Automatic Multimedia Installation Configuration Utility System (A.M.I.C.U.S.)
Purpose
The purpose of the A.M.I.C.U.S. project is to help users quickly and easily install and configure MythTV on generic PC hardware. It is an installation and configuration script based on publicly available information in MythTV on Debian guides (see references and links section). This document borrows heavily from those guides and will continue to use them during script development.
About
A.M.I.C.U.S. uses previously developed products such as the Debian Netinst CD to install GNU/Linux and just the required packages for MythTV. A primary goal of the project is to install a minimal but functional MythTV on low end hardware while leveraging the benefits of the excellent stability and quality of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. Debian GNU/Linux retains its full capability as a premier general purpose operating system and is not limited by running MythTV.
The A.M.I.C.U.S. project is independent of Debian which should allow the installed MythTV system to benefits of continuing Debian development. One of the many advantages of using Debian GNU/Linux as an underlying operating system for a MythTV system is it can be updated easily to incorporate security fixes and system improvements with a simple "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" from the root prompt.
Currently, the project has released version 0.03 is in development. At the present time, using the instructions on this web page, an A.M.I.C.U.S. user can install Debian Netinst, download, install, and configure MythTV with related packages. A.M.I.C.U.S. includes MythTV related hardware configuration such as BT8x8 and ivtv tuner cards, LIRC, and NVidia video cards.
To my knowledge, a few brave souls have used the A.M.I.C.U.S. process -- turning their dull and lifeless PCs into a vibrant MythTV multimedia centers. Hopefully others will join soon. The project will be adding many more features in future releases. If you would like to request support for specific features, please join the mailing lists and/or forums on the A.M.I.C.U.S. Sourceforge.net. The currently released script is available here for your review:
http://amicus.sourceforge.net/amicus
Sourceforge is graciously hosting this Free/Open Source development project. As A.M.I.C.U.S. is released under the GPL, anyone is free to join, test, and submit changes to the script. All users, testers, and developers are welcome to comment and join in on the fun of developing A.M.I.C.U.S.! I'd like to say a big "THANK YOU" to the nice people at Sourceforge.net. Here is the Sourceforge A.M.I.C.U.S. project page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/amicus
I would like to say a big "THANK YOU" as well to the developers of Debian, MythTV, and the whole Free/Open Source community for their great contributions.
Users, Testers, and Developers are all welcome to join in the A.M.I.C.U.S. project. I am sure you are experienced and have great ideas to implement. Please send post them on the mailing list. Of course, patches are welcome to! There are two mailing lists to help in the discussion:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/amicus-users (For A.M.I.C.U.S. users)
https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/amicus-devel (For A.M.I.C.U.S. developers)
Regarding the name A.M.I.C.U.S., "amicus" is a latin term for "friend". Hopefully A.M.I.C.U.S. will be your friend to help you set up your MythTV system. I believe many new MythTV experimenters could use a little help from a knowledgeable friend to get their PVR systems working. This script is intended to help bring some of the hard earned knowledge of the MythTV community into an easy to understand HOWTO and menu format.