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.
View 5 RepliesI 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.
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
View 1 Replies View RelatedI'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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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?
View 2 Replies View RelatedSo 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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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?
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]..
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)).
View 9 Replies View RelatedI'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.
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.
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.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI 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?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI'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..
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
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.
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?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI'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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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.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI am planning to buy a new system. I am planning to use fedora and windows vista (I have a legal copy with me and I dont want to buy a new one. That's why no windows 7 here).
How shoudl I proceed? Which OS to install first? I believe (from reading the threads) that I should install windows vista first and Fedora second.
The main question I have is this. I heard that HDD makers will no longer ship the current HDD's in Jan. Heard that 512 byte hard drive format is to be replaced by 4KB. I read somewhere that this can cause issues when we go for dual boot. Is this true? In that case, what steps can I take to ensure no problems occur?
I really want to use Vista only for running certain applications which do not run on linux. I have heard WINE can simulate a WIN environment. But is this really true? I mean, can it simulate WIN environments perfectly?
My next question is regarding dual HDD. I am planning to go for 2*500GB HDD instead of 1*1TB HDD... So will it be better if I dedicate one HDD to Vista and 1 HDD to Fedora? (I know it will be a waste of space since I will be using Fedora mainly and hardly aropund 10-20 GB for Vista. But I can access the Vista partitions)
Does fedora play all media formats? I know out of the box it might not.. But does having VLC help?
I dont see any firewall protection in Linux. I have heard of using IPTables, but then how efefctive are those? I will be doing many online transactions and I want my system to be secure. I know Linux is pretty secure. So should I harden the security with a hardware firewall?
I will be watching a lot of DVD movies, AVI movies and some HD movies as well. Does linux have issues rendering HD movies properly? I have read somewhere that fedora has issues while Win is good and Debian/CentOS (Not sure which one was mentioned) is even better. I had a pretty powerful config in teh past and yet I have seen that my Vista machine had trouble rendering a HD movie properly.
I will be buying AMD configuration along with an ATI graphic card (sometimes). Does Fedora have any driver issues?
do you have any suggestions how I can install Ubuntu netbook edition on an old Laptop (Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook 2131) currently running Windows 2000 with all servicepacks (if I recall correctly it is SP5) without boot-support for USB-Stick/Media, CD-ROM, PXE/netboot; booting is only supported from builtin harddisk and from floppy-disk drive, which is definitely broken. (with working floppy disk drive all would be fine). I also installed WUBI, but the harddisk is only 4 GB, so I had to use the USB-Stick as the Ubuntu install partition and this is not supported by the Laptop as it cannot boot from it.
Has anybody an idea, is it viable to online-resize an NTFS-partition to create a small linux-partition for bootstrapping the install?? I do not want to, it's still useful, so when crashing the NTFS-filesystem is likely I prefer not to take this route and leave the laptop with Win2k installed.
Can I do a network install using a USB as the boot media. I couldn't find the steps in the long installation help. It explains how to make a livecd boot USB drive but nothing for USB. Please make it clear with exact steps. [URL] says that I have to copy diskboot.img from /Images in install cd but there is no such file. There is a install.img should that be used instead.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have windows XP in my system. i am going to install Fedora 11 in my system and use free space. i have 40GB free space but after installing all things when machine reboots. it gives error :insert Boot media.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI've got CentOS 6 installed and am wondering if it's necessary to have installation media in order to run 'linux rescue'. (I have to do some LVM resizing and would rather do it from rescue mode than in a running system.)
What I've read about booting into linux rescue is that it seems to be necessary to have installation media and boot into that. But I'm wondering if it's possible to do it some other way, like from the grub menu? But it doesn't seem to be possible to enter 'linux rescue' from the grub command line (which I got to by typing 'c' in grub menu screen) - typing 'linux rescue' at grub command line says 'command not found'.
Maybe there's another way to do this? Or some fancy way to have loaded a rescue image or something onto my disk so I don't need installation media. There's 2 reasons why I'd like to enter linux rescue without installation media, both because my computer is very old. 1) My computer can't boot from USB, and 2) My CD/DVD tray is very unstable and keeps popping out intermittently, so I'd need to hold the tray in place during the whole LVM process and it's a real pain, and I wouldn't want to risk data corruption if the process is interrupted by my CD/DVD tray popping out.
I'm hoping there's some way - it'd also be nice to know how to do this if some urgent situation arose where I needed to enter linux rescue mode but didn't have installation media handy and it'd take to long to retrieve or create new installation media.
I live in a country where 1Mbit broadband is a premium service for large businesses. I am paying a little over $40 a month for a 128k connection with monthly capping. I want to download Fedora but the download is just huge for my connection, especially as it is used for work 14 hours a day. I have attempted the LiveCD and got the 'ext4 cannot be used for boot' error. I also have several other specialised distros on this machine and it's going to be a pain inserting a new boot partition just for Fedora.
Like it is possible with Slackware, can I just download the first CD of the Fedora 11 set and get a minimal install from this or does Fedora need the whole set of disks? Is there a simple enough net install option that I could use instead? I can't understand why they can't just release something like Ubuntu's alternate install CD.
I just bought a new hard drive so that I could convert my XP-only machine into an XP-Ubuntu-Windows 7 triple boot machine.Since the drive is absurdly huge (1 TB) I wouldn't mind throwing ReactOS into the mixtoo.I just found out that master boot records are limited to 4 entries, meaning 4 primary partitions. I had Windows XP set up on my old drive as a boot partition, a program files partition and a media partition. Since I really didn't want to install XP from scratch, I cloned this setup on my new drive.
This leaves me one MBR partition entry for installing Windows 7, Ubuntu and ReactOS. I'd like to avoid having to install XP from scratch like the plague, partly because it's supposed to be a safety net in case things go wrong with my other OS's and because I've invested a lot of time getting it set up exactly the way I like it.Here are the options I've considered and why I don't like them:Install Windows 7 on my media partition. This would work, but I prefer to keep my media partition completely separate from any OS, so that I can reformat an OS partition without affecting my media partition at all.
Use wubi or something to install Ubuntu in the same partition as something else. Again, this is brittle.Move all my media to a logical drive on an extended partition. Create another logical drive on this extended partition for Ubuntu. The problem here is that extended partitions are rather brittle--if you nuke one, it renders the rest useless.Just put the old drive back in my computer and run XP off it. Use the new one for the other OS's. The problem here is that the old drive is slower and uses extra power, generates extra heat, etc.
I installed 11.04 after Windows 7. when the GRUB boot menu starts up there is an option for Win 7 boot but it will not boot windows. When that option is selected the screen changes colour for 2 seconds and then reverts to the GRUB menu. Ubuntu boots fine.I downloaded the Boot Info Script and ran it, the results are
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Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010
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Im trying to do a frugal install off the hard drive (no usb,cdrom) with unetbootin. It installs grub and then will boot the installer but is still tries to find the removable media. Whats going on????
View 2 Replies View RelatedI've got a dual-booting system with Windows 7 and Opensuse 11.2. I had a few other random kernels so I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst to remove them. This was fine after a reboot, then I went to YaST and changed the default boot partition to Windows, because I had edited the MBR and put Windows above the other boot partitions, YaST changed "default" to 0.
Now after a restart the Boot Loader doesn't appear, I just have a flashing cursor. When I try to boot from an OpenSuse installation disc and try repair the Repair Kernel loads but freezes on the OpenSuse splash screen. I've heard this is due to the fact I have an ATI Radeon card, if I hold shift during the CD load to prevent the graphical interface of the CD loading. I can type to boot "rescue" but it freezes on "starting udev...". Essentially I just need to be able to edit menu.lst back to the backup I made or change the "default" value back to 1.
Used to run Gentoo, years ago, getting back on the linux train. Anyways, got a new media pc and am having some troubles getting it to function. I am using ImageWriter, an OCZ Rally 4gb flash drive and have tried both HTTP and BitTorrent downloaded copies of 11.3 with the same md5sum check wrong error. What am I doing wrong? Is it because it thinks it is a CD or am I getting bad copies of the ISO? I am so out of practice I can't remember anything about installation anymore and am at a loss.
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