Hello all,
Yesterday Bill Sconce and maddog went to NHTI in Concord, New Hampshire
to look at their facilities and to talk to the faculty and staff about
holding a MythTV installation fest(s) there. We met with four faculty
and staff including Sterling Hough, the department head.
They offered us a room that could hold about fifteen people with tables,
chairs and computers with monitors, keyboards and mice on tables around
the perimeter of the room. There is a large plasma TV display in one
corner, and two cable TV drops in the room which could do both analog
and digital cable TV. Internet is also available. They apparently did
not have an over-the-air antenna drop, but windows are close by....
We envision that people would bring in their own system boxes, but not
have to bring monitors due to the monitors in the room. Mice and
keyboards would be optional to bring. There is existing room beside
each monitor to place a relatively large system box. We will have to be
sensitive to issues of older monitors at home having different
resolution needs, but since the monitors are not the main display device
on these systems, we should be able to hit a happy medium.
We discussed that Saturdays would probably be the best day due to
availability of rooms, people, etc., both for NHTI and for us.
At first we discussed the capabilities of MythTV for the members of the
faculty who did not yet know about it. There was one staff member,
familiar with Linux, who has built and used a MythTV system before, and
he brought along a KnoppMyth manual printout.
We discussed some parameters around the installation fest, and came to
some propositions (not conclusions, since we have not talked with all of
you):
o One of the benefits of an installfest can be that a few suggestions
can indicate a set of "best practices", to minimize the risk of
unwanted subprojects ("why is it doing that?") for attendees who
just want to have a working box at the end of the session. For
starters we came up with these:
+ One distro will be chosen for the fest. KnoppMyth tentatively?
+ Some cards will be recommended for the fest, based on gnhlug
members' experience ("this one does work"). (Conversely, "this
one doesn't work".) Attendees could bring anything they want,
but they'd be on their own if their cards were other than the
recommended ones.
(One thing about "recommended" cards: for attendees who are
about to _purchase_ a card, this fest effort could be a big
help in choosing.)
+ Other hardware recommendations will be provided -- which PCI
versions do/do not work, how many GHz, how many GB, IDE vs.
USB disks...
o We know that we don't know all of these things, yet. That would be
one of the purposes of Installfest 0.1 (see below): to develop
the guidelines a "production" MythTV installfest needs to
"guarantee" successful installations.
o We think we'll need at least three "installation fests":
PILOT: MythTV Installfest 0.1 - Saturday, March 3rd
====================================================
"Invitation only" to test out the facilities, capabilities, determine
which distribution to use, what cards to recommend, final software
installation procedures, etc.
The people we feel should be invited to this would be:
o People from the gnhlug-org that either have experience in making a
MythTV or those that want to make a MythTV
o The four faculty and staff members of NHTI (who want to
see this -- and build a MythTV of their own
o Jarod Wilson, if he is willing to come and help develop the
"curriculum" (and help solve problems!)
Originally Bill and maddog thought that the pilot should be limited to
just one distribution of MythTV, but while we might want to feature only
one distribution in future "fests", during THIS pilot it might be
worthwhile to try two or three of the "mainstream" Myth installation
distributions, so then the choice would be based on actual installfest
experience.
Likewise we should recommend a couple of cards that we are fairly sure
would work for those that need to buy one, but we can allow people to
bring in other cards for the pilot to see how they work too.
We also choose one or two remotes, readily available.
>>>We should send these recommendations out in email to all interested
>>>parties (gnhlug-org and the four faculty/staff of NHTI) as soon as
>>>possible, to allow people to buy needed equipment.
For this pilot, and hopefully for all of the install fests, we will
only need to bring in the system boxes. There are CRT monitors,
keyboards and mice at the school we can use. If you want to bring your
own keyboard or mouse for some reason, that would be fine, but we wanted
to try to eliminate people carrying large glass monitors over long, icy
sidewalks. As the day goes on we may wish to reserve some of the
monitors for "problem resolution" issues, since they will take longer
than "no problem" systems.
After we get the initial software installed and set up, we can test the
systems using the TV there.
We should also take these boxes home, hook them up to our own systems,
and report back any issues, and only then declare Installfest 0.1
"complete".
NTHI will be putting together their own MythTV system to keep in their
video lab.
We are suggesting Saturday, March 3rd since the school is unavailable
March 10th and March 17th. These two weeks would give us time to
evaluate results, finalize a web site and recommendations, and get
ready for:
MythTV Installfest 0.5 - Saturday March 24th (tentative)
>From the previous PILOT we could expand the GNHLUG web site Wiki that
tells what MythTV is, suggestions on base configurations (CPU, RAM,
DISK,ETHERNET etc.), trade-offs on TV cards and recommendations on which
TV cards to buy, video cards to buy, etc. We tell people that we will
be wiping their disk, and that they should either have a CD or DVD drive
on their system, or be able to install over the NET. I prefer having
the drive, then just making enough copies of the software so we can have
multiple installations going on at the same time, and allow them to take
the CD/DVD home with them (along with any special installation notes and
setup tunings that we do) in case something goes wrong in the future.
We pick a date for this second stage, and have people sign up through
the web until a certain number is reached. We recommend scheduling
these in the morning so we can have the whole day for "problem
resolution". Anyone additional trying to register would be put on a
waiting list for a future event. We also would like to offer an
opportunity at this event for students and faculty of NHTI would would
like a MythTV box, so a certain number of slots, or a separate time that
day (perhaps in the afternoon) could be kept open for them.
We suggest people order their cards, etc. from recommended outlets,
and bring the system box (preferably with the card already installed,
but we could have some tools there) to the event.
Note: At this point we should be *recommending* only one "dumb" card(*),
and one "smart" card, but cards which are known and shown to be "good".
If people want to bring in other cards, or other MythTV distributions it
is "buyer beware", and "best effort".
(*) Bill thinks: only one card, a "smart" card. "Recommended" should
provide non-disappointing performance. I think "dumb card" should
fall into the category of "buyer beware/best effort".
maddog actually agrees with Bill, but we will see what other
people think
We hope we'll be able to have a set of angels, some from the school
(for students and faculty), some from our group, who would be willing
to go out to people's homes to see what is happening if something goes
wrong and the system does not work at their house. This would form
part of the "guarantee" of an installfest (at least the early ones).
We should also have a forum set up on the GNHLUG site for problems.
ALTERNATIVELY, they can bring the system back to:
Installation FEST 0.9: Saturday, April 7th (suggested)
======================================================
Using one software distribution (determined by PILOT) and a selected
number of recommended and tested boards (maybe one) along with a
selected and tested remote control, we tell people that we will
install a certain number of systems.
We set up the web site as before, and register people, just to make sure
who is coming. We use the previous waiting list as a starting place,
having them re-register, or at least acknowledge that they are coming.
We use the schools PR department, and our own contacts to generate buzz.
Possibly we locate a brick-and-mortar hardware sponsor, who could sell
attendees the recommended cards, maybe disks etc. Maybe we include a
copy of Jarod's book. Maybe we ask for an honorarium...
Mr. Hough will get the school to commit to supporting these three
events, and depending on how they go, perhaps more. If the school finds
they have to pay security guards or custodial help, we might find
sponsors or take donations to cover costs.
We note that on an ongoing basis the group might want to cover increased
security and custodial costs for the school, or at least coffee and
donuts for the volunteers.
Installation FEST 0.99.....
===========================
Additional FESTS may follow, but if we determine things that make these
a "hiccup", we can write them down, incorporate the fixes, and make it
better. We may get the distribution to the point where we can tell
people "Stick card into case, boot this CD, hit CR 30 times, and it will
restart, having MythTV working". Then we can send this out to other
groups so they can have MythTV installfests.
NEXT STEPS:
o Comments and agreements on these plans
o Recommend a couple of cards that we are fairly sure would work
for those that need to buy one, but we can allow people to bring
in other cards for the pilot to see how they work too.
o We also choose one or two remotes, readily available.
o We send these recommendations out in email to all interested
parties (gnhlug-org and the four faculty/staff of NHTI) as soon
as
possible, to allow people to buy needed equipment.
o Volunteering of a DRI to drive this
md
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