I setup a Ubuntu partition on my laptop to mess around a bit with linux some more. I would like to get it working with my MBE. I used the package manager to install the mythtv-frontend package. I got it to connect to the database on the MBE but I cant anyplace to tell it where the recordings are so I can mount those points on my laptop to the MBE. Do I need to install another package?

AFAIK you need the following (I'm assuming you are running KM R5.5):

libmyth-0.21
mythtv-common
mythtv-frontend
A MythTV theme

Be aware that *buntu may have newer versions of the MythTV packages than your KM backend, and may attempt to upgrade your database.

When you say "I got it to connect to the database on the MBE", what are you able to access? You don't need any mount points to access the recordings, but you do for Videos, Pictures, Music, etc. What happens when you try to watch a recording?

I was able to have it show the recordings and see my videos in the video manager. When I would try and play something it would black screen for a couple seconds then drop back to that menu.

Will it prompt me if it is attempting to update my database? I really wouldn't want to screw up my current BE.

hostnames and/or unique identifiers? What do your logs have to say? See http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... t=frontend for things folks have run into.

Don't know the answer to that one, just remembered reading that some folks hosed their BEs when their *buntu system installed the latest MythTV packages.

For people with Sony Vaio's, see this thread:
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... light=vaio

I have an R5.5 combined BE/FE but I actually use my two Ubuntu
laptops as my primary TV sets via wifi (standard def only).

I run R5.5 on the FE/BE and any of the three latest versions
of Ubuntu (7.10, 8.04, 8.10) all run fine with the latest version of
mythtv-frontend.

You will need to edit your /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt file and change
the DBHostName and DBPassword to match your system.

I typically export the /myth partition of the back end with Samba
and mount it as /myth on the front end. This allows you to
access your videos (and music?) just like on the back end.
If you run into slight jerkiness of video you can try unmounting
/myth to see if it goes away and if it does, there is a setting
in setup to make it read a BE socket, even if a /myth directory
is available.

In this post I discussed the issues that you used to have to
worry about. In R5.5 all those worries are gone.

http://knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18229&highlight=ubuntu