Revision as of 03:20, 3 March 2009

Pnuts Introduction to LMCE

Prior to ever hearing about LMCE I had an extensive network that was based around Windows systems with a Windows XP MCE in the living room and an xbox 360 acting as an extender on my media\office room. Other than briefly touching Linux here or there, I know very little about it but have always wanted to learn more.

A coworker of mine heard about my setup at home and was looking into doing something similar himself. He had read\heard a lot about LMCE and mentioned it to me. Hearing Linux and being a fairly complete Windows user, I did no bother to look into it at all. Several months later, I was talking to the same coworker about possibly setting up webcams in a home i recently purchased to make my own low budget security system and was looking for software to do it with. He again mentioned LMCE and quickly shot over a link to this LinuxMCE Video.

After watching a minute of the video, I was hooked. I went about researching what i would need to do and planning out how to do it. Now here I am starting a Wiki page of my experiances from start to finish, or rather where i currently am in the setup, who really is ever finished. So here I am. I will update this page as I build out the network so check back for updates.

The Complete Home System

Here I will break out each system that is on my network and touch on any issues or problems i have or have had while getting everything up and running.

The Core

A Dell Optiplex 755

Specs

CPU: E6550 - Dual Core @ 2.33
RAM: 4gb RAM
PCI-E 16x: empty
PCI-1: 3com Fast EtherLink XL
PCI-2: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE
PCI-E 1x: Empty
Sata0: Western Digital 320gb Caviar drive
Sata1: Seagate Barracuda 500gb drive
Sata2: Seagate Barracuda 500gb drive
Sata3: Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7200S

Installation Issues

I will break out any issues I encountered with the above system here

Onboard Raid Controller

Instead of the Kubuntu using the settings I choose in the preboot raid setup, Kubuntu is detecting each drive independantly and not as a Raid. I will attempt to use software Raid on the 2x500gb drives to have them in Raid1 (Mirror) after installation is complete. If you would like more information on why this happened, please read this link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto Perhaps in the future once I become more knowledgable with Linux, I may atempt this.

Media Director 1 (not yet installed)

A Dell Optiplex 755

Specs

CPU: E6550 - Dual Core @ 2.33
RAM: 4gb RAM
PCI-E 16x: EVGA Nvidia 8600 GS 256mb
PCI-1: Empty
PCI-2: Empty
PCI-E 1x: Empty
Sata0: Western Digital 320gb Caviar drive
Sata1: Seagate Barracuda 250gb drive
Sata2: Seagate Barracuda 250gb drive
Sata3: H+L DVD Recorder DVD+-RW

Installation Issues

I will break out any issues I encountered with the above system here