Running The Mythbuntu Install CD

First of all, don't think because you've got an operating system install disk, in your hot little hands, that was built specifically for MythTV, that your install will be easy. Any way you slice it, installing Mythbuntu and getting MythTV to work is going to be a goat rope. If you don't want to spend days dicking around with hardware, drivers and screwy software, go buy a TiVoHD and pay those lovely people their monthly fee. Get used to the fact that they're logging what you watch plus every click of the remote, all the while forcing you to see advertising from their sponsors.

OK, still want to proceed? The goat roping begins with the install disk. We're going to start by building a combo backend/frontend machine (i.e. one that records TV and lets you view it [what a concept]).

Possibly, you were being clever and got a smallish hard drive for the OS and MythTV software and then one or more mondo huge drives for recording storage. For example, your system might look like this:

     sda - 80G SATA
     sdb - 620G SATA
     sdc - 620G SATA

During setup, you'll have to partition these drives. You could do it manually or you could allow Mythbuntu's automatic partitioning to do it. So far, We've never seen an automatic partitioner that does any kind of a decent job so we're all for manual partitioning. We like to set the partitions up this way:

     sda1    512M    ext3    /boot
     sda2      4G    swap
     sda3     max    ext3    /
     sdb1     max    xfs     /mnt/sdb1
     sdc1     max    xfs     /mnt/sdc1

Or something to that effect. The partitioner may round the sizes up down a bit to make them fit within cylinder boundaries. That's OK, since 512M is way more than you'll ever need for /boot and a 4G swap partition is plenty. All of the other partitions should be set to the maximum size remaining.

Make sure to choose the option to format all of the partitions. And, for any partition that will be storing video data, always choose the "xfs" file system, since it works best with big files.

The alternative is to go for the bleeding edge and purchase one ginormous hard drive to hold everything, a configuration which we've also had success with. For example, your system might look like this:

     sda - 2.0T SATA

Once again, during setup, you'll have to partition the drive, which you could do manually or allow Mythbuntu's automatic partitioning to do it. As we said above, we're no fans of automatic partitioning so we're still all for manual partitioning. Set the partitions up this way:

     sda1    512M    ext3    /boot
     sda2      2G    swap
     sda3     max    xfs     /

After you've partitioned the drives, the remainder of setup is straightforward. Just follow the steps. However, there is one other thing to watch out for when you're setting Mythbuntu up. If you have an Ira IR device (from Home Electronics) plugged into the serial port, do not set this device up during install. Make sure to pick "No Remote" when you do the install. If you do not, the install will hang and any subsequent reboots of the partially-installed Mythbuntu will die with the error message "No resume image".

We don't know if there are other remote controls that have this effect but the Ira is definitely one of them, especially under Mythbuntu 8.04LTS. If your system hangs during install or when it is subsequently rebooted, you should try going back to the beginning of the install and doing it over (we tried 5 times before getting it just right). Make sure to leave off any kind of remote control (you can set it up later) as the install program does not deal well with those that it doesn't understand (the Ira being one of them).