LinHES

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LinHES (Linux Home Entertainment System) is a distribution heavily based on Arch, centered around MythTV designed for Home Theater PCs (HTPCs) use. The expressed goal of LinHES is to provide a HES-appliance feel to your HTPC. Most if not all of the system configuration and operation can be accomplished via your remote control. Users can go from a blank system to a fully functional MythTV system in 15-20 minutes. LinHES makes use of mythvantage for easy configuration and modification. There is a service menu accessible right from the mythtv GUI where users can configure most of the machine right from their couch via their remote control.

  • Current stable release: R6.01.00 (26-Sep-09)
  • Creator/lead developer: Cecil Watson
  • Pkg Maintainers/developers: Greg Frost, James Meyer, Nathan Harris

Key Features

  • Installation and setup are relatively trivial.
  • Major features aside from MythTV are preconfigured (SAMBA, sshd, x11vnc, webmin, lighttpd, lirc, etc.)
  • Comprehensive "Auto Upgrade" (along with backup scripts) makes upgrading a snap.
  • Live Frontend allows users to run a front-end on any machine live from the CD.
  • User support forums
  • Partial automation of Australian EPG setup
  • Native [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU VDPAU] support for both MythTV and mplayer
  • Native support for many popular SDTV/HDTV capture hardware
  • Native XBMC support
  • Native support for a large number of remote controls
  • Hulu desktop option
  • Packages for Mythtv-0.22

Brief History

The predecessor to LinHES is Knoppmyth (KM). As its name implies, the initial releases of Knoppmyth were based on Knoppix, but the latest incarnations are not, although the brand-name "KnoppMyth" has been retained. From the knoppmyth wiki:

"Knoppix itself is an adaptation of the Debian Linux distribution, Knoppmyth therefore is another project that has spiralled off into its own domain. These days it would be more correct to call KnoppMyth a specialized and heavily customized Debian derivative, as there is very little Knoppix left."

The first release of KM was on 09-Aug-2003 (R1) and was based on MythTV 0.10. The latest stable incarnation of KM is R5.5 which was released on 06-Jul-2008 and is based on MythTV 0.21.2. The first release of LinHES (R6) went gold (stable) on the 26-Sept-2009, version R6.01.00 being officially released.

Both LinHES and KM can be installed and function on almost any "modern" computer. There are a set of components that constitute the so-called, "Knoppmyth Reference Platform" which is nothing more than a set of hardware that is known and certified to work out-of-the-box with KM. The hardware specifications are completely open and published here.

Development on KM has halted and all efforts are focusing on LinHES. That said, KM R5.5 is still a very robust Mythtv-Distro.

Version History of KM/LinHES

Since the first release in 2003, there have been about a dozen major and minor versions of KM.

  • 09-26-09 R6 goes gold, version R6.01.00 officially released
  • 08-14-09 Pre-Release R6.00.09 of LinHES
  • 7-6-08 Release 5.5 "Bone Marrow"
Uses a snapshot of Debian Unstable and the 2.6.23-chw-4 kernel
  • 5-11-07 Release 5 Final 1 "Farewell days of my youth"
  • 11-3-03 Release 4 "CoCo2"
Upgraded to MythTV 0.12
  • 9-01-2003 Release 3 "Each of these my three babies"
The CD can now be use as a front-end
  • 08-25-2003 Release 2 "Chicago, Chicago"
Updated to MythTV 0.11
  • 08-08-2003 Release 1 "You better Belize it!"
Based on Knoppix 07-26-2003 and MythTV 0.10

R5.5/R6.x Differences Table and Equivalent Commands

This section intends to capture the differences between R5.x and R6.x as well as capture some equivalent shell commands for the user familiar with the R5 series.

Core Components

Component R5 Uses... R6 Uses...
"The Brand" Knoppmyth LinHES
Parent Linux Distro Debian Arch Linux
Webserver Apache2 Lighttpd

Miscell. Components/Shell Examples

Component R5 Uses... R6 Uses... R5 Example R6 Example
Adding a Daemon update-rc.d add_service.sh # update-rc.d daemonname defaults $ sudo add_service.sh daemonname
Removing a Daemon update-rc.d remove_service.sh # update-rc.d -f daemonname remove $ sudo remove_service.sh daemonname
Init System sysv init runit # /etc/init.d/webmin start $ sudo sv start webmin
Diskless Frontend NFS root, shared /usr pacman -S diskless-legacy ; config_diskless_frontend.bash knoppmyth_diskless_frontend.bash

Package Management/Shell Examples

Package Task R5 Uses... R6 Uses... R5 Example R6 Example
Update package list dpkg and apt-get pacman # apt-get update $ sudo pacman -Sy
Install a Package dpkg and apt-get pacman # apt-get install packagename $ sudo pacman -S packagename
Remove a Package dpkg and apt-get pacman # apt-get remove packagename $ sudo pacman -Rs packagename
Location of repos /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/pacman.conf
Location of Package Cache /var/cache/apt/archives /data/var/cache/pacman/pkg
Upgrade All Installed Packages dpkg and apt-get pacman # apt-get dist-upgrade $ sudo pacman -Syu
Install from local pacakge dpkg pacman # dpkg -i <file> $ sudo pacman -U <file>

Configuration Settings

Component or config file R5 Uses... R6 Uses... R5 example R6 Example
/etc/fstab device names UUID /dev/sda1 UUID=a6b1c6b8-eebf-4e28-8020-!309cf441bfcc

Required Hardware

A LinHES system can use most modern and "semi-modern" hardware. Some users report a fully functional system driven by an antiquated AMD Athlon (800 MHz)/nforce2 CPU/MB. For HD-playback one will need a more powerful CPU or a GPU capable of VDPAU such as an NVIDIA 8400GS, 9500GT, or GF 210. For a complete table of NVIDIA cards and their VDPAU support, see this table. Intel Atom-based PCs are also popular among LinHES users for their low heat output and ultra low power consumption. Again, this low-power CPU needs to be paired with a VDPAU compatible GPU or else view HD content will not be possible. Most Atom MB/CPU combos are paired with one, for example, see offerings by Intel and Zotac.

LinHES can also run in a virtual machine (verified to work in Virtual Box v3.0.10) if would-be users would prefer to test drive it in a sandbox.

R6 Installation Walk-through (Brief)

Boot the LinHES CD or USB media which are both available via FTP download [here].

  • Screen 1: Select the "Install or Upgrade" option. If upgrading, you will go directly to screen 10 and everything will be processed automatically based on your backups.
Warning: If upgrading from an R5.x box, make sure that you run the mythbackup script before you attempt an install of R6!
  • Screen 2: Select a target file-system
  • Screen 3: Select the type of install (Full/auto or Upgrade). Also assign partition sizes for the OS, swap, and data partitions. The defaults should be fine. Users can also select which file-system format is used. Currently the default is for ext3, but other options such as ext4/RFS/XFS/JFS are also available.
  • Screen 4: Assign a host-name
Note: Make sure you are satisfied with the host-name you select since you cannot easily change it after the installation due to a number of other configuration files/mysql tables that will depend on it.
  • Screen 5: Setup the network options. Users may select from wired or wireless configurations with all the standard options such as dynamic IP/static IP, devices, mtu size, etc.
Note: For more of MTU sizes a.k.a jumbo frames, see the Jumbo Frames article.
  • Screen 6: Setup host options. Choices here include system configuration (standalone/frontend/master backend/slave backend). Initial resolution (i.e. SDTV or HDTV) and remote configure are also on this screen. The setup GUI contains many options for remote controls that are preconfigured for you. Users also set the option to use or not use mythwelcome on this screen.
Note: Make sure you understand the architecture of mythtv networks. A selection of standalone should only be made if this is and will be the only mythtv box on your network. For more on this, see [insertlink this] page on the official mythtv wiki.
  • Screen 7: Setup timezone/zipcode
  • Screen 8: Setup NFS options if media is stored on a remote NFS share. Also configure automatic updates
  • Screen 9: Setup user accounts and passwords
Warning: Make sure to create a non-mythtv account, assign a root password and assign a mythtv password on this screen before you continue!
  • Screen 10: Sanity check/"Are you sure you wish to continue?" screen.

This concludes the installation. The scripts will take over and in about 5 min you will reboot into your LinHES installation.

External Links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=LinHES&oldid=82752"