[gentoo-user] Re: VIA C3 Processor
Aurlien Reynaud aurelien.reynaud at atosorigin.com writes: my PVR is based on an Epia-1M mainboard (C3 Nehemiah processor) and a hauppauge PVR250 TV tuner card. It has known no other OS than Gentoo and is doing quite well. Some hardware features are still bleeding edge for Linux (hw MPEG2 decoding under Xorg), but most development in this area happens on Gentoo first, thanks to its flexibility. So if you want Linux on this platform, you cannot find better than Gentoo. However, getting a fully functional system is not easy and you will have to be confortable with ~x86, portage overlays, ebuild editing, etc... If you don't need support for maximal multimedia features (eg you plan to use it for server/router purposes) a standard Gentoo install will be OK. Of course we are talking 1GHz cpus, so if you plan to build Gentoo from stage 1, what you will need most is patience... Any 'Howtos' floating around? I'd also be interested in builing a Gentoo multimedia appliance, based on the Nehemiah processor. These issues you have indicated seem to suggest a 'howto' is needed specifically for Gentoo on a Via processor. For instances the details kernel building. Did you do it cross-compiling on an x86 machine, or natively on the Nehemiah processor? Also how well is the Mpeg2 HW working? Can your get a stable stream and use ffmpeg to convert it to another form of video such as H.263 or H.264? Ideas and details are most welcome. James -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: VIA C3 Processor
Le mardi 24 mai 2005 13:38 +, James a crit : Any 'Howtos' floating around? I'd also be interested in builing a Gentoo multimedia appliance, based on the Nehemiah processor. These issues you have indicated seem to suggest a 'howto' is needed specifically for Gentoo on a Via processor. For instances the details kernel building. Did you do it cross-compiling on an x86 machine, or natively on the Nehemiah processor? Hello, the primary source of information for linux on epia is there: http://www.epiawiki.org/wiki/tiki-index.php There are some howtos, some ebuilds, but they rapidly get out of date... They are posted by people with specific problems, which may not be exactly yours. For example kernel ebuilds do not include the lirc patch, which you will need to build a pvr. They contain the standard drm patches which are too old for use with the newest Xorg patches for hw mpeg2, etc... To get my current kernel, I had to manually patch the vanilla kernel with the cko patchset (for reiser4, lirc, vesafb-tng), add the viafb patch (native framebuffer), the vt1211 patch (for lm_sensors), CVS drm... To build Xorg with HW mpeg2 accel, you need to break the emerge into several ebuild steps, applying patches to the unpacked tree before completing the process... Now xine and mplayer natively support the cle266 hw mpeg2 decoding, as does mythtv, so you just need to emerge them with the correct USE flags... I do not do cross compiling, as everything works OK natively even if not very fast. Also how well is the Mpeg2 HW working? Can your get a stable stream and use ffmpeg to convert it to another form of video such as H.263 or H.264? mpeg2 hw works quite well. I can watch dvd's with xine at less than 10% cpu usage. Quality is acceptable but not excellent. I heard in forums that you can get much better quality with a hauppauge PVR350 (which unlike the PVR250, does decoding as well as encoding)... and it is supported by MythTV. WRT transcoding, I have no idea as I never tried it... Sorry! Just keep in mind that on epia motherboards (mini-itx) you only have one pci slot, so decide carefully what peripheral you'll plug into it! If you need more information, just ask me. I have spent much time into this and I am willing to share my experience. I'm just too lazy to write all this down in a howto... Aurelien -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: VIA C3 Processor
James wrote: Aurlien Reynaud aurelien.reynaud at atosorigin.com writes: my PVR is based on an Epia-1M mainboard (C3 Nehemiah processor) and a hauppauge PVR250 TV tuner card. It has known no other OS than Gentoo and is doing quite well. Some hardware features are still bleeding edge for Linux (hw MPEG2 decoding under Xorg), but most development in this area happens on Gentoo first, thanks to its flexibility. So if you want Linux on this platform, you cannot find better than Gentoo. However, getting a fully functional system is not easy and you will have to be confortable with ~x86, portage overlays, ebuild editing, etc... If you don't need support for maximal multimedia features (eg you plan to use it for server/router purposes) a standard Gentoo install will be OK. Of course we are talking 1GHz cpus, so if you plan to build Gentoo from stage 1, what you will need most is patience... Any 'Howtos' floating around? I'd also be interested in builing a Gentoo multimedia appliance, based on the Nehemiah processor. These issues you have indicated seem to suggest a 'howto' is needed specifically for Gentoo on a Via processor. For instances the details kernel building. Did you do it cross-compiling on an x86 machine, or natively on the Nehemiah processor? Also how well is the Mpeg2 HW working? Can your get a stable stream and use ffmpeg to convert it to another form of video such as H.263 or H.264? Ideas and details are most welcome. James There are, I am using the EPIAWIKI gentoo guide (epiawiki.org). This is a site dedicated to the EPIA platform. and has good how-tos for installation of gentoo. (i am currently in the process of building from stage 1 gentoo on an EPIA-ME6000 mini-itx board, its taken about a day and a bit and am not finished yet). It also tells you about optimisations for the C3 processors and what to look out for (e.g. use -Os for best optimisation (not -O3 or -O2) - i didnt think of that one) -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
