The FamilyNet II Computer

This page is a collection and diary of information I have found when dealing with the FamilyNet II computer. Please let me know if you find out something else. You can reach me at the following e-mail address, karl-petter@STOPSPAMhome.se.(You know what to do with STOP SPAM)

June 28th - I bought my FamilyNet computer for 2990 kr at ComputerCity on Backaplan. They sell it under the name Nordendatorn, but FailyNet is what the box says so I call it that. It looks like a nice machine and my intentions are to use it as a multimedia terminal at home, to run DVDs, DivXs and MP3s on it. Though I have not yet decided what OS to run, there are several options to choose from, Windows 98SE, Windows XP, Linux or FreeBSD.

1. General Information

I have not been able to find the producer of the motherboard, I think it might be PCChips but I have not been able to locate it on their pages. Still researching what it might be, though it seems very similar to the ones found in BookPCs.

The Technical spec:

Celeron 566, 64MB, 10GB HD, DVD/CD, 10/100 Ethernet, 4 USB, modem, 4 channel sound, Intel i810E, Composite/S-Video output

You can also look at the output from dmesg, Urban Boquist sent it to the BUS-mailinglist from his NetBSD installation and Peter H from his FreeBSD installation.

1.1 Manufacturer

One of the first things I tried to find out was who has made it. The company is called MNC and is located both in Canada and France.

1.2 Hardware

Opening the box was not very hard. Urban Boquist has taken some pictures of it. The only tricky part was to get to the SIMM-modules for the memory. They are located under a metal plate, but once you have located the two screws on the side of the box its very easy to remove this plate to, the CD and the HD is attached to it as well as the front panel. With the plate removed you can see the whole motherboard, I have taken some pictures of it.

HD: N/A yet

PowerSuply: N/A yet

1.2.1 Chips

The CPU socket is the ordinary Socket370 and the machine is equipeed with a Celeron 566 Mhz.

64Mb of memory is the default configuration but can be expanded upto 512Mb using ordinary SDRAM SIMM modules. I'm not sure yet if it has a 100 or 133 Mhz bus, there are several jumpers on the motherboard that may indicate it should manage 133MHz but I have not been able to find any explanations of their function.

ChipSet: Intel810e

Graphics: Intel 82810e, Intel's drivers can be found on their support webpage.

TvOut: Chrontel CH7007A

Sound chip: C-Media CMI8738/PCI C3DX, Drivers, Manual PDF

Network: SiS900, Drivers

1.2.2 Connectors

The Backside(from the left):
PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors
100/10 Ethernet
2 USB
Phone-line for the built-in Modem
Composite/S-Video output
Digital Out(SPDIF out but a propriatary connector)
Parallell port
Monitor(VGA) out
Joystick port
Sound Front out
Sound Rear Out
Microphone

The Front Panel:

2USB
Headphones
Microphone

1.3 General Tips

For DivX movies, if you get slow playback, yerks or similar graphical problems it may be caused due to wrong colour bitplane depth. DivX uses only 16 bits so if you are using more than that, the player has to convert those 16 bits into 24 bits for instance. This takes time and slowsdown the playback.

2. FreeBSD

2.1 X

X was not very hard to get running. AGP GART support is needed in the Kernel, fortunatley there is a loadable module for this. See Section 5.4.3 in the Handbook. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html. If you boot the machine not connected to a monitor you get the console and X on your TV. The reason why you have to boot the machine not connected to a monitor is because FreeBSD does not have support for the Chrontel TVOut chip and thus the mode cannot be changed, though the chips it self deaults to TV out id no monitor is detected.

A nice feature to have would be DRI though it is not yet supported by FreeBSD, check it out here http://lclark.edu/~eta/dri/

2.2 Sound support

Sound also works under FreeBSD. From the FreeBSD questions-mailling list I found this:

You have three options:
A/ For a one off driver load:
	kldload snd_cmi.ko

B/ To load driver at boot time add to /boot/loader.conf:
	snd_cmi_load="yes"


C/ Or to compile kernel with pcm support compiled in, add:
	device pcm
   to your kernel config, rebuild, and install kernel.

2.3 TV Out

Boot the machine without connected to a Monitor

			
Jag försökta hitta lite info om i810 och TV-out och detta var vad jag fann,
http://www.tjansen.de/xfree-features/ där det står att tv-out är "partially"
supportat. Det fanns även en länk till
http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/xpert/2001-June/008851.html där man ser en
mailkonversation med kontentan att om man kör 800x600 så skall det funka med TV-
out.

2.4 Playing DVDs and DivX

The best option I have found to play DVDs and DivX-movies with is MPlayer that is part of the ports system. I installed the port and it worked directly in X. In the console mode though it seems to sun only with these optionss ans also only 256 colours.

mplayer -vo sdl:svgalib divx-movie.avi

When using TVOut only the console mode works, in X it looks like MPlayer is using some kind of overlay technique, the area on the screen where the video is supposed to be seen is just blue when viewed on a TV.

3. Windows XP

The MediaBox project seems like it would fit my needs. Will give it a try.

http://www.zeropaid.com/hardware/products/2.php

4. Windows 98 SE

5. Linux

Peter Andersson sent me this report after having installed Debian on his machine:

Knödde in debian 2.2.5 unstable utan större problem. XFree86 v 4.1, kde 2.x. Köpte också 128Mb extra minne eftersom den stod och swappade frenetiskt.

Ljud:

Ljudet ifrån applikationer funkade inte alls om jag inte tog död på artsd, tex xine, mpg123, xmms funkade inte, den enda som fixade det var ogle. Däremot KDE ljud funkade. Lade ner några timmar på att få igång ALSA men fick aldrig snurr på det. OSS stödet ifrån linuxkärnan för CMI8738 verkade inte funka så bra.

Dvd:

Körde jag ogle så orkade inte maskinen med trots 800x600 16bitplan. I xine hängde den nästan med fick bara några bilder då och då som den slängde. Fattade aldrig riktigt varför eftersom jag trodde xine använde sig av ogle för att visa DVD. Överklockade maskinen till 667Mhz då funkade Xine med mellan 5-10% idle CPU och inga bilder som slängdes. Frågan är om kylningen är såpass bra i denna lilla burk så det funkar under en längre tid.

Divx:

När jag försökte kolla in Divx filmer ifrån CDn så blev väldigt ryckigt. När jag hade dem på HDn så gick det bra. Jag tolkade det som om CDn var för slö för att hinna med. Pillade lite med hdparm för att slå på DMA stöd, 32 bitar mm men det hjälpte inte.

TV-out:

Jag lyckades få igång TV ut under X om man körde 800x600. Tyvärr så blev bilden väldigt liten mitt i TVn.

Nu har jag slängt ut Linux och tänkte pröva med w2k eftersom TV ut är väldigt viktigt för mig. Den skall stå i stereobänken och funka som divx/DVD/mp3/ogg spelare med bara TV som skärm.