Upgraded the box to KnoppMyth R5A10. Haven't had much opportunity to reconfigure everything (again), but at least the USB-to-Ethernet adapter was automatically recognized and seems to connect properly.

I figured out why X was broken with the 1.0.6629 nVidia drivers.

According to the logfile (/var/log/XFree86.0.log) the server was hanging when trying to load the GLX interface.

apt-get install nvidia-glx loaded some dependancies (among them, nvidia-kernel) and made X come to life again. Of course, the TV-out is horribly interlaced and only occupies 75% of the horizontal screen space, but from what I've read these are (somewhat) fixable things.

The USB-to-Ethernet adapter is not requesting an IP from my router, so I have to dig into /etc/network/interfaces to see what is going on. Could also be a sequencing problem, if dhcp is happening before hotplug.

I decided to try and build a spare-parts computer for the purpose of running the KnoppMyth Knoppix/Debian distribution, and of course, MythTV.

MythTV seems to be very nice (far better than any Windows PVR software) and of course, the price is right.

Specs:

• AMD Sempron 2100+
• Asus A7V600 motherboard
• 256MB DDR400
• ATI Radeon 8500LE 128MB w/TV-out
• ATI TV Wonder VE tuner card
• ATI Remote Wonder
• old Fujistu 40GB hard drive
• old LG 2x DVD burner

Several hurdles followed:

• Getting the ATI remote to work (add_ati_remote)
• finding the correct bttv TV tuner card settings (card=64, tuner=2)
• making the correct bttt tuner setting stick (update-modules)
• getting the onboard 3Com 3C940 NIC working (modprobe sk98lin)
• stopping kernel panic every time the system initializes the NIC (insmod sk98lin, disable NIC, install USB-to-Ethernet NIC instead)
• resolving no network connectivity issue (remove staples holding cable to baseboard; fix broken wire in cable caused by staple penetration)
• getting the TV out to work at all (reflash card with proper ATI 8500LE NTSC BIOS)
• getting TV out for X (install ATI proprietary driver; fglrxconfig (tinker); fglrxconfig (tinker); fglrxconfig (tinker); fglrxconfig (tinker); uninstall ATI proprietary driver; remove ATI card; throw ATI card in trash; install old nVidia GF2 card; build homebrew S-Video to composite adapter with a 470nF cap, a 100 ohm resistor and two cables; install bundled nVidia driver)
• breaking RGB *and* TV out for X (install latest nVidia driver)

• More to come.