Red hat (CentOS) HTPC Shells?

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 15:19:34 Post Subject: Red hat (CentOS) HTPC Shells?

Anyone know of a good one? I tried a few Linux distributions based around MythTV, but didn't really like the limitations.

My Mini-ITX system now has a full install of CentOS 4.x and I'd like to modify that for use with a nice HTPC interface.

Suggestions? Thanks!

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 19:39:59 Post Subject:

I won't pretend to know anything about ITX, HTPC, or MythTV, but if you ever want to play any multimedia requiring MPEG libraries, God help you.

I'd use Fedora or CentOS more often at home if it did not have that MPEG disabled RedHat crap on it. It's so hard to get the right libraries, and I gave up in the process. If you want the truly best multimedia or performance Linux distribution, consider Gentoo, but it isn't for the faint of heart.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 21:10:23 Post Subject:

Real answer? HTPC = Windows. Linux is for those who really want to work, and fight, and struggle for something that probably won't end up meeting your needs.

Sorry.... *nix is a great server OS, it's not a good desktop OS in my experience.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:31:31 Post Subject:

There are some nice, dedicated Linux HTPC distributions... like KnoppMyth, or EPIA M specific - http://linpvr.org/. They work very well, but I don't want to be limited to HTPC and want to be able to launch some other apps from a standard desktop distribution.

And from what I have seen / used... It is a very nice desktop OS. All the usual office type apps, e-mail, web, graphical, multimedia apps... as well as tons of other things I don't use... All as a part of the base installation.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:58:50 Post Subject:

Yeah, gotta love linux Smile

. It has most things Windows has like MS Office -> OpenOffice.org, Winamp -> Xmms, WMP -> Xine. And the kernel is much more superior because it's able to be configured by the user and has a kernel rate of 1 clock cycle (although default is 2.5), where Win XP is only 8 cycles.

KDE looks way cooler than anything Windowsblinds can do, too...and it's free!

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 17:11:32 Post Subject:

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:47:52 Post Subject:

Mac OS X is based on different parts of Linux and UNIX, but really watered down into a nice GUI (Although I love the MAC GUI look, I can't get used to single button mouses Razz

).

Gentoo, Debian, and Slackware are the harder distributions of Linux to maintain in that they use different methods of installing programs. They use a BSD-like Portage system as opposed to the RPM packages. Portage, unlike RPMs, have to compile on the PC itself, which takes a long time compared to that of RPMs which pretty much just copy files and do basic commands to get things working. And if you do use an RPM distro (i.e. RedHat/Fedora, Mandrivia, etc.) it's relative;y easy to find the RPMs you need for a program, and not too hard to resolve dependencies.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:40:37 Post Subject:

I went to Google to see what they thought about a Red Hat HTPC... Laughing

First result... This thread!

http://www.google.com/search?q=redhat+htpc

What is emerge? Can I automate install on my existing install of CentOS?

And what is the deal with MPEG? I see no mention of that limitation in Myth TV being used on Red Hat.

acruxksa · Posted: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:10:36 Post Subject:

BB,
You should be able to find a redhat based intall of MythTV. My myth box was based on FC4 and Here is the HowTo that I used. The HowTo uses the "yum" update manager which should also be available for CentOS.

RedHat chose to leave the mpeg codecs out of its free versions. It's not really a big deal though, there are plenty of howto's and info pages on the subject that will give you ways/options to play mpeg files.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 16:12:58 Post Subject: