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Synopsis:
This page is a reference guide for users that want try to install and customize Mageia distro to obtain a mediacenter/htpc.

Waiting for Mageia 5 official release to update guide...


Introduction

To set up our Mageia distribution for this purpose we need to consider the following:

  • We need a reduced operating system loading time
  • Lower use of resources
  • Rock-solid system stability
  • Faster system responsiveness


For this purpose I used:

  • LXDM as the login manager
  • Openbox as the window manager

Use of these managers requires manual editing of some configuration files but the performance improvement is noticeable.

Openbox-kodi.png
mediacenter desktop

DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-S2 device are handled by VDR - Video Disk Recorder, front end application to manage mediacenter are:

  • Kodi to play audio and video contents from local and streaming from internet (using some supported addons as Youtube, Previewnetworks, etc.)
  • Softhddevice (VDR plugin) used to watch tv (HD channels included).

Kodi screenshots

Vdr screenshots

Kodi-14-home.png
Vdr softhddevice 01.jpg
Xbmc-03.png
Vdr softhddevice 02.jpg
Kodi video addon1.png
Vdr softhddevice 03.jpg
Kodi video addon2.png
Vdr softhddevice 04.jpg


Hardware used

  • Zotac ID-11 MiniPC with Atom D510 dual core CPU, WiFi on board, video NVidia ION2 Next Generation 512MB DDR3
  • 4GB RAM (Kingston)
  • 250GB Hard Disk (7200 rpm Western Digital)
  • TeVii S660 DVB-S/S2 USB

Install Mageia and configure

Preparing system

Start with the Dual Arch ISO image of Mageia 5 selecting x86_64 (64bit). During the installation, choose LXDE as the window manager. Use mediacenter as the default user.

After installation, the first step is add the on-line repositories using: Mageia Control Center > Software. Once you've added them, run an update to make sure you have all the latest package versions in the database:

[root@localhost ~]# urpmi --auto-update --auto-select --no-verify-rpm

Next step is to install the NVIDIA driver using: Mageia Control Center > Hardware > Video. We need to install some packages to get, extract and build sources:

[root@localhost ~]# urpmi gcc gcc-c++ make automake autoconf cmake wget unrar

Get firmwares for DVB-S2 drivers

Copy TeVii s660 firmware under /lib/firmware folder:

[root@localhost ~]# wget http://www.tevii.com/dvb-usb-s660.rar
[root@localhost ~]# unrar e dvb-usb-s660.rar
[root@localhost ~]# rm -rf dvb-usb-s660.rar
[root@localhost ~]# cp dvb-usb-s660.fw /lib/firmware
[root@localhost ~]# wget http://tevii.com/tevii_ds3000.tar.gz
[root@localhost ~]# tar xf tevii_ds3000.tar.gz
[root@localhost ~]# rm -rf tevii_ds3000.tar.gz
[root@localhost ~]# cp -f tevii_ds3000/dvb-fe-ds3000.fw /lib/firmware

Install required packages

[root@localhost ~]# urpmi openbox thunar lxdm vlc k3b amule transmission obconf gedit 
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi xfce4-terminal flash-player-plugin wget git hg sudo java gnome-system-monitor 
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi ssh-server libreoffice mate-icon-theme mate-themes mate-faenza-icon-theme 
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi xterm file-roller nano smplayer gxmessage xmessage tint2 volumeicon kodi 
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi lib64ncursesw-devel lxappearance lib64graphicsmagick-devel lib64graphicsmagick3
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi lib64magick++-6Q16_5 lib64magick-6Q16_2 lib64magick-devel alsamixergui 
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi lib64cap-devel gettext lib64ffmpeg-devel lib64xcb-util-wm-devel

At this list can add all applications that you want, but consider that this is a mediacenter pc, so screen could be placed distant, my opinion is limit installed applications only to applications that are really used.

Enable users to reboot

Need to add to /etc/sudoers file follow row:

mediacenter ALL=(ALL) ALL
mediacenter ALL = NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown, /vdrbox/vdr-start.sh, /vdrbox/vdr-stop.sh, /vdrbox/vdr-run.sh, /vdrbox/oscam-start.sh, /vdrbox/oscam-stop.sh

also need to comment follow row to use sudo from menu:

# Defaults requiretty

Setup HDMI audio as default

Edit file /etc/asound.conf as follow:

# HDMI default
pcm.!default hdmi:NVidia
pcm:iec958 hdmi:NVidia

create file /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf as follow:

options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 probe_mask=0xffff,0xfff2

Enable Thunar to auto mount

Launch Thunar > preferences > advanced > enable volume... enable only first 2 check (mount connected media and mount inserted disk) as follow:

Thunar.png


Login Manager configure (LXDM)

Set LXDM as login manager from Mageia Control Center

Set from Mageia Control Center > Boot, user mediacenter as autologin with openbox session. Modify file /etc/sysconfig/desktop as follow:

  DISPLAYMANAGER=LXDM
  DESKTOP=openbox-session

Set LXDM also as default login manager in systemd:

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl lxdm enable

Modify file /home/mediacenter/.dmrc with this parameters (in my case lang is italian):

  [Desktop]
  Session=26Openbox
  Language=it_IT.utf8
  Layout=it

Modify file /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf with this parameters:

  session=/usr/bin/startopenbox
  autologin=mediacenter

Window Manager configure (Openbox)

Create /home/mediacenter/.config/openbox/autostart file as follow:

# To use nvidia-settings
nvidia-settings -l &

# thunar daemon
thunar --daemon &

# set desktop background
feh -B black --bg-center /usr/share/kodi/media/Splash.png

# Programs that will run after Openbox has started (taskbar manager and volume manager)
tint2 &
(sleep 2 && volumeicon) &

Set as executable:

[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ chmod 775 ~/.config/openbox/autostart

Don't forget to edit file ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml to create your personal main menu (right click on desktop). You could insert in menu a shortcut to Kodi or to VDR (using softhddevice as frontend plugin).

Also edit file ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml to associate key to a specific action/script (such as print key with screenshot generation). You could set a specific key (such as F11, F12 etc.) as shortcut to Kodi or to VDR (using softhddevice as frontend plugin).

In my case i use F5 to launch sudo /vdrbox/vdr-run.sh and F6 to launch kodi. After VDR started, if i press F5 again, script detect presence of vdr and close it.

Taskbar configure (Tint2)

To personalize aspect of taskbar can use:

[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ tint2conf

that update file ~/.config/tint2/tint2rc

Fonts aspect configure (Qt and Gtk)

First modify file /etc/fonts/fonts.conf adding:

    <fontconfig>
     ...
     ...

       <match target="font" >

         <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
           <bool>true</bool>
         </edit>

         <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
           <const>hintslight</const>
         </edit>

         <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
           <bool>true</bool>
         </edit>


       </match>


       <match target="pattern">

         <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">
           <double>96</double>
         </edit>

       </match>

     </fontconfig>

Then to setting Qt4 aspect can use:

[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ qtconfig


To setting Gtk aspect can use:

[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ lxappearance

selecting Fonts > Details > Hinting Enable > Slight

Create file /home/mediacenter/.Xresources as follow:

Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.antialias: 1

Get, build and install VDR with plugins

Get build and install scripts

To perform all steps i created a bash scripts collection to help, so checkout it from github:

[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ cd /tmp
[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ wget https://github.com/armando-basile/vdr-scripts/raw/master/prepare_vdr.sh
[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ wget https://github.com/armando-basile/vdr-scripts/raw/master/install_plugins.sh
[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ chmod 775 prepare_vdr.sh
[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ chmod 775 install_plugins.sh

Scripts uses /vdrbox as VDR default folder and mediacenter as user that start pc.

Need to launch scripts as root user

[root@localhost vdr-scripts]# cd /tmp
[root@localhost vdr-scripts]# ./prepare_vdr.sh

Other Plugins

In plugins source folder can add other plugins that you need, can go on this website to see a list vdr repository. If you add new plugins, remember that you need to update also install_plugins.sh scripts.

Build

[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ cd /vdrbox/vdr-<version>
[mediacenter@localhost ~]$ make

Install plugins

[root@localhost vdr-scripts]# cd /tmp
[root@localhost vdr-scripts]# ./install_plugins.sh

How use installed scripts

Installed bash scripts perform start and stop of VDR and, if you need to use, also Oscam. Three are main scripts:

  • vdr-start.sh that contains launch parameters for VDR
  • vdr-stop.sh that kill VDR instance
  • vdr-run.sh that manage start script if there isn't any VDR instance, or stop script if there is an instance already running

to use a remote control, can associate a specific key to vdr-run.sh script to start and stop VDR with only one key. To do this in Openbox can edit file /home/mediacenter/.config/openbox/rc.xml and add into <keyboard> section a <keybind> node as follow:

  <keyboard>
  ...
    <keybind key="F5">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sudo /vdrbox/vdr-run.sh</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
  ...
  </keyboard>

in this case key F5 launch script vdr-run.sh

Keep updated your channels list

To perform this action in developed a Python script named vdr-getchannels that use KingOfSat channels list to update local channels.conf file.