Building a new PVR

<Updated Aug 18, 2011 after a successful PVR rollout>

Technology has evolved since the last MythTV PVR I built, as chronicled here.  Here’s the latest techniques and tech that I’ve used to (start) build(ing) my current PVR. I’ll update this article as I go, as there’s been some bumps along the way, so completion of the project has been slower than I anticipated.

Requirements for my new PVR include:

  • Linux operating system for cost and flexibility reasons
  • Quiet! Fan-less operation if at all possible, external power supply ok
  • Small form factor, black case to fit in with my current home theater gear
  • Video capture with MPEG-2 hardware acceleration to help keep the CPU needed as small as possible, in an expansion card format for the most compact physical footprint .. additionally there must be at least two independent tuners
  • Analog tuners, but would be good if they were capable of digital for when I eventually move to digital/HD
  • IR receiver and transmitter capability for easy remote control and ability of the PVR to use my current set-top box as a source (gives me all the cable company movies and channels that are not available via the basic cable connection
  • Ability to schedule at least 10 shows and retain 5 episodes of each show .. also ability to schedule based on show name alone
  • Ability to perform post-recording processing, such as removing commercials or changing formats
  • Should be able to use a pre-packaged distribution for most if not all of the functions .. I know it’s a home-brew, but I’m tired of messing with individual packages, firmware, and custom codes to make it work. Using a distribution package makes it easier to maintain through updates.
  • Want to purchase the parts from the same supplier if possible (ended up using newegg.ca)

Since I already run MythTV, it was an obvious starting point and given I don’t have an affinity to a specific Linux distribution, I looked at Mythbuntu and Mythdora since I’m familiar with and already run both Ubuntu and Fedora distributions.

After downloading the Mythbuntu 10.10 ISO disk image, I discovered I didn’t have my USB DVD drive, so I wanted to create a bootable USB flash disk.  I followed the excellent instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick and successfully burned a bootable Mythbuntu disk on a 2GB USB flash disk via a Ubuntu VM running on my MacBook Pro.


Continue reading

How to build a MythTV PVR on Fedora Core 7

<Notes In Progress – many of these steps have been automated in scripts, I’m in the process of updating this doc to show those steps and include the scripts>

Fresh install of OS and MythTV on n43

Created 2007/09/05 – last revised 2008/01/06

I needed to upgrade MythTV to 0.20.2 due to the demise of Zap2It schedules, but I didn’t have another system which matched the hardware used on my MythTV PVR.  So I installed a spare 120GB EIDE and started from scratch to build another MythTV instance from scratch.  Once I was satisfied the new instance would pass the SAT (spouse approval test), I used LVM to move everything over to the 320GB SATA disk which currently contains the old (production) MythTV sw and configuration.

This describes that build and migration process. 

Hardware (n43):

Antec Fusion HTPC case

antec-fusion

AMD Sempron processor (about 1.6GHz)
512MB memory – good enough for single tuner and OS
Hauppage PVR-350 standard definition capture card

Integrated on to mainboard:
Audio:
ALC883 PCM nVidia MCP51 controller – kernel module snd-hda-intel (high definition audio)
Video:
nVidia C51 – Quadro NVS 210S / GeForce 6150LE
nVidia EIDE and SATA controller – …

1. Install OS

Seems to be lots of hits on Fedora 7 and MythTV, as well the reading I’ve done on Fedora 7 seems to show it can be easily kept up to date (via yum) – and it has the OS clustering capabilities as part of the base now, which I’ll use when I split the current single system making it the back end and adding a silent (diskless) front end.

Downloaded and burnt Fedora 7 i386 DVD. For future options, extracted and burnt boot.iso … also see notes on how to install Fedora 7 via boot.iso and NFS. (notes to be added)

Disabled SATA hdd in BIOS (could have unplugged it, but easier to just disable via sw).
Used DVD drive in n43 to install Fedora 7 on the temporary EIDE drive.
Select packages for install:
MySQL Server
Web Server

See scripts for automated Fedora 7 OS setup and package install (setup1.shl, setup2.shl) (scripts to be added)

About 25 min off DVD for base load

Setup (first time boot):
Firewall – allow SSH and HTTP, otherwise no inbound services other than ESTABLISHED,RELATED are needed at this point. Will open MySQL and ICMP for monitoring purposes later. When this system becomes the MythTV backend, will have to add MythTV ports (see FAQ).
SELinux – disable, will add SE configuration at some future point.
NTP – use default Fedora 7 NTP service configuration, time sync is obviously very important (unless you don’t want your recordings to start/end at the right times).

MythTV seems to heavily use KDE, so although Gnome is default, may need to use KDE. I selected Gnome this time. And KDE this time. And RatPoison is a compact window manager which may be easier to configure for mythtv. Finally I’m using fvwm2 .. more on that later.

Update /etc/hosts
192.168.2.143 mythtv.networkforensics.org mythtv n43

Manually set the interface speed/duplex (gigabit interface doesn’t do well in autonegotiate – poor performance, but no interface errors). Will come back and setup an init script.
# ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full

Add ATrpms repository into yum configuration:
NOTE: other ATrpm yum configurations on the net don’t work!
– add the following into /etc/yum.conf
[atrpms]
name=Fedora Core $releasever – $basearch – ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1

Import ATrpms key
# rpm –import http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

Disable ATrpms repository, so we only get mythtv packages from it:
– add the following to the atrpms section just added to the /etc/yum.conf:
enabled=0

Update the packages to current using the standard Fedora repositories

 

When following the Fedora / MythTV HOWTO (http://wilsonet.com/mythtv), they use variable KVER which is just uname -r

 

# echo “export KVER=\\`uname -r\\`” >> /etc/profile.d/kver.sh

 

Do yum upgrade to get latest kernel and system

# yum upgrade

464MB 265 packages

 

<odd>

Kernel panic during reboot after upgrade

Searched on “2.6.22 fedora 7 kernel panic noapic” – lots of suggestions but doing a single boot again, while interrupting the grub boot and adding noapic to the end of the kernel boot line seemed to fix it. Now the grub.conf looks like (note the vga=791 arg):

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.22.4-65.fc7)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.4-65.fc7 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet vga=791
initrd /initrd-2.6.22.4-65.fc7.img
title Fedora (2.6.21-1.3194.fc7)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet vga=791
initrd /initrd-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7.img

 

Add window manager fvwm here – comes from Fed
ora repo

# yum install fvwm2

 

 

2. No mouse cursor in Gnome

Seems the nVidia graphics are broken somehow. Must disable hardware cursor?

 

<URL>

ok add this line to your xorg.conf

Option “HWCursor” “off”

so it looks something like this

Code:

Section "Device"
  BoardName    "GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 GT"
  BusID        "1:0:0"
  Driver       "nvidia"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  Option       "HWCursor" "off"
  Screen       0
  VendorName   "NVidia"
EndSection

logged out from Gnome, causes an X restart then the mouse cursor showed up properly.

 

 

3. Set Monitor and Resolution

In gnome, I manually set the monitor, it could not autodetect the Viewsonic Optiquest V75. Restarted X, had to set the resolution (it defaulted to way too high of a setting)

 

HOLD:

As per Fedora MythTV setup guide, install the nVidia drivers:

# yum -y install nvidia-graphics9755-kmdl-$KVER
# yum -y install nvidia-graphics9755-libs nvidia-graphics9755

 

Actually, this is done now by copying in a revised xorg.conf

[root@mythtv grub]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.1024×768-monitor-only-V75-BEST

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “single head configuration”
Screen 0 “Screen0” 0 0
InputDevice “Keyboard0” “CoreKeyboard”
EndSection
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Keyboard0”
Driver “kbd”
#Option “XkbModel” “pc105”
Option “XkbModel” “pc101”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor0”
ModelName “Monitor 1280×1024”
HorizSync 31.5 – 79.0
VertRefresh 50.0 – 90.0
Option “dpms”
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “Videocard0”
Driver “nv”
Option “HWCursor” “off”
EndSection
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen0”
Device “Videocard0”
Monitor “Monitor0”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes “1024×768” “800×600” “720×400” “640×480” “640×400” “640×350”
EndSubSection
EndSection


Turn off screen saver

Disable unnecessary services

services=”avahi pcps bluetooth”
for service in $services; do chkconfig $service off; service $service stop; done

avahi – DNS service discovery
pcps – smart card daemon
bluetooth

 

4. Set mysql to start on boot

chkconfig mysqld on

 

5. Start up MySQL

service mysqld start

 

6. Set MySQL root password

mysql –uroot

mysql> grant all on *.* to root@localhost identified by “rootpassword” with grant option;

mysql> grant all on *.* to root@n43 identified by ‘rootpassword’ with grant option;

 

7. Create MythTV database

Test out mysql connection, user, password

# mysql -uroot -prootpassword

mysql>

 

Run MythTV database setup

# mysql -uroot -prootpassword < /usr/share/mythtv/sql/mc.sql

 

/usr/share/mythtv/sql/mc.sql:
CREATE DATABASE if not exists mythconverg;
GRANT ALL ON mythconverg.* TO mythtv@localhost IDENTIFIED BY “mythtv”;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
GRANT CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES ON mythconverg.* TO mythtv@localhost
IDENTIFIED BY “mythtv”;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
ALTER DATABASE mythconverg DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1;

8. Install MythTV Suite

 

# yum –enable=atrpms install mythtv-suite

122 packages, 105MB

 

Create directory for recordings

# mkdir /storage/recordings

# chown mythtv:mythtv /storage/recordings

 

9.
Install ivtv drivers and firmware for PVR-350

# yum –enable=atrpms install ivtv-firmware
# yum –enable=atrpms install ivtv-kmdl-$KVER

 

 

10. Update modprobe.conf to enable TV Out on PVR-350

 

# load ivtv-fb for PVR-350 output
install ivtv /sbin/modprobe –ignore-install ivtv; /sbin/modprobe ivtv-fb

 

Manually load ivtv

# /sbin/depmod -a
# /sbin/modprobe ivtv

 

Manually tried to load ivtv-fb – segfaulted … see the part of the howto on modifying grub boot loader…

 

We’re going to make little modification to the kernel boot line in your grub.conf file that should force the ivtv frame buffer to load on /dev/fb1, as well as allow the ivtv-fb module to be loaded and unloaded. Without doing this, unloading the ivtv-fb module would probably crash your system. To the end of all ‘kernel /vmlinuz…’ lines in /boot/grub/grub.conf, append ‘vga=791’, then reboot your system. This tells the kernel to load a frame buffer for your video card at 1024×768, 16-bit color. I use this all the time myself, simply so I can see more when I’m not in X. I’d always done this on my 350-equipped box without even thinking about it, which could explain some of why I’ve not run into some of the problems other folks have…

 

Note video device:

[root@mythtv ~]# ls -l /dev/video*

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2007-09-09 18:17 /dev/video -> video0

crw——- 1 root root 81, 0 2007-09-09 18:17 /dev/video0

crw——- 1 root root 81, 16 2007-09-09 18:17 /dev/video16

crw——- 1 root root 81, 24 2007-09-09 18:17 /dev/video24

crw——- 1 root root 81, 32 2007-09-09 18:17 /dev/video32

crw——- 1 root root 81, 48 2007-09-09 18:17 /dev/video48

[root@mythtv ~]#

 

From dmesg:

ivtv0: Registered device video0 for encoder MPEG (4 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device video32 for encoder YUV (2 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device vbi0 for encoder VBI (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device video24 for encoder PCM audio (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device radio0 for encoder radio

ivtv0: Registered device video16 for decoder MPEG (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device vbi8 for decoder VBI (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device vbi16 for decoder VOUT

ivtv0: Registered device video48 for decoder YUV (1 MB)

 

 

11. Test out PVR-350 TV Out

As per https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV_Edgy_hardware_pvr-350_TV-out

 

Try to display the TV test pattern by putting the saa7127 module into test mode:

# /sbin/rmmod saa7127
# /sbin/modprobe saa7127 test_image=1

 

Works!

Resume normal operation:

# rmmod saa7127
# modprobe saa7127

 

 

Test video capture

# /usr/bin/v4l2-ctl -i 0

 

 

12. Manually compile ivtv module for X

Had to manually compile ivtv driver for x to enable tv out .. due to some 2.6.22 issue.

 

As per README in ivtv x driver package – must install xorg sdk to allow compile:

# yum install xorg-x11-server-sdk

 

Then compile the new ivtv xdriver:

# sh ./configure

# make

# make install

 

Copy into xorg directory:

# cp /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ivtv_drv.so /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers

if gdm failed, ps -ef , then kill it to restart

 

copy in new xorg.conf (with TV Out section) and do <ctrl><alt><backspace> to restart x server

[root@mythtv ~]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.tvout

# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config

Section “ServerLayout”

Identifier “Default Layout”

Screen 0 “Screen0” 0 0

InputDevice “Mouse0” “CorePointer”

InputDevice “Keyboard0” “CoreKeyboard”

EndSection

Section “Files”

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the

# file minus the extension (like “.txt” or “.db”). There is normally

# no need to change the default.

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)

# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of

# the X server to render fonts.

RgbPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb”

# ModulePath “/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/nvidia”

# ModulePath “/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions”

# ModulePath “/usr/X11R6/lib/modules”

FontPath “unix/:7100”

EndSection

Section “Module”

Load “dbe”

Load “extmod”

Load “fbdevhw”

Load “glx”

Load “record”

Load “freetype”

Load “type1”

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))

# Option “Xleds” “1 2 3”

# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.

# Option “XkbDisable”

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the

# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.

# keyboard, you will probably want to use:

# Option “XkbModel” “pc102”

# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:

# Option “XkbModel” “microsoft”

#

# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.

# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:

# Option “XkbLayout” “de”

# or:

# Option “XkbLayout” “de”

# Option “XkbVariant” “nodeadkeys”

#

# If you’d like to switch the positions of your capslock and

# control keys, use:

# Option “XkbOptions” “ctrl:swapcaps”

# Or if you just want both to be control, use:

# Option “XkbOptions” “ctrl:nocaps”

#

Identifier “Keyboard0”

Driver “keyboard”

Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”

#Option “XkbModel” “pc105”

Option “XkbModel” “pc101”

Option “XkbLayout” “us”

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

Identifier “Mouse0”

Driver “mouse”

Option “Protocol” “IMPS/2”

Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”

Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”

Option “Emulate3Buttons” “no”

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then

# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you

# also use USB mice at the same time.

Identifier “DevInputMice”

Driver “mouse”

Option “Protocol” “IMPS/2”

Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”

Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”

Option “Emulate3Buttons” “no”

EndSection

Section “Monitor”

Identifier “NTSC Monitor”

HorizSync 30-68

VertRefresh 50-120

Mode “720×480”

# D: 34.563 MHz, H: 37.244 kHz, V: 73.897 Hz

DotClock 34.564

HTimings 720 752 840 928

VTimings 480 484 488 504

Flags “-HSync” “-VSync”

EndMode

EndSection

Section “Device”

Identifier “Hauppauge PVR 350 iTVC15 Framebuffer”

#Driver “ivtvdev”

# 2007/09/09 ACP – changed to ivtv

Driver “ivtv”

### change fb1 to whatever your card grabbed

Option “fbdev” “/dev/fb1”

Option “ivtv” “/dev/fb1”

### change the BusID to whatever is reported by lspci,

### converted from hex to decimal

BusID “PCI:4:6:0” # lspci says 00:08.0

### More examples

#BusID “PCI:0:10:0” # lspci says 00:0a.0

#BusID “PCI:1:14:0” # lspci says 01:0e.0

#BusID “PCI:0:5:1” # lspci says 00:05.1

EndSection

Section “Screen”

Identifier “Screen0”

Device “Hauppauge PVR 350 iTVC15 Framebuffer”

Monitor “NTSC Monitor”

DefaultDepth 24

DefaultFbbpp 32

Subsection “Display”

Depth 24

FbBpp 32

Modes “720×480”

EndSubsection

EndSection

Section “DRI”

Group 0

Mode 0666

EndSection

 

 

13. Run mythtv-setup

 

Blank menu ..

Check out http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/286856

I found this simple set of directions to add in a base set of true

type fonts (which includes Ariel) to Fedora 7 and it solved the problem.

 

1. Open a Terminal and cd to a directory you can work in

2. Become root

3. Download the MS Core Fonts Smart Package File

wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec

4. Make sure that the rpm-build and cabextract packages are installed

yum install rpm-build cabextract

5. Build the Core Fonts package:

rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec

6. Install the Core Fonts package

rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm

 

The web site I found this one was: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#installfonts

 

Sign in as mythtv

$ mythtv-setup

 

Setup Video Capture cards, listing source, channel setup

 

$ mythfilldatabase

 

Setup remote control

Go get the LIRC packages from ATrpms

# yum –enable=atrpms install lirc-0.8.3

 

And get the kernel modules:

# yum –enable=atrpms install lirc-kmdl-2.6.22.4-65.fc7-0.8.3-70_cvs20070827.fc7

resulted in:

Installed: lirc-kmdl-2.6.22.4-65.fc7.i686 0:0.8.3-70_cvs20070827.fc7

Dependency Installed: lirc-devices.noarch 0:0.8-4.fc7

 

Manual test:

# modprobe lirc_mceusb2

 

Update modprobe.conf to load LIRC

 

 

/dev/lirc was symlinked to /dev/lirc/0 (which is the PVR-350 …) so re-linked to /dev/lirc/1 and restarted lircd

# service lircd restart

then irw showed button presses!

Updated /etc/init.d/lircd to relink the /dev/lirc symlink to /dev/lirc/1

 

 

 

Get MythTV to use remote:

Copy lircrc file into ~mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc and ~mythtv/lircrc (no dots)

 

 

Install lirc kernel modules

NO yum –enable atrpms install lirc-kmdl-2.6.22.4-65.fc7

Had to uninstall all the modules I installed then re-install lirc 0.8.3 from atrpms

 

 

Page on the Microsoft MCE remote: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/MCE_Remote

 

 

Setup (tune) screen size

 

Overscan (image off the screen)

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Overscan

 

on Toshiba tv (pixels):

width 632

height 436

GUI x offset 36

GUI y offset 16

 

 

Setup auto-login, auto-start of mythfrontend

 

URL http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Frontend_Auto_Login

 

Tried ratpoison, Gnome and KDE – ratpoison I couldn’t get working without troubleshooting and Gnome and KDE are too heavy weight. fvwm works well, although the font sizes are a bit small – haven’t found where to adjust them yet.

 

Use fvwm window manager:

 

Add to inittab:

c7:12345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin=mythtv tty7

 

~mythtv/.bash_profile

if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty7 ]; then
while [ 1 == 1 ]
     do
          startx
          sleep 10
     done
fi

 

 

 

HOLD

 

Use ratpoison window manager:

 

Add to inittab:

c7:12345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin=mythtv tty7

 

~mythtv/.bash_profile

if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty7 ]; then
while [ 1 == 1 ]
     do
          startx
          sleep 10
     done
fi

 

.xinitrc:

xset -dpms s off
xsetroot -solid black
ratpoison &
x11vnc -many -q -bg -rfbauth .vnc/passwd
mythfrontend > /home/mythtv/mythfrontend.log 2>&1
for i in 5 4 3 2 1 ; do
  if [ -f mythfrontend.log.$i ]; then
    mv -f mythfrontend.log.$i  mythfrontend.log.$(($i + 1))
  fi
done
mv mythfrontend.log  mythfrontend.log.1

 

.ratpoisonrc:

# This is a sample .ratpoisonrc file
#
# Set the prefix key to that of screen's default
escape C-a
 
# put something informative on the screen while we load stuff
exec xloadimage -onroot -quiet -center /home/mythtv/.mythtv/mythtvstart.jpg
 
# Gets rid of that ugly crosshairs default cursor and set the background to black
exec xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
 
# Use the name of the program rather than the title in the window list
defwinname name
 
### fire up an xterm with ctrl-A x
bind x exec xterm -j -fn '*-courier-*-r-*-14-*'
 
# Since running a 720x576 definition the ratpoison screens are too big for the
# display so we reduce the size of them with defpadding to make them fit
#defpadding 25 25 25 25
 
keystate_numlock = enable

 

 

 

 

 

KDE application file into ~mythtv/.kde/Autostart

 

Had to setup desktop for mythtv (all black, no screen saver)

 

 

Migrate from 120GB disk back to 320GB SATA

2007/10/20 Fedora 7

Use LVM to move the data, including /root, swap and /storage

 

In BIOS, enable SATA drive, position as HDD #2 (120GB IDE as HDD #1)

 

Boot single user (interrupt grub, select first kernel <e>dit, select kernel spec line, <e>dit, add “single” on the end of the line, <b>oot the system (off the old IDE disk)

 

Display partition table for both drives just to be sure that the 320GB (new) disk is /dev/sbd and the current ‘production’ IDE disk is /dev/sda

# fdisk -l /dev/sda

# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

 

Zero out the partition table and MBR on the SATA disk as we had previously installed Fedora 7, and that data will confuse the migration process.

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1024k count=100

 

Partition new disk to add similar partition structure, including LVM partition

sdb1 100MB ext3 /boot (0x83)

sdb2 <the rest> LVM (0x8e)

 

Set the disk bootable (option a)

 

[root@mythtv ~]# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

 

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

 

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux

/dev/sdb2 14 30401 244091610 8e Linux LVM

 

Zero out the LVM partition as we had already setup a fresh Fedora 7 install, and the LVM information will still be there (and called VolGroup00, it will confuse LVM on the old IDE disk)

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb2 bs=1024k count=100

 

Copy the /boot contents across:

# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1

# mkdir /tmp/new

# mount /dev/sdb1 /tmp/new

# cd /boot

# find . –print | cpio –pmd /tmp/new

 

Now update (install) boot loader on new 320GB disk:

# mount /dev/sdb1 /tmp/new (if not still mounted)

# mv /tmp/new/grub/device.map /tmp/new/grub/device.map.old

# /sbin/grub-install /dev/sdb

# umount /tmp/new

 

Label this filesystem as /boot to match /etc/fstab:

# e2label /dev/sdb1 /boot

 

Now ‘create’ the new physical volume in LVM and display the pv’s to ensure all’s good:

# pvcreate /dev/sdb2
# pvdisplay

 

Add the new physical volume into the VolGroup00 volume group

# vgextend VolGroup00 /dev/sdb2

 

Move all the physical extents from the old IDE disk to the new SATA disk (this will tell lvm to move the physical extents from PV /dev/sda2 to some other free physical volume – the only other volume is the SATA disk we just added). Note this will take a LONG time and will display it’s progress:

# pvmove /dev/sda2

 

Remove the old disk:

# pvremove /dev/sda2

 

Power off and disconnect power to the old IDE disk, boot to ensure all comes up ok

 

Power off and remove IDE

 

HOLD Get firmware for Hauppauge PVR-350

http://ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Firmware

 

Firmware files (Video 4 Linux):

v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw

v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw

v4l-cx2341x-init.mpg

 

Place in hot plug directory for ivtv to get and load into the PVR-350 on boot:

/lib/firmware/v4l-cx2341x-dec.fw

/lib/firmware/v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw

/lib/firmware/v4l-cx2341x-init.mpg

 

Example of missing fw in dmesg:

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv: ==================== START INIT IVTV ====================

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv: version 1.0.0 (2.6.22.4-65.fc7 SMP mod_unload 686 4KSTACKS ) loading

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01462:7252 bound to 0000:00:14.0

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 19

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:04:08.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 20

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: firewire_ohci: Added fw-ohci device 0000:04:08.0, OHCI version 1.10

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge card (cx23415 based)

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 18

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:04:06.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 21

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: firewire_core: created new fw device fw0 (0 config rom retries)

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: unable to open firmware v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw (must be 376836 bytes)

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: did you put the firmware in the hotplug firmware directory?

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: Retry loading firmware

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: unable to open firmware v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw (must be 376836 bytes)

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: did you put the firmware in the hotplug firmware directory?

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: Error initializing firmware

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv0: Error -19 on initialization

Sep 5 16:02:29 mythtv kernel: ivtv: ==================== END INIT IVTV ====================

 

Example of initialization of fw in dmesg:

Linux video capture interface: v2.00

ivtv: ==================== START INIT IVTV ====================

ivtv: version 1.0.0 (2.6.22.4-65.fc7 SMP mod_unload 686 4KSTACKS ) loading

eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01462:7252 bound to 0000:00:14.0

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 19

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:04:08.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 20

firewire_ohci: Added fw-ohci device 0000:04:08.0, OHCI version 1.10

ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge card (cx23415 based)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 18

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:04:06.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 21

firewire_core: created new fw device fw0 (0 config rom retries)

ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw firmware (3730290280 bytes)

ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-dec.fw firmware (3730290288 bytes)

ivtv0: Encoder revision: 0x02060039

ivtv0: Decoder revision: 0x02020023

tveeprom 2-0050: Hauppauge model 48132, rev K268, serial# 9868627

tveeprom 2-0050: tuner model is LG TAPE H001F MK3 (idx 68, type 47)

tveeprom 2-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) (eeprom 0x08)

tveeprom 2-0050: audio processor is MSP4448 (idx 27)

tveeprom 2-0050: decoder processor is SAA7115 (idx 19)

tveeprom 2-0050: has radio, has IR receiver, has no IR transmitter

ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350

tuner 2-0043: chip found @ 0x86 (ivtv i2c driver #0)

tda9887 2-0043: tda988[5/6/7] found @ 0x43 (tuner)

tuner 2-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (ivtv i2c driver #0)

saa7115 2-0021: saa7115 found (1f7115d0e100000) @ 0x42 (ivtv i2c driver #0)

saa7127 2-0044: saa7129 found @ 0x88 (ivtv i2c driver #0)

msp3400 2-0040: MSP4448G-A2 found @ 0x80 (ivtv i2c driver #0)

msp3400 2-0040: MSP4448G-A2 supports radio, mode is autodetect and autoselect

tuner 2-0061: type set to 47 (LG NTSC (TAPE series))

ivtv0: Registered device video0 for encoder MPEG (4 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device video32 for encoder YUV (2 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device vbi0 for encoder VBI (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device video24 for encoder PCM audio (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device radio0 for encoder radio

ivtv0: Registered device video16 for decoder MPEG (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device vbi8 for decoder VBI (1 MB)

ivtv0: Registered device vbi16 for decoder VOUT

ivtv0: Registered device video48 for decoder YUV (1 MB)

ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-init.mpg firmware (3730291512 bytes)

ivtv0: Initialized Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350, card #0

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LAZA] enabled at IRQ 22

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:10.1[B] -> Link [LAZA] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 18

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:10.1 to 64

ivtv: ==================== END INIT IVTV ====================

 

As per http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php?SID&expandables=closed&ivtv=open&pvr350out=open#capture:

 

Alternatively, use yum to install from the ATrpms repository

# yum install ivtv-firmware

 

 

 

Get DVD libraries

 

Download from ATrpms:

libdvdcss-1.2.9-3.fc7.i386.rpm

# rpm –install libdvdcss-1.2.9-3.fc7.i386.rpm

 


Vendors for PVR computing parts in Canada:
As a convenience to the Canadian members of our community, I’d like to start a list of retailers that sell harder-to-find components.

New Type: www.ntcw.com — Zalman, Thermalright, Swiftech, Vantec, Alpha, Seasonic, Nexus updated Mar 23 03
RP Electronics: www.rpelectronics.com — DIY Electronic supplies
Digikey: http://canada.digikey.com — DIY Electronics, Panaflo, etc
E-Compuvision: www.e-compuvision.com — Vantec, Alpha, Swiftech, Zalman updated Dec 31 03
Bigfoot: www.bigfootcomputers.com — Thermalright, Panaflo, Swiftech, Zalman, Alpha & more updated Dec 31 03
Tweakbox: www.tweakbox.com — Panaflo, tails & more
QuietPC: www.quietpc.ca — Fortron, Zalman, Nexus, I-Style, PowerSnooze, VIA, AcoustiPak, Molex, Papst, moreupdated Dec 31 03
Maxibyte: www.maxibyte.biz/cat4_1.htm — Zalman, Q-Technology, Papst
MutePC: www.mutepc.net — Koolance, Zalman, Q-Technology, Papst, Akasa, Molex, Noiseblocker updated Dec 31 03
Genitech: www.genitechcomputers.com/parts-cpu.shtml — Zalman
autodeletepro: www.adpmods.coml — Panaflo, Evercool, Thermalright updated Dec 31 03
Techniche SilentPC: www.silentpc.net — Silent PC retrofitting: Seasonic, Nexus, Thermalright, Panaflo, Zalman, etc. added Mar 19 03
NCIX: www.ncix.com — Zalman, Alpha, ThermalRight, Antec, Papst, Panaflo, Vantec, Ahanix updated Dec 30 03
FrontierPC: www.fronet.com — Zalman, Thermalright, Evercase, Nexus, Seasonic, NoVibes, Arctic Cooler, Antec, Panaflo, Samsung w/8MB buffer updated Jan 1 04
Vibe Computers: www.vibecomputers.com — Thermalright, Zalman, Swiftech, Panaflo, Antec, Papst updated Dec 31 03
Memory Express: www.memoryexpress.com — Panaflo, Samsung, Thermalright, Zalman, Ahanix/Nikao, updated Dec 31 03
Canada Computers: www.canadacomputers.com — Zalman, Antec, etc. updated Dec 30 03
La centrale informatique: www.shoplci.com — Evercase, Antec, Vantec. added Dec 30 03
CIPC: www.cipc-info.com — Antec, Asaka, Panaflo,Papst, Vantec, Zalman. added Dec 30 03
Lux-Design: www.lux-design.com — Panaflo, Thermalright. added Dec 31 03
ByteWize: www.bytewizecomputers.com — Antec, Sparkle, Zalman, Samsung added Dec 31 03
shopRBC: www.shoprbc.com — Thermalright, Antec, Zalman, Swiftech, Alpha added Dec 31 03
Atop Online: www.atoponline.com — Samsung, Zalman added Dec 31 03
Ajump: www.ajump.ca — Evercase, Ahanix, Antec, Sparkle added Dec 31 03
myCableShop: www.mycableshop.ca added Dec 31 03
Canadian Tire: — TrimBrite Door Edge Molding (see this posting) added Dec 31 03

If I missed anything post a reply to this thread & I’ll add your updates.

MythTV FC7 LVM on RAID1 Configuration

MythTV PVR HDD Mirroring 2008/07/24
Host: n43 (mythtv)
– Two SATA 500GB drives sda sdb
– current production drive is sdb

Problem: I’ve done migrations of LVM2 volumes from 320GB SATA to 500GB SATA and added
a redundant 500GB SATA. Now I want to get software RAID 1 setup to protect the
root, swap and /storage filesystems from damage if/when one of the shiny new 500GB SATA
disks bite the dust.

Followed howtoforge.com linux_lvm_p1 (start of article) to free up sda from LVM
volume group VolGroup00 .. http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_lvm_p7

0. Did a file level backup to the fileserver:
[root@n59 20080724]# sshroot@192.168.1.2This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it“tar cf – /lib” | dd of=mythtv-lib.tar
(repeat for /boot /storage /var /etc /home)

1. Free up sda2 LVM volume. I know this volume is not used anymore,
but it still has same-disk backup of /storage from when I was tweaking
MythTV.

[root@mythtv ~]# pvmove /dev/sda2
[root@mythtv ~]# vgreduce /dev/VolGroup00 /dev/sda2
[root@mythtv ~]# pvremove /dev/sda2

– now running on sdb only –

Setup RAID 1 mirroring (md)

2. Partition sda for mirroring (Auto RAID label)
[root@mythtv ~]# fdisk /dev/sda
<delete partitions>
<add primary 1 whole disk>
<set flag to fd – Auto RAID>

[root@mythtv ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 19 152586 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 20 60801 488231415 fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 19 152586 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 20 60801 488231415 8e Linux LVM

Notice that sdb is still using only LVM, not RAID.

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