Living Room Media/Router Computer Setup
I have been struggling for a while to set up a computer attached to my LCD screen in the living room. I decided I should document it, in case it actually works this time.
The hardware I have is an old Dell 32 bit system with an nVidia card with DVI out. I use a DVI to HDMI cable to connect to my Phillips 37" LCD TV. Nothing special for audio or about anything on the system.
Previously I had tried Windows XP and a few of the Windows-based "media center" setups. Nothing seemed to work very well, and XP is annoying to set up as a automated "server".
At one point I decided I wanted to try out MythTV, so I loaded mythbuntu. It worked, but I also was trying Boxee, and then when Ubuntu 9.04 came out I just installed a normal install and then separately installed MythTV and Boxee. Then, the other day I was trying to make updates over ssh from another PC and things hanged in the middle. I couldn't do anything and finally powered off and restarted. The whole filesystem was corrupted and I had to bring it back in to attach it to a normal monitor since no console mode screens show up on the LCD TV.
I wasn't sure, but decided that I would reinstall Ubuntu, but this time use the old ext3 filesystem on the assumption that the ext4 filesystem I had previously installed might have been the problem. I had read on forums that if programs don't save files correctly that data can be lost if the system crashes in the middle of the save.
