Volatile Yard 挥洒自如 Write anything I want to write...

How can you make good use of an obsolete computer? There are many ways. I upgraded my computer last year (2006) after getting a casing with power supply, a motherboard, a processor, a graphics card, and 512MB RAM from my younger brother for free (thank you!) after he upgraded his system. My old computer had been sitting in a dusty corner for months and is starting to rot. I had been thinking how to 'resurrect' it and I got an idea a few weeks ago: Set it up as a Linux video box to connect it to my TV in the living room. With this, I can play video files, show photos, play arcade games, or show presentation slides to others conveniently.

1. Hardware Preparation

I seriously started to set it up as a Linux video box two weeks ago. First, I need to gather enough components to make it back a fairly complete PC. I found all the components required finally, as listed below. Basically I just reuse old things from others or myself, and spend no extra money to 'collect' all these.

• Gigabyte GA-6BXD Motherboard [www.gigabyte.com.tw]. Bought it in year 1999 to aid my PhD research in parallel processing. Chose this as it supports dual Pentium III processors and was one of the best that time.
• Intel Pentium III 500MHz [support.intel.com] (x2). Bought them along with the motherboard above.
• 320MB RAM (DIMM). Bought two 128MB modules along with the motherboard above. Got one 64MB module from my friend's abandoned computer if I'm not mistaken.
• Creative Sound Blaster 16 PnP (CT2920) [en.wikipedia.org]. Bought it in year 1995. It was so old that it uses an ISA socket, which is obsolete and is not supported by a modern motherboard. Need it as the motherboard doesn't embed any sound card.
• D-Link DFE-538TX Ethernet Adapter. Bought it around year 2001. It is not essential but it makes life easy. Need it as the motherboard doesn't embed any Ethernet adapter.
• Inno3D GeForce4 MX440 64MB [www.inno3d.com]. Motivated to buy it in year 2002 to play some 3D games. The card has the TV Output socket essential for the purpose. Note that the motherboard doesn't embed any video card.
• Sony CDU-4811 48x CD-ROM Drive. Bought it in year 2000. I'm a bit surprised that it can survive for 7 years and is still functioning properly.
• Maxtor 60GB Harddisk. From my father after it had crashed his system (not sure if it was a software or hardware error). It still seems to work fine so I just use it.
• Keyboard. Got it from my brother-in-law who abandoned it after getting a new keyboard.
• Mouse. Bought it in year 2004 for my old laptop (bought in year 2001) when writing programs with it that time. Use the old laptop leisurely these days just with its own touchpad.

The TV-Out of the graphics card and the output of the sound card are to be connected to the video and audio inputs of my Sony 21" TV respectively. I do not include my old 1.44MB floppy drive as I don't think that it is useful or even working anymore.

Note that I do not put the CPU system and the TV side by side, or I get a slightly poorer video quality. The CRT of the TV might probably be affected by the electromagnetic wave generated by the CPU system. Well, unless I have a plasma TV.

2. Software Installation

In view of the hardware specification and the existing Linux distributions, Xubuntu seems to be a good choice to drive it. So I install it and some other useful applications.

1. Install Ubuntu with the Alternate Install CD. Use an ordinary computer monitor first. Install with the Desktop Live CD seems very slow.
2. Include Xubuntu applications with the Alternate Install CD. Include the CD with sudo apt-cdrom add; Install package xubuntu-desktop; Remove this CD-ROM repository.
3. Enable the Sound Card. The SB16 PnP sound card is probably too old to be detected by Ubuntu automatically. Luckily, it can be easily activated by including a line snd-sb16 in /etc/modules (without supplying any parameter, great!).
4. Install nVidia proprietary driver. The proprietary "nvidia" driver seems to have better TV output support. Use the program Restricted Drivers Manager to enable it.
5. Enable and Test the TV Output. Shut down the computer. Disconnect the computer monitor. Connect the video and audio output to the TV. Start the computer. With the default settings, the nVidia X11 driver will only use the CRT/LCD display if it is detected. If not, it will use the TV-Out if it detects a TV there. Even the resolution will be adjusted automatically. It selects a resolution of 720x480@53Hz for my TV by default. The manual of the nVidia driver can be accessed online in the official driver download site here [ftp://download.nvidia.com/].
6. Install MPlayer. Refer this for steps.
7. Some Customizations for Convenience
   1. Disable the screen saver. Of course.
   2. Enable automatic login.
   3. Simplify the desktop layout. E.g., use only one panel with this limited screen resolution.
   4. Set the number of workspaces to one. You won't need so many.
   5. Auto-start the MPlayer.

3. The End Product

It is working fine! It takes about two minutes from powering on the machine to having a MPlayer to use. The memory test initiated by BIOS has taken about half a minute. Probably I can try to suppress this. There are still rooms for improvement. E.g., include the support of remote control, or include a TV tuner card for recording TV programmes.