[vdr] Re: Beginners Questions

[Ronald Steininger <ronald.steininger@gmx.at>]

Hello Reinhard

You wrote:

RWB> Hello Roland,
My name is Ronald ;)

>>Windows user, right ;-)
RWB>
RWB> Now I "knew" I was going to get that as a response ;o). Yes, since V2.0.

Sorry about that, I couldn't resist...

>>The installation of VDR isn't that hard; once you know what to do it
>>takes a few hours "from scratch".

RWB> Yes, I think I CAN manage that, but your exact key words are "a few
RWB> hours". Esp. when rebuilding an OS that is a waste of time. After all
RWB> your VDR has a remote and / or an IR keyboard. You "could" attach
RWB> a cable keyboard or hardbuttons on a front panel of your VDR. It
RWB> would work, but is it comfortable? No! For timer programming, you
RWB> "could" use an electronic timer installed in the power cord of your
RWB> vdr, but would you? No, it's not comfortable, so you use the built
RWB> in epg timers of vdr.
I meant from a empty harddisk to a running, ready-to-use vdr system;
I don't think 2-3 hours is a long time for this (It takes longer to
install Windows and the needed drivers). But I understand your point
of view, it took me 2 days to get vdr running the first time...

The only possible way IMHO is to provide a script that make the needed
steps like downloading, compiling,... I saw that a few times now; you
might look at http://home.pages.at/bashy/ for a script for SuSE. I
don't think it's possible to write a installation routine that works
on every distribution (think of different init-script-syntax,
different runlevel-usage...). I also saw one solution for peanut
linux. Even if such a script would work everywhere, without
Video4Linux and i2c enabled in the kernel, VDR won't work; how should
a script do that for you?

>>There are only a few files you need: the main vdr-archive, maybe
>>the AIO-patch or some plugins, thats it. Then read the README's
>>(like the name says) and you get all the information you need.
RWB> Right and then you have to check what runs with which version. I
RWB> "think" I have downloaded ALL the files there are, but now I have
RWB> to find what works with which version.
I never had those problems...I'm sure you know
http://home.t-online.de/home/hubertus.sandmann/vdr.htm (in german)
When following this howto, you won't get into "version-problems".
(I think bashy's script is based on that howto)

>>Why not unpack the archive, move it into PLUGINS/SRC and do
>>a "make plugins"??
RWB> Once again it is possible to do it this way, but itīs not the easy way
RWB> to do it and install problems will arise.
Ok: I think the main problem is to know what libraries/programs the
plugin needs and install them before compiling the plugin. You would
like to see that the plugin-developers include a installation-routine;
I think this would be hard/impossible to do. What if the VDR-machine
doesn't have internet access? What if another version that is not
compatible with the needed is installed? What if the installation
of one library fails? It's easier when the user install them; maybe
there should be a better documentation of needed libraries for
VDR-newbies.

>>Every distribution is different from another; the only thing you
>>could do is to make your own custom "VDR-distribution"
RWB> Yes, maybe, but the basic system IS the same and the user options
RWB> would be covered with my idea. I have been on this list a few days
RWB> now. A lot of the posts concern installation problems. Sure, people
RWB> like Klaus (who designed the system) can say with a glance what
RWB> the problem is, but it would easier for people with a predefined
RWB> install routine. This does NOT kill the modularity of the system
RWB> and users can still create their "own" system.
With "Every distribution is different from another", I meant SuSE vs.
RedHat, not SuSE on a Pentium 100 vs. SuSE on a AthlonXP. When a
installation script works on SuSE, this don't mean it works also on
RedHat (maybe it would). I'm using Gentoo Linux and I'm sure: every
script I saw so far would fail!.
I don't think that anyone can make a "basic system" that works on
every (common) linux distribution. Someone could provide RPM's; but that
would be distribution-dependend (and maybe not up-to-date).

RWB> Don`t get me wrong, I'm not too lazy to do it by hand, but it isn't
RWB> comfortable.
Right, it's not comfortable. It's a time-expensive, hard work to get
VDR up and running. But it's also the best thing you can do with
your PC ;) I'd like to hear other opinions!

-- 
Best regards,
 Ronald                            mailto:ronald.steininger@gmx.at