I'm planning a back-end Myth box that will also be a mail server and a samba server and do other general purpose Linux stuff. Also, it will be headless and must support RAID.

How does KnoppMyth compare with a more general distro like Mandrake?
Is it a full featured distro or is it just focused on Myth?
Will it INSTALL and run headless?

The changelog seems to mention a sync with Knoppix 1 year ago.
Does KnoppMyth continue to pull from Knoppix?

Are there updated packages or just new entire releases?
(Can you get updates from Knoppix/Debian servers?)
What's the upgrade cycle like?

I'm pretty comfortable with Mandrake and I'm confident that I can get Myth running on it, though I'm sure there are a lot of configuration details that KnoppMyth would get done faster.

Will it be easier to get Myth up on Mandrake or get everything else up on KnoppMyth?

Thanks,
LB

Cesman is probably the best one to answer this but I don't think Knoppmyth will make a good general server. For one I believe that Cesman has said in the past there there is little security in place in KnoppMyth. It was designed to be behind a firewall. While I do believe that it would be okay as a server it will take some time and effort on your part to ensure that the proper security programs are installed and configured correctly whereas with, say Mandrake, those features are configured by default if you indicate that it will be used as a server during the installation.

I run two other linux servers one is a Mandrake 10 box and one is a Redhat 9 box. Both of whick I feel would make a better general purpose server than KnoppMyth. KnoppMyth was designed to be a set top box and it excels at that.

You certain did a great job!

1. KnoppMyth is a full distro, but it's primary focus is to create a PVR in the easiest and quickest manner possible.

2. A backend would run headless.

3. It has been a while since I synced w/ Knoppix. When R5 is released, it will be Debian Sid, so syncing to Knoppix won't be needed. It will also be easier to install additional software with R5.

4. Generally speaking, the only thing that needs to be updated are MythTV and it's modules when a new release comes out.

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... t=mandrake

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

For those (Like Me) that do not know who or what Debian Sid is....

From http://www.debian.org/releases/unstable/

***Snip***
The code name for Debian's development distribution is "sid", aliased to "unstable". Most of the development work that is done in Debian, is uploaded to this distribution. This distribution will never get released; instead, packages from it will propagate into testing and then into a real release.

Please note that security updates for "unstable" distribution are not managed by the security team. Hence, "unstable" does not get security updates in a timely manner. For more information please see the Security Team's FAQ.

"sid" is subject to massive changes and in-place library updates. This can result in a very "unstable" system which contains packages that cannot be installed due to missing libraries, dependencies that cannot be fulfilled etc. Use it at your own risk!
***Snip***

Sounds like fun! I for one cant wait.

_________________
MBE:
Chaintech 7NIF2
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Samsung 160 GB
Hauppauge PVR-250
Knoppmyth R4V4.1

SBE:
TBA

Why unstable (for those that are wondering)?
Knoppix is based on unstable, KnoppMyth is based....

Does this mean that KnoppMyth is unstable?
No.

The folks at Debian are very conservative in their releases. So conservative that MythTV currently doesn't compile on Woody (the stable release). There would be no KnoppMyth w/o Myth.

Does this mean R5 will be unstable?
No. All releases have been very stable for me (I run the same version that is released (unless I'm test), untweaked.). I think other than installation or configuration issue KnoppMyth is very stable for most folks. R5 will get it's tires kicked more so than previous releases.

Why no security updates?
I do this on my part time, security is a full time job. My personal feeling is that a set-top box shouldn't be exposed to the Internet. KnoppMyth should be running behind your firewall at the heart of your home entertainment center.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

One more note about the security releases. The debian team backports any security fixes to the version that they released in the stable branch so that they get only the security fixes and no extra features which might introduce new bugs. This does not mean that the fixes are not in unstable, as unstable usually has the latest and greatest version of any given software which includes the security fixes and new features, and possibly new bugs.

As for the unstable nature of debian sid I can only speak from my own experience and I have been running debian unstable on my main desktop machine for over 2 years now and I think I've seen maybe 2 times where they broke something that I noticed, like X (that only happened once) and it's always been fixed in a matter of days. Also I update on a regular basis, if I did not I would imagine I most likely never would have seen those problems.

I just don't want people to get the wrong idea by hearing "unstable" if you use debian for any length of time you will see why I am so adamant about this. I would put unstable up against almost any other distributions actual release without hesitation.

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

Xsecrets

In response to the original poster's question, you still can do quite a bit with the KnoppMyth distro as-is...I've got my backend behind a firewall, so it acts as a Samba server on my home network for managing the gallery and mp3 files and for backups, it acts as a webserver for MythWeb and for general purpose webhosting (the firewall is configured to forward the appropriate ports) and I'm sure you could set it up as a mail server as well.

-Mike

I'm using my knoppmyth system as a server as well. I guess it depends on what you want to accomplish, but in my case I've got NFS and apache running on the box with myth. Don't need samba, not a windows box in the house . I'm running the drupal CMS also (which shares mysql with myth just fine), and with a port open on my router, family and friends can access the http. I'm on a cable modem so I use no-ip.com to keep a static url. With nfs running, I just mount the appropriate myth folders (like music and gallery) so I can get to them from anywhere on my local network. Incidentally, the other boxes are running pclos, a livecd derivative of Mandrake.

I'm not really concerned with security. Apache seems perfectly adequate to me, as long as you have it set up properly. Of course, I don't have telnet or ftp daemons running on the myth box (just ssh). If somebody thinks I'm being too naive about that, please post your suggestions.

When I've got [knopp]myth running stable, I am also planning on moving my various /home folders from the separate linux boxes in the house all to the myth hard drive. That will make backups easier as well as let me log in on either of the 3 machines as "me".

Then one big-ass UPS to keep it up and running and all will be right with the world.

R5 is based on sid, does that mean that with R5 you can just "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade"? (without breaking the distro?)

well R5 is not out yet, so the best I can say is most likely.

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

Xsecrets