How hard is it to set up a Linux box with Sage?

[sincityharley]

I honestly love using linux and everything that the linux community stand for. As far as being able to build a linux box it seems you seriously need to be a rocket scientist, which I am not . I am in Information Technology but work strictly on Windows. So with that said I am very interested in building a linux box with sage. Are there any step by baby step manuals out there that can take me from step one of building a linux box all the way up to installing and configuring sage? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

[scoful]

Although I haven't set up Sage on Linux, Ubuntu is very easy to install (even dual boot if you wish on a Windows machine).

I don't know how Sage's install is in Linux. It would be nice to have a trial version of it - even if it would just stop playback after 20 minutes or something. I have considered it for a client for some time.

[oddjob]

I can only help if you choose fedora as a linux distro:

here are my notes:

Downloaded fedora core 7 DVD

* most important part - after installation find the gui "updater application". You want to make sure you have the lastest and greatest stuff. It will add most recent kernel. reboot

Now your ready to install ivtv drivers (Must match kernel) // I'm using hauppauge 150,250,350 400 tuner cards

Setup your yum repository

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
# wget http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/atrpms.repo

yum install ivtv ivtv-kmdl-`uname -r`
(answer Y if prompted)

depmod -a (To Load IVTV drivers )
modprobe ivtv

if you have a pvr-350
yum install ivtv_xdriver

yum install lame
yum install mad
yum install faad2

Get Java:
http://www.java.com/en/download/linux_manual.jsp

fix java PATH or create /usr/bin/java symlink
I would also 'yum install mplayer'
Using mplayer you can test your ivtv drivers installation

cat video > /tmp/test.mpg
CNTL C to break out

mplayer /tmp/test.mpg

now install Sage Server.

Here are 3 places for documentation:
http://www.ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Howto:Fedora
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php
http://www.sagetv.com/linuxOEMinstallAdv.html
This should be enough info...

[Peggysis]

I don't think it's hard - if things go smoothly. However, Murphy's Laws rule.

The first publically available SageTV Linux release (4.1.3?) was pretty easy, but that was a prepackaged solution - they provided the OS and SageTV install together in one iso.

I was not able to install v5 of SageTV at all, but that was only because the Gentoo kernel would stall during compilation. The SageTV Version 6 Linux release that uses Gentoo 2006.1 however, is wonderful. I still had some minor issues to work around: SageTV's CST6CDT timezone doesn't work for me, but CDT does, and using "Imported Videos" on my Windows SageTV Client freezes during playback, but if I map the directory and use "Browse Media Files" it works. (Version 4 didn't have these issues.) So, YMMV.

Don't forget that you won't be able to play DVDs on a Linux based SageTV system. I use a Windows SageTV Client system (a uATX HTPC hooked up to a 32" CRT TV AND an LCD projector with a 72" screen) for that.

IMHO it is worth the extra effort. I've had my SageTV Linux server running for over 160 days without a reboot and only took it down to mess with it. I've never had it fail to record a show.

I recommend you start with a Gentoo based install of SageTV until you get more familiar with it and Linux. It is very easy. SageTV provides all the instructions you need - just be patient with the kernel compile! Give it several hours before assuming it isn't working. It really can take a long time, even on a P4 system. (I waited all night with the older Gentoo release before throwing in the towel.) I believe that is your best chance for success, with the fewest issues and shortest learning curve. If you run into trouble, there are lots of wonderful people on this forum that can help you out.

Try another Linux distro when you are more comfortable. Since learning that Ubuntu is supported by VMware, I've decided to try it, so I can finally get rid of my P3 Win2k box - but I plan to load Gentoo as another "guest OS" to avoid all the extra emerge and config work with SageTV. On my system, I can swap hard drives without opening the box, which means I can experiment easily without wiping out my working install of SageTV, so it is a low risk situation for me.

Give it a try! Good luck to you!

-Judy

[joat]

I'm not a good example to judge by but I find SageTV obscenely easy to install. The most difficult part (I imagine) is getting the Hauppauge card installed properly (there's plenty of howto's for numerous distros for that). From there it's only a Java install and modifying SageTV to suit yourself.

-joat