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Basic Installation Steps: 12.23

 1) Boot the installation media and choose the appropriate option

    * The default package set is suitable for many configurations except in regards to video cards & drivers. You may want to choose “customize” at the package selection to verify you have appropriate drivers chosen.

    * You should also choose to enable mythdora-updates repo in the “Extra Software Repository” section of the customize screen. You will need a valid internet connection to continue.

    * Follow the prompts and proceed until the installation is complete.

 2) Completing firstboot & MythDora Configuration

    * After the installation boot the host for the first time ,you'll be prompted with some additional setup. This will include time configuration, hardware profiling, and the license agreement. The last tab is for MythTV Setup. Click the button labeled "Setup MythtTV" to launch the MythDora configuration dialog.

    * Complete the configuration that you are presented with in the browser. Many of the defaults in the browser are acceptable for most users (username, modules, etc). Use the pop-up help available for each section to assist you in making your choices.

    * After you're finished, submit the selections and close the web-browser when complete. Make note of the extra steps on the confirmation page. Then click finish in the main setup dialog to continue.

 3) Complete mythtv-setup upon first login

    * You'll be required to complete some mythtv configuration upon login; this may include setting the backend ip, entering the default storage group (/storage/recordings), configuring your tv-sources, etc.

Common Issues:
 1) The backend doesn't start or dies after the initial setup

    * If you fail to complete section 1 or section 6 in mythtv setup, the backend will not start correctly. At a minimum you must click through the screens of section 1 (General) and you MUST add /storage/recordings as the default storage group in section 6 (Storage Groups).

 2) Clicking "Finish" on the firstboot window doesn't do anything

    * You must close the firefox session after the MythDora configuration is completed. If you accidentally change the focus back to firstboot and leave the firefox session; you can regain access to the browser with ALT-TAB and close the session to continue.

Basic Installation Steps: MD 10.21
1) Boot the installation media and choose “Perform a Custom Install”
- The default package set is suitable for many configurations except in regards to video cards & drivers. You may want to choose “customize” at the package selection to verify you have appropriate drivers chosen.
- You should also choose to enable mythdora-updates repo in the “Extra Software Repository” section of the customize screen. You will need a valid internet connection to continue.
- Follow the prompts and proceed until the installation is complete.

2) Completing the first boot & MythDora Configuration
- After the installation boot the host for the first time ,you'll be prompted with some additional setup. This will include time configuration, hardware profiling, and the license agreement. The last tab is for MythTV Setup. YOU MUST CHOOSE THE “SETUP MythTV” BUTTON ON THIS PAGE
- Complete the configuration that you are presented with in the browser. Most of the defaults in the browser are acceptable for most users (username, modules, etc). There is some pop-up help available for each section that can be of assistance if you're unclear of each section.
- After you're finished, submit the selections and close the web-browser when ready. Make note of the extra steps on the confirmation page. Then click finish in the main setup dialog to continue.

3) Complete mythtv-setup upon first login
- You'll be required to complete some mythtv configuration upon login; this may include setting the backend ip, entering the default recording storage group (/storage/recordings), configuring your tv-sources, etc.


Common Issues:
1. Failure to select the “Setup MythTV” button in the firstboot dialog.
- This will make the system only partially configured. You will not have a local/auto login account. The extra configuration for MythDora will be incomplete. You should be careful when performing the post-install firstboot dialog to prevent ending up in this state.
2. Issues with mythbackend restarting every minute
- If you didn't select the mythdora-updates repository in the install you may have this issue. Update mythdora via “yum update mythdora” as root from the command line.
3. The installer starts up and fails to enter a gui and defaults to a text based install.
- Press “e” at isolinux boot prompt on the DVD and append xdriver=vesa to the selection of your choice.

Pre-MythDora 10.21 Instructions

MythDora Install Instructions
These are the instructions on how to install MythDora 3.0 or greater. My good buddy Peter Daly from MythPVR has created an excellent screencast on the installation of MythDora. So for anyone who has never seen the install process or wants to get familiar with it, it can be seen here.


Upgrade from previous version
If your wanting to upgrade from a previous version, Geoff (G) Scott has put together a very nice step-by-step guide that can be found here. This is if your wanting to keep a system in tact due to various media libraries you have saved.

Basic Install Instructions

There are two ways of installing MythDora. One is doing an Auto install and the other is Default Custom Install. Auto means just what it says. You put the disk in, type auto at boot prompt, and it does the rest. WE DON'T RECOMMEND AN AUTO INSTALL!!. Please be aware that this will format your first hard drive completely. You have been warned.

The preferred method of installation is the Default Custom Install. This allows for better installation and control over what you want installed as well as any modifications you may want. MythDora defaults to the Default Custom Install so please be aware that this is just like an Auto install at this point. You will be warned so don't worry.

For anyone needing to do custom partitioning such as dual booting with Windows, early in the MythDora installation, the installer will offer several options for HD usage. Just choose the one that says "Use the unused portion of the drive". MythDora will then create its own partitions leaving Windows untouched and automaticallly install dual-boot at the end of install

After you have installed and during firstboot, you will then be greeted by the setup menu. This is a series of questions about your hardware and what your using. These questions are very self explanatory so there is no need to go into detail here. After you have answered the questions, X will then restart and you will now be entering MythTV's part of the setup process. The first screen is the language. I'm assuming you know what language to choose here :-). After you have chosen your language, mythtvsetup will then begin. There are 5 sections to mythtvsetup. They are as follows:

1. General
2. Capture Cards
3. Video Sources
4. Input connections
5. Channel Editor

I will briefly go over things using a one card setup(PVR-250). You HAVE to do these in order especially on an initial install and you MUST go all the way through until Finish.


General
At the first screen you can leave this as is or you can go ahead and give it the IP address of your box if this is an all in one setup. I do the latter. If your doing a frontend only install you MUST give it an IP address at the top and also the IP address of the Master backend server which is the 4th spot down. If this is a backend only setup, then enter your IP address in both spots. Leave the rest as is. The next screen just ignore even though it says /mnt/store. This will be changed automatically when you exit mythtvsetup. At the third screen change the Channel frequency table to your appropriate table. These are different frequencies so you "may" have to play around with them especially if your getting blank/snow screens on certain channels. After that I normally uncheck Master Backend Override but you don't have to. Then I just have the rest of the screens at default.

Capture Cards
Here you add your cards. Choose New capture card. Since I use a PVR-250, I choose MPEG-2 encoder card(PVR-x50,PVR-500). This also includes the M179 and the PVR-USB2 even though it doesn't list them. Next is your Video Device which mine is /dev/video0. Then default input which is Composite 1. Default input simply means where your signal is coming into your capture card. This could be Tuner or S-Video as well. You will add each addition capture device you may have here with the /dev/video part incrementing accordingly. DVB and Firewire being the exception.

Video sources
At the top give this a name. I simply give it /dev/video0. Then choose your grabber. For Schedules Direct, simply use your User ID and Password then hit Fetch Listings. This will pull in your account. I leave the Channel frequency table alone here as I already have things globally set in General. For XMLTV users, set your account up by answering the questions. You will also be given a seperate xterm window after you have exited mythtvsetup for any further setup options you may need to do.

Input connections
Here you will see different input connections. Choose the one you setup in the Capture Cards section. Mine is set for [MPEG:/dev/video0](Composite 1) -> /dev/video0 since I set things up for Composite and I gave it a name of /dev/video0. Again, you will add each addition capture device you may have here. I do not recommend using the Scan for channels or Fetch channels from listings source if your simply using an analogue card. The Scan for channels is used for DVB and the Fetch channels is a mythfilldatabase which will be done for you automatically when you exit mythtvsetup but on a initial install only.

Channel Editor
The channel editor is used to globally alter channel information, including items like hue, contrast, fine tuning and others. Users in North America shouldn't run the channel editor until after completing initial setup and running mythfilldatabase at least once to populate the database.

Final Step
Now once you have completed mythtvsetup, by exiting with esc, you will now see mythfilldatabase run. This will take some time depending on your internet connection. XMLTV users will be given another xterm popup window and there you can run mythfilldatabase manually. Once that finishes, your system will reboot for the final time.

Things to know
If you ever need to get back into mythtvsetup, simply exit mythfrontend. Then on the desktop you should see the mythtvsetup icon. There is NO NEED to stop mythbackend as this is done for you. When your finished with mythtvsetup, simply exit then repeat the steps above but choose MythTV. You DO NOT need to restart mythbackend as this is done for you as well.

If you ever restart X you will be automatically logged in as your mythtv user so there is NO need to manually log in for any reason. There should not be any reason to login as root unless you know what your doing.

You can get to an xterm without ever leaving mythfrontend. This is located in MythDora tools. If you want to use the internet here simply type in firefox.

If you need to rerun the setup menu because your needing to add another capture card or what have you, then go to MythDora Tools and rerun the setup located there.

The main package installer is yum. Please remember NOT to do a system yum update/upgrade unless you really have to.

If your interested in looking at your system info, then open a browser and enter your hostname or ip address pointing to /cgi-bin/sysinfo.cgi like this.
http://ipaddress-or-hostname/cgi-bin/sysinfo.cgi