July 2009 - Arch-general - lists.archlinux.org

[arch-general] The ultimate Home Theater / media center computer
by RedShift 20 Nov '09

20 Nov '09

Hi list Somehow I got it into my head that I want a home theater PC. I'm growing tired of having to watch television and movies on my computer's 17" LCD screen. At the shop I used to work at, once in a while we'd build a media center computer, but the concept never really took off here (Belgium). There are many reasons for that, such as: * Television is major suckage here (thanks to That Big Company and Government-Not-Governing). The entire country is split into very small regions where broadcast frequencies differ, there's no unified TV guide system, not all regions can receive all channels. Digital television is even worse: That Big Company forces you to buy one of their proprietary decoders. The only way to receive digital television without restrictions is DVB-T with a very limited number of channels (basically nothing). * At that time, the hardware sucked (noisy, too big, not stylish enough to put it along your other hi-fi components, not powerful enough, limited digital outputs, etc...). The software wasn't much better (too complicated, took a long time to start, etc...). Anyway, my goal is to build the *ULTIMATE* HTPC. As such, strong demands must be met: The hardware: * It should be stylish, a timeless look which fits with your other hi-fi components. * It must be entirely silent. Zero moving components. No exceptions. * Unrestricted fully digital outputs. * Must be able to play at least 720p MKV's using x264 encoded video. * Easy remote control. No remote controls with more buttons than there are stars in the sky and certainly no "dual function" buttons (those functions in a different color which you need to flick a switch or are context dependent). * Able to receive DVB-C. The software: * There is no room for "Digital Rights Management" fascism. All content must play flawless and in the highest quality possible. In some cases this will mean circumventing protections. That'll probably make the device illegal in some countries, but I don't care. * Easy user interface (also see hardware remote control point). * Can connect to NAS or other storage devices such as USB sticks. In total: * Must be a complete replacement for your DVD player and other media devices. The goal here is keeping the number of remote controls down. Ideally you should only have two: one for controlling your HTPC and one for your hi-fi set. * It is geared towards modern television, that means stuff like HDTV and no legacy connector stuff (like composite). With those goals set, I started looking for hardware. Here's what I've come up with: * Case: Silverstone LC19 http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_spec.php?pno=lc19&area=usa + Fanless PSU. + Casefans can be removed + Comes with PCI-e and PCI risercards + Integrated cardreader and slimline optical slot + Available in black and silver + Accommodates standard ATX I/O shield + Room for a 3.5" storage device (SSD?) + Vents right above the CPU + Slim - Fits only small motherboard sizes - Only 120 watt PSU - No infrared receiver, no remote control * Motherboard: Asus P5N7A-VM http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=8YiUFvK51IergAqY&templete=2 + Powerful on-board graphics (nVidia 9300) + Supports 16 GB of RAM + eSATA port + Optical audio output + HDMI, DVI and VGA video output + Gigabit ethernet + Solid caps - nVidia on-board graphics (requiring proprietary driver) - On-board graphics use system memory - Crappy realtek audio codec * DVB-C receiver: ? I have zero experience with DVB-C receivers for computers. I've come across the "DVBWorldDTV Cable" (http://www.worlddvb.com/product/htm/pcic.htm) which seems to provide what I'm looking for. Anyone know how good this hardware actually is and how well it's supported by linux? I have an old hauppauge PVR-350 card which works well, unfortunately hauppauge doesn't seem to have DVB-C products. * Remote control: ? I want to have something simple here. Maybe a small USB infrared receiver and a simple remote control with buttons up, down, left, right, enter? Anyone know if such hardware exists? * Processor: Intel Celeron? No idea how much processing power would be required for a decent HTPC. Preferably as low powered as possible, as the CPU will have to be passively cooled. * Processor cooling: ? I was thinking of a big block with small fins which you see a lot in 1U rackservers. Copper would be the logical choice but from what I've read, aluminum allows for better heat transfer to the environment. So a copper base with alu fins would be ideal. * Storage: ? For storing the operating system I was thinking of those IDE compact flash cards. Downside is that they are very slow. An SSD can be considered but I want to leave the option open to use the 3.5" bay for a hard drive for people that don't have the luxury of a NAS or don't want to leave a NAS running all times. Moving along. The most annoying aspect: software. Obviously we want all our software to be open source. A shortlist of open source media center software: * MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/) * XBMC (http://xbmc.org/) * Elisa (http://elisa.fluendo.com/) The point I really want to focus on is ease of use. Take this as a benchmark: you only have to explain your parents once how it works. Any suggestions, comments, thoughts, etc... are appreciated. Thanks, Best regards, Glenn

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[arch-general] Regression in PC Beep when updating to 2.6.30
by Flavio Costa 10 Aug '09

10 Aug '09

Is anyone experiencing this too? http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13651 The noise is quite irritating, I'm looking forward a workaround or a way to shut it down. -- Flávio Coutinho da Costa

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[arch-general] logging a PKGBUILD output
by richard terry 08 Aug '09

08 Aug '09

I wondered if anyone could tell me how to log the output of a pkgbuild to a fille as it compiles so I an catch all the compilation messages. Thanks. Richard

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[arch-general] autogen.sh now fails building radeonhd - m4_pattern_allow -- how?
by David C. Rankin 06 Aug '09

06 Aug '09

Listmates, I have been working with the radeonhd folks for several months testing the radeonhd driver. I have probably built the driver 50 times over that period. In the past few days, something changed so I can no longer run the autogen.sh script. The error is: 09:46 alchemy:~/archlinux/apps/radeonhd> sh autogen-autoconf.sh --prefix=/usr autoreconf: Entering directory `.' autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext autoreconf: running: aclocal /usr/share/aclocal/progsreiserfs.m4:13: warning: underquoted definition of AC_CHECK_LIBREISERFS /usr/share/aclocal/progsreiserfs.m4:13: run info '(automake)Extending aclocal' /usr/share/aclocal/progsreiserfs.m4:13: or see http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Extending-aclocal autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing autoreconf: running: libtoolize --copy libtoolize: Consider adding `AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])' to configure.ac and libtoolize: rerunning libtoolize, to keep the correct libtool macros in-tree. libtoolize: Consider adding `-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am. /usr/share/aclocal/progsreiserfs.m4:13: warning: underquoted definition of AC_CHECK_LIBREISERFS /usr/share/aclocal/progsreiserfs.m4:13: run info '(automake)Extending aclocal' /usr/share/aclocal/progsreiserfs.m4:13: or see http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Extending-aclocal autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf configure:1583: error: possibly undefined macro: _m4_text_wrap_word If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow. See the Autoconf documentation. autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1 I have searched and I can't figure out what the error is. The radeonhd source is from: git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-radeonhd radeonhd/ The simple autogen.sh script is: #! /bin/sh srcdir=`dirname "$0"` test -z "$srcdir" && srcdir=. ORIGDIR=`pwd` cd "$srcdir"; rm -rf autom4te.cache autoreconf -v --install || exit 1 cd "$ORIGDIR" || exit $? "$srcdir"/configure --enable-maintainer-mode "$@" Anybody have any idea what I'm doing wrong?? I have the needed macro packages installed: m4 1.4.13-1 xorg-util-macros 1.2.2-1 -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] Archlinux added a choice for OS selection at bugs.kde.org
by David C. Rankin 06 Aug '09

06 Aug '09

Listmates, You should now be able to choose Archlinux as the OS when filing bugs at bugs.kde.org. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] The vsftpd only starts at the second attempt
by Lucas Salies Brum 05 Aug '09

05 Aug '09

(root@abraham ~):# ps -A | grep vsftpd (root@abraham ~):# /etc/rc.d/vsftpd start :: Starting vsftpd FTP Daemon [FAIL] (root@abraham ~):# /etc/rc.d/vsftpd stop :: Stopping vsftpd FTP Daemon [DONE] (root@abraham ~):# /etc/rc.d/vsftpd start :: Starting vsftpd FTP Daemon [DONE] (root@abraham ~):# ps -A | grep vsftpd 6453 pts/3 00:00:00 vsftpd This has happened to someone? /etc/vsftpd.conf - http://paste.archlinux-br.org/1241 /etc/rc.conf - http://paste.archlinux-br.org/1242 Arch Linux i686. Thanks. --- Lucas Saliés Brum http://sistematico.org lsbrum @ irc.freenode.org

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[arch-general] Bind 9.6.1-1 patched against dynamic update ddos?
by Fredrik Eriksson 04 Aug '09

04 Aug '09

Hi, I've seen that there's a dynamic update ddos attack that is widely available on the net and after looking for the solution it seems that bind's latest patch (9.6.1-P1) solves this problem. So my question is more like this, is extra/bind 9.6.1-1 in the repository the same as bind 9.6.1-P1? The build date of the current package in extra/ says the 18 July but the homepage of BIND says the latest patch was published the 28 July. Best regards Fredrik Eriksson

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[arch-general] how to migrate installs between hard drives?
by Will Siddall 01 Aug '09

01 Aug '09

I know this isn't particularly an arch question, but I know Arch people are better off to ask then most. I'm in the process of upgrading my hard drive in my laptop but with the amounts of customizations I've done to my setup, I don't want to have to set it all up again. I know about running dd to copy the partition information, but the problem with that is that it also copies that partition information over. So, if I copy my root partition that started as a 40G partition with 90% used and now I have a 60G parition, the used portion will be kept at 90% so, it'll show something like 50G of data... which doesn't make sense. I've also just tried copying the partitions to an external, mount the iso's in a livecd session then copy the data over, but for some reason after I modified the menu.lst and fstab files to match my new setup and then restart, the computer doesn't boot. Is there something I'm missing in the second instance that I didn't change a file that should be changed? Is there a better way of copying the partitions so I don't run into this problem? Thanks, Will

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[arch-general] [signoff] kernel26 2.6.30.4-1
by Tobias Powalowski 31 Jul '09

31 Jul '09

Hi guys, just an upstream bump. please signoff fast greetings tpowa -- Tobias Powalowski Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa) http://www.archlinux.org tpowa(a)archlinux.org

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[arch-general] community svn issues
by Allan McRae 31 Jul '09

31 Jul '09

Hi, The following packages have files in the wrong place in svn. Something like <pkg>/repo/<pkg> instead of <pkg>/repo/<pkg>-<arch>. cabal-install codeblocks haskell-x11 haskell-zlib moovida Also python-matplotlib has a package in "comunity-i686". I will fix these up but please remove any stray files as they cause issues for the ABS scripts. Thanks, Allan

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