it's not new...

AMD1800+ // 512RAM // 150Go // Nvidia Whatever 3D (can't remember the chip but like 5y old)

So I'll just use it as a test to convince my girlfriend to invest....  :Smile: 

I'd like to use the other one as a pure server....

I can put whatever chip as I'm changing the board, and I plan to use it as Firewall, storage (I've heard about squid but haven't explored what it is...) and PBX

So advice needed on that...  :Smile:  What chip? is X_64 any good for that? I don't want to spend silly money, I want to start slow....

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> One thing as far as terminal servers go, you'll need applications running locally for Myth. X sees raw video bits AFAIK, and the bandwidth necessary to carry video will crush a terminal server   I use VNC to administer the server (it's headless) and streaming video over it does not work (Video gets uncompressed from the file, rendered by myth, recompressed by VNC, then uncompressed again on the other side... you end up with a frame every three or four seconds, plus you lose sound, which is a bit of a deal-breaker 
> 
> You can setup a VNC terminal server for regular desktop apps though, and it works well. Another (already mentioned) option is remote X sessions via SSH, and using Xming and putty you can get Xapps on a Windows desktop 

 

For that bit I *should* get some IBM netstation from my nice IT department...  :Smile:  as a leaving present...

I don't know how old they are, but I think they work with Linux servers....

So I'll just have a bit of fun with them to start with test what I can do, and maybe use one in the bedroom as it would be noiseless...  :Very Happy: 

Well... that's for later....

I still consider myself as n00b so lots of reading planned.... Got around 350 pages of how-tos and manuals to read...  :Smile: 

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## Hobbes-X

 *canabix67 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> So my plan when I move in is to setup the computer as a mythTV box.... It's got what it takes even tough it's not new...
> 
> AMD1800+ // 512RAM // 150Go // Nvidia Whatever 3D (can't remember the chip but like 5y old)
> ...

 

 :Smile:  That should work fine for a system to test. It might be a little light to handle all of the future stuff, but you could use it to get familiar with myth and move it to a frontend only or a secondary backend later on once you're ready to setup your newer server.

 *Quote:*   

> I can put whatever chip as I'm changing the board, and I plan to use it as Firewall, storage (I've heard about squid but haven't explored what it is...) and PBX
> 
> So advice needed on that...  What chip? is X_64 any good for that? I don't want to spend silly money, I want to start slow....

 

Personally, I'd just go for the best processor performance you can get at a reasonable price. To me, price and power use is more important than having a monster processor, especially since it runs 24/7. I don't know that 64-bit would bring a lot to help, but having a dual core would be nice.

Squid is a caching http proxy, it's something I'm looking into right now also. It seems to require very little configuration, but I'm not very knowledgeable on it myself at this point. I've decided on asterisk for the PBX, but since I want hard phones, I'm holding off until I'm familiar enough to make the investment for equipment. I've got a friend who works in IP telecom stuff locally and I'm going to meet with him over the next couple months to get a better idea of the equipment I want.

 *Quote:*   

> For that bit I *should* get some IBM netstation from my nice IT department...  as a leaving present...
> 
> 

 

The Netstations can work with Linux servers: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NC-HOWTO.html

I doubt that they would have enough processing or video card power to handle the video processing needed for myth, but for your office/e-mail/web browsing boxes, it seems to me that they would be perfect.

 *Quote:*   

> So I'll just have a bit of fun with them to start with test what I can do, and maybe use one in the bedroom as it would be noiseless... 

 

Sounds like a good plan to me, since noise is the only problem I have with our bedroom computer...

 *Quote:*   

> I still consider myself as n00b so lots of reading planned.... Got around 350 pages of how-tos and manuals to read... 

 

Also a good idea  :Smile:  I'd stick with the official docs for myth, the Gentoo wiki how-to is a bit... fragmented.

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## canabix67

 *Hobbes-X wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I've decided on asterisk for the PBX, but since I want hard phones, I'm holding off until I'm familiar enough to make the investment for equipment. I've got a friend who works in IP telecom stuff locally and I'm going to meet with him over the next couple months to get a better idea of the equipment I want.
> 
> 

 

So do I... I've been looking into it, and have printed the 350 pages of the book....  :Surprised: )

I read about 30 pages, and it's really interesting... I recommend it if you haven't read it yet...

Anyway... I'm looking into it exactly like you are I feel...  :Surprised: ) Funny world really..

I want to invest into hard phones as well, which doesn't seem to be a no brainer to setup comparing to soft phones.

And you gave me another idea with the camera system...  :Surprised: ) Another investment.....

But again, I'm very enthusiastic, so I might be wrong...  :Surprised: )

Very interesting exchanging with you anyway.... 

I was planning to create some sort of wiki about those house computerizing technologies later on when I have more time for myself...

Would you be up for it?

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## Hobbes-X

 *canabix67 wrote:*   

> So do I... I've been looking into it, and have printed the 350 pages of the book.... )
> 
> I read about 30 pages, and it's really interesting... I recommend it if you haven't read it yet...

 

Hmm- it seems it's been a while since I've looked into it- I don't remember the O'Reilly book being available for download before. Thanks for pointing that out!

 *Quote:*   

> Anyway... I'm looking into it exactly like you are I feel... ) Funny world really..

 

 :Very Happy:  It does seem that way, doesn't it? 

 *Quote:*   

> Very interesting exchanging with you anyway.... 
> 
> I was planning to create some sort of wiki about those house computerizing technologies later on when I have more time for myself...
> 
> Would you be up for it?

 

I'd definately like to help get some good info out there on intergrating an entire house system. There's lots of information on individual pieces, but you don't hear too much about making everything work together nicely.

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## canabix67

 *Quote:*   

> I'd definately like to help get some good info out there on intergrating an entire house system. There's lots of information on individual pieces, but you don't hear too much about making everything work together nicely.

 

Exactly what I was thinking...  :Surprised: )

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## Hobbes-X

 :Shocked:  Great minds...  :Wink:   :Rolling Eyes: 

I've commited to working up an einit/fastbooting how-to that will be mythtv-centered, and I was thinking it would be a good thing to clean-up/reorganize the gentoo-wiki myth how-to so that people could follow the how-tos through a logical flow; skip things they don't want or are not related to their hardware, etc.

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## canabix67

Well, here I am....

Trying to test stuff on MythTV on my old computer before starting out on my real HTPC, and to be honest, whilst waiting for the cash...  :Surprised: )

Anyway...

I've got a pinacle PCTV, configured with BTTV well, configured is a bit too positive as it doesn't work....

here is mu dmesg:

```
bttv: driver version 0.9.16 loaded

bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture

bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0b.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5

bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:00:0b.0, irq: 5, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfd002000

bttv0: detected: Pinnacle PCTV [card=39], PCI subsystem ID is 11bd:0012

bttv0: using: Pinnacle PCTV Studio/Rave [card=39,insmod option]

bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00fff3ff [init]

bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found

bttv0: pinnacle/mt: id=4 info="PAL+SECAM / mono" radio=no

bttv0: using tuner=51

bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found

bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found

bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found

bttv0: registered device video0

bttv0: registered device vbi0

bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok

bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded

bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (0).

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0b.1[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5

bt878_probe: card id=[0x1211bd], Unknown card.

Exiting..

ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:0b.1 disabled

bt878: probe of 0000:00:0b.1 failed with error -22

nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10

PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:05.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module  1.0-8776  Mon Oct 16 21:56:04 PDT 2006

ReiserFS: hdc1: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

ReiserFS: hdc1: warning: CONFIG_REISERFS_CHECK is set ON

ReiserFS: hdc1: warning: - it is slow mode for debugging.

ReiserFS: hdc1: using ordered data mode

ReiserFS: hdc1: journal params: device hdc1, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

ReiserFS: hdc1: checking transaction log (hdc1)

ReiserFS: hdc1: journal-1153: found in header: first_unflushed_offset 358, last_flushed_trans_id 208635

ReiserFS: hdc1: journal-1206: Starting replay from offset 896084796768614, trans_id 254368252

ReiserFS: hdc1: journal-1299: Setting newest_mount_id to 127

ReiserFS: hdc1: Using r5 hash to sort names

Adding 1004052k swap on /dev/hda2.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1004052k

eth0:  setting full-duplex.

eth0: no IPv6 routers present

**WARNING** I2C adapter driver [NVIDIA I2C Device] forgot to specify physical device; fix it!

**WARNING** I2C adapter driver [NVIDIA I2C Device] forgot to specify physical device; fix it!

**WARNING** I2C adapter driver [NVIDIA I2C Device] forgot to specify physical device; fix it!

spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.

bttv0: timeout: drop=241 irq=2851/3585, risc=0e8a503c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW

bttv0: reset, reinitialize

bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 . ok

bttv0: timeout: drop=575 irq=3640/4374, risc=08e5d054, bits: VSYNC HSYNC OFLOW FDSR

bttv0: reset, reinitialize

bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 . ok

bttv0: timeout: drop=618 irq=3733/4467, risc=0e8a503c, bits: VSYNC HSYNC OFLOW FBUS FDSR

bttv0: reset, reinitialize

bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 . ok

bttv0: timeout: drop=657 irq=3836/4570, risc=0e8a503c, bits: VSYNC HSYNC OFLOW FBUS FDSR

bttv0: reset, reinitialize

bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 . ok

```

When I start tvtime it comes up with a blue screen and nothing scans....

I've tried plenty of things grab on different forums, but no luck...

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm living a nightmare...

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## Hobbes-X

 *canabix67 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> **WARNING** I2C adapter driver [NVIDIA I2C Device] forgot to specify physical device; fix it!
> 
> **WARNING** I2C adapter driver [NVIDIA I2C Device] forgot to specify physical device; fix it!
> ...

 

Well, the blue screen is usually what you get if the tuner is not picking up a signal and would only show static otherwise. I'm not familiar with the PCTV, but that's probably a reasonable assumtion. I think that channel changes are sent across I2C though, so if that's not working...

This thread seems to suggest that ignoring the I2C error and compiling bttv as a module and specifying the card and tuner made things work.

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## canabix67

Well... that doesn't work...

Everything is in as a module now... specified my tuner (tried different ones) and still nothing....

I've been banging my head for a week now!!!

Really don't understand and don't know in what direction to go now...

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## Hobbes-X

Which tuner and card are you specifying for the module? (or which have you tried?)

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## canabix67

Well, I've tried pretty much every thing... But after some research, I've heard about some tuner issue but I'm pretty sure it used to worked a couple of years ago under mandrake... I think I'll just forget about it..... I'm working on my new HTPC box now, so I just need to make sure the tuner WILL be easy to install...  :Surprised: )

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