PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Apple, Linux & Open Source Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: GillE on October 29, 2009, 19:40
-
After many years of dithering, I've finally taken the plunge by installing Ubuntu 9.10 on my back up machine. I'm using it right now :) .
So far so good, but my attempts to install MythTV haven't been successful yet. I'm going to persevere and if I need any help I'll just yell, "SAM!!!! Look at this mess you've got me into :bawl: !"
;D
-
Have you got it along side, or instead of, Windows, Gill?
-
It was supposed to be along side but something went wrong :blush: . So far, I'm quite happy with the mistake :) . My big worry was getting it to connect to the internet, but it connected automatically. I'm currently burning a DVD with it using DVD+R discs that my Vista machine wouldn't even recognise; later on I shall see how good it is at detecting an "all-in-one" printer that Vista won't accept.
-
see its not that bad is it... I'd argue that it works out of the box just like windows these days...
more info on myth tv:http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php - just noticed that they have their own distro with it included.
some more at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV#MythTV%20on%20Ubuntu%209.04%20(Jaunty%20Jackalope)
Let me know if you need any assistance though.
-
It's astonishing, but Ubuntu had no trouble whatsoever locating and installing my "all-in-one" printer. From what I can see so far, Vista's only saving grace is that it will play some games that Ubuntu won't (big deal ::) ) and, ironically, it will run get-iplayer (http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer) which is a Linux program. I've downloaded and installed get-player quite successfully from what I can make out, but can I work out how to start it? Of course not.
-
... and to be honest with enough time and effort you can get quite a lot of the games working, I'm slowly working at instructions for all my favourite games, the only ones I've really had problems getting to work have been the graphics heavy ones, but the games I like to play on the pc rarely need that.... you can always install Vistal as a virtual machine inside Ubuntu, which I've done...
get-player, I know the person who wrote the first iplayer software for linux (http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/)- .... Gill to use this alas I'm afraid you might have to get dirty with the commandline.. though not that dirty... go applications>terminal and then type:
get_iplayer
(this will list all the shows...)
to the record the show type:
get_iplayer --get 123
(more documentation at http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer/documentation) I can't actually see if this works... not in the UK and all. Its a shame they haven't put a GUI together but I'm sure it will come with time.
-
...go applications>terminal...
Thank you, Sam :) . To operate Get_iplayer with Vista, you click on its icon and it automatically opens a DOS command window for you. I wasn't aware that with Ubuntu you have to open the terminal first. It's working now :) . What a shame it won't work for people overseas.
I still don't have MythTV up and running yet, but I haven't really been trying. That's probably a job for the weekend.
Once again, thanks for the help :) .
-
Now I'm jumping back to XP.
I really enjoyed dabbling with Ubuntu and I reckon it is a smashing OS apart from one major limitation; television recording. MythTV is a nightmare to set up and I reckon you need a background in both computer and television engineering to get it working.
-
Sam will be gutted! ;)
-
I really enjoyed dabbling with Ubuntu and I reckon it is a smashing OS apart from one major limitation; television recording. MythTV is a nightmare to set up and I reckon you need a background in both computer and television engineering to get it working.
well I'm not sure, its just you have to be used to installing things in Linux (did you try this guide: http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php)... hopefully it will get easier in the future, though I hope you can see how easy it is to do most things and why one can easily use it instead of Windows. The one limitation I have is playing games, but that is getting better and better all the time so hopefully the same can be said about your limitation. I also wonder if there is another linux that is easier to use with mythtv, but I doubt it.
Oh you could have setup i-player thingy to launch via an icon.. maybe they should add this by default.
-
At the start of this thread I warned I might end up yelling, "SAM!!!! Look at this mess you've got me into :bawl:!"
Well, I've got XP back on my machine but will it detect my TV Card? Will it heck! At least Ubuntu detected my printer/scanner and was resource light. I actually liked Ubuntu; Micro$oft Windoze feels cold by comparison. Perhaps I might have another dabble. Mythbuntu, perhaps? Watch this space... :crazy:
-
My elderly back up PC only has a 40 Gb HDD. By the time I had installed WinXP with all its service packs, 37.3 Gb of that was taken! I hadn't realised how hungry that OS was. I've just installed Mythbuntu although I haven't configured it yet. That leaves 31.9 Gb free.
-
and I guess you still would have had other software, printer, office etc to stick on on top of that.
-
If it's for TV/DVB then mythbuntu is a good way to go as a lot of cards will be supported out of the box, you may still have a little trouble with remotes and front panel displays (but that IS part of the fun :-D ).
For windows games on Linux you may also want to dabble with: http://www.transgaming.com/business/cedega/6.0/ which is a windows graphical emulation environment, not sure what the licensing is these days, but it used to be available as open source.
-
Here's a slightly more up to date link for cedega: http://www.cedega.com/downloads/
-
You know I said my back up computer was elderly? The HDD has been clicking for some time and yesterday it finally refused to play. I'm going to see if I can get another HDD to work but it's not a machine I'm prepared to invest a lot of resources in. Hubby has promised me a new computer for Christmas if I need one :banana: .
-
Here's a slightly more up to date link for cedega: http://www.cedega.com/downloads/
yeah I've used Cedega, but its not free anymore and I quite like challenge of getting stuff working via other method (well Wine mostly)
-
You know I said my back up computer was elderly? The HDD has been clicking for some time and yesterday it finally refused to play. I'm going to see if I can get another HDD to work but it's not a machine I'm prepared to invest a lot of resources in. Hubby has promised me a new computer for Christmas if I need one :banana: .
That's a shame - hard disk failures are always a pain but its generally the cheap bit to go now.