Ubuntu :: What OS For A HTPC
Mar 11, 2010
I am building a Home Theater PC. I know for sure I'm using Ubuntu, but what version?For one I have never put any type of Linux based anything on a computer. I have been told by countless friends that Ubuntu is my best choice for this and have used it on a pals pc. I like it.I did my research and came up with 3 main choices: Ubuntu Desktop, Xubuntu and Ubuntu Netbook Remix. (but not limited to those)The only reason I added the UNR is that I need something with a easy interface.
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Mar 1, 2010
I have a custom built PC with a AMD 9650 2.3ghz quad core, 4gig of ram, nvidia geforce 9500gt graphics card. With windows 7 my movies look immaculate but I want that from Linux. My first problem consists of lines in my players. To test out the performance I am playing Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children Complete Blu-Ray. The video file has been ripped and placed on the HD. MPlayer has lines everywhere, VLC is very good but line every once in a while, XBMC plays bout as well as VLC. The first part that confused me was how MPlayer was worse off. I have followed all the stickies and this is a fresh install of ubuntu 9.10. The Second problem I am having is getting my onboard audio to work. My board comes with 8 channel audio support but my 2 side/back speakers wont work. I have messed with the application settings and the actual settings in Sound Preferences.
Here is a link to my board specs
Code:
[URL]
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Jun 16, 2011
I'm trying to get an HTPC going, but I don't have any money to purchase a new computer. I have 2 desktops in my possession that I am trying to use: 1 is a 2.4 GHz with a 128 MB Radeon 9800 PRO video card (I think) and 1.5 GB RAM (the system is about 8 years old, but I built it top of the line for back then). The second system is a 3.2 GHz dual core with on board video and 2 GB RAM.The problem is, neither system will run 1080p video's without dropping hundreds of packets producing very choppy audio/video. I was wondering if it is possible to cluster these two systems together to harness both their processing power to run 1080p video? I would just jump in and attempt it, but as I have been reading, it looks like processes aren't actually shared across PC's, but auto determined which PC it will run on based on load, which is an issue since neither can cleanly run the 1080p video.
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Apr 19, 2010
Tell me what remote you have found works great running Mythbuntu, Boxee, etc.
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Jun 11, 2010
I'm in the process of building a PC to run Ubuntu 10.04 and I want to use it (eventually) to with Direct TV. I just want to be able to use the PC as the DVR if possible. I'll accept the limitations, but I'm trying to do my homework to make it as easy as possible to use for my family.
I've started out with a BioStar M32 Micro ATX board and an Intel E5300 Dual Core Pentium 2.6Ghz processor, with 2Gigs of Kingston RAM. It runs pretty well, but I've got nothing installed yet (I'm dual booting with Windows Server 2003). Right now it's just in an old E Machines case with a new 500Gig toshiba SATA drive.
Is there a guide to what hardware I could get to work with Direct TV? Also, I'm not sure of what all is possible as far as integrating the two. If there is a guide, please let me know. Also, I would love to hear from anyone who is able to network or use Ubuntu with Direct TV.
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Jan 24, 2011
I wonder if this is possible/easy/practical to do in Ubuntu: I want to have one computer serve two sets of monitors and inputs in two different (adjacent) rooms. The computer and one monitor will be in my office for desktop use, and a HDMI cable to my TV on the opposite site of the wall (I already have a hole for the cable) will serve HTPC content.
I assume I will need two videocards. But other than that, is this fairly straight forward, or is it difficult?
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Jan 28, 2011
I am building an HTPC based on Mythbuntu and will also have a laptop running Windows.
I need some software that will provide two-way syncing between these machines:
1) Sync folders from HTPC to the laptop
As the laptop is new, all the media content I want to have on the laptop (music and photos) will be on the HTPC.
2) Backing up content from laptop to HTPC
New content (purchased music and photos) is likely to be added on the laptop initially so I'd therefore like to sync (instantly/automatically if possible) this back to the HTPC to make it available there as well.
Does anyone know of any good software to do this?
I'd originally been thinking of DropBox but, as I understand it, you have to use a DropBox folder however, on the HTPC, music and photos will be on different drives and it seems that putting symlinks inside the DropBox folder is not recommended.
This post also talks about using Ubuntu One. I think there's a Windows beta version available but does this sync between machines on a local network as I thought it was a cloud storage solution and I'm not looking to upload any content to the internet at this stage.
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Jan 14, 2010
I'm planning on setting up a home file server. I was wondering what platform would be recommended for something like this. The server would be used mainly for media storage which would be shared between an HTPC and a couple desktops and laptops. I was thinking of just getting whatever motherboard had the most SATA headers on it (which currently seems to be something P55-based) and setting up a RAID5 fakeraid with some 1.5 or 2TB drives and the OS in RAID1 with whatever drives I have laying around. It there anything flawed with this approach? P55 boards with 10 SATA headers are currently upwards of $200, which is kind of pricey. Is there a more economical route that I should consider? Also, are there any known problems with setting up a fakeraid like this using certain motherboard's SATA controllers?
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May 16, 2010
I am currently running Intel DG45fc Mobo. works great with Ubuntu thus far. However when connecting to my LCD through HDMI I can not receive any sound.
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Jul 3, 2011
I have several computers all running Windows XP except for an older Compaq DC5750 Desktop which will become a HTPC. It's a decent machine with a Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 4GB DDR2, 1000 MHz FSB, 4 empty PCI slots, and is extremely quiet. So, I'm going to use this project to 'get my feet wet' before taking the plunge.
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Apr 8, 2010
What kind of tuner I need. do I pick up ntsc, atsc, or something else? My cable comes from the wall to the tv, there is no box receiver.
I have had real bad luck with the acermedia duet and the hauppage hvr-1250. Aperently, the aver duet has 0 support and I can't get the hvr-1250 to work. I'm running mythbuntu 10.04. I can't even get avi's I downloaded to play in mythtv.
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Dec 12, 2010
I have an HTPC with an onboard ATI video chipset but for hardware acceleration's sake, I installed a GeForce 9500GT video card. Everything works quite well, except for the overscan issue. I've installed the latest nvidia binary drivers (manually) but I don't see any options in nvidia-settings to solve this overscan issue.
Here is my xorg.conf file:
Code:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.21 (buildmeister@builder103.nvidia.com) Thu Nov 4 20:57:26 PDT 2010
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
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I tried adding that ModeLine line myself (using xrandr and gtf) but that fails too. I've scoured the web and these forums, and I've seen some overscan issues reported but with no solution in sight.
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Aug 2, 2010
I'm extremely new at Linux but managed to get Alsa .023 installed on my HTPC and sound working in xbmc. However, every 10-15 seconds when playing audio over HDMI, i get a short burst of static (maybe 0.5 seconds). The static does not interfere with the audio track. I have tried running my laptop using the same cable/tv/port and its fine (win7). Listening through the analog connection on the mobo with headphones produces no such noise. The noise happens with any audio such as ..... or xbmc.
Gigabyte UD3-H57 USB 3.0
Core i3 530
2GB Corsair 1333 DDR3
1TB WD Green
Running 10.04 Ubuntu
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Dec 1, 2010
I'm very new to linux and would like to build a 64-bit file server to backup my pc and laptop, I would also like it to have HTPC capabilities because it will be stored in my "man cave", where me and mates seem to hang out a fair bit. I've never built an AMD system before and would like this build to be AMD.
This is what I've come up with so far:
64-bit system:
Case: Thermaltake V3 with 450W PSU
CPU: Athlon II x2 255 3.1GHz
Mobo: ASRock 880GXH-USB3
HDD: WD Green 500Gb for OS, 2x Samsung EcoGreen 2Tb for storage (one will be kept off site)
Memory: 1x Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1333C9 4Gb DDR3
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I'm not sure about all this being compatible with linux, like the tuner, but I have read that you can get this working. I'm on a pretty tight budget so I can't upgrade to higher end components, but would like suggestions on components where I could save a few $$ or if any of these components are overkill.
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Apr 5, 2010
I'm looking at getting a Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB drive for my HTPC. However I was initially looking at the WD Cavier Green due to it's power saving features. Upon finding out about the Green's problems interacting with the Linux Kernel I have ditched the idea of getting a WD.
Does the Barracuda suffer from similar problems as the Cavier Green.Are there any problems at all with the drive and the kernel not playing nice together? Do I need to set anything in the kernel config to help enable power saving features of the drive so that when the PC is not in use the drive uses as little power as possible?
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Apr 12, 2011
I switched my htpc from windows xp to ubuntu 10.10 and since i switched my audio no longer works. these are my current stats. Please help im new to Linux so im not sure quite what to do. [URL]
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Mar 8, 2011
I am looking to build a simple HTPC based on boxee, it is a very low power machine (2ghz P4, 1gb RAM, 1gb video card).
At present it has Win7 on it, but I want to run boxee as my media centre software (I love the watch later facility) and I was wondering what it would run best on?
If linux, what distro and why?
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Jan 11, 2010
I recently acquired one of the new Acer nettops to have an HTPC in my living room running XBMC - basically because my Gen1 Xbox just can�t handle HD and 264 encoded content.
It works great, upscaling being the best thing about the upgrade. But I don�t have a proper remote control to operate it with; I know that Logitech�s Harmony models are great, and are on my to check list... but I wanted some ideas from the community... What option(s) works best? (Specially keeping a budget)
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Jun 14, 2011
So recently I've been trying out openSUSE, along with a few other distros, for use on my HTPC. Previously, I'd been using a hackintosh build, so my external media storage HDDs are all formated HFS+. It was actually surprisingly easy to get openSUSE to mount them for both reading and writing.
Only thing is, XBMC has been pretty unstable on all of the linux distros I've tried, and I'm wondering to what degree the HFS filesystem might be affecting things? It would take a fair bit of juggling -- or going out and buying a new multi-TB HDD -- to clear out the disks in turn so as to reformat them with an ext filesystem, but if that would help me get a more stable HTPC with opensuse -- the linux distro I've settled on -- it'd be worth it. I'll paste a link to the log from an xbmc crash, in case that would be helpful, but really, I'm just curious, since I don't really know all that much about how different filesystems work or anything, how much extra strain does the filesystem translating entail?
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Jul 24, 2010
I'm using a VGA GIGABYTE GV-R455D3- 512I HD4550 video card for my HTPC. It is connected via HDMI to a Toshiba 46" 1080p 120Hz LCD TV. I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 and when I open the Catalyst Control Center, it says my resolution is 1920x1080 and my maximum refresh rate is 60Hz. I need the output to be 1920x1080 and 120Hz refresh rate.
I'm trying to figure out where the bottle neck is. I don't know if my video card is the problem or if Ubuntu is the problem. Or maybe the fglrx display driver. I searched the web for the maximum refresh rate of the Radeon HD4550 video card, but I couldn't find anything. I don't know if I need to replace my card or not.
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Jun 29, 2010
I'm new to Linux, so I decided to try using Wubi to get started. THe problem is, when it finished installing 10.04, I got this message: OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'C:\ubuntu\install\ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso' Is there any way around this? It might just be that overly restrictive thing called Vista (which I have the bad luck to be using). I was considering getting a USB drive for Ubuntu anyway..
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Apr 11, 2011
I recently got interested with with OS.. So I downloaded wubi in Ubuntu website. I opted for the Ubuntu Netbook Edition as am using a lappy. However, halfway through finishing download I got an error. The log shows:
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'C:\ubuntu\install\ubuntu-10.10-netbook-i386.iso'
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Jan 2, 2010
What is the difference between the Ubuntu Installer for windows and the Ubuntu CD image? If I use the ubuntu installer for windows, does it have the capability to partition my drive, will it enable to share files with windows etc or is it just a way not to have to burn a CD. Just curious, the exact details of the installation files were not made clear on the website. Note: Windows Version: XP, 32bit, SP3. I have not partitioned anything yet.
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Nov 19, 2010
I have windows 7 installed on Disk2 (according to windows Disk Manager), and I installed ubuntu 10.10 on Disk0, choosing the dual boot option at installation.
However, grub does not load (presumably because its on disk0 and my machine appears to boot from disk3), so the machine goes straight into windows 7.
How do I get ubuntu to load?
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Oct 7, 2010
I'm currently running off of my live-cd, and after spending 4 hours of my life trying to fix this myself, i figured someone out here has to know how to help me. Basically, i wanted to try linux, then liked it enough to decide to put on one of my usb-drives (320g adata nobility NH92), and i couldn't get it to boot anything but windows w/o the live-cd, which would then boot the live-cd, lol, in other words, i couldn't get it to boot at all from the external, even though i had changed the setting in my bios to boot from usb first, and tried manually selecting boot from usb and all that fun stuff.
Sooo... eventually i decided it might be a problem with the bootloader, and while i'm not exactly sure at this point what i have done to my computer, all i can successfully boot is the live cd. When I try to boot w/o the live cd, whether i try to boot from my internal (windows) drive, or external, all i get is a device not found error.I think i could fix it if i had windows recovery cd's (i'm running xp, btw), or installation cds, but... unfortunately, they died in a terrible accident. So i have no cd's at all for windows. :/
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Feb 13, 2011
I have been running Ubuntu 10.04 under Windows 7 (Is this call WUBI?) without any problems for a while. My other machines only run Ubuntu (9.04 & 10.04). I decided to give it a try to the latest Ubuntu 10.10. After going through the successful installation and then rebooting, I am getting the following error message once I select 'Ubuntu' in the boot up menu right after the BIOS screen: Booting ' Ubuntu 10.10, kernel 2.6.35-25-generic'
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Jan 26, 2010
I'm wondering if this is even possible. I've searched high and low and have yet to find and answer to this particular setup.
The setup:
Router is in another building.
Desktop connected by WiFi
Laptop connected by WiFi
Both the Desktop and the Laptop are in the same building together. About 5' apart.
SSH server is setup on Desktop
FreeNX client is setup on Laptop
So they can connect just fine via WiFi for remote desktop control of the Desktop from the Laptop (so SSH and FreeNX are working).Is it possible to connect the 2 pc's directly to each other by Ethernet cable AND transfer files between them by Ethernet while still being connected to the Internet by WiFi on them both?Or would the WiFi have to be disabled while using the Ethernet connection?Neither has a Gigabit Ethernet NIC so I know it would at least require a crossover cable or another router to connect the 2 by Ethernet cable.The idea behind all this is to be able to transfer files between computers quickly by Ethernet while the computers are still busy doing other things on the Internet by WiFi.
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May 11, 2010
I've been trying to find what would be the lightest ubuntu or ubuntu based distribution, I have an older PC I'd like to get up and running again, and would prefer something that works pretty quickly on it (for basic web browsing and other things) the specs are:
AMD Duron 900Mhz, 384MB RAM, 40GB HDD, Geforce FX 5200 128MB agp.
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Sep 19, 2010
1. I accidentally wrecked a previous Ubuntu installation so I decided to re-install via the Ubuntu disk. Unfortunately Ubuntu doesn't let me override previous Ubuntu installations...
2. Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat is due to released in about 3 weeks. I want to install it via a clean install.
3. So can anyone tell me how to remove both Ubuntu partitions safely. I am currently running WinVista with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. I know I have to use something like this to erase GRUB2. Can anyone give me a good tutorial?
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Mar 14, 2011
I want to change from ubuntu 11.04 to ubuntu studio. Is there any way to do this without losing all my stuff/with out completely reinstalling the os?
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