Top 5 Tips You Must Know After Installing Mythbuntu
As user friendly as Mythbuntu is, there are some things you should know that will make life a lot easier when after you finish installing it. These are subjects that are not addressed in the Mythbuntu installation manual, they are things I have discovered myself and decided to share them with my readers.
Tip #1: Add shutdown button/option to Myth Frontend
One thing MythBuntu lacks is a Power Off option. It does not lack it per se but it hides it, so it must be brought back to the front-end menu. There has to be a logical explanation as to why the MythBuntu people did this; if anybody out there knows the reason please pass-on the information, since to me it does not make absolutely any sense. But anyways. here is how to un-hide the power button:
1) Modify sudoers file to accept shutdown command without asking for a password:
Issue the following command in the shell prompt to open sudoers file:
sudo nano /etc/sudoers
look for the line that starts with:
“user ALL=NOPASSWD: “ and modify it to look like the following:
user ALL= NOPASSWD: /sbin/halt,/sbin/shutdown,/sbin/reboot,/sbin/mount,/sbin/unmount
2) Next, open and modify mainmenu.xml
– Open mainmenu.xml and uncomment the SHUTDOWN section at the end. Remove SHUTDOWN and replace it with “EXEC sudo shutdown –h now”
To open mainmenu.xml issue the following command at the shell prompt:
Jaunty and Below:
sudo nano /usr/share/mythtv/mainmenu.xml
Karmic:
sudo nano /usr/share/mythtv/themes/defaultmenu/mainmenu.xml
The section should look like this:
Shutdown EXEC sudo shutdown -h now
Tip #2: Change Screen Ratio
1) To change from 4:3 to 16:9 Widescreen go to the MythTV frontend and do the following:
Utilities Setup -» Setup TV settings -» Playback -» Hit NEXT and go to the second screen -» Set the “Video Aspect Overrride” to 16:9
Tip #3: What to do when a program is minimized on XFCE and it disappears
In order to see which programs are minimized on the top toolbar, the following option has to be added.
– Right click on the top toolbar
– Click on add New Item
– Select Task List
– Click on Add and then Close
Tip #4: Transfer files over the network to a Windows Machine
Why is this important? I found myself having to transfer the videos to a Windows Machine for ease of use when creating a DVD. However, to transcode anything NUV (Nuppel video) it is better to do it with Avidemux at the Mythbuntu box rather than using a Windows machine. If none in a Windows machine videos might not finish enconding and end unexpectedly, or audio and video might end up out of sync.
To transfers video files over the network to a windows machine, just enter the IP number of the Mythbuntu box and you will see several shared folders. the folder RECORDINGS is where you will find all videos recorded by mythTV.
To access these shared folders from inside the Mythbuntu box, just navigate to the following path:
\var\lib\mythtv\
Just remember to NEVER erase any recordings manually, it has to be done inside the MythTV frontend, since these recordings are tied to a database.
Tip #5: Install NX and control your MythTV box remote without the need for extra client boxes.
I wrote an article just for this, Click here to read it.