This write up, not yet complete, but will get you most of the way there...at least as far as I have gotten. My system is currently not mounting /proc with the new kernel I installed, so I probably botched the kernel config somewhere, or 2.6.16-rc1 is bunk. However, assuming that everything worked as it should have, this should make for a working knoppmyth system. I was taking notes on everything I was doing to hopefully help others with this same set up get as far, maybe farther than I got.

Out of the box, KnoppMyth *does* work with the gigabit LAN on the motherboard, the video will work in VESA mode, firewire works, SATA is unknown as I don't use it. Sound *DOES NOT* work, and binary NVIDIA video drivers do not work.

The following versions of distro's and software are referred to and used in this writeup (download MEPIS and KnoppMyth R5A30.1 and burn the ISOs to CD):
Simply MEPIS 3.4-3 rc2
KnoppMyth R5A30.1
linux Kernel 2.6.16-rc1
ALSA 1.0.11rc2
nVidia binary drivers 1.0-8178

The KnoppMyth partition will be referred to as hda1 throughout this process. Adjust for your set up.

BEGIN
-Disable plug and play OS in BIOS

-Install KnoppMyth R5A30.1 to your system normally (SATA is unknown at this point). You may want to do a custom install and allow for extra space on the root partition (hda1 usually) as you will be doing some compiling and may run out of space

-After the installation, reboot into the simplyMEPIS live CD. Default boot options work fine. *DO NOT BOOT INTO KNOPPMYTH OR YOU WILL HAVE TO START OVER*

-Log into MEPIS using username: root password: root

-Open Konqueror (click the home button on the quicklaunch bar)

-On the menu bar, click go->Storage Media

-Find your root partition for KnoppMyth (usually /dev/hda1) in the listed partitions, right click it, and click mount

-In konqueror, navigate (or just type in the title bar) to the usr/local/bin folder on your KnoppMyth partition - in my case, it was /mnt/hda1/usr/local/bin

-find the install-nvidia-7174-debian.sh file in the directory, right click it, go to open with, then select kwrite (or kate or kedit)
--press F11 to view line numbers
--on line 28, comment out the line by putting a # in front of it so it reads #VER=1.0-7174
--on the next line, type VER=1.0-8178
--on line 75, before the semicolon, add the following: -o "$VER" == "1.0.7174"
--Save and close

-In the address bar of konqueror, type http://www.nvidia.com

-Click all cookies to the pop up, reload the page so it appears

-Click Download Drivers on the main menu, then Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris Drivers, then 1.0.8178, then Download - NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8178-pkg1.run and save it to /mnt/hda1/usr/src
(or type out http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linu ... 8-pkg1.run in the address bar and save it to said location)

-Next, go to http://www.kernel.org and download a newer kernel image (I did 2.6.16-rc1), save it to /mnt/hda1/usr/src (or type out http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/ ... c1.tar.bz2 and save it to said location)

-Next, go to http://www.alsa-project.org, and on the right side of the main page, under Latest Software Releases, download the driver, binary, utilities, and tools to /mnt/hda1/usr/src (version 1.0.11 rc2 as of this writing)

-Now, click the K menu, and click on MEPIS Config (OS Center)

-under repair Installation, click on Reinstall GRUB Bootloader, and click on Install

-Reboot the machine from the K menu, log out... - Don't forget to remove the MEPIS CD from the drive

-If KnoppMyth was installed correctly, it should boot as normal, and it will auto-install the 8178 drivers and kernel module

-Configure KnoppMyth as you normally would on the first boot up. At this point, everything should work except for sound. Exit MythTV after it is set up so you are at the window manager

*************************************************************

-Open a terminal by right clicking the desktop and selecting XTERM under shells

type the following:

*************************************************************
mythtv@mediacentre:~$su
Password: (type root password)
root@mediacentre:/home/mythtv#apt-get update
root@mediacentre:/home/mythtv#apt-get install initrd-tools
root@mediacentre:/home/mythtv#cd /usr/src
root@mediacentre:/usr/src#tar xfvj linux-2.6.16-rc1.tar.bz2
*lots of text will scoll by*
root@mediacentre:/usr/src#cd linux-2.6.16-rc1
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#make mrproper
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#cp /boot/config-2.6.13.2-chw-3 .config
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#make xconfig
*configure the kernel above and beyond the stock knoppmyth config if you wish, then save and exit*
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#make clean
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#make bzImage
*lots of text*
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#make modules
*lots more text*
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#make modules_install
*even more text*
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.6.16-rc1
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.16-rc1
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.splash-2.6.16-rc1 2.6.16-rc1
root@mediacentre:/usr/src/linux-2.6.16-rc1#nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
*that is an L, not a 1 in menu.lst*
*insert a new menu entry above the stock kernel entry as follows*:

title KnoppMyth kernel 2.6.16-rc1
kernel /boot/bzImage-2.6.16-rc1 root=/dev/hda1 nomce quiet vga=788
initrd /boot/initrd.splash-2.6.16-rc1

*ctrl-o to save, ctrl-x to exit*

*************************************************************

That will install a new kernel that doesn't mount /proc. I will update this thread and edit this as I figure stuff out. I haven't even gotten to ALSA yet as I am still struggling with a newer kernel, which may not even be necessary. More to come...[/list][/b][/url]

_________________
-rich

KnoppMyth HDPVR WIP
(A 64 3200+ venice, asus a8n-vm csm NF430/GF6150, 1GB RAM, 560 GB/3 HD's, DVD +-RW, DCT 6200/firewire/Aver TVHD MCE A180/WinTV BT878 tuners, small black micro atx cube, big sound, 33" SVGA presentation monitor)

Thanks hotspoons, I too have found /proc unmounted after compiling 2.6.16-rc1! Have been looking for a solution all weekend :S

I'm working through a similar install patters trying to get knoppmyth working. At the moment my state is semi-usable. Note that i'm not using any SATA devices at present.

Install Knoppmyth R5A30.1 onto a clean HD

Install NForce Drivers 0310 to get nvnet working

Install NVidia binary video drivers 8178

This gave me a working environment with no audio that atleast showed up on my network. No issued building and installing any of the NVidia drivers.

Next two elements i'm looking at are

Install Linux Kernel 2.6.15

Alsa 1.0.11.rc2

I have these built but I haven't tried a reboot yet to check if I have the same /proc issues.

Like yourself I copied the existing config from /boot/config-2.6.13.2-chw-3 and then ran "make oldconfig" to sort out any new options etc.

Keeping with lilo at this stage. Why did you switch over to grub?

I'm gonna try compiling 2.6.15 today instead. You mentioned in teh other thread about having the wrong initrd? I've never had to create one before, I tried using mkinitrd earlier but I must of done something wrong since it failed to boot afterwards :S

R5A30.1 worked out of the box with networking. I think it has forcedeth .49 patched to the kernel. Actually, the only thing that didn't work right was the sound. I compiled a newwer kernel wtih the hopes that ALSA would be new enough to pick up the sound card. No luck, and proc would only mount manually. The funny thing is that I compiled the same kernel on MEPIS 3.4-3 and it worked with no problem.

Kernel 2.6.15 final and newer recognize all hardware, but sound won't work, and now ALSA 1.0.11rc2 won't compile for me :/ grrr. I switched to grub because LILO wouldn't work on my motherboard having a slave and master plugged into IDE channel 0. Maybe if it was just one, it would work, but two, it wouldn't work. GRUB always works, and it much easier to set up.

_________________
-rich

KnoppMyth HDPVR WIP
(A 64 3200+ venice, asus a8n-vm csm NF430/GF6150, 1GB RAM, 560 GB/3 HD's, DVD +-RW, DCT 6200/firewire/Aver TVHD MCE A180/WinTV BT878 tuners, small black micro atx cube, big sound, 33" SVGA presentation monitor)

I couldn't get the forcedeth driver to work on vanilla R5A30.1, but the nvnet driver compiled just fine.



Well I just did a vanilla install of 2.6.15 and here are my lilo settings. I use the existing initrd and everything booted fine.



Next I just recompiled the nvidia video and ethernet drivers using the -K option to just build the kernel modules. Then I had working ethernet and gui.

Then I built the most recent alsa 1.0.11rc2 against the new kernel and running alsaconf found my onboard audio.

I've also found that the PowerNow support appears to work. Not sure what is better to use, cpudyn or powernowd.



The other big thing has been a cleanup of /etc/modules to reduce the number of additional modules loading at boot time that i'm not actually using.

Just need to tidy up my video card settings for the TV at some point, and get the video capture card working correctly and then I should be fine.

Steve

Ok, I've made major progress got most of the fixes from here:
http://quaggaspace.org/a8nvm/

Firstly I downloaded dsdt.hex.gz and a8nvmsound.patch from above link. Got 2.6.15.1 from kernel.org.

Unpacked the kernel, applied the patch, unzipped and copied dsdt.hex to the correct place.

Configured and built the kernel as per the above link, kept the old ram disk, rebooted into new kernel.

Modified Cesman's script to download and install 8178 nvidia drivers, removed the startup script to install 7174 drivers.

There was a crackle over the speakers when i tested playing an mp3. Fixed it by doing:

vi /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Under the line that began options... added:
options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1

saved, ran:


Unmuted PCM, Front, surround, center + raised levels to about 70
closed alsamixer and ran: alsactl store

rebooted

Then... everything worked, managed to go through mythtv-setup and can watch + record TV Only problem is i can't get the alsamixer settings to stick past a reboot. I have searched the forums for alsamixer and have tried some of teh things suggested with no luck

any ideas?

Fixed it

added: [startup] {/usr/sbin/alsactl restore}

to /home/mythtv/.fluxbox/apps

Thanks for the audio tips. I had a play with audio last night and couldn't get any sound. I'd raised the audio with alsamixer, but just realised I'd left the channels muted. I'll have another go tonight.

I have put the acpi fixes in yet, but I might give them a go tonight as well.

I appear to have broken something though. If I boot to a run level other than single the boot won't complete. Looks like init is crashing out somewhere during the bootup. If I boot single user mode and then "telinit 3" everything works fine.

Steve

Ok the acpi bios fix is in and my boot problems have gone away.

Problem is I still have no audio on any of the analogue ports. Any other tips?

Also devices are unmuted and i've turned the mixer levels up but no sound off DVD or any other media.

Hmm

Steve

Did you use the a8nvmsound patch? At the command line can you play an mp3 ie:



Just double check in alsamixer that you've unmuted PCM & Front + raised them to 70ish.

I Have:

Unmuted+raised to 70: PCM, Front, Surround, Center, LFE
Muted: Everything else

EDIT:

Other things to note, I'm using R5A22 and the only thing i've done is compile the kernel with those patches, not changed alsa or anything.

I needed to put in the alsa patch from http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=57791&page=8 otherwise I got a high pitch squeal on stereo material. That seems to work OK now.

Just need to sort out tuning in the capture cards and work out how to get the SPDIF working and i'm away.

Really, really close now.

Ok i've now got sensors working correctly. You just need to build/install the most recent lm_sensors user space tools

I grabbed lm_sensors-2.9.2.tar.gz and just did a "make user" and "make user_install"

Then sensors-detect worked fine, and found the motherboard chips.



Which then told me



Once the modules are inserted sensors appears to report the correct values.



I've dropped my CPUfanspeed down as low as possible, and I've got powernowd running to throttle the CPU.

Steve

Ok i've gotten AC3 passthrough working now. Take a look at http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=49950#49950 for details.

Just need to get audio working in xmame. Any tips?

Steve

I see this thread is a couple months old now.

Has the new version of Knoppmyth R5B7 solved the driver problems with the Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard?

Can any LIVE version of Linux be used to fetch the updated drivers or must it be Simply MEPIS 3.4-3 rc2? How about a Knoppix LIVE cd?

I tried to install the Knoppmyth R5B7 version tonight and after install, the PC rebooted and would not launch X Windows - some problem with the nvidia drivers. My monitor is connected to the built-in VGA display connector and it would be ideal to use the built-in video.

Is there a more streamlined fix than using a LIVE cd to go fetch drivers, etc.?

Any help Cecil?

Eric