SR-2 Ubuntu is actively folding in native Linux... but no go as an HTPC

Pocatello

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I have my SR2 folding away in the family room. But I am going to give up on using it as an HTPC. I only have so much time to get it working, and I think that I could use some other boxen resources to accomplish my goals.

First of all, these are my problem areas:

* overscan
* no sound

The overscan is pretty horrendous. Since I am not familiar with Ubuntu, I have no idea how to correct the overscan. The top of the page ("applications, places, system) are way off of the screen. I installed nVidia drives for the 460 GPU, but I don't see any way to correct the massive overscan.

For sound, I need digital output from the motherboard. (I need sound to go directly to my Denon receiver. No HDMI sound is possible with my old audio equipment.) There is no optical or spdif from the SR2. I installed an ASUS sound card, the Mio Audio 888, but I cannot figure out how to get drivers installed for this. Someone suggested ALSA, "Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) project" link, and I downloaded the software, but I have no idea how to install it.

Instead of using my SR2 as an HTPC, I have some spare quad-core systems laying around in a case ready to go. The motherboard even has digital spdif output ready to go. I think that one of my old quad cores has a Windows OS still installed.

I'm trying to get some 3 TB drives formatted to use on my SR2. I was hoping to use it as a file server with movies and games. Since it is always "on" I am hoping to use it to serve data to other boxen in the house.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. As always, thanks for your help.

This guide is amazing! Got me up and folding in native Linux. Thanks, musky!
 
These issues, as well as Blu-ray support, are why my folding home theater pc is still running Windows.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1620591

I have been lazy about setting up a folding VM but with the recent lack of regular bigadv it behooves me to get a linux instance running. I think I can still break 100k ppd with the VM, you would be close to jebo's numbers and would likely see 130-140k out of a bigbeta vm.
 
This helped me with my audio problems.

For overscan you should have an nvidia control panel if you have installed the nvidia drivers(if not do).
You can get at this by going to the top right of the screen(even if you cant see it) left click and then settings (i think its the bottom link on the drop down) ,in settings you should have the option to open nvidia control panel.
In the panel one of the settings should offer you sliders to size the screen.

Hope this helps;)
 
I tried what you suggested for overscan. I do have the nVidia drivers installed. But the sliders only did exactly opposite of what I wanted. They enlarged the overscan, and there was no was to reduce it.

Thanks for the audio link. I will give it a try.
 
As far as ALSA goes, you shouldn't have to download that from the website.
Just pull up a terminal and try "sudo apt-get install alsa" or so, and if there isn't a package by precisely that name, it will suggest one.
Actually, you could probably just search "alsa" in the ubuntu software center (or whatever they call it), and install from there.
 
did you get Tobit to give ya a hand ?


Shame you couldnt get it to work, maybe you will in the end


blu ray playback is possible though , if you know how to do it
 
I tried what you suggested for overscan. I do have the nVidia drivers installed. But the sliders only did exactly opposite of what I wanted. They enlarged the overscan, and there was no was to reduce it.

What TV do you have? You would be better off finding a way to turn off overscan on your TV than compensating for it with your video card.
 
What TV do you have? You would be better off finding a way to turn off overscan on your TV than compensating for it with your video card.
true

I agree with what R-Type said. Windows 7 plus a Virtualbox VM = 130k ppd at 12 cores/24 threads/3.6ghz. Although, before you go too far, you might want to check on a sound issue. Under load, my SR2 results in audio being filled with a lot of static, no matter if I'm using onboard or a sound card. Would be bad for an HTPC.
 
I have a 57" Hitachi RPTV. Last of the old great CRT rear projectors from about six years ago. One of the first televisions to have DVI input. No HDMI back then, IIRC.

I have a 54" Panasonic Plasma in the bedroom. Hard to watch TV with the kids there any longer because they are not so little any more. But it was really easy to hook up the HTPC in the bedroom. I need a second HTPC for my family room. That is where we need to watch my collection of ripped movies. And I have a kick-ass custom sound system from the olden days in the family room. Sound is really important to me.
 
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