296 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
296 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
Title: Debian on Digimatrix
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Caution: this is what I was running in 2004. Nowadays we just use
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MythTV. Some of this stuff (like the X configuration) still applies,
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though, which is why I'm leaving the page up.
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Introduction
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------------
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We have a Digimatrix hooked up to our high-definition television. We
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use it for a number of things:
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* Watching DVDs
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* Playing music from OGG and MP3 files
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* Recording and playing back television shows
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* Storing pictures and movies from our digital camera
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* Hosting our pictures and movies, along with those of our friends,
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on a web server
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* Playing Super Nintendo video games
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* Occasional desktop tasks
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MythTV and Freevo vs. KDE
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-------------------------
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This sounds like a MythTV box, right? I tried MythTV, and Freevo, and
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while I was impressed with how pretty they were, I just couldn't get
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them working quite right.
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[MythTV](http://www.mythtv.org/) gave a blank screen trying to watch or
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record TV, with no useful error messages, and try as I might I just
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couldn't figure out what the problem was. After spending three days on
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it I gave up.
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[Freevo](http://freevo.sourceforge.net/) had its own problems; I don't
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remember exactly what they were now. I do remember feeling like Freevo
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was held together with bailing wire and chewing gum, while MythTV had a
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much more polished and easy-to-use feel to it.
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Neither of them worked well out of the box with the Digimatrix remote
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control.
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In the end, I decided it'd be easier for everybody if we just used KDE.
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It lets me bind actions to the key sequences the remote control sends
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out, and for most TV-type activities the remote does enough to move
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around in [Xine](http://xinehq.de/) and
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[Konqueror](http://www.konqueror.org/). The
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[x2x](http://x2x.dottedmag.net/) program allows us to use our laptops to
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control things over the wireless network, when the remote doesn't
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suffice. The Unix `at` utility and a little shell script lets us
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schedule TV recordings with more ease than a VCR.
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Best of all, there's no meta-information filed away in some obscure
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database layout. Everything is a file somewhere and can be manipulated
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with Konqueror or the shell.
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This turns out to be a very workable setup.
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h2. Installing the base system
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I had to install the testing (etch) installation CD for it to have a
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driver for the SiS 900 10/100 network card. Installation went smoothly
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enough. Everything is detected at boot time except:
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* LED Panel and front panel buttons (including volume)
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* Infrared reciever
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* 802.11b card ([Ralink rt2400 chipset](http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/)).
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While I've gotten the rt2400 drivers to work, the card won't seem to
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associate with my WAP until some other device does it first. This is
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so inconvenient that I've run a long CAT-5 cable under the house so I
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can use the 10/100 ethernet port.
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I installed the following additional packages to help me administer the
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machine:
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<pre>
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# apt-get install less zile screen ssh strace sudo ntp ntpdate
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</pre>
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Web server
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--------------
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Waldorf needed to run a web server to host photo albums.
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<pre>
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# apt-get install mathopd stunnel4 php4-cgi rssh
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# apt-get install netpbm jhead exiftran libjpeg-mmx-progs libjpeg-progs
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</pre>
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I won't detail my web server configuration here, since that's unique to me.
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X
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----
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<pre>
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# apt-get install x-window-system
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</pre>
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To my surprise this brought in x.org. I run an HDTV over DVI, so to get
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full screen, I had to change the configuration as follows:
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<pre>
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Section "Device"
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Identifier "Generic Video Card"
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Driver "sis"
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Option "ForceCRT1Type" "DVI-D"
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EndSection
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Section "Monitor"
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Identifier "Generic Monitor"
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Option "DPMS"
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HorizSync 30-65
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VertRefresh 30-60
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ModeLine "720p" 74.160 1280 1352 1392 1648 697 725 730 750
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EndSection
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</pre>
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I also had to add "720p" to the `Modes` of the `Display` subsection of
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`Screen`.
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You may notice I only have 697 pixels vertically. That's because my TV
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puts about 23 lines in the "overscan", preventing me from seeing my KDE
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toolbar. I haven't yet found a way to recenter the screen, this just
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chops off the bottom. As a hack, I put empty KDE toolbars on the top,
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left, and right borders. This keeps windows inside the viewable area.
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h2. KDE
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I like KDE. I've tried MythTV and Freevo and found it's just easier to
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run KDE and occasionally use a mouse and keyboard. The only thing we
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don't get is a snazzy interface to recording TV shows, but we don't tend
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to want to do that very often. I may work on a web interface to XML-TV
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listings later on.
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<pre>
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# apt-get install kde kdm
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</pre>
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I don't know if this is typical or not, but Debian's KDE went on without
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asking me a single question. Kudos to the packagers.
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h2. Sound
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<pre>
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# apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils
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</pre>
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We use the Digimatrix's S/PDIF output (isn't it lame that it comes out
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the front?). I know from a previous installation that if you just use
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the defaults, you need to reboot between playing 2-channel audio and
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using Xine's pass-through option to play a 7.1-channel DVD. I'm sure it
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has something to do with the sound card resetting something or other.
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The solution seems to be having ALSA multiplex audio, and while I don't
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get why this works, work it does.
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I put the following into `/etc/asound.conf`:
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<pre>
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pcm.asus-hw {
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type hw
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card 0
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}
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pcm.!default {
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type plug
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slave.pcm "asus"
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}
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pcm.asus {
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type dmix
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ipc_key 1234
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slave {
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pcm "hw:0,0"
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period_time 0
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period_size 1024
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buffer_size 4096
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rate 48000
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}
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}
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ctl.asus-hw {
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type hw
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card 0
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}
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</pre>
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h2. A decent desktop
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At this point I was able to browse the web and play music using KDE's
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"JuK":http://developer.kde.org/~wheeler/juk.html, so I took a break to
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dance around the living room with my 1-year-old daughter as ABBA sang to
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us.
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h2. Playing DVDs
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I like kaffeine, mostly because it's part of KDE and I'm a purist. It
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can play all sorts of movies and even has a nice startup screen that
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allows you to type in numbers for various actions (play from playlist,
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play DVD, etc.).
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<pre>
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# apt-get install kaffeine
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</pre>
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### DVD's Content Scrambling System ###
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For some reason the DVD guys thought putting an encryption scheme on the
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DVD was going to slow down piracy. I don't see any evidence of that
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happening, but because of stupid laws in the US, you have to install
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illegal software (as in, illegal to own) in order to watch the DVDs
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you've bought or rented. To become a criminal, just run the following
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commands:
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<pre>
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# wget http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/deb/libdvdcss2_1.2.5-1_i386.deb
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# dpkg -i libdvdcss2_1.2.5-1_i386.deb
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</pre>
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The version and/or URL may have changed since I wrote this. Apologies
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in advance.
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### DVD drive speed ###
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Linux does not use DMA on IDE devices when it boots up, you have to turn
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that on yourself. I'm not sure what the reason is for this, probably
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compatibility with some ancient thing that blows up if you attempt DMA.
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In any case, turning on DMA will allows your DVD drive to keep up with
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the data on the DVD.
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<pre>
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# apt-get install hdparm
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</pre>
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To turn on DMA, I put the following at the end of `/etc/hdparm.conf`.
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While I was at it, I turned ot DMA for the hard drive too.
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<pre>
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/dev/dvd {
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dma = on
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}
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/dev/hda {
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dma = on
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}
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</pre>
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### Try a DVD ###
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At this point I was able to watch DVDs, so I did. I watched the first
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DVD of the first season of Buffy, which turned out to be a terrible idea
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since it's pretty dark and not very high quality. I played around with
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the gamma settings in the KDE configuration tool, and set my gamma at
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1.25. Then I adjusted the brightness, contrast, and saturation of
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Kaffeine, and got what I think is a pretty nice-looking configuration.
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h2. The remote control
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What good is a home theater system if you have to get up off your butt
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to press buttons? This is America, man! I want to be able to eat
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cheez-doodles and watch porn all night without having my feet hit the
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floor, ever.
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### The keyboard thingy ###
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My Digimatrix came with this IR receiver thingy that goes in between the
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keyboard and the keyboard port on the Digimatrix. It synthesizes
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keypresses in response to your remote. Pretty slick! This is good
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enough for most things, and for a long time I just bound remote
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keystrokes to do certain things in KDE applications, and to certain
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actions in Xine.
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### lirc ###
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lirc is the Linux Infra-Red Control system. It provides a standard
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interface to various IR recievers and remote controls, and supplies
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events to whatever wants to listen to it. KDE has a module to listen to
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it, so I figured I'd give it a go.
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# apt-get install kdelirc
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Unfortunately, lirc 0.7 (the version in debian testing and unstable)
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does not compile on Linux 2.6.12 and newer, so I had to install from
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source code.
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