Mythbuntu 10.10, XBMC 10.1 & Mythbox 1.0.4 on Giada N20
Table of Contents
Download the disk image for Mythbuntu 10.10
Setting up wireless network in Mythbuntu
Install System Updates for Mythbuntu
Configure ALSA to work with XBMC
Stop MythTV from launching at login
Install XBMC 10.1 (stable release)
Setup an account on Schedules Direct to get TV listings
Setup MythTV Server to Watch Live TV & Record
[DVB: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0] (DVBInput) ->
Get the MySQL settings for MythTV for use in MythBox
Setting up XBMC to watch Live TV & Recordings
Hardware Needed:
- Giada N20 Mini PC with 320GB HDD & 2GB RAM
- Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 950Q USB TV Tuner
- USB Keyboard
- USB Mouse
- USB Hub
- TV with HDMI Input
- USB Flash stick capable of holding Mythbuntu i386 disc image (1GB or higher)
- Network cable to plug into local network for install process
- A Windows or Mac computer to create the bootable flash drive
Download the disk image for Mythbuntu 10.10
Go to http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/10.10/release/ and download a copy of the mythbuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso image to another computer.
Once you have the image, use a tool such as UNetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to turn the USB Flash stick into a bootable drive. Launch UNetbootin, press the “...” button, use the file window to select the ISO you just downloaded then let UNetbootin copy the ISO to make a bootable drive.
Installing MythBuntu 10.10
Note: Mythbuntu 10.10 comes with MythTV 0.23.1 installed
Mythbuntu 10.10 has some issues with the install process that require the network cable to be plugged into the N20 unit until after all System Updates have run.
Unpack the Giada N20 unit from the packaging. Attach the power adapter to the N20 but do not turn it on just yet.
Plug the network cable into the back of the N20. Make sure that the other end of the network cable is plugged into your Internet Router. Insert the keyboard into the back of the N20 above the network cable. Then, insert the mouse into the port next to the keyboard. Then, insert the USB Flash drive into the top of the Giada N20. Lastly, plug the HDMI cable provided by Giada into the back of the N20 above the keyboard & mouse cables.
Before continuing, make sure to turn on the TV. Then, turn on the N20. The Giada logo will appear on your TV. 4 seconds after the logo appears, press F12 to select boot device. Select the USB Flash drive. You will then be presented with a UNetbootin created boot screen. Select “Install Mythbuntu” by pressing the arrow keys and then pressing Enter.
Once the Mythbuntu installer launches, you will be presented with a series of screens:
- You’ll be presented with a choice of language. Select “English” Click “Forward”
- You will now be on the “Preparing to install Mythbuntu” screen. We do suggest that you check the box for “Download updates while installing” & “Install this third-party software.” Click “Forward”
- Select “Erase and use the entire disk” Click “Forward”
- Don’t change the drive partitioning on this screen. Click “Install Now”
- Select your appropriate Time Zone. Click “Forward”
- Select your appropriate keyboard layout: usually USA / USA. Click “Forward”
- Fill in Your Name (any format), the Computer’s Name (optionally derived from the Name), a Username (optionally derived from the name), and a Password. Make sure you remember the password as you will need it for later. Make sure that “Log in Automatically” is checked. Click “Forward”
- Select “Primary Backend w/ Frontend.” This will cause Mythbuntu to install both the Server & Client pieces of MythTV 0.23.1 which is what we want. Click “Forward”
- Check “VNC Server”, ‘NFS Server”, “MythTV Service.” Click “Forward”
- You should be presented with a screen talking about Video Drivers. Click on the dropdown and select NVidia Graphics. It is not necessary to set the TV Out settings.
- Press “Forward” This should now finish the prompts and finish up the installation process of Mythbuntu.
- Once the installation has finished, reboot the Giada N20. Leave the network cable plugged in.
- Go ahead & remove the USB Flash drive we used for installing Mythbuntu as we no longer need it. Plug in the Happauge 950Q TV Tuner into the N20 where the Flash drive was since we’ll be setting up MythTV eventually.
Setting up wireless network in Mythbuntu
Your Giada N20 should have rebooted Mythbuntu and launched into MythTV. Press ESC and tell MythTV that you want to exit the client application.
If you are using wireless network to access the Internet, then you will want to make sure that your Giada N20 is setup properly. Ubuntu/Mythbuntu should already have recognized the wireless adapter in your N20. However, if you have your wireless network secured, you will need to configure the adapter to connect to your wireless network with the correct password.
In the upper right of the Ubuntu desktop, click on the “bars” icon to access the wireless menu. Select “Edit Connections.” Click on the “Wireless” tab. You shouldn’t see any configured wireless networks. Press the “Add” button and you’ll see a popup where you can setup a new wireless network.
Fill in the SSID with your wireless network name. Click on the “Wireless Security” tab and select the appropriate type from the dropdown. Provide the network password to your wireless network.
Install System Updates for Mythbuntu
On the desktop, go to the upper left, select Applications -> System -> Update Manager
Press the “Check” button. The Update Manager will then connect to the Internet and look for system updates. If any show up, press “Install Updates”. This will take some time and after it is done, Mythbuntu will be updated with the most current security & system updates.
Configure ALSA to work with XBMC
In order for XBMC & MythTV to work properly with audio over the N20’s HDMI port, you need to do some setup of the ALSA ( Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ) so that the menu sounds & video audio work properly.
First, we need to configure the mixer settings in ALSA. This can be done with the Mixer application. Go to Applications -> Multimedia -> Mixer to launch the application. Once the application launches, you should see a dropdown for “Sound card.” Select “HDA NVidia (Alsa mixer)” from the dropdown. In the lower part of the window you should see four different devices. Check the box next to each device. This will activate all four possible HDMI audio devices within the N20. Go ahead and exit the Mixer application by pressing “Quit.”
Next, from the Desktop, go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal to launch the Terminal application. Create an audio configuration file by typing sudo nano /etc/asound.conf and type or paste the following into it:
pcm.!default {
type hw
card NVidia
device 7
}
ctl.!default {
type hw
card NVidia
device 7
}
pcm.!hdmi {
type hw
card NVidia
device 7
}
ctl.!hdmi {
type hw
card NVidia
device 7
}
Press Ctrl-X to exit nano. nano will prompt you to ask if you want to save the changed file, pressing Enter will pick “yes” as your answer thus saving the file changes you just typed. Once we setup XBMC, this will allow the menu audio to work properly over HDMI using the cable that came with the N20.
Stop MythTV from launching at login
In the upper left of the desktop, click on Applications -> System -> Mythbuntu Control Centre.
When the window opens, click on MySQL. Check the box next to “Enable daily MySQL DB Optimize/Repair cron job”
Click on “Startup Behavior.” Uncheck the box next to “Automatically start MythTV Frontend”
Click the “Apply” button to save your changes. You will be prompted for your password.
Install XBMC 10.1 (stable release)
XBMC is not part of the standard package locations in Ubuntu. You will need to connect to LaunchPad in order to get the release.
In the upper left of the Desktop, go to Applications -> System -> Terminal. Once a terminal launches, type the following into the window:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
This will add the XBMC LaunchPad site to your standard package repositories. However, at this moment in time (June 2011) there isn’t a package for Natty Narwhal (Ubuntu 11.04). So, what we need to do is tell Synaptic Package Manager to look in a different location for XBMC.
In the upper left of the Desktop, go to Applications -> System -> Synaptic Package Manager. Click Settings -> Repositories. Under “Other Software”, highlight the XBMC PPA and click Edit. For the “Distribution”, change it to maverick. Then, do the same for the other XBMC PPA setting in Synaptic.
Then, back in the Terminal, type in the following:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc
Note: If you want to use the nightly build (11.0 Unstable) version of XBMC which is under heavy development, you can change the ppa to be:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/unstable
However be aware that a number of Add-ons will not be available for the 11.0 development version. Some features also may not work properly.
Setup an account on Schedules Direct to get TV listings
In order to get a listing of TV shows for more then just 2 days, you will need to sign up with Schedules Direct and configure MythTV to pull the schedules from their service.
Using a web browser on another computer, go to schedulesdirect.org. Click on the Sign Up link on the upper left. This will take you to a sign up form. Fill in all personal information (name, address, user ID, password, etc). Click on the Continue button to move on. You will then be presented with a screen mentioning you must Activate your login. Do not close your browser window, you will need it again shortly. It states that you will be emailed the Activation Code.
Log into your email system and copy the Activation Code. Return to the schedulesdirect.org page and put the Activation Code into the form. Click the Activate button.
The page will refresh and mention that you need to add a channel line up. Click the “Add a new lineup”. You will then be taken to a page with your zip code showing, and also a text box that you can type in a different zipcode. Click the radio button for either you zipcode, or type in another zipcode & click the radio button for that selection. Click the Next button to see a listing of all available line ups for your area code.
Unless you are planning to configure MythTV to work with a cable box or dish device, you will want to select Local Broadcast Listings - Antenna to get listings for over the air broadcast Television. Click on Local Broadcast Listings - Antenna to add it as a line up to your SchedulesDirect account.
That should be it! Your SchedulesDirect account is now configured.
Setup MythTV Server to Watch Live TV & Record
Note: These directions will pertain to setting up Terrestrial Broadcast Digital TV in the United States. If you are out of the USA, then your setup will be different!
In the upper left of the Desktop, go to Applications -> System -> MythTV Backend Setup. This will first prompt you agree that it is OK to close any myth backend processes. You’ll want to say “Yes.” Then, you’ll be prompted to provide your password, give that, then it will launch the MythTV user interface to configure the server component that controls the 950Q TV Tuner as well as recording TV and managing stored video.
You should now see the MythTV Server user interface with a number of menu buttons to choose from. We’re going to use a few of them to configure the software before we can move on. We will list each screen under each button & tell you what has to change, if anything, to configure things properly.
General
Host Address Backend Setup
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Locale Settings
- TV format: NTSC
- VBI format: NTSC Closed Caption
- Channel frequency table: us-bcast
- Your local time zone (for XMLTV): None
- Not usually changed unless the TV schedule is in a different time zone from the MythTV recording unit
Click “Next”
Miscellaneous Settings
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
EIT Scanner Options
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Shutdown/Wakeup Options
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Backend Wakeup Options
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Backend Control
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Job Queue (Backend-Specific)
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Job Queue (Global)
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Job Queue (Job Commands)
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
UPnP Server Settings
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
MythTV Database Logging
- No changes from defaults
Click “Next”
Mythfilldatabase
- No changes from defaults
Click “Finish”
Press ESC
Capture Cards
(New Capture Card)
- Capture Card Setup
- Card type: DVB DTV capture card (v3.x)
- DVB device number: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 (automatically determined by MythTV)
- Frontend ID: Auvitek AU8522 QAM
- Subtype: ATSC
- Signal timeout: 500
- Tuning timeout: 3000
- Recording Options: default values
Click “Finish”
Press ESC
Video Sources
(New video source)
- Video Source Setup
- Video Source name: <any name you want, just remember it for later>
- Listings grabber: North America (SchedulesDirect.org)(Internal)
- User ID: <your SchedulesDirect user ID you provided when you signed up>
- Password: <your SchedulesDirect password you provided when you signed up>
- Data Direct Lineup: <choose a lineup you configured during the SchedulesDirect signup>
- Channel frequency table: default
Click “Finish”
Press ESC
Input connections
[DVB: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0] (DVBInput) ->
- Connect source to input
- Capture device: [DVB: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0]
- Input: DVBInput
- Video Source: <your Video Source you created in the previous step>
- Use quick tuning: Never
- Click “Scan for channels”
- Make sure that antenna is hooked up
- Will take a while for the scan
- Interactions between inputs: default values
Click “Finish”
You are now done configuring the MythTV server component. Press ESC, you will be prompted to quit. Do so, then you should be prompted for your password again. Provide your password. You will then be prompted if you want to run mythfilldatabase. Click “Yes” since you’ve added channels to MythTV. Mythfilldatabase will take a while as MythTV connects to the SchedulesDirect service and downloads the TV listings.
Get the MySQL settings for MythTV for use in MythBox
From the Ubuntu desktop, click on Applications -> Multimedia -> MythTV Frontend
Click on Utilities / Setup -> Setup -> General. This will take you to a configuration screen where you can retrieve the Database Name, User & Password for the MythTV MySQL Database. You will need to provide Mythbox this information shortly.
Press ESC 3 times to return to the main menu in the MythTV client, then press ESC to exit the application.
Setting up XBMC to watch Live TV & Recordings
In the upper left of the Desktop, go to Applications -> Multimedia -> XBMC Media Center. This will launch the XBox Media Center application that will allow you to recordings of programs & other media.
Setting up Audio
System
System
Audio output
- Audio output: HDMI
- Speaker Configuration: 2.0
- Most TVs don’t support multichannel audio
- Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver: Uncheck
- DTS capable receiver: Uncheck
- Audio output device: hdmi
- Passthrough output device: hdmi
Input devices
- Remote control sends keyboard presses: Check
Press ESC to go up a menu.
Setting up MythBox
From the System menu, click on Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> XBMC.org Add-ons -> Video Add-ons -> MythBox
You should be presented with a popup window. Click on Install and XBMC will start to download & install MythBox. Once it is installed, press ESC.
Press ESC again to return to the top XBMC menu. Select Videos -> Video Add-ons -> MythBox. This will launch MythBox and since it is the first time MythBox was launched, it will put you into the Settings screen. Verify the MythTV database information that you wrote down earlier. Usually the only information that needs to be provided is the MySQL database password for the MythTV database. Press ESC to go up a menu, then press ESC again to return to the main menu in XBMC.
Success
Your Giada N20 system should now be setup.