Ubuntu: Up and Running

TV Tuners

A wide variety of TV tuner cards (both analog and digital) are supported by Ubuntu, and the best way to use them is with the MythTV program, the Linux equivalent of Windows Media Center. To install it you can either visit apt://mythtv in the Firefox web browser (making sure you select apturl as the application launcher if a pop-up window requests it) or select Applications → Accessories → Terminal and enter:

sudo apt-get install mythtv

If you are prompted for your password, you should enter it and then wait a few minutes for installation to complete, as there are a number of other programs it depends on that may also require installing.

During the process you may be advised to set a password for the MySQL root user. If so, type one in and make sure you remember it, as you’ll be using it later on in the installation. Alternatively, if you are behind a firewall and running a personal computer, you may wish to just press Enter here to leave the password unset; you can always create a root password for MySQL later if you need one.

You will also have the opportunity to allow remote computers running MythTV to connect to this service. If your computers are all behind a firewall, this is a reasonably safe thing to allow and you can go ahead and select Yes. If not, I don’t recommend this option, as you may expose both MythTV and MySQL services to the Web.

Restarting and Setup

Although you may not be asked to, I recommend restarting your computer after installing MythTV to be absolutely ...