Different minimal apps on multiple concurrent TTY's

[Jaco van der Merwe]

Hi guys,

I'm building an "Über" media centre (again; the last one broke), and nearly
done.

The idea at this point is that I'd like to have a number of media
centres/players installed on the system, & the user can switch between them as
she/she sees fit.

There's good reason for this:
* Because I can
* Freedom to pick & choose, willy-nilly
* If one centre/player crashes, the user can simply switch to another
* If one player does not fit the bill, or is unable to do what's needed, then
others are readily available

So far, I've installed & successfully tested the following systems individually:
* XBMC
* Boxee
* Moovida/Fluendo
* BeexBox Enna
* (soon) Myth

The base-system was installed from the minimal image (with SSH server, of
course), so there's absolutely no needless clutter on the box to bog it down.

All I need to do now is enable the ability to use <ctrl><alt><f5>-<f8> to
switch between each system running on a separate TTY interface.
I've managed to do this on a previous system I built, & it worked well, up to
the point where the HDD crashed & I lost the config.

Any help with setting this up would be appreciated

Cheers

- Jaco




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[Nick Rout]

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 6:23 PM, Jaco van der Merwe

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
Hi guys,
I'm building an "Über" media centre (again; the last one broke), and nearly
done.
The idea at this point is that I'd like to have a number of media
centres/players installed on the system, & the user can switch between them as
she/she sees fit.
* Because I can
* Freedom to pick & choose, willy-nilly
* If one centre/player crashes, the user can simply switch to another
* If one player does not fit the bill, or is unable to do what's needed, then
others are readily available
* XBMC
* Boxee
* Moovida/Fluendo
* BeexBox Enna
* (soon) Myth
The base-system was installed from the minimal image (with SSH server, of
course), so there's absolutely no needless clutter on the box to bog it down.
All I need to do now is enable the ability to use <ctrl><alt><f5>-<f8> to
switch between each system running on a separate TTY interface.
I've managed to do this on a previous system I built, & it worked well, up to
the point where the HDD crashed & I lost the config.
Any help with setting this up would be appreciated

you have 4 instances of X running on tty 5,6,7,8. This seems very wasteful
of resources, and I think only one of them will do the very desirable vdpau,
assuming you have an nvidia 8xxx/9xxx/2xx + card (and if you are building a
linux media centre, you have, haven't you? Please tell me you have!)

How about you choose a main app and have it autostart with an automatic
logon on boot. In that app you have menu entries for the competing media
apps.

I do exactly this - mythbuntu boots automatically to mythtv (surprise?).

The mythtv menu system is very versatile, and I have XBMC as an entry. I use
mythtv for the obvious watching TV and setting up recordings etc. I prefer
XBMC for music, movies and other videos, so switch to it via the menu in
mythtv. It runs in the foreground until you exit it then you are back to the
myth interface.

By the way you might like to join the mythtvnz mailing list

http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
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[Hadley Rich]

Post by Nick Rout
The mythtv menu system is very versatile, and I have XBMC as an entry.
I use mythtv for the obvious watching TV and setting up recordings
etc. I prefer XBMC for music, movies and other videos, so switch to it
via the menu in mythtv. It runs in the foreground until you exit it
then you are back to the myth interface.

This is exactly what I do also.

hads

[Jaco van der Merwe]

Post by Nick Rout
you have 4 instances of X running on tty 5,6,7,8. This seems very wasteful
of resources, and I think only one of them will do the very desirable vdpau,
assuming you have an nvidia 8xxx/9xxx/2xx + card (and if you are building a
linux media centre, you have, haven't you? Please tell me you have!)

Yes, I do. I have a beefy 3D card (with HDMI out) & resources to burn.
I've chosen those applications, but will likely settle on one (depending on what
the wife & guests finds acceptable/usable).
I've tried Myth in the past (& will likely revisit it for TV-tuner purposes),
but I don't use it because I simply do not like it: it's an analogue watch in a
digital world.

(I've also looked into Amahi & LinuxMCE & have dismissed it for now)

I have other rationales for multiple TTY's than those previously stated, such as
a cool demo system, where multiple windows managers/interfaces (such as Gnome,
KDE, NBR, XFCE, etc) could be loaded on each & show off to would-be converts,
without the need to kill the existing interface in order to load the next.

If I can simply configure the X-app:TTY setup, I'm sure there would be more uses
I could come up with.

- J





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[Nevyn]

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
Yes, I do. I have a beefy 3D card (with HDMI out) & resources to burn.
I've chosen those applications, but will likely settle on one (depending on what
the wife & guests finds acceptable/usable).
I've tried Myth in the past (& will likely revisit it for TV-tuner purposes),
but I don't use it because I simply do not like it: it's an analogue watch in a
digital world.
(I've also looked into Amahi & LinuxMCE & have dismissed it for now)
I have other rationales for multiple TTY's than those previously stated, such as
a cool demo system, where multiple windows managers/interfaces (such as Gnome,
KDE, NBR, XFCE, etc) could be loaded on each & show off to would-be converts,
without the need to kill the existing interface in order to load the next.
If I can simply configure the X-app:TTY setup, I'm sure there would be more uses
I could come up with.
- J

I'm really interested in an answer to this too. Wastefulness and other
concerns, like the media centre aside, how would one go about doing
this? This would be legendary for things like Sugar development.

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[Nick Rout]

Post by Jaco van der Merwe

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
Yes, I do. I have a beefy 3D card (with HDMI out) & resources to burn.
I've chosen those applications, but will likely settle on one (depending

on what

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
the wife & guests finds acceptable/usable).
I've tried Myth in the past (& will likely revisit it for TV-tuner

purposes),

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
but I don't use it because I simply do not like it: it's an analogue

watch in a

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
digital world.
(I've also looked into Amahi & LinuxMCE & have dismissed it for now)
I have other rationales for multiple TTY's than those previously stated,

such as

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
a cool demo system, where multiple windows managers/interfaces (such as

Gnome,

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
KDE, NBR, XFCE, etc) could be loaded on each & show off to would-be

converts,

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
without the need to kill the existing interface in order to load the

next.

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
If I can simply configure the X-app:TTY setup, I'm sure there would be

more uses

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
I could come up with.
- J

I'm really interested in an answer to this too. Wastefulness and other
concerns, like the media centre aside, how would one go about doing
this? This would be legendary for things like Sugar development.

I used to know how to do it on gentoo, but can't recall now. a question on
the gentoo forums may produce an answer.

Certainly when more than one user is logged into a graphical session on
ubuntu a new X server is opened on a new TTY.

Another example of ubuntu dumming me down, but in most cases it's sooo much
easier just to install and go...
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[Daniel Pittman]

Post by Jaco van der Merwe

Post by Nick Rout
you have 4 instances of X running on tty 5,6,7,8. This seems very wasteful
of resources, and I think only one of them will do the very desirable vdpau,
assuming you have an nvidia 8xxx/9xxx/2xx + card (and if you are building a
linux media centre, you have, haven't you? Please tell me you have!)

[...]

Post by Jaco van der Merwe
If I can simply configure the X-app:TTY setup, I'm sure there would be more
uses I could come up with.

Perhaps it might be worth considering, instead, the approach of configuring
multiple dedicated users, one for each front-end.

Then you could use the regular old user switching service, or gdm, to "boot"
between the different options rather than having to run multiple concurrent X
servers and all.

Which I suggest in part because of the problems I had with XBMC getting
... prissy if it started to quickly, so got a tiny oddity with the OpenGL
layer because the TV had not started yet.

Daniel

My "prissy" I mean "prone to crashing..."