I had all kinds of things planned for the easter break but got massively sidetracked.
I picked up a copy of 'Linux Format' magazine and it had an article about Wine, saying how it was possible to run Dreamweaver and World of Warcraft on Linux and I decided to have a try.
Picking up from my last try I decided to try installing on my home desktop but that I wouldn't worry if the compiz/beryl flashy eye candy didn't work. I installed ubuntu 7.10 from the Linux Format cover disk and it seemed to be a newer version of ubuntu than I tried before so I gave the compiz stuff a go anyway. I soon had the same problems as before, broken desktop and xorg.conf angst. I broke the system so hard I decided to just reinstall and try again.
This time I avoided using the ubuntu 'Screens and Resolutions' thing in the system menu but instead used the proper nvidia tools: 'nvidia-settings'. This tool allowed me to set up twinhead and get both desktop monitors running. Ubuntu still treats my second monitor as the main (the login prompt comes up there) but I can live with it. I could swap the two monitor cables but...
I was able to get some nice compiz gimmicks going such as the wobbly windows: you move a window and it wobbles like jelly. I played with themes and got the desktop setup up with something with nice transluscent effects in blue: I really dislike the ubuntu brown!
The system I set up was very nice. I am very fluent with linux command prompts at the moment through tweeking remote servers all the time so a linux system seems natural. Ubuntu is very nicely set up and most things Just Work. I installed ruby on it and was surprised how fast a rails application boots in a more native linux environment compared to booting on windows on the same box. Rails development on this system is going to be fine.
I copied World of Warcraft from the windows partition, tweeked it to use opengl rather than directX and that worked too, albeit with some funnies related to having a preference for the second monitor and the mouse not working if I started it on the primary (24" widescreen) monitor. When I did get it running it was nice and smooth and perfectly playable although I had the sound off (haven't used sound in wow for a long time, last time I turned it on I found it annoying, in the AH the continual uuuurgh noise of people dismounting as they came in).
What next? I had a server box under my desk that I have been planning to set up as a mythtv backend, the plan being to have it running all the time as a PVR driving my 42" philips plasma. I had been planning to buy a new TV tuner card, probably a Hauppauge Nova-t 500 dual tuner, but decided to try it with my old nova-t usb which has been gathering dust since 2006 due to the dire state of software at that time. It turned out that ubuntu 7.10 had all the support I needed and found the nova-t automatically. I had to find a copy of the firmware to get it running but eventually I got it to find all the stations on the local transmitter. This is DVB-T aka freeview so has about 30 TV channels and more radio stations than I care about (as long as there is radio 2 in the car I have all the radio I need).
I installed the ubuntu mythtv backend package and Ubuntu proceeded to install about 80 sub-packages including mysql database server and exim mail server (?). I ran through mythtv-settings and got it going.
I found to my horror that my 42" plasma didn't have a vga port so I had to plug a monitor into the box to see anything (thus far I had been using an ssh terminal from my laptop). I set it running cbeebies as my daughter was helping me and the picture was poor: much stuttering. I decided the problem may be cpu speed of an older system trying to display video using an integrated chipset so I thought I'd try watching on a remote client. I installed the mythtv frontend on my laptop and it again installed 80 packages, including mysql and exim! On a client! Anyway I tuned it into the server and got a good picture, smooth and no stuttering, my daughter was suitably engrossed in Lazytown. I was impressed and decided to install the myth frontend on my desktop. It couldn't connect to the live tv as it was in use but myth records every program you watch and I could watch the recordings. And it handled it! I had live tv on the laptop and a recording running on the desktop at the same time from the same server box and pretty smoothly too! I found that when I did the alt-tab thing to change the active application, the preview window had live video in it! I had compiz set up to make inactive applications slightly grey and transluscent and I could see the desktop through the video!
The more I looked at mythtv the more impressed I was. I installed the 'mythweb' package on the server which installed apache and php (
) but gave me a web-based front end that shows me 8 days worth of scheduling (gathered from the dvb-t). I can click on a program and get it to record that program, that timeslot or any program of that name on that channel- brilliant! I can search for program by name! The listing of recorded programs includes a screenshot from the recording!
Jeremy Clarkson never looked so good.
My one mythtv problem.. the damn picture still keeps coming up on the second screen on my desktop and there are no borders to allow it to be moved or resized like a normal application (it has an option to specify a xinerama screen number but I'm not using xinerama, I'm using twinview...).
Despite this I rushed out and bought a 250g hard disk which will store about 125 hours of recordings and got a Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard for £20. There were no video cards in the shops with DVI (which will connect to the HDMI port on my TV) and AGP (modern cards are all PCI-E) so I've ordered one from Amazon for £25.
I'm all inspired by mythtv and the potential:
- schedule recordings by emailing it from my mobile
- saving recordings to DVD
- family photo album easily available to spouse
- central tv recorder that could be viewed all round the house (long term dream of mine)
- now sure about this but maybe download video podcasts to watch like tv recordings? It includes an rss reader. Surely in five years time this will be how tv is done?
- automatic commercial skipping (!)
- transcoding overnight to save disk space
I'm also quite looking forward to running wow on a 42" plasma... where's that postman?
Peter's Moblog
