[LazYbONEz]

Hi all,
I've decided my family need to experience XBMCbuntu as I'm sick of Winblows. This is a document of what I've been doing and trying to do to emulate MCE as much as possible. Its also a record for when I have to rebuild ;o)

My Hardware:

Gigabyte Motherboard
AMD AthlonII 245
4GB RAM
Antec Veris M350 case with Soundgraph Imon 15c2:0038 LCD/IR Receiver
Nvidia GT430 Graphics
Hauppauge HVR-2250 Tv card
Bluray drive
2GB hard drive
HDMI connection from PC to 5.1 Amplifier then from amp to Sony LCD TV

Basic install of XBMCbuntu

Booting install CD using 120x120 resolution to correct tiny fonts no-one can read
NOT having internet connection during install
Partition drive with 512MB /boot
6GB /swap <-- Over 4GB to be safe that swap is over 4GB ram. had issues that 4GB isnt equal over RAM and SWAP
15GB /
1.8TB /home.
Username and password as xbmc. Im not concerned with people hacking into my TV. Login without password checked.
Install XBMCbuntu

Starting to get system ready

Reboot
Exit XBMC frontend then login using XBMCbuntu so you can get a desktop.
Modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf to include

Code:

Option "DPI" "96x96"

to fix unreadable tiny fonts on installed system. Using terminal and nano to do this you can see what your doing still. You have to logout and in again to use this setting.
Connect to wireless network and apt-get update system.
Reboot to use new kernel.

Setup HVR-2250 Tv card

I use this HVR-2200 Install GUI
You'll have to download tvconfig and unzip and run via commandline. When it runs it looks like nothing is happening for a few minutes then it will ask you to reboot.
Reboot.

Setup remote

I wrote this a while back once again so I can look back at it when I play around. So much research needed to be done to get to this point.
Soundgraph Imon 0038 simply

Tvheadend setup

open chromium and go to http:/localhost:9981 login as username: xbmc password: xbmc. <--This will always be xbmc even if you put a different username during xbmc install.
Follow this: XBMC Tvheadend setup
I created a folder under ~/home called Recorded TV for obviously recorded tv and /timeshift for the timeshift buffer.
I also created new open user access in tvheadend setup as I found it helps with disconnect issues in XBMC.
Enabled timeshift with unlimited size checked as it fixes the video freezing after pausing issue.
Logout XBMCbuntu, log back in to XBMC frontend then reboot. PC will reboot straight back into XBMC frontend.

XBMC Tv setup.

Go to settings>live tv with your wonderful working remote and enable. It'll ask to enable a PVR addon. The next windows will have Tvheadend HTSP Client, enable this without a username or password. Should have working TV now.

XBMC nVidia HDMI sound output

Sound doesnt work by default through HDMI. I have to go to System>Audio and select HDMI audio output, then select 'HDA NVidia, SNY TV on HDMI #3' under Audio Out Device and Passthru Output Device. Speaker setup is 5.1 but unfortunately my amp doesn't support AAC, TrueHD or DTS-HD.

My customisation:
I love the nTop skin. Very slightly buggy but absolutely awesome. Looking forward to his update past version 1.0

Still to do:

Enable bluray support with Enable Bluray support
Map our cheap remote better using Lircmap.xml. I haven't yet mastered this.
Suspend/resume/wakeup for recording. The HVR-2200 driver doesnt support suspend so i have to unload and reload modules on suspend/resume. Think i'm getting closer.
Figure out this damn error which has never popped up before which is occasionally killing live tv. I've been researching and testing XBMC setup for over two years in my non-existent free time :o(

Code:

saa7164_cmd_send() No free sequences
saa7164_api_i2c_read() error, ret(1) = 0xc
tda10048_readreg: readreg error (ret == -5)

EDIT: Above issue seemingly solved by HVR-2250 error

Sorry for the messy post. Hope this helps someone. I'll keep updating as i get closer to family friendly XBMC nirvana.

[LazYbONEz]

Sleep/Resume with HVR-2250 / HVR-2200

The driver/module for the 2200/2250 is not compatible with suspend/resume so livetv will not work after resuming.

Once I had edited keymap.xml to make the power button on the remote put the machine to sleep. I found the thing wouldn't suspend. In the folder /etc/pm/sleep.d the is a file called 99lirc.sh or something close to it. Delete it, it does things that aren't required and just stops suspension.

Taking a bit from this page tvheadend - wakeup i've created a new file in /etc/pm/sleep.d/ called 99_htpc.sh.

Code:

case "$1" in
suspend|hibernate)
service tvheadend stop
rmmod tda10048
rmmod tda18271
rmmod saa7164
;;
resume|thaw)
modprobe saa7164
modprobe tda18271
modprobe tda10048
sleep 1
service tvheadend start
sleep 5
;;
esac

Now using the power button on the remote the pc goes to sleep and also can wakeup but even better livetv works after resume! Woo!

[LazYbONEz]

The no free sequences error with tvheadend has been a real show stopper for me so I have been running mythtv instead almost happily for months now. Still would prefer tvheadend.

Apologies for the syntax error in the sleep script above but i've edited it out now. Also because I've been using mythtv i've modified it for use with sleep and resume of mythtv with xbmc and a hvr-2200

Code:

case "$1" in
suspend|hibernate)
service mythtv-backend stop
rmmod tda10048
rmmod tda18271
rmmod saa7164
;;
resume|thaw)
modprobe saa7164
modprobe tda18271
modprobe tda10048
sleep 1
service mythtv-backend start
sleep 5
;;
esac

[LazYbONEz]

Thought I'd conclude my findings a few months after the fact.

The only way I could stop the hvr-2200/2250

Code:

saa7164_cmd_send() No free sequences
saa7164_api_i2c_read() error, ret(1) = 0xc
tda10048_readreg: readreg error (ret == -5)

error in tvheadend is to disable one of the tuners. Unfortunate but it was simply the only way. Can't run dual tuners, so be it. I should have researched the linux support before purchase. This happens with whichever brand of linux you use with tvheadend. Mythtv works fine.

I have also ditched xbmcbuntu for openelec. Everything almost works straight out the box bar a few minor configuration changes and addons which improve functionality. The imon 15c2:0038 requiring only the activation of the imon addon. Even the LCD works! Troubles with the hvr-2250 not working after suspend is fixed by asking it to unload saa7164 in the tvheadend config within xbmc. Even the green winblows button of the remote works straight out of the box!

Once again a massive thanyou from myself and my family to the developers! Now I have to figure out how to get them OFF the damn TV so much

[guttermonk]

Was anyone ever able to get the Hauppauge 2250 to suspend and resume?

Here's everything I've done so far: http://askubuntu.com/q/724052/171608