After using Beyond TV and Windows XP for years, (and having problem with XP's stability), I'm looking to move to Linux / Myth TV. Right now I have a MSI Motherboard with a VIA chipset and an AMD Athlon 3400 processor. I'm relatively new to Linux and although I've tried loading several Linux distributions I have been unable to get the power management (sleep function) to work correctly with any of them. This is a must have feature for my installation.

I'm looking to upgrade to a motherboard that is well supported by one of the Linux distributions.

AMD offers much better bang for the buck and I'd prefer an AMD processor, but I've been leaning toward an Intel motherboard with the thought that they would follow standards such as ACPI better than most anyone else.

Have any of you found a system configuration that works well out of the box with any Linux distribution?

Thanks,

Steve in Seattle

Hi Steve,

I've been struggling with that too. It's hard to find a "works out of the box" spec. If you can find one usually at least one of the components isn't available any more. There are forums on the various platform forums (KnoppMyth, MythBuntu, etc.) where people can post their systems and what problems, if any, they had but again a lot of times not all the components are still available.

KnoppMyth has a KnoppMyth Reference Platform and there's a company that sells systems built to the spec. I found it after I ordered a motherboard and stuff so it doesn't do me much good, but when I took a quick look I found the motherboard and stuff was still available from NewEgg. They are using a kind of expensive case but I imagine you could vary from the spec there without too much risk to compatibility.

The spec is at this site:
http://mythic.tv/system_specs.php

Hope that helps!

I personally ordered an Asus AM2NPV-VM motherboard, a 4600+ processor, 2 gigs of ram, an Antec NSK-2480 case, a Western Digital 640gb hard drive, and two PVR-150s (one with remote and blaster, the other is a white box MCE card with no remote but it has FM radio in it). Not everything has arrived yet so I don't know how easy of an install it will be. I'll post back when everything gets here and I've either had success or need help!

Take Care,

Steve in Nebraska

Have a look at this: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Fix_Common_ACPI_Problems

I also am an AMD supporter, and have been a fan of Biostar boards for the past year or so.

This board makes an excellent Myth base or really any kind of Linux box.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GF7025-M2&cat=MBB

The on board video should be more than adequate for most Linux uses- if not, add a PCIe card later.

Don't know about it's ACPI capability with Linux, but Nvidia chipsets are really the best way to go with AMD CPU's, IMO.

If your CPU is AM2, you'll be good to go. If not,X2 CPU's are dirt cheap now, with the X2 5000 BE a great deal now, going for $85 or less on sale periodically from newegg.

My favorite has been ASUS motherboards for years, they are also Linux compatible. I don't have any experience with Biostar, but if Rgb recommends them, they must be good :D. I did read that some ECS mobo's have problems running Linux (although some members have versions that they said did work).

My build (in progress) includes a ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 nForce570 mobo (it's overkill, but has 2 Gbit LAN outputs, and supports the newer video cards). It also supports up to 6 SATA drives and has RAID capability, along with 3 PCI slots (in addition to 2 full PCI-e slots and 2 PCI-e 1x slots). The extra SATA connections lets me use my eSATA drives for external backup capability.

My processor is a AMD AM2 Athlon 64 Dual Core 4400+ (again overkill) with Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB kit (recommended for compatability with ASUS & AMD, by my local computer specialty store).

My video card is a XFX GeForce 7600GS 256MB HDMI/DVI PCI-E, with an excellent warranty. It's the only one with a HDMI and a DVI output connector (HDCP compatable, which doesn't matter in Linux) plus a Component Video output adapter. It wasn't cheap (and its hard to find, because its a rare older card), but I didn't want to mess with a DVI to HDMI adapter. I'm not a gamer, so all the latest features needed for the latest Windows games aren't needed (and aren't used in Linux either).

An Antec P180B Super Quiet Case, an Antec NEO 650W PS (more than needed), plus some ultra quiet 120mm chassis fans, round out the main hardware. I have a 500GB SATA drive, which I will use, to start with. I will add one or two 1TB SATA drives for saving video files, and digital photographs.

It will be a dual boot PC (Windows XP), only for compatibility with our other PCs. Its primary operation will be under Linux, Ubuntu 8.04. I will install Myth only after I get everything else set up to my liking. Right now I don't need video capability, since I use stand-alone video STBs. I will be installing my PVR-250 card in it, though (at least to start with - for legacy recording).

I did go overboard on the components. The total cost is way more than what is needed for a HTPC Myth box, but this will be my main computer, and I wanted complete capability for any eventual (general PC) use. It will replace my 4+ year old Windows XP desktop PC, which is starting to have problems (it's been running 24/7).

My good old ECS NFORCE4-A939 + opty 800 work fine with Linux. She runs 24/7, though, so I haven't tried sleep, etc.

Also, the link I posted above isn't Gentoo-specific except for the commands to install the intel compiler. Might be worth a shot as it could save you some green if it works.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm going to see if I can resolve the ACPI problems with the excellent wiki link mythmaster provided on my existing board. I'm not particularly optimistic though, I've found lots of bugs with VIA chipsets and the PCI problems particularly can interfere with the quaility of recordings.

I'll probably end up going with one of the reference systems, simply because I'd rather not spend hours or days debugging problems.

BTW, the reason sleep mode is important is the amount of power my system uses. I've found that it will raise the temperature of the unheated room it's in by 10 degrees or more if left running.

nwbear -- Just because its an Intel based board is no guarantee that it won't have problems with a Linux OS.

Either you have a very small room, or you have a very inefficient PC. A lot of the older power supplies can be quite inefficient. There is a trend towards more "green" supplies, which are more efficient and consume less power. You might want to check out the power supply reviews on this web site: http://www.silentpcreview.com/. Also, you need to match the supply with the amount of power used by your PC. It's nice to have reserve power available, but too much results in generating more heat without providing any benefits. Even with a high CPU loading, most PCs rarely go much over 250 to 350 watts, even with several hard disks. Also, the newer SATA drives are more efficient.

If you are not into Windows gaming, the "latest and greatest" video cards aren't needed, nor is an super high speed CPU. Both of these will draw more power, even when "idling" (running just background tasks - less than 5% CPU utilization). We have a 4 year old AMD PC w/ASUS mobo, 2 - 250GB HDDs and 1 - 350GB HDD, and a 430W PS. It's in a 9' x 11' room and only raises the room temperature by about 2-5 degrees at most (its on 24/7, and not in the sleep mode). The Yamaha AVR, in the room, puts out more heat than the PC does.

It will be a dual boot PC (Windows XP), only for compatibility with our other PCs. Its primary operation will be under Linux, Ubuntu 8.04.


What compatibility are you looking for? I've not had an issue with compatibility with any of my linux systems and windows (vista or XP).

"Either you have a very small room, or you have a very inefficient PC."

I have new "green" Antec power supply that is very efficient, but I do have five disks running. Putting the machine into sleep mode has significantly reduced the heat it puts out, and by inference, the electricity usage.

This machine gets intermittent usage, and this past weekend it didn't get used at all. For me it doesn't make sense to leave it running all the time when it only gets an hour or two of use a day at most. As summer comes on it I will use it even less.

I've found that it will raise the temperature of the unheated room it's in by 10 degrees or more if left running.
:eek::eek::eek:

Well, look at the bright side: at least you can roast marshmallows while you're watching a movie! :D

5 drives, eh? You can spin them down manually with sdparm (http://sg.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html) for SATA and hdparm (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_hdparm_to_improve_IDE_device_performance) for IDE. Just be sure to sync them first.

What compatibility are you looking for? I've not had an issue with compatibility with any of my linux systems and windows (vista or XP).Everybody keeps asking me this question. For me there is no reason.

EDIT: Oops, I just thought of one, Slingbox compatability. But then, we always have 2 laptops with us when we travel, and hers uses Windows. If the Slingbox software will run under Wine, then that goes away too.

However, I also have to maintain 3 other Windows computers in the house, which run Windows only software. If they need debugging, I need a Windows platform on which to do it. Right now I have a sick Windows machine, that I was using. I need to finish building my new PC first (with dual boot), before I trouble-shoot my old one and fix it's problems. At that point, I can ditch the dual-boot feature.

Right now my only fully operational, personal, PC is this HP laptop I'm using now, which is strictly Linux (Ubuntu 8.04) on a its own (new) HDD. I have the original HDD in a box, which I can put back in to the HP, when I want to run Windows (a mechanical "dual-boot" :rolleyes:).

nwbear -- Ok, that explains it. Yup, putting those 5 drives to sleep would definitely help the power load. I'm glad to hear you do have a good PS.
mythmaster's suggestion sounds like a winner.