I give up on linux I give up on mythtv I give up on LinHES.
Every time I even look at the dang thing it screws up.
This time I wasn't even touching the main computer I was JUST (way harder than it should be) JUST trying to install a linhes frontend in virtualbox. Why because I have an SD TV and I'd like to watch my HD recordings on my computer monitor.
So obviously since I couldn't get the front end to work of course the standalone unit would get jealous of the attention I was paying to the Frontend. I DIDN'T TOUCH THE COMPUTER AND IT IS FREAKING FAILING!!!!!!!!!!
on boot it gets to the yellow screen and various percentages of doneness then it halts I hit F2 and it' says
Why can't this thing just work like it is supposed to. I'm to the point now where I tell people to use TiVo so that they don't loose their sanity just trying to keep the mythtv running.
I"m tired and I've got to go to work tomorrow.
It looks like the backend is running I hope it records my daughter's Word World.

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My System

I hear ya.

It's a total love-hate relationship: I love MythTV when it's working, and hate it when it breaks (and yeah, look at it the wrong way and something will break).

It's actually fairly shocking that MythTV is that fragile after... wow, has it really been out for 8 years? That's even worse. 8 years of development and updates still cause incompatibilities due to database schemas or some such thing.

I used to tell anyone they should set up a myth box. These days I would only recommend it to people who want to increase their knowledge of linux. I've created nightmares for myself by having to support people who liked the sound of it but then couldn't get it going. I've had days when I've been into work having been sleep deprived through staying up to get my installation going again. When I first installed nearly five years ago there was nothing similar available in Australia. Now there are a heap of options. None of them provide everything all in one, but they would be good enough for most people. There is no better way to learn linux than installing a myth box. I'd spent nearly ten years doing things like installing a copy of Red Hat from a magazine CD to a partition on my Windows PC, but all I'd end up doing was booting into it and playing Tetris. The partition would go as soon as more disk space was needed. Getting mythtv provided something I would enjoy that was an incentive to persevere and learn linux more than just knowing the ls command.

I agree....but I've done something that most folks won't do.

Stay at the level that WORKS.

I'm still running R5F27... It's rock solid, and there's no glitches that cause me any major grief.

I've gone as far as building a couple of 64-bit Slackware systems...then DL and compile the MythTV 20.2 branch...it just chugs along...no hiccups. Yes, I've been working with Linux since it was on Floppy discs, but that's just my dedication to the platform. I was interested in TV on Linux, and I ended up with KnoppMyth!

It's nice to 'try' and keep up with all the updates, but when you find your niche, you stick with it.

IF it ain't broke...or doesn't have a feature that you MUST have. Stay put.

Old Fashioned? YES. A Very low stress level comes with it.

I give the LinHES development gang all the credit in the world...they're trying very hard to chase a moving target.....there's some pitfalls, and that's expected. I keep testing new versions to see if I'll migrate, but I'm not ready yet. I'm very happy with what I have, and all the support I've received on this forum.

--

Larry

Good point and I want to clarify that my grumbling is targeted towards MythTV specifically. LinHES and KM have indeed done a great job of keeping things working over the years.

I guess it feels like LinHES is on the cusp of being user friendly or idiot proof and I forget that I am running it on hardware that is over 6 years old. That said I expect some risk when I'm messing with the main box but on this occasion i wasn't.

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My System

I installed my MBE on a virtual machine & boot my FEs diskless from that. This gives multiple advantages but the #1 by FAR is easy backup and restore. I take regular snapshots & if something goes wobbly I simply revert to the last snapshot. Done. Takes half a second & I'm back & running.

Oh, /myth is nfs mounted from another machine. Worst case scenario I end up with some recordings that don't show up in my recordings (as they were recorded after the last snapshot). In such a case I merely copy the mpg file from /myth/tv to /myth/video.

I had almost given up on KM sometime ago, virtual machines have made it doable and have practically eliminated the ARRGGHHH feelings I used to have. What a relief. If you can, try it, you'll never go back to installing on bare metal again.

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Paul O'Flynn

It seems that you're blaming linux, mythtv and linhes because Oracle's Virtualbox wouldn't work the way you wanted.
When Windows wouldn't run my daughter's 12 year old PC game I wasn't surprised and didn't complain. Why? It was designed for Win98 and I was trying to run it on WinXP. However, I can't fix this sort of problem.

LinHES wasn't designed to be run on Virtualbox, so why expect it to run flawlessly?

When/if you get more experienced with Linux, you will know how to solve these things as they come up. Linux is almost a bottomless pit of things to learn, unlike Windows where you aren't allowed to know how to fix, build or customise.

Mike

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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I agree with the "bottomless pit" metaphor but not in the way I think you meant it.

Well, you get what you pay for.
SageTV for Linux is only $79.95.

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The Atomic Ant.

I pay for HARDWARE. That's all. I will NOT pay for the 'knowledge' to make the hardware do what I WANT it do.

I purchased it knowing it would do something, and IF I can learn how to make it do that 'something,' WHY should I pay for it (that knowledge)?

It's akin to going to a store and buying a hammer. I can make that hammer do all sorts of things...but I have to KNOW how to make it do the work. It certainly won't do anything all by itself!

A PC isn't any different. It is a TOOL.

If you're willing to pay for convenience....well, that's a personal choice. I don't have that much disposable income. I'm willing to learn, and that keeps me going. If you're not willing to learn, make sure you have a sufficient income and you're willing to be dependent on others.

Edit: We're here to SHARE that knowledge. Not package it up and put a pricetag on it. OK?

Yes it's OK to say whatever you want to say, but it's all still your opinion. A lot of people think it's OK to pay for what their friends have, and that would usually include the operating system. I doubt Microsoft would be OK with you using their software because Linux doesn't work for you and because you don't believe you should pay them for their operating system development.
At the start of all this you said you'd had enough of Linux. Was all of this just from your need to vent some frustration?

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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I think you are confusing larrybpsu with the OP. I think larrybpsu point was he was fine with paying for hardware since it's a tangible thing but software or it's configuration he'd rather do on his own or with the help of the community.

If larrybpsu is not a mythtv or linhes developer, I hope he has at least once made use of the "Donation" button on the main page because the software work is very grueling and doesn't just magically happen without a lot of sweat.

Yep, I was. Sorry.

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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You misunderstood somehow virtualbox running on my Win 7 box corrupted my bare metal install of LinHES in the living room. My LinHES in the living room wasn't being tweaked, proded, poked, adjusted, or in any way molested however it failed all on it's own. I'm not sure how a frontend running in a virtual machine on my win7 computer could have screwed it up but it did. I got the frontend runnig in virtualbox successfully last night and somehow it screwed up the settings on my backend box I had to delete and re-install the tuners and my mythweb password doesn't work. Needless to say the virtualbox thing isn't working for me.
Linux has a reputation of being hardened and light but it seems to me that if you look at linux wrong it gets all bent out of shape. I haven't really given up I just re-installed for the 10th time in a month thankfully this time i checked the box that said upgrade.

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My System