sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
sudo chgrp -R www-data .
sudo chmod -R g+w .

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
error_log = /var/log/php-errors.log

Make the log file, and writable by www-data:

sudo touch /var/log/php-errors.log
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/log/php-errors.log

Install and setup

Install PHP 5:

sudo aptitude install php5-cgi

Install nginx:

sudo aptitude install nginx

Create PHP 5 FastCGI start-up script:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Inside, put:

#!/bin/bash
BIND=127.0.0.1:9000
USER=www-data
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=15
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

PHP_CGI=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PHP_CGI_NAME=`basename $PHP_CGI`
PHP_CGI_ARGS="- USER=$USER PATH=/usr/bin PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=$PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=$PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS $PHP_CGI -b $BIND"
RETVAL=0

start() {
      echo -n "Starting PHP FastCGI: "
      start-stop-daemon --quiet --start --background --chuid "$USER" --exec /usr/bin/env -- $PHP_CGI_ARGS
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}
stop() {
      echo -n "Stopping PHP FastCGI: "
      killall -q -w -u $USER $PHP_CGI
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}

case "$1" in
    start)
      start
  ;;
    stop)
      stop
  ;;
    restart)
      stop
      start
  ;;
    *)
      echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart}"
      exit 1
  ;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

Make start-up script executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Launch PHP:

sudo /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi start

Launch at start-up:

sudo update-rc.d php-fastcgi defaults

That’s it. All installed and ready to go.

Test

In your server config, add the following:

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass    127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index   index.php;
    fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name;
    include         fastcgi_params;
}

Restart nginx:

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

Create a file in your web root (in the example above, /var/www/nginx-default/test.php):

<?php

phpinfo();

Visit the page in your browser and you should see the standard PHP info page. And you’re done.

Source: Aberration

sudo aptitude install lighttpd

Install PHP and ImageMagick:

sudo aptitude install php5-common php5-dev php5-mysql php5-sqlite php5-cgi php5-curl php5-gd php-pear libmagick9-dev

Install iMagick:

sudo pecl install imagick

Press enter on prompt.

Add the following to the bottom of /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini:

extension=imagick.so

Then:

sudo lighttpd-enable-mod fastcgi
sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd reload

mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy file1.avi file2.avi file3.avi -o full_movie.avi

sudo gvim /etc/X11/xorg.conf

When gVim opens, type in the following:

/Virtual

Then hit enter. That’ll search the file for the line that we need to comment out. When it’s found, hit i on the keyboard to enter the Insert mode of gVim. Now prepend a # before the Virtual keyword to comment out the entire line.

Hit escape on the keyboard, then type in :wq to save and quit.

Next time you have the login screen in front of you, it should be using the correct screen resolution.

Installation

For those using Gutsy, you’ll need to add the Launchpad repository to your Apt sources:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following to the bottom of the file:

# Me TV
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/michael-lamothe/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/michael-lamothe/ubuntu gutsy main

Save the file, and then:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install me-tv

If you’re running Hardy, Me TV is in the Universal repository, so you can just run sudo apt-get install me-tv. Update: After contacting Michael, the developer of Me TV, he’s said that the package in the Hardy Universe repository is out of date. For the time being, you’re better off adding the LaunchPad repository, as above.

Features

Just a reminder of the features that I’m looking for in an application to replace EyeTV:

• Watch all Freeview (DVB-T) channels.
• Be able to pause, rewind, and forward up to live TV.
• Schedule programs to record.
• See the TV listings for the channels I have (EPG)
• Fullscreen or windowed viewing.

Out of all of the above, there is only one feature–’Be able to pause, rewind, and forward to live TV’–that isn’t currently available with Me TV, though I believe it should be possible to implement it in the future with developer support.

Here’s a brief run down of those features:

Watch all Freeview (DVB-T) channels

When you first launch the app, it asks if you would like it to create a channels.conf file, and then scans for the channels it can find.

Once this small step is complete, the main window opens with one of the channels on. You’ll also notice below the EPG. You can switch channels by scrolling up and down the EPG and clicking on the channel name.

Schedule Programs to Record

This is as simple as finding the program in the EPG, clicking on Record and then accepting the recording schedule. You can also set, if you want, Me TV to repeat the schedule, say; daily, weekly, etc.

Electronic Program Guide – EPG

This can be toggled on or off by right clicking in the window. You can scan through the listings every 3 hours, and switch back to what is currently on.

Full Screened or Windowed Viewing

Simply double click in the main window. Voila.

Some Suggestions

Me TV is already very user friendly, however, there are a few small things that I think could be altered or added that would make the experience even better:

• On the initial launch, rather than asking if Me TV should create a channels.conf file, instead why not just a notification such as; ‘Me TV needs to scan for channels that you can watch.’ Non-technical users may get intimidated by the question about a channels.conf file. Me TV has to scan for channels. Just let the user know that’s what it’s doing.
• For the region selection, include a drop down box for the various countries, and then display the regions for that selected country below–minus the country prefix.
• Ditch the ‘Found Channel’ text when scanning for channels. Just show the channel name that has been found.
• Move the EPG into it’s own window. It always seems as though the TV and EPG are competing against eachother. You always have to resize the window so that you can drag the EPG sizer up so that you can get a good glance at what is on across the channels. Then, when you close the EPG, the TV window is perhaps too big for viewing, so you then have to shrink the window again.
• By moving the EPG into it’s own window, it doesn’t have to be restricted by the size of the TV window that you want. Users can make it larger, and therefore, rather than sticking to the 3 hour step between programs, why not just include a full 12/24 hours. At the top of the EPG window, have a button to skip by day. You can see a lot more of what’s on in one glance with a larger window, than having to scroll around with a smaller one.
• When recording a program from the EPG, after clicking the Record button, don’t show the detailed schedule window afterwards. In most cases, I would bet that the user doesn’t need to see or change the details. And if they do, they can go to the scheduler to do that. You only really need the details if you’re manually creating a recording, or want to set a repeat.
• For quick channel change, perhaps include a drop down box at either the top or bottom of the TV window. This removes the dependancy on switching to the EPG to switch channels, as you currently have to.

Some of these are very small, or rather picky suggestions, but none-the-less more user friendly.

Conclusion

Overall, Me TV is an excellent application. Obviosuly a lot of time has gone into developing it. If the feature set remained as it was, I would use it from now on, though I believe there are a few things that would make it an ‘easier’ experience for the user. And the one feature missing that would make it the best ever in Linux, and, hands down, the EyeTV alternative for OS X converts to Ubuntu, would be pause, rewind and forward to live TV.

I’ll be suggesting Me TV to all that I know from now on!

Basically, you just need to generate a channels.conf file (see this article) and place it inside ~/.mplayer/. Then run mplayer dvb:// in a terminal window. You’ll get a video window appear, and the first channel within your channels.conf file will start playing. To switch up and down between channels, you can press h and k. There’s a bunch of other helpful keyboard commands though not all of them will work with DVB.

While using Mplayer this way isn’t very user friendly, it may be helpful for some.

• Watch all Freeview (DVB-T) channels.
• Be able to pause, rewind, and forward to live TV.
• Schedule programs to record.
• See the TV listings for the channels I have.
• Fullscreen or windowed viewing.

I was able to do all of the above using EyeTV on my Mac. However, I’m trying to make the complete switch to Ubuntu, and an open-source alternative is needed.

I initially setup MythTV. It consists of two parts, a server and a client. Multiple clients around the home (or over the internet) can connect to the server. That was a little over-the-top for my needs, but MythTV is a very popular choice for TV on Linux, and does do most of the things I want from the list above, hence my decision to use it.

Once installed, I had TV playing perfectly. Though, when I wanted to start doing some work, while still watching TV, it was a little annoying that I couldn’t find anyway of watching the TV in a window–only fullscreen. Trying to find a solution on IRC, some users said there was an option to play TV in a window, however, when I tried to enable the option numerous times, I had no luck.

At this point I thought that my journey to Ubuntu was over. I needed TV on my computer, and if I couldn’t watch it in a window while doing other things, then I’d have to keep my Mac around to do that.

I’m not too sure how I stumbled across it, but I found a web page explaining that you could use VLC Player to tune into a TV card! And since then, for the last few hours, I’ve been working on getting that working. At the moment, it only ticks off a few of the boxes, but I’m sure, with a bit more Googling, I’ll be able to get the other things functioning. With the following, I can watch all my Freeview channels, in full screen or in a window.

Setting it all up

Assuming that you have your TV card drivers installed, you can start off with:

sudo apt-get install dvb-utils vlc

That installs VLC and the DVB programs needed to scan for your channels.

Now, find the digital transmitter nearest to you by visiting DigitalUK. Enter in your postcode, and the result you get back will tell you which transmitter you’re feeding off of. If you’re not in the UK, I’m not sure how you can find your closest one–Google is your friend.

You can see a list of the UK transmitters by doing:

ls /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-t/ | grep uk-

Now find the filename that matches your transmitter, and substitute uk-CrystalPalace for it.

scan /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-t/uk-CrystalPalace -o zap | tee ~/channels.conf

The above command will scan for channels that your TV card can pick-up, and store the configuration in a file. This file VLC then uses to tune in.

Now open up VLC. File > Quick Open File. Browse to channels.conf and open. Live TV should now start playing. To see a list of channels to switch between, go to View > Playlist.

To speed things up when wanting to launch the TV each time, you can create a launcher. I’ll create it on the Desktop for examples sake. Right click, and select Create Launcher. Give it a name, like TV, and in the Command text box, enter vlc /path/to/channels.conf. Hit ok, and you’re done. Now double click on the launcher and VLC will launch, and you’ll have the TV back on.

That’s it! Now all that is left for me to do, is to see if there is a way I can get the other things on my list operational; pause, schedule, tv listings. I’ll report back on here with any developments I find. Tune in again next week for more exciting adventures with Ubuntu!

What TV app do you use on Ubuntu?