YUM  has it’s own ideas and tells me that mythtv isn’t installed and therefor cannot be updated.

Setting up Update Process
Package(s) mythtv-frontend available, but not installed.
No Packages marked for Update

Doing rpm -qa | grep myth -i shows up nothing and hence doesn’t confirms it’s presence or absence  (but I tell you, it is installed!). However yum is quite happy to install it again (doesn’t complain about the package being already installed but does have trouble with dependencies).

There is a lcms RPM on my system but it’s version number is newer than the one that mythtv depends on. When you mix RPMs from serveral sources you do run into problems like this.  Uninstalling the existing version of lcms-libs  ( lcms-libs-1.17-6.fc10.x86_64 ) and putting in the one that mythtv likes is out of the question because there are 75 other packages that are dependent on the existing version.

Looking more closely at the above dependency resolution log, It seems like the trouble is actually caused by qt3-Mysql  it’s asking for a 32bit version of Qt which in turn asks for another 32 bit library and ends up at the 32bit lcms library leading to the conflict.

I reckoned cleaning up the metadata might solve it so I tried ‘yum clean metadata’ and then did ‘yum install qt3-MySQL’. It ran to completion this time. And this time around ‘yum update mythtv-frontend’ doesn’t choke on the mixed up dependency. So the solution is indeed to run ‘yum clean metadata’

Now I have sound back on mythtv and I also have two instances of myth frontend on my menu! but still no sound in in the flash plugin for firefox.

All these problems were encountered wtih Fedora 10 Preview. By the time I updated to the gold, I had fixed them so there wasn’t a chance to find out if it’s present in that release as well. Double vision in the desktop men however didn’t go away even with the gold.

here is the full code.

#!/usr/bin/python
# import MySQL module
import MySQLdb
import os

# connect
db = MySQLdb.connect(host="radmedia", user="root", db="mythconverg")
# create a cursor
cursor = db.cursor()
# execute SQL statement
cursor.execute("SELECT basename FROM recorded WHERE title='sIRASAsirasa cartoon	 (Manual Record)'")
numrows = int(cursor.rowcount)
for x in range(0,numrows):
	row = cursor.fetchone()
	if os.path.exists("/store/" + row[0]):
		os.unlink("/store/" + row[0])
	if os.path.exists("/store/" + row[0] + ".png"):
		os.unlink("/store/" + row[0] + ".png")

cursor.execute("DELETE FROM recorded  WHERE title='sIRASAsirasa cartoon	 (Manual Record)'")
cursor.close()

The filesystem functions in Python are similar to what you find in PHP or even in C but the trouble is that they are hidden away either inside the os package or the os.path package. At first I thought os was all there was to it, and was scratching my head trying to figure out how to test for file existence. It was after a bit of diggint that I found os.path.exists()

--> Running transaction check
---> Package fuse.i386 0:2.7.4-8_10.fc9 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: fuse-kmdl-2.7.4-8_10.fc9 for package: fuse
--> Running transaction check
---> Package fuse-kmdl-2.6.26.3-29.fc9.i686 0:2.7.4-8_10.fc9 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.3-29.fc9.i686 for package: fuse-kmdl-2.6.26.3-29.fc9
--> Processing Dependency: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.3-29.fc9.i686 for package: fuse-kmdl-2.6.26.3-29.fc9
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
fuse-kmdl-2.6.26.3-29.fc9-2.7.4-8_10.fc9.i686 from atrpms has depsolving problems
  --> Missing Dependency: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.3-29.fc9.i686 is needed by package fuse-kmdl-2.6.26.3-29.fc9-2.7.4-8_10.fc9.i686 (atrpms)
Error: Missing Dependency: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.3-29.fc9.i686 is needed by package fuse-kmdl-2.6.26.3-29.fc9-2.7.4-8_10.fc9.i686 (atrpms)

I reckoned that updating the kernel ought to fix it. Thanks to my new Lanka Bell Wimax connection, these big updates are no longer the painfull tasks they used to be. Unfortunately the update moved the kernel to 2.6.26.5-45 in fact looking at the /boot/ folder I see that the previous version is 2.6.25-14 still higher than the number that yum is looking for.

All this is because of a conflict between the Atrpms repo and the fedora updates repo. Looking even more closely I see that I do have a version of fuse installed. So I decided to forget all this and to manually create a group named fuse. Well it did make that particular error message go away, but I am not anywhere close to using this phone on my linux box.

I am not trying to setup a dialup connection. I aim to use my linux box as an answering machine.

When I booted up The volume control icon at the top was a red x and when clicked on it told me that I had no GStreamer plugins installed or they were mis configured. After little bit of googling I found that adding myself to the audio group is the fix

That was too easy but debian had a surprise up it’s sleeve. On mythtv there is no sound at all. It’s dead silent and the mythfrontend output shows:

2008-07-02 12:38:11.269 Opening ALSA audio device 'default'.

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

To fix this I ran alsa conf. Now I can hear what the idiots on the idiot box are saying but it’s jerky. That’s a separate mythtv issue that I don’t have the energy to look into right now.

Then I realized that Nokia is to mobile phones what Windows is to computers. They both need frequent reboots. And yes after the E51 was rebooted, the phone automatically connected to the asterisk server.

It was time to revisit the old desktop and try to install a softphone on it. This time I chose X-Lite. Installation and configuration was easy but there is a problem with the audio. What’s spoken on the E51 doesn’t get through to the desktop but it works fine in the other direction.

Setting up the hardphone, the Nokia E51 was really easy thanks to Tony Huges’s page on it. However I didn’t setup a proxy has tony had done.

The next machine is my Old desktop, which still runs Fedora Core 6. Zoiper gives this error

Next I tried installing it there on my media server (FC

Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "gnomebreakpad": libgnomebreakpad.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

but it did start up! I followed in the instructions in the tutorial and created the account. Then moved onto the zoipe (formerly idefisk) configuration. Thoug an account can be created, it cannot be registered. Asterisk dies off and restarts. WIth the following error.

I reckoned that restarting asterisk ought to fix it; it didn't. Then I killed zoiper and restarted. Now the account is registered. Then I got my daughter to call me on my e51 worked like a charm.

A google search for the error does not brings up anything usefull. But there was one post in a mailing list that included a patch for the saa7134 drivers.

In fact during my countless searches over the past few weeks I have seen innumerable patches for the saa7134 and other drivers. Many of the posters claimed that they were required to make even the TV tuner work. The truth is that none of them were needed. My kernel is supposed to have support for this card already.

This particular patch though, appeared different and I got the feeling it might address the issue. It’s been a long time since I last compiled a kernel. I am very reluctant to go through all that again so decided to apply the patch and compile just the relevent modules.

make M=drivers/media/video/saa7134/
make modules_install M=drivers/media/video/

Once compilation was completed, you need to remove the modules in memory and insert the new ones. The order in which some of these modules are inserted matters (it shouldn’t but it does). So I thought, that’s the reason that for continuing to get the “tuner’ 1-004b: tuner has no way to set radio frequency” message. The only thing left to do is to reboot. What do I see after the reboot?

“tuner’ 1-004b: tuner has no way to set radio frequency”

back to square 1

That conclusion isn’t all that wrong either. MythTV 0.20 really doesn’t work with it, but 0.20.2 is compatible. And that is exactly what was installed on my machine. So like the fool I am, I removed it with the greatest difficulty (yum again complained about dependencies when it shouldn’t have done) and installed MythTV 0.21. That version hasn’t yet been released and it’s only available through the ‘bleeding’ version of the Atrpms repository.

After installation of this version (but not because of it), I am finally getting some video on my screen. Unfortunately there is nothing on the speakers.

The flavour marked as being for idiots will format your hard drives and install kubuntu 7.04 on it followed by LinuxMCE. The non idiot mode gives you the option of formatting the hard drive yourself! The latter is a DVD download while the former is a 2-CD download.

It was only after downloading both CDs using torrents that I found that Kubuntu 7.04 has to be downloaded separately. Darned if i will, this is an obsolete version. In fact it cannot even be directly downloaded from the Kubuntu site. So it’s back to Fedora 8.

Installation through yum didn’t go very smoothly either. Yum complained about missing dependencies even though yum is supposed to fix it. Some of the missing dependencies were related to ffmpeg and libmp4v2. I tried to install them through yumex only to find that they were already installed! Then I tried removing them and reinstalling – sometimes there are conflicts between RPMs from different repositories. Livna is a classic example, RPMs from that source often cause trouble.

Removing libmp4v2 gave an interesting result:

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Removing:
libmp4v2                i386       1.5.0.1-5.fc8    installed         765 k
libmp4v2                x86_64     1.5.0.1-5.fc8    installed         752 k
Removing for dependencies:
amarok                  x86_64     1.4.7-13.fc8     installed          28 M
amarok                  i386       1.4.7-13.fc8     installed          28 M

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================

Notice how it’s trying to remove (the dependency) amarok and libmp4v2 twice? yet you don’t see yum attempting to reinstall them twice when you try to reinstall yum. In fact the dependencies are very different from what’s shown by the ‘yum install’ command.

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
faac                    x86_64     1.25-2.fc8       atrpms             66 k
Installing for dependencies:
libfaac0                x86_64     1.25-2.fc8       atrpms             37 k
libmp4v2                x86_64     1.5.0.1-5.fc8    fedora            264 k
libmp4v2_0              x86_64     1.25-2.fc8       atrpms            236 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================

This really isn’t the fault of mythtv but just goes to show that installing mythv isnt’ the easiest thing in the world. That’s probably why you find a mythdora and a linuxMCE. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the hard work of those developers. It’s all too easy to get carried away and complain too much.

The simplest solution then is to wire up your home with plain old twisted pair telephone cables, but that is consenting to live in the same dark ages as the politicians. A solution from Graham Bell’s or Queen Victoria’s time, would be to use cat 6 cable instead of phone wire but that like the Victorian moral values that Sri Lankans have embraced as our own would be extremely stupid.

So the proper solution is to use a combination of FXS to Ethernet and FXO or Ethernet adapaters. The wall socket would be connected to the FXS to Ethernet port (or is the other way round I always mix up FXS and FXO). That would allow the voice data to travel over TCP/IP with in the house. You will need an antique phone to answer the call. Thats where the FXO to Ethernet (or is it the FXS to Ethernet) adapter comes into the picture.

Of course it would be much simpler if you could use an IP phone and much better if you can use a WiFi phone. Unfortunately wired IP telephones are not easy to come by either. Same goes for WiFi phones. If you rule out the high end N Series phones by Nokia, or equally expensive imates and pocket PCs, you cannot find any WiFi phone at all. Obviously it’s stupid to use an expensive PDA as a substitute for a cheap cordless telephone.

So what’s the solution? Stay tuned, I will let you know.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks of course was the broadband connection but fortunately Dialog Broadband stepped up and connected me up with a 2Mbps WiMax connection. that’s much more than the 512Kbps SLT ADSL I have in this house. Connecting up with ADSL is like pulling teeth without anesthesia and once you get your connection you get lousy service. I am relieved that I do not need to use their services.

The second stumbling block was the fixed line itself. Fortunately Dialog Broadband does not need a fixed line. You do need one for an SLT ADSL connection and you need to wait months before the wire you up. Again it was dialog broadband that came to the rescue. I apealed to them to provide me with a CDMA connection. And they listened. I am their first customer in Colombo (where they have not started commercial operations yet)

Getting the CDMA line doesn’t solve all my problems though. I still need WiFi phones for use as terminals. Much to my chargrin I have not been able to find a single supplier for them here in Sri Lanka. This is rediculous. Apparently you need a license to import anything with a radio transmitter in it (Sri Lanka is a failed state after all). No one seems to have bothered to obtain a license for WiFi phones because hardly anyone is likely to buy one. Some importers haven’t even heard of them.

The connection was setup on Wednesday but I didn’t get to try it out till today. I did visit the location yesterday but the dialog crew had forgotten to leave a patch cable behind. No worries I have plenty of my own but didn’t have one in my notebook bag. Took one with me today when I visited the site and to my great pleasure the connection was up and running.

I have torn up my Sri Lanka Telecom application. Hope Dialog’s CDMA coverage extends to Colombo soon.

The network is to be part wired and part wireless. The wired bits will be gigabit Ethernet. Obviously Cat 6 cabling is needed. The other option fiber optic cabling is out of the question. Primarily because it’s so costly. The tools needed are pretty expensive too. Beside I have no prior experience in fiber optic networking.

The cat 6 cable isn’t cheap either. That’s because Eastlink does not sell it by the meter but by the box. The box contains 305 meters (1000 feet). That’s quite a lot more than what I need. Still I was happy to buy the box for Rs 19,000.00 because it’s a Canadian product and heaps better than the junk that many of the other vendors offer.

Walking into Eastlink itself was a novel experience. I have a dim opinion of Sri Lankan hardware vendors but at first glance they are different. They are helpful and knowledgeable. Other places are staffed by idiots who think they know it all but cannot tell the difference between a bit and a byte.

The reason that I chose eastlink is because their website is also different. Other hardware dealer’s sites look like they were built by a 3 year old with Frontpage and a pirate copy of Flash.

Finding answers to that question turned out to be surprisingly difficult. Matters were not made any easier by the asteriskdocs.org being unavailable. That was two weeks ago. They haven’t brought it back up yet.

Then I ran into another site; Asterisk Guru that seemed to answer quite a few questions. There, i learnt of the Zoiper softphone and installed it on the mac and for good measure I installed a copy on my sister’s macbook as well. So now I can talk to her PC to PC (heck i can do that with skype too but this is different). But that’s only possible when we are both in the same Lan. I haven’t quite figured out how to bring the POTS into the picture.

Perhaps it’s better to use the term quintuple play because Radio will also be over the network. This home network will be a mix of wired and wireless elements. The wired bits will use Cat 6 cabling and wireless of course will be Wi Fi. A security camera and intercom at the gate, several phones and of the macbook will be served through a wireless access point.

An FXS to Ethernet adapter (also known as a VoIP interface to Analog Telephone) will be needed to connect the POTS to the network. The handsets will all be VoIP phones. I don’t know a great deal about PBX systems, so I am going to set one up with software. Asterix is the most likely choice at the moment.

The POTS will not be really pots either. It will be a Dialog CDMA phone, which is a 3G system. I haven’t quite decided wheather to use Dialog WiMax or SLT ADSL for broadband. Wimax is faster and more expensive while ADSL is slower and cheaper. The drawback with ADSL is the long waiting list and SLT’s lack of reliability. It’s tough decision because my mobile phone (and the phones belonging to evey member of my family) happens to be a Dialog. The satellite television system will be through a Dialog subsidiary. It doesn’t pay to have an over dependence on one provider.

Television itself will be through a Tivo like system powered by MythTV or something similar. Heck MythTV is much better than Tivo. You don’t have to pay anything. The fact that I don’t watch TV except for the odd cricket match is totally immaterial. As a geek i have to do this.