General :: Use A Single PC As A Desktop And A Media Center?
Apr 19, 2011
I have a pretty powerful computer and GPU that I'd like to fully utilize.I've been using Linux for the better part of 10 years and I'd like to know (as I can't think of a way) how I can use a single PC as a desktop AND a media center.My vision would be to essentially have to separate workstations on one PC. My desk monitor will be station one (desktop) and my TV will be station two (media center)... both should work independently of each other as if neither knows the other exists.
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Jan 17, 2010
I'm about at wit's end trying to figure out how to get Fedora 10 (can't go upgrade past that version, due to no more support for the integrated Radeon S300 graphics) on my HP Media Center desktop to resume after suspend- or to disable suspend, or anything that will prevent the computer from hanging after a period of inactivity. I have tried various combinations of noapm, noacpi, s4_nohwsig, etc., etc.; nothing helped. Actually, noacpi might have helped, I don't know, because disabling ACPI somehow disables internet as well, and I'm not willing to pay that price.I went into the CMOS RAM setup (both before and after updating the BIOS to the latest version), and the only Power options available were "After AC Power Failure," "WOL in S4," and "XD (Execute Disable)."Does anyone perchance know the magical solution to make the problem go away, aside from reverting to Windows?
P.S. The specs:
Dual-Boot XP / Fedora10 with GRUB bootloader
PentiumD 820(S) DC 2.8 GHz (800 MHz FSB, Socket 775)
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Jun 6, 2011
I want to measure the system load on my Ubuntu media center computer. What commands and utilities are available? I've explored the w, top, iostat, and uptime commands. Anything else I could use?
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Apr 6, 2011
Yesterday, after I first installed Slackware 13.1 I had no trouble replacing the default wallpaper with a simple gradient. Very easy. Today, (after re-formatting the drive and re-installing the entire system because I messed around with a script and it wouldn't boot) I can't change it. I spent about an hour messing around with menus and settings trying to figure out how I did it, and eventually, as a last resort, turned to the help file. It tells me to choose Configure Desktop from pop-up menu when right-click on the background.
But Configure Desktop doesn't appear in the pop-up menu. (At least, not anymore it doesn't.) The help file also says to use the Control Center, but I can't find any trace of that either. I haven't the slightest idea why these are missing. Since I re-installed everything onto a freshly re-formatted drive, anything I played around with before shouldn't have any effect on the new installation. The problem is there both when I login as root and user. I really don't want to try re-installing everything again.
The only changes I've made to the system since the re-install is to edit /etc/inittab to replace the 3 in id:3:initdefault: with a 4, so I get a graphical login, and to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 to place an & at the end of the dhcpcd request which, according to the instructions I was following should put it in the background to speed up boot-time slightly. I haven't (knowingly) played around with anything that should affect KDE, except changing settings from within the KDE menus. I know it's probably going to be something very simple, and possibly obvious in retrospect, but I'm new to Linux and have no idea what I'm doing here.
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Jan 31, 2010
So I've got old components from my previous computer I'd like to use to build a media center. Here's what I have:
Case
550W PSU
MSI K8NEO 4 Platinum MOBO
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Jun 9, 2010
I've been thinking of turning my old computer into a media center for a while now (it was running Ubuntu Server 9.10). I recently bought a new 23inch screen so.. out with the server, in with the media center! (currently Xubuntu but running on LXDE as it's a lot lighter) My problem: The computer barely manages to play 720p videos on XBMC (on ..... or totem/vlc it's just impossible with breaks, lag and constant freezes).. I used the debug function of XBMC and guess what.. a 720p movie takes my cpu to a constant 100% usage!! =X
So here's my question.. what distro or 'buntu flavor would you advise me to use?? I thought about a minimal install but don't want to try it just yet..
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Apr 20, 2011
I'm looking for some advice for setting up a media center, which will be hooked up to my flat screen TV. I think I've got most of the technical bits figured out with an Acer with 4 gigs of memory. What I need are some words of wisdom about choices for software and the like:
Is it worth the trouble to install Boxee or XMBC, or to play music and videos using VLC, etc.? I realize I won't be able to stream Netflicks without Boxee, but I haven't decided if that's a breaking point or not. Do I want to connect the computer to the TV screen directly through HDMI, or connect the computer to my receiver, which is already hooked up to the TV? I'm cheap enough to want to take advantage of the receiver, but I'm also wondering if sound quality will be better, since it's connected to my speakers and the TV just has internal speakers. Remote. Do I want to try and figure out how to use one of the several remotes that I currently own, or is it just easier to buy a computer-compatible remote?
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Jan 1, 2010
I'm trying to put together a home media center from some old hardware I have. I'm looking at running something like Mythbuntu, Freevo, or Boxee. The computers accessing it would be a couple Ubuntu PCs and a Mac. I'm also wondering if there are good class-compliant (that is the term, right?) audio interfaces for multiple outputs.
What I am trying to set up is a media server to store media (mostly mp3s, some movies) that I will access over the network, which is a combination of wireless and wired. I'd like to have controls in each room for what's playing on separate speakers in different rooms, and the volume. It'd be nice to be able to output from my main desktop, also. This will take some time to put together, so I'd like to start with a good foundation. I found this comparison pretty helpful, by the way:[URL]..
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Feb 11, 2010
i am using ubuntu media on a desktop for all of my multimedia needs and i just installed jaunty (alt install) on an old gateway solo laptop(266 mhz and 186mb ram) to use as my controller/remote using desktop sharing, the problem is the laptop can't keep up with the desktop and everything is all jerky (especially watching dvds). So here are the questions, what can i uninstall from the laptop to make performance better and/or is there another option short of buying a wireless keyboard/mouse (I'm poor and use what I have(besides i like having an up-close display for text and stuff)).
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Feb 12, 2010
I'm trying to set up Ubuntu with Boxee and MythTV as a media centre. I'm currently stuck at displaying a picture on my TV screen. I only have an Intel onboard graphics chip, and so I bought a VGA-to-TV box to convert the signal. This is USB powered and has VGA in, S-Video, Component and VGA out. I have it connected to an external monitor by VGA and to the TV by component cable into a SCART adapter (along with a mini-jack to phono cable from the sound card).
I was hoping that the box would handle the settings for the TV screen, but all I'm seeing are flashing lines of colour, so I'm guessing I have to change the settings. Eventually, I want to get the TV to be widescreen, but I'd like it to work first! I have created an xorg.conf file and put in three extra modes.
- first, an 800x600 VGA to PAL TV converter from [URL]... - second and third, two resolutions generated by the calculator, based on the SwitchResX settings for my MacBook to connect to the same TV. Now I'm sure you want to see a whole load of settings from my machine, but sadly I don't know what settings you'll need to see.
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Aug 27, 2010
I am trying to build a media center for music for me and my roommates to use. Basically I want to build a system just for playing music. Idealy (dare i mention itunes in here) I would love a computer just just booted into itunes(orsomething like it (or better) that just was for playing music.
I plan on buying a computer, like a tiny desktop (i dont want to take up a lot of room) with a huge hard drive just for holding music, and needs usb drives/cd drive for loading music onto it (or just a usb drive). Then get a small screen, not huge with a remote that does not run on wife. Also would like a keyboard on the remote if possible.
Anywho whats a good media center, and can I boot just straight into the media center? I would like support for; browse by artist, album and just song name. Also I would like to be able to make playlist within it, and it needs to be able to support a massive amount of songs.
desktop computers to use for this project and remotes that I could use? Also how would you suggest the best way to go about doing this? I would love if it booted straight into the media player. Internet is not a huge deal to me, might connect to internet once just to grab album artwork. So a media player that auto fetches artwork too would also be nice.
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Apr 18, 2011
I have a ViewSonic Windows Media PC. Would it be possible to get Ubuntu on it and get all of the information I need for the drivers that I'll have to somehow install to make it work on Ubuntu? I was going to work on an ancient POS but I can't get it to boot from USB and I have no CD-ROM for it.
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Dec 10, 2010
I am trying to setup a temporary media center because the one I was using died. The computer I have to work with is a crappy old computer and its only purpose is going to be a middle man between a server I have for movie storage, and my TV. I don't want to spend any money right now because I'm working on building a MythTV system at home, so until then I'm trying to setup this temporary solution. The computer I have to work with is a Dell Optiplex GX150, everything stock.
I'm looking for a distro that is light enough to run on this machine without any problems (about a 1 gighz processor and a 1/2 a gig of ram), can display movies just fine, and must be able to support 1080 resolution. I've tried Mint 10, but that's way too top heavy, as is Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04. I also tried gOS which displayed the resolution just fine, but was WAY too resource intense for this machine... Just clicking on the menu took 5-10 seconds same as with Mint.
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Oct 11, 2010
I've been looking around for the past week, but I have yet to find anything yet that provides a media center solution using Ubuntu + Xbox 360, comparable to Windows 7 + Xbox 360.
I want to drop Windows 7 completely on my media PC, and just use Ubuntu (or Linux Mint). I've tried ushare, XBMC, Moovida, and a few other apps. Either they don't support sharing, or it's difficult to configure, or it is a cheap looking solution.
Is there no way to use my Xbox 360 for a smooth media center experience, similar to how it functions as a Media Center Extender for Win7, while replacing Win7 w/ Ubuntu?
I'm even open to commercial Linux solutions, I'm just hoping to be able to drop Win7 if possible..
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Jan 6, 2011
I got it into my head to change the graphics card in my Ubuntu 10.04 media center. I removed my old ATI card and installed a new ASUS ENGT 430. I tried to uninstall the ATI drivers and associated software prior to this but obviously I didn't get it all. When I boot into X it takes me in under low graphics mode. I've tried rebuilding my xorg.conf. I've installed the driver from the ASUS site and nothing.
I decided to swap in my old ATI card and obviously I've not cleared all the ATI artifacts as the low graphics mode that machine first booted into was at the high resolution that I was running previously. I uninstalled all Nvidia software but now I'm not even able to get the old ATI software to work. Jockey sees the drivers after I install them through the Software Center but they're not really working. XBMC won't start for GL reasons.
What do I need to purge all graphics drivers and install the nVidia driver? I've got a feeling if I started from scratch I could get it to work but I seriously don't want to reinstall everything. I've worked hard to get my XBMC config just so and I don't want to lose everything
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Feb 6, 2010
I have recently put Ubuntu on a friend's computer. I can access the windows partition and everything through Ubuntu. When I go to restart, his Windows XP Media Center Edition is in the boot loader's list but when I go to boot into it all I get is a black screen with a flash _ at the top left. It then just continues to sit there. I was wondering if maybe GRUB was looking in the wrong spot for the OS.
Before I installed Linux he was having problems with Windows XP, which is one reason why I switched him to Ubuntu. For some reason his computer was booting his HP Recovery partition instead of his Windows partition on start up. I was hoping by putting Ubuntu on and using GRUB as a boot loader I would be able to load Windows and Ubuntu side by side as it is on my machine. Windows still doesn't work though I hope people can help me out. I know this isn't really an Ubuntu question but I was unsure where to post boot loader questions.
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Jul 19, 2010
Has anyone had experience building a dedicated multimedia center? I know Its going to be ubuntu based and probably run xbmc. I've seen a pc case to use but I dont know if the remote control for it can work under ubuntu or any other distro. Has anyone had success making a remote control for an ubuntu based media center work?
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Jul 27, 2010
I've just finished installing the software on the box. I've made it a dual-boot but want to set the default to Windows XP Media Center so my grandson can work with it. I want to change the boot configuration file but the documentation show working with menu.lst file but I can't find it. How do I make the changes without blowing grub out of the water?
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May 23, 2010
i have geforce 8800 gts, ubuntu 10.04 when i don't install nvidia drivers movies plays great ( including HD) but programs (games,media center) does not play well at all choppy when i do install the opposite is correct movies plays choppy but all other progs plays great.
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Mar 16, 2010
Ubuntu 9.04 Gnome Desktop (although I have seen the same situation in other versions).When I have a removable media device installed such as a USB flash drive, a CD/DVD or an SD card in the built in reader I have a corresponding icon on the desktop. So here is my situation...I have a 16 GB SDHC card installed in the reader in my netbook as additional storage. As the main solid state "hard drive" itself is only 16 GB I leave the card in at all times. I would like to do away with the desktop icon as I never use it to access the SD card. Any way to do this? I believe it appear as part of the HAL process so perhaps it will go away with 10.04.
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Feb 24, 2010
When i try to copy files from my samba server (Ubuntu 9.10) to my windows seven media center, the speed is extremely slow. So slow that is better to download 100mb file from the internet, than from my lan. And on my lan, every card and switch is at 1000 mbps speeds on cat5 cables. And from XP or other linux machine
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Jul 21, 2010
I am a newbie of KDE desktop. Where can I find the functions of control center of Gnome in KDE desktop? For example, the "Remote Desktop Preference"
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Jul 17, 2011
Using opensuse 11.4. The desktop clock which was in the center of the lowest panel has disappeared?!? How do I get it back?
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Apr 23, 2011
Can I have two ubuntu desktop in a single installed ubuntu9.10 such that two desktop has different ipaddress?
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Oct 29, 2010
I am looking for a viewer kind of like my computer so that I can access storage media, like if I put a usb stick in or a cd it would display here. My desktop is KDE
opensuse 11.3
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Jan 5, 2015
I'd like to install Debian GNU/Linux on a single drive (SSD) desktop computer.The filesystem of choice is BTRFS and a couple of thing are not really clear to me:
- is a swap partition still necessary and what's the best fs for it?
- what partition scheme would be suggested?
I thought about 2 different btrfs partitions, one for /home and one for / (root) but from what I read if I'm giving the raw drive to BTRFS that would be more beneficial performance-wise, is that correct? (actually I don't even know if 2 btrfs partitions on the same drive is even possible).
If should I got for "donating" the raw/whole drive to btrfs which subvolumes scheme would be suggested for an easy management of the snapshots and backups? should /home be a subvolume or that's not really necessary.
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Aug 17, 2010
When Desktop Effects are enabled in KDE the window for Tecplot 'bleeds' through, as if ~40% transparent in various regions. Disabling desktop effects fixes this, however, I would like to keep them. Is there a way to disable desktop effects on a single window/application?
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Jan 11, 2010
After installing xubuntu 9.10 and attempting to change double mouse click starts to single click, there is no difference.
Example:Applications tab, settings, file manger, Behavior and then select single mouse click instead of double mouse click, renders no change in behavior what-so-ever.
Anyone else experienced this?
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Jun 8, 2011
How to remove all foldernames which contains spaces in Desktop with a single command?
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Jan 19, 2011
For some strange reason, my media mounted in /media is not showing on my desktop on Lucid (10.04).I've been through gconf-editor to make sure the box is checked to show the mounted media in Nautilus. I also checked the options to show my Home folder and Computer icons on the desktop, but these do not show either.Tried ubuntu-tweaks to see if it would work, but no go there either.
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