Revision as of 22:37, 9 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

Mother Board: Intel B875PBZ
CPU: Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading
RAM: 2gb RAM
AGP: ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition Radeon 9600
PCI: 3com Fast EtherLink XL
PCI: Creative Sound Blaster
Sata0: Samsung 250gb
Sata1: Samsung 250gb
Pata: DL DVD+-RW

Pending Issues

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

Capture Card

The ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition Radeon 9600 has a built in capture card. I am unsure if this works or not, or what I will have to do in order to get it to work. I will post more on this once I have the MD up and running.

Windows MCE \ Media Director 1 (not yet installed)

A Dell Optiplex 755

Specs

CPU: E6550 - Dual Core @ 2.33
RAM: 4gb RAM
PCI-E: EVGA Nvidia 8600 GS 256mb
PCI: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500
Sata0: Western Digital 320gb Caviar drive
Sata1: Seagate Barracuda 500gb drive
Sata2: Seagate Barracuda 500gb drive
Sata3: H+L DVD Recorder DVD+-RW

This machine is a Windows XP Media Center that will PXE Boot occasionally. Hopefully one day it will become a dedicated MD (Wife needs to convert to LMCE to do this)

Installation Issues

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

Onboard Raid Controller

While Windows see's the onboard raid controller and is treating the 2x500gb drives as a raid array, out of the box, Linux see's the 2 drives independantly. I found out this is because the onboard raid controller uses a "Fake Raid". More information about this here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto I will need to resolve this before i attempt to boot the system so I do not put the data on these drises at risk.

Pxe Boot

The Core is currently not providing the correct network driver when attempting to do a Pxe Boot so this machine is currently unable to boot as a MD.

Network Layout

Network Explaination

My wife is not yet ready t let me take the full plunge, So I have a hybrid network going...

If you look at the image, ill explain what is happening a little better. The Wireless router after modem is handing out DHCP address to the internal network and wireless devices, The LMCE Core external network addapter included.

The LMCE Core's internal adapter then goes back into the same switch but because this is a manged switch, the port it is connected to is configured as its own virtual LAN. The current Windows Media Center and a 2nd wireless access point sit on this Virtual LAN. This enables the LMCE Core to use DHCP to its clients they way it is intended but also seperates my main internal network.

My next step is to move the Theater room onto the VLAN once i have the Living Room on the LMCE system and the wife converted.

Network Image