After some trial and error, I thought I would share my virtual machine settings and setup tips for a FreeBSD guest running MythTV. I am using VirtualBox on a Windows host. This enables me to use TeamViewer and other Windows only applications and get the most of a single piece of hardware. Here are the settings for my FreeBSD 10.0 64-bit guest:
- System – Base Memory 2048MB
- Video – Memory 128MB and enable 3D Acceleration checked
- Storage – SATA Controller
- Fixed Size VDI 10GB (on SSD)
- Fixed Size VDI (on external HDD)
- CD/DVD w/ FreeBSD 10.0 64bit ISO
- Audio – Intel HD
- Network – Bridged
Installation is like a normal FreeBSD install. I chose to add the ports and src (needed if you build VirtualBox Guest Additions) optional system components. I deleted the swap slice, configured the network as static and enabled the moused, ntpd and sshd services. Once I finished the install, I rebooted and logged in. Here are most of the commands I ran to finish configuration and get MythTV installed. I have excluded adding ada1 (the second VDI file) as a /store slice because the FreeBSD HandBook 18.2 has it covered.
shell> pkg install virtualbox-ose-additions shell> pkg install xorg shell> pkg install xfce shell> portsnap fetch shell> portsnap extract shell> cd /usr/ports/audio/lame shell> make install shell> pkg install multimedia/mythtv shell> pkg install mysql55-server shell> vi /etc/rc.conf #Below is my /etc/rc.conf - add lines to yours as needed hostname="freebsd-guest" ifconfig_em0="inet 10.0.0.98 netmask 255.255.255.0" defaultrouter="10.0.0.1" sshd_enable="YES" vboxguest_enable="YES" vboxservice_enable="YES" vboxservice_flags="--disable-timesync" moused_port="/dev/psm0" moused_type="auto" moused_enable="YES" hald_enable="YES" dbus_enable="YES" ntpd_enable="YES" dumpdev="NO" mysql_enable="YES" mysql_args="--bind-address=10.0.0.98" mythbackend_enable="YES" # save (:wq!) /etc/rc.conf shell> service hald start shell> service dbus start shell> service mysql-server start shell> mysqladmin -u root password newpassword shell> cd /usr/local/share/mythtv/database shell> mysql -u root -p mysql> . mc.sql mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mythconverg.* TO 'mythtv'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'mythtv'; mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql> quit; shell> mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root mysql -p shell> startxfce4 xterm> mythtv-setup shell> service mythbackend start
Note: I had to install lame from the ports because pkg would not install mythtv without lame.
I know there are a lot of minor details that I skipped like mythtv-setup and the many settings you have to select but these really are all the commands I needed. If you need help or get stuck, just ask in the comments. FYI, I tried running mythfrontend on the guest just for kicks and while it works the video playback is slowed and is not watchable. So I will be using XBMC 13.2 on the host system for playback. To enable and configure the PVR client go to Settings > Add-ons > Disabled Add-ons > PVR clients > MythTV cmyth PVR client.
Now just do a headless start by pressing and holding the shift key while clicking start in VirtualBox. I also plan to install Lighttpd and mythweb on the guest. So far I have tested recording to my external USB 2.0 HDD and have been impressed! I plan to switch to an external USB 3.0 HDD for recording storage.
