I originally posted this in Knoppix -> Installation, but I think I was violating the forum rules. I can' figure out which sub-forum is appropriate for a question like mine, so I put in here. I just hope someone actually reads this off-topic forum that can help me.

Hey There, welcome to the forum.

so here's a couple of points to consider.

Re: Hardware- the very first link on the mysettopbox.tv site is 'Basics' - reading that will help you, no lie.

Re: SO>>>
there's really no point of doing this since you can run knoppmyth from the cd without having to install anything to your hard drive. by running it within VMware "V" environment, you're just adding an additonal (and unnecesssary) level of complexity to cause chokage.

Re: Problems
Play DVD's--> forum search the word 'pineapple' -pay special attention to the posts from cesman and Xsecrets for why you're having trouble. There is reference to a file in the 'examples' directory which we're not supposed to talk about. (the 'first rule of fight club'- or something like that.)

Import DVD's---> see 'Play DVD's' - it's the same deal.

Games---> This one is a bit more sticky. mame doesn't work out of the box, but you'll see that if you arrow through the game menus there are a couple of games which actually do work out of the box- tux racer and bubbles. since most of the people using knoppmyth are interested in using it as a PVR and not a game machine, this functionality is not and has not been too much of a focus. to get the games working you'd want to do an actual install and check out the docs section of mythtv.org- they have some suprisingly helpful documentation there.

finally, and most importantly- the number one reason you didn't get any response on your questions in the other area is because each question you have asked has been asked and addressed LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TIMES.

Anytime you have a question, wait for a moment, and say to yourself "I'll bet I'm not the first person to have had this problem..."

then click that search link and fill the field with ONE WORD which boils down the issue like 'VMware'

you would have found a posting by a chap named ICE_9 - who posed the very issue you are befuddled on. cecil responded:

"...point is that VMWare may not allow you to use the hardware you must use for a PVR. I'm sure you realize VMWare is a virtual machine. It may not allow you to use the hardware one would natively use. If you search the MythTV archive, you may find a definitive answer."

and the mythtv archive he might have provided if he weren't so sick of doing so is:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/


which at this point has over 128,000 postings of very helpful information.


Also, don't ask when rel. with .19 is coming out. Just don't.

I'd be curious if the USB support in VMWare is high-speed "enough" to hotplug a PVR-USB2 into a vmware-guested knoppmyth install and make recordings with it.

-brendan

finger51: Thank you very much for your excellent, and polite answers. You've given me everything I need to go from here.

(I suppose It would be appropriate to apologize for my "forum noobness", when I'm actually not that nooby. I certainly should have "searched" first, but I got a little "excited" about the possibilities, and threw up a post before thinking.)

Thankx for the welcome, I'm glad I found this place. Looking forwards to lots of fun.

I finally got dvd player to work. It turns out that Mythtv was set to use mplayer as default dvd player, but knoppmyth didn't install mplayer (or it wouldn't work anyway).... I changed mythtv to use xine, and now I can play my previously ripped dvd's. I also downloaded a snes rom file, put it in the correct place, and verified that it sort of works. couldn't figure out the controls for the game though.

pineapple does not work. I've searched here and google and elsewhere for a forum, but I haven't had any success. I think it's related to pineapple trying to use /dev/rdvd (a raw device) for dvd access. the man pages for MAKEDEV and raw (8) don't offer any help. the " raw -q" command returns an error that /dev/rawctl doesn't exist, but ls /dev reveals that rawctl is obviously there.

I thought perhaps I was running into an issue with vmware's virtual ide dvdrom device, so I installed knoppmyth onto my celeron566 system. It seemed to install properly until after the reboot, about when I would expect to see the desktop and mythtv setup screens appear, the monitor goes to sleep and I can't get any response from the computer.

I'm going to download and try out the "new" release that cecil just announced today, maybe it will solve some problems.

KnoppMyth has included MPlayer forever.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

The new KnoppMythR5B7 is definetely easier to install. Very nice!

The Games plugin works perfectly now, but I have a new problem.

The TV Guide doesn't work in this new release. mythfilldatabase updated just fine, and doesn't report any errors, but no entries appear in the Guide from inside MythTV. I can escape out of the Guide, but if I hit an arrow key (to scroll down) MythTV crashes to the desktop.

Also, I've tried installing VLC, because I know it works at playing commercial DVD's (at least in windows) I used "apt-get install vlc libdvd****" (pineapple). It's not working for me either. In fact, from the vlc menu I tried "scanning" for the dvd drive, and it actually crashed the entire system. It's the first time I've ever seen a vmware client affect my XP host.

I also tried the linux region set utility, and it properly identified my drive as region 1 with 4 changes left.

Anyone have any ideas about the Program Guide problem?

And can someone point me to a MythTV forum that's hosted in another country where I can get some help for my fruit disability?

if you just read between the lines on the faq or the wiki or several posts here you might find some "examples" that will help you with your fruit problem.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Thank you for trying to help xsecrets. The "example" script was the first thing I ran after finishing the KnoppMyth setup.

The last thing I want to do is cause trouble for this forum. But I thought it would be good to let others know that "pineapple" is not working for me in vmware.

If anyone can point me to another place where a discussion of this issue can be pursued, please let me know.