First time posting a question here so bear with me please. I installed mythtv on my system with an 1800 AMD processor, 512 mb of memory, and a pvr150 tuner card. I did an apt-get and installed Firefox with no problems. I had some issues with Mythtv over the last couple weeks and started over from scratch. This time I did the apt-get update first and then got and installed Firefox it uninstalled all these programs that it didn't touch the first time. When I rebooted I couldn't get back into gdm. It told me to repair and restart it. I fiddled with it but never got it. I started over again and this time I paid more attention to what it said when I went to apt-get Firefox and saw that it uninstalled things like guarddog, mythtv plugins, and x-window-system.

Can anyone tell me why it didn't uninstall those things the first time? Was it because I did the apt-get update first the second time? I don't really want to start over again but I do like having Firefox on my Linux boxes.

Anyone?

apt-get is EXTREMELY dangerous in knoppmyth right now. If you want firefox you will probably be best served by downloading the linux binaries.

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

Xsecrets

Thank you xsecrets! I was thinking about trying it that way too. Maybe that's what I'll have to do then. Thanks again!!!

I was installing a fresh load of R5B7 today and an 'apt-get install mozilla-firefox' command blew up the X-windows install. The video drivers seemed hosed up. gdm would not start at all.

I could not recover it by updating nvidia drivers so I reformatted and reinstalled KnoppMyth. This time, I waited until I had my nvidia drivers updated and working. Again I tried to apt-get install mozilla-firefox. This time, x-windows kept working, but menu items from Mythtv were deleted. So, I'm going to have to go back and reinstall everything again.

So, it appears that Firefox is a poison pill right now!

Eric

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KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner

Have you done ryanpatterson's fix to /etc/apt/sources.list so it points at the stable stuff? That makes it a lot safer. A word of caution however, DO NOT use the -y option, take the opportunity when tells you what it wants to do to make a judgement call. If it wants to delete stuff or add a long list of dependencies, quit before you hose yourself.

TJC: Thanks for the alert. No. I'd not heard about any sources.list bug until stumbling on this problem.

After reading through the forum posts, I find that this bug goes back at least to August 2005! Honestly, I'm stunned that it hasn't been fixed yet. It's been a problem for at least 9 months.

This sources.list bug needs to be fixed in the next revision of KnoppMyth.

Eric

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KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner

Why fight the apt-get for firefox? Just download the tarball, untar it and install it to a directory like /home/mythtv/firefox or /myth/firefox. It doesn't touch your existing filesystem at all and is a piece of cake.

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ASUS A7N266 Micro-ATX Motherboard
Athlon 2200 processor
512K Kingston PC2100 Memory
MicroAtx Case
2 PVR250's w/remote
eVGA e-GeForce mx4000 (64 Ram with Tv/Out (Svideo))
Lite-on DVD cd-rw combo
120 GB Western Digital

The apt-get issue is bigger than just firefox. I've hosed my systems a fair number of times with apt-get on other packages that are not as simple to install as firefox and now I refuse to use apt-get at all until I've seen an "all clear" posted, seconded and generally agreed on.

Not a complaint, just a comment. It'll get fixed when it gets fixed by whoever it is that is can/will fix it. I'm patient, I'll wait. However I am still looking forward to it, as apt-get is a handy tool.

Well, apt-get is the way I was taught to get and install Linux appliations. I don't know another way.
It is a one command-line operation and you're done (if it works right).

What is involved with a tar ball install?
I know how to gunzip files and bunzip files and untar files, but then what?
Is there an install.exe that you run that does all the installing?

This apt-get bug fix isn't just limited to fixing Firefox. The scope is bigger than that. Fix it once and you fix 100s of applications. It is a worthwhile fix!

Eric

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KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner

the reason it hasn't been fixed is that it's not an easy fix. the altered sources.list file helps, but many dependency problems still exist. the problem is that knoppmyth is currently a somewhat hybrid right between debian stable and unstable. This will not be corrected before R6 and it will be corrected then, but this is quite a ways off as R5 final is not even released yet.

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

Xsecrets

Making this a front page story rather than a page 10 story will save countless people wasted time and frustraition. I, alone, spent 5 hours of the weekend loading and reloading KnoppMyth only to have the system corrupted by apt-get every time.

I don't recall seeing any warnings in the how-to documents I printed to paper and I quick search of the wiki and how-to guides just now, confirms it.

Personally, I am trying to follow the wishes of the KnopMyth gurus - to read the how-to documents, the wiki and the forum before asking questions. In order to keep from bothering the gurus with weird problems caused by this apt-get problem, I request an apt-get "sticky" be created in the Installation forum - as well as a warning in the how-to-install pages and the wiki how-tos.

Respectfully,
Eric

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KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner

This might sound harsh but. . .

Technically Knoppmyth is designed for use as a PVR. It just so happens that it also runs a full linux instaliation and many users use it for non-PVR functions like running firefox, etc. This includes myself of corse.

But there is no guarantee that the user wont brake knoppmyth if they try using it for "extra" functions. apt-get can brake knoppmyth but so can many many other applications. It really isn't the knoppmyth community's job to baby users through not brakeing their working PVR when running/installing non-PVR related programs. Just posting a warrning about apt-get wont solve any real problem.

BTW I use apt-get to install about ten applications whenever I upgrade knoppmyth.

Surely though it wouldn't hurt to have a warning on the homepage to take care with apt-get.

Especially when the KM Pamphlet says:


Where is the cost in having a few simple warnings?

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Paul Turpie
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<--Is your location in your profile? Why not?

I should have done this when I posted. To get firefox on your knoppmyth box: (There are other sites to get it, but this will get it from mozilla's d/ site)

-Open a terminal (Alt-X)
- cd /myth
-Change to root by typing su and entering password
-Use wget to download the tarball, (Put all of this on one line)
wget http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla ... 0.3.tar.gz
-Once it is downloaded, untar it with tar zxvf firefox-1.5.0.3.tar.gz
This creates a new folder called firefox that has the executable.
-Type exit to get out of root, then type exit again to close the terminal
-In mythfrontend, Util/Settings, Setup, Info Center, Web Settings, change browser to /myth/firefox/firefox and Finish.
-Go back to Mythbrowser, select a URL and it should work.

Note: This will create a hidden directory in /home/mythtv called .mozilla. This directory will contain another one called firefox. In that firefox dir will be your profile, bookmarks, etc. You can create another dir in .mozilla called plugins and install them there. (edit) To install flash and java plugins look a couple of posts down..

_________________
ASUS A7N266 Micro-ATX Motherboard
Athlon 2200 processor
512K Kingston PC2100 Memory
MicroAtx Case
2 PVR250's w/remote
eVGA e-GeForce mx4000 (64 Ram with Tv/Out (Svideo))
Lite-on DVD cd-rw combo
120 GB Western Digital

Thanks for the above tips.

How do you then get the downloaded Firefox to run from X?