[mdlug] [Fwd: Re: [opensuse-offtopic] Trial with KUbuntu 8.04.]

Fri May 2 11:00:28 EDT 2008

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [opensuse-offtopic] Trial with KUbuntu 8.04.
Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 21:34:03 +0200
From: Clayton <smaug42 at gmail.com>
To: opensuse-offtopic <opensuse-offtopic at opensuse.org>
References: <481858E9.7030503 at lightlink.com>	 
<60fb01490804301118t2a5edecev3c0773f3e993d8db at mail.gmail.com>	 
<48199181.6020204 at lightlink.com>

Just a little more on this Ubuntu vs SUSE testing that a few of us are 
doing...

I have a second PC that is my dedicated media center... it is an Asus
P2... specifically, this one:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1797&l1=1&l2=3&l3=483&l4=0
I dropped in 1GB of ram, an AMD Semperon64 1100LW (1.9GHz) CPU, and a
320GB SATA drive.  On that hardware I installed Mythbuntu 8.04 (64 bit
version).  Install time was about 20 minutes from initial boot to
being up and running.  The install was very easy and quick.  But..
that is when the problem started.  After the usual initial application
update via Synaptic, the restricted hardware driver thing popped up
and offered to install the ATI video driver.  I clicked through, and
then it asked to reboot.. did so... no video on restart.  The auto
installer set the default resolution out of range for the LCD TV that
is attached to the PC.  Got around that, and the GUI was back up and
running again.

Set up my USB DVB-T tuner and the network mount to my recorded
media... all ok so far.. indexed the media, tested the TV... the video
was unwatchable.. constant video stuttering.  I checked CPU load, and
the Mythfrontend was pegging the CPU at 100%.  After several hours of
settings tinkering I got it down to 80% on average and it was mostly
watchable.... for a while... after 10 minutes or so, it started
stuttering again, and the only way to return to watchable video was to
restart the LiveTV module.  Audio was even a huge pain with the volume
constantly resetting to zero (I had to use alsamixer to reset the
Master and PCM volumes every hour or so)

I finally got tired of this thing not working right, so decided to try
the 32 bit install of Mythbuntu... again about 20 minutes from initial
boot to fully installed and configured system (including API video
drivers)... but the video in LiveTV was so bad it was like watching a
slow slide show.  No amount of tinkering could make the video level
out and be watchable.  CPU stayed pegged at 100% the whole time.

Dumped it all and installed openSUSE10.3 (KDE 1cd install).  The
install took a couple of hours... as usual.  Nothing new there.
Installed Smart, updated everything, stripped out the bits I don't
need, and installed MythTV, MySQL, MPlayer, the w32codecs and a few
other things... configured MythTV and started up LiveTV... perfect.
Checked CPU use... 15 to 20% on average with default settings.  i
tinkered a little, set the video resolution up to 1024x768 (this is an
LCD TV) and the transcoding resolution to high quality... started up
LiveTV again... 30% CPU and perfectly smooth video.

openSUSE as a MythTV center was a LOT harder to set up in comparison.
It took a considerably higher Linux skill and knowledge to get up and
running (starting/stopping services, MySQL knowledge to load initial
database, knowing how to use SAX2 to set up video, knowing what
supporting apps to install for MythTV etc etc)... especially when
compared to the Mythbuntu "here is everything you need and everything
is done for you" approach.  But. in the end, the openSUSE MythTV
install is the one that works properly.

C.
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      ===

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [opensuse-offtopic] Trial with KUbuntu 8.04.
Date: Fri, 02 May 2008 04:23:07 -0400
From: Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com>
Reply-To: fmiller at lightlink.com
To: opensuse-offtopic <opensuse-offtopic at opensuse.org>
References: <481858E9.7030503 at lightlink.com>	 
<60fb01490804301118t2a5edecev3c0773f3e993d8db at mail.gmail.com>	 
<48199181.6020204 at lightlink.com> 
<e29967880805011234s4447b560j4a0ce9f52151b59d at mail.gmail.com>

Clayton wrote:
 > Just a little more on this Ubuntu vs SUSE testing that a few of us 
are doing...
 >
 > I have a second PC that is my dedicated media center... it is an Asus
 > P2... specifically, this one:

[snip]

Interesting. I wanted to add that I and others have noted that there's
no firewall that stars up in the Ubuntu/KUbuntu installs, and further,
you must add software to setup a firewall, which a newbie ISN'T going to
be able to do easily!

As an aside, openSUSE needs to have Yast setup a firewall to STAY
active, not drop out ever time you change to a different access point or
device.

Fred

-- 
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What will get "lassoed" is your private data as
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   ==

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [opensuse-offtopic] Trial with KUbuntu 8.04.
Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 16:43:09 +0200
From: Clayton <smaug42 at gmail.com>
To: opensuse-offtopic <opensuse-offtopic at opensuse.org>
References: <481858E9.7030503 at lightlink.com>	 
<60fb01490804301118t2a5edecev3c0773f3e993d8db at mail.gmail.com>	 
<48199181.6020204 at lightlink.com>	 
<e29967880805011234s4447b560j4a0ce9f52151b59d at mail.gmail.com>	 
<481ACF6B.9010908 at lightlink.com>

 >  Interesting. I wanted to add that I and others have noted that 
there's no
 > firewall that stars up in the Ubuntu/KUbuntu installs, and further, 
you must
 > add software to setup a firewall, which a newbie ISN'T going to be 
able to
 > do easily!

Yup.  The recommended way (from what I read) for Ubuntu is usually to
go with Firestarter... but if you don't know it's not there, and that
you need to add it from the repositories... well it seems like a
*major* oversight to me.  The firewall should be on by default - it
could be as simple as including Firestarter as part of the default
desktop (Firestarter being pretty easy to use for a new Linux user).
I really appreciate that openSUSE includes a firewall that is on by
default.

C.