I used to worry about how to recover. I've had to do recovery a number of times, you can use a LiveCD, you can get an external USB HD. But the best configuration I've found so far is to get a Compact Flash to IDE converter, install it as/dev/hda and put/boot and grub on the CF card.
Then I install the OS on a RAID1 set and the data I care about on a RAID5. One system I have has dual SCSI 2xRAID1 for the system partitions and 3xRAID5 IDE drives.
The CF is/dev/hda and is mounted read-only. If I need to upgrade the kernel I remount it RW and then do what I need and remount back to RO.
This is the most reliable configuration I've come up with so far. CF has no moving parts so it's fairly reliable. Writes are limited to about 1 million. Reads are unlimited.
I've owned a Tivo for over 3 years. Recently I decided to build a MythTV box as an experiment since I had a lot of older hardware sitting around. I tried building a freevo box about a year ago but things were not as well cooked as they may be now.
Anyway, MythTV 0.15 and then 0.16, and after sorting out some hardware problems I've got to say I'm completely blown away. Admittedly setting up MythTV for optimal performance is not newbie work but when you do get it running it is da bomb.
The biggest advantage right now over a commercial Tivo system is extensibility and upgrades. My Tivo hasn't changed much in 3 years. It's starting to get a little long in the Tooth. I've done every possible upgrade I can (cachecard, ram upgrade, harddisks, etc...), but the software hasn't improved because I will be forced by the vendor to go to series 2 to get those updates. Yes you can download a web server and some web based tools but at 54MHz this puppy is not going to do much more. Also the resolution is lower than NTSC so the rips don't look so good unless you own a DirectTivo.
MythTV has four clear advantages:
Splittable backend and front end architecture over the LAN
I can play multiple streams of video from the
backend system at once. Over 10/100
Ethernet this will scale to 6-7 systems
for mpeg2 streams of 10mbits each.
This rocks!
Upgrade Modules
Plays Xvid movies and Quicktime
Plays mp3s, Ogg
Weather, RSS, Image Viewing on my TV
I can take the mpeg2 streams and burn them
to DVD.
I can upgrade it and the hardware
Low hardware requirements
My backend box is a Celeron 1.4
My two front end systems are a 933 P3,
and a Celeron 1.4
This is the multi-media center they've been promising for all these years... and it's only going to get better.
VSFTPD is the best ftp server out there today,
ok maybe Tux 2.0 is as good. VSFTPD has never
been broken into and RedHat, and a number of other high profile FTP sites use it on their distribution servers. It's also damned fast.
Homepage
I own a set of these. I got em for about $260.
Overall I like them, I use them in the front room to decode DTS and 5.1. They sound really really good with a variety of movies and music and even just for watching TV. The DTS is by far better sounding than plain 5.1, so I now I actively look for DTS content disks.
I have mine hooked to a dvd player and a playstation. I found a neat gadget that converts TosLink to Coax digital and I can use both ports without moving cables. I also found a very simple optical switcher which can take up to 3 optical ins and output to a single out; I plan on using that for a toslink enabled cdplayer.
However there is one problem which is kind of known, tom's hardware has a review of these speakers too which mentions it, and I haven't sent my back in yet but I did complain to support so they do know about it. They hiss. All of the speakers hiss audibly, not to bad when set up for movies because you're not right next to them, but if I had them on my computer it would drive me crazy.
The rumor on the street is that Logitech will replace them if you complain about it. All the ones that hiss have a firmware revision at 1.03, the new ones are supposedly 1.1. Supposedly Logitech didn't shield the controller very well, it's just a simple plastic case, and this is where the hiss is coming from. It's very annoying, but they are so good and incredibly loud (haven't tested quite how loud yet), that I've been slow to send the controller back to have it fixed.
The also click audibly when switching between inputs, but it's not bad, i.e. you don't feel that the speakers are going to pop. I did turn down the subwoofer though as it's a little too strong.
The remote is basic but functional, wish it was backlit.
One thing is they come with some pretty horrible bell wire for speaker cable. Which is fine for computer use I suppose, but one of the first things I did was rip it all out and replace it with some 16 guage. Sounds much better now.
For the price though they are pretty much unbeatable.
Slashdot Mirror
Then I install the OS on a RAID1 set and the data I care about on a RAID5. One system I have has dual SCSI 2xRAID1 for the system partitions and 3xRAID5 IDE drives.
The CF is /dev/hda and is mounted read-only. If I need to upgrade the kernel I remount it RW and then do what I need and remount back to RO.
This is the most reliable configuration I've come up with so far. CF has no moving parts so it's fairly reliable. Writes are limited to about 1 million. Reads are unlimited.
Compact Flash Readers
http://store.yahoo.com/ituner/cfdisk1c.html
http://store.yahoo.com/ituner/cfdisk5d.html
Some boards don't like the 5D type Converter, since they detect using the cable type (40 or 80). In which case type 1C works just fine.
Anyway, MythTV 0.15 and then 0.16, and after sorting out some hardware problems I've got to say I'm completely blown away. Admittedly setting up MythTV for optimal performance is not newbie work but when you do get it running it is da bomb.
The biggest advantage right now over a commercial Tivo system is extensibility and upgrades. My Tivo hasn't changed much in 3 years. It's starting to get a little long in the Tooth. I've done every possible upgrade I can (cachecard, ram upgrade, harddisks, etc...), but the software hasn't improved because I will be forced by the vendor to go to series 2 to get those updates. Yes you can download a web server and some web based tools but at 54MHz this puppy is not going to do much more. Also the resolution is lower than NTSC so the rips don't look so good unless you own a DirectTivo.
MythTV has four clear advantages:
- Splittable backend and front end architecture over the LAN
I can play multiple streams of video from the
backend system at once. Over 10/100
Ethernet this will scale to 6-7 systems
for mpeg2 streams of 10mbits each.
This rocks!
- Upgrade Modules
- Plays Xvid movies and Quicktime
- Plays mp3s, Ogg
- Weather, RSS, Image Viewing on my TV
- I can take the mpeg2 streams and burn them
to DVD.
- I can upgrade it and the hardware
- Low hardware requirements
My backend box is a Celeron 1.4
My two front end systems are a 933 P3,
and a Celeron 1.4
This is the multi-media center they've been promising for all these years... and it's only going to get better.yep, same here. First gen unit, plays dvd+r's fine. Stick to decent media. I use Fuji film about about $1.60-$2 a piece.
VSFTPD is the best ftp server out there today, ok maybe Tux 2.0 is as good. VSFTPD has never been broken into and RedHat, and a number of other high profile FTP sites use it on their distribution servers. It's also damned fast. Homepage
http://gear.ign.com/articles/383/383537p1.html
However I just called Logitech and they've said point blank that they won't be replacing them. I wonder what's going on ?
If you need to email them it's: support@logitech.com.
If you want to talk to them it's 702-269-3457 which connects you to a customer service center in Nevada which will refuse your requests.
If you want to write to them (my last resort):
Logitech Inc
Attn Customer Support
6505 Kaiser Drive
Freemont, CA 94555 USA
I'm getting pretty steamed by these people!
I have mine hooked to a dvd player and a playstation. I found a neat gadget that converts TosLink to Coax digital and I can use both ports without moving cables. I also found a very simple optical switcher which can take up to 3 optical ins and output to a single out; I plan on using that for a toslink enabled cdplayer.
However there is one problem which is kind of known, tom's hardware has a review of these speakers too which mentions it, and I haven't sent my back in yet but I did complain to support so they do know about it. They hiss. All of the speakers hiss audibly, not to bad when set up for movies because you're not right next to them, but if I had them on my computer it would drive me crazy.
The rumor on the street is that Logitech will replace them if you complain about it. All the ones that hiss have a firmware revision at 1.03, the new ones are supposedly 1.1. Supposedly Logitech didn't shield the controller very well, it's just a simple plastic case, and this is where the hiss is coming from. It's very annoying, but they are so good and incredibly loud (haven't tested quite how loud yet), that I've been slow to send the controller back to have it fixed.
The also click audibly when switching between inputs, but it's not bad, i.e. you don't feel that the speakers are going to pop. I did turn down the subwoofer though as it's a little too strong. The remote is basic but functional, wish it was backlit.
One thing is they come with some pretty horrible bell wire for speaker cable. Which is fine for computer use I suppose, but one of the first things I did was rip it all out and replace it with some 16 guage. Sounds much better now. For the price though they are pretty much unbeatable.