MythTV (v0.18.1) - Xebian (v1.1.3-1.1.4) How TO

Purpose: This guide is to help you setup your xbox as a MythTV frontend. The xbox will be using Xebian v1.1.3 or v1.1.4 and the backend will be running MythTV v0.18.1.

My Setup:

Modded v1.4 xbox with Xecuter x2.3lite modchip.

Xbox DVD remote dongle and usb Keyboard for Xbox.

Mythbackend running v.18.1 on fedora core 3 setup following Jarod's guide: http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/

Files Needed:

Xebian v1.1.3 or v1.1.4 ISO, which the xbox can read and boot. Get that here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54192

Configuration files: lircrc, fstab, .asoundrc, apps

Mod your xbox:

I used a X2.3lite modchip with a 200GB IDE hard drive. The hard drive is not needed if you want to just use your xbox as a mythtv frontend. If you want to backup your games to the hard drive, or store media you will need a bigger one. Also if you want to use your xbox to play on xbox live and want to have a bigger hard drive, you will need to install the larger hard drive before the xbox ever logs onto an xbox live server. So basically if you want to play on xbox live and have backup games, do the modchip install and hard drive install at the same time before your xbox ever sees live. Also you will always have to have your modchip turned off to play on live otherwise you will get banned.

Everything you need to know about xbox modding: http://www.xbox-scene.com/

To install an Xecuter modchip see the guides on right: http://www.teamxecuter.com/

General steps:

1.Install modchip

2.Flash Bios

3.Boot from Evox CD, run backup command, which creates a backup folder on the hard drive with a few files in it. Backup original hard drive via FTP (C: and E:). Save to CD

4.Install new Hard drive

5.Boot Evox CD and format HD and then lock Hard drive Reboot and boot Evox, FTP hard drive backup to the correct folders. i.e. C:/ to C:/ and E:/ to E:/ etc. Then FTP Evox to C:/

6.Boot Evox from hard drive

Additional Hardware Mods:

Adding SPDIF output to xbox advanced a/v pack. See this tutorial: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/digital-sp-dif.php

Adding usb female to controller breakaway cord. I followed this tutorial except I used a female usb instead of a male usb. I got the female usb from an extra motherboard panel. See this tutorial: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/xbox-to-usb.php

Install Xebian:

I suggest getting a usb connection to the xbox so you can use a keyboard. You will need it later when you configure mythtv. See this for details on installation: http://www.keckstar.com/linux/xboxlinux/index.html The same steps needed for v1.1.3 and v1.1.4

Boot Xebian v1.1.4

General steps which can be done from SSH or from the xbox terminal:

To SSH from Linux box

$ssh 192.168.0.10 –l –live

Password: live

$su

password:xebian

#XBOXLinuxInstall

Follow the prompts and install how you like. Here are a few key things to note:

1. Install to the gamesave partition is E:/ which is normally around 4GB capacity. The file system size can be set by you during install, standard is 2GB.

2. Setup your timezone.

3. Set IP

4. Setup evox.ini afterwards to have Xebian as a launch option from Evox. Once Xebian is installed you need to config Evox to boot it. Boot to Evox and FTP in to get the evox.ini file. I edited mine so it would have a "Xebian" entry in the launch commands, like the "Power Off" and "Reboot" commands. Then FTP the evox.ini back to your xbox replacing the old one. Reboot the xbox and boot to Xebian.

If you can't SSH into your xbox there are 2 ways I found around it.

1. Change the default IP address of Xebian once booted. To do that, issue these commands from the terminal:

#ifconfig eth0 inet 192.168.1.101 netmask 255.255.255.0

#route add default gw 192.168.1.1

note: 192.168.1.101 is the IP you want the xbox to be. 192.168.1.1 is your router IP address.

2. Option two is to change your IP subnet to include 192,168.0.10. This was done by changing the starting IP address in your router. On my linksys it is 192.168.1.1 so I changed it to 192.168.0.1 and was able to SSH to the xbox then.

Myth Backend Setup before MythTV Install:

1.First make sure you have MythTV setup so you can have remote frontends. Mainly check the mysqld database access. Here is how I allowed access by IP subnet: http://mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-6.html#modify_perm_mysql

2.Also setup NFS to share your recording/media directories. The last time I checked the directories for mythvideo and mythmusic must be the same on the frontend and backened for everything to work right. So I set mine up by setting up a NFS share that shared /mnt/videos with read only access to the IP address of the xbox (i.e. 192.168.1.101) Within the /mnt/videos folder their were other folders i.e. ~/Music and ~/Movies which held the media files.

Pre MythTV configuration:

1.Set IP address if not set during install:

#ifconfig eth0 inet 192.168.1.101 netmask 255.255.255.0

#route add default gw 192.168.1.1

2.Set TimeZone in not set during install:

#tzconfig

3.Set up NFS by editing the /etc/fstab file:

#mkdir /mnt/videos

#nano /etc/fstab

>192.168.1.100:/mnt/videos /mnt/videos nfs rsize=8192,wsize=8192,nfsvers=3 0 0

Change according to your setup and then hit ctrl+o to write then hit ctrl+x to exit.

4. Setup apt sources:

See debian mythtv packages for latest sources: http://debian.video.free.fr/index.html I added these lines to my /etc/apt/sources.list file:

#nano /etc/apt/sources.list

>deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sid main

>deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

Install MythTV:

1. Install MythTV

#apt-get update

#apt-get install mythtv-frontend

I did myth-frontend because I didn't want the backend installed.

2. Setup lirc

I used the lirc from the .0.4.5 beta packages that they put together here: http://bit.blkbk.com/ To get the files do this:

#cd /tmp

#wget http://bit.blkbk.com/mythtv-xbox.0.4.5-beta.tar.gz

#tar xpzvf mythtv-xbox.0.4.5-beta.tar.gz

Now put the lircrc file in place:

#cd /tmp/live

#cp lircrc /home/live/.lircrc

#ln –s /home/live/.lircrc /home/live/.mythtv/lircrc (must be done after mythtv-frontend is run the first time, otherwise the /.mythtv folder isn’t their)

Also copy the .arsoundrc for digital sound setup later

#cd /tmp/conf

#cp asoundrc /home/live/.asoundrc

Copy this file for automatic boot

#cd /tmp/live

#cp apps /home/live

I made one change, which has the SKIP+ and Skip- buttons be the commercial skip buttons. This was done by editing the lircrc files like this:

#nano /home/live/.lircrc

# Seek to previous commercial cut point

begin

prog = mythtv

button = SKIP-

repeat = 4

config = Q

end

# Seek to next commercial cut point

begin

prog = mythtv

button = SKIP+

repeat = 4

config = Z

end

Also to keep menus from popping up when hitting the select button I edited the

/etc/lirc/lircmd.conf file so the remote could pull the xbox out of screensavers mode but keep the menus from showing up. I commented everything out in the movement keys except the directional arrows. i.e.

MOVE_N * UP

MOVE_E * RIGHT

MOVE_S * DOWN

MOVE_W * LEFT

Now I would reboot the xbox and start mythtv to see how it works. To start mythtv:

$mythfrontend

Go thorugh all the settings and change accordingly. Enable xbox hardware and change the distrubiton to other. You might have to issue this command to get the front LED to change color.

#chmod u+s /usr/bin/blink

Install MythTV plugins:

I installed these plugins:

#apt-get update

#apt-get install mythvideo

#apt-get install mythdvd

#apt-get install mythmusic

#apt-get install mythweather

#apt-get install mythtv-themes

1.Setup MythVideo and MythMusic directories, which should be the same as on the backend.

/mnt/videos/Music

/mnt/videos/Movies

2. Setup digital sound in MythTV and MythMusic (must configure the .asoundrc file for your setup)

Type in “ALSA:digital” for the sound device for MythTV and Mythmusic

3. Setup mplayer for MythVideo and MythDVD with digital sound output. I could not figure out how to do this with ALSA so I just did the following and it works fine.

Add “–ao oss:/dev/adsp” and “-nojoystick” to the launch commands for MythDVD and MythVideo

If your remote doesn't work when using mythvideo check the /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf file for this line:

lirc=yes

If it is "lirc=no" change it to yes and your remote should work now.

4.Setup shutdown command:

sudo /sbin/shutdown -h now

5.Setup automatic boot. Once you have everything setup where you like setup automaticly starting mythtv on boot by moving the apps file copied earlier.

$cd /home/live

$mv apps /home/live/.fluxbox/apps