Which version of Linux?

[Paul_G]

Hi all,
I'm a noob to the forum and world of linux. I've had experience with Topfield, Beyonwiz and ICETV (Australian for context). I'm wanting to repurpose an old media PC and install Linux and NextPVR. My question is which version of linux would work best for an old PC that I want to run NextPVR on? (originally had Windows 7).

While I'm not overly concerned about getting my head around NextPVR, I am a total noob with regard to Linux. From a bit of reading, I gather Mint or MX Linux – Xfce might be best due to having a similar interface to Windows. I'm leaning towards MX as it can, apparently, run well on older PCs.

Happy for any and all advice.

Thanks, Paul.

[mvallevand]

From the NextPVR perspective web configuration will be exactly the same on any platform, Linux Window or macOS. Initial installation will be from the command line
too. Some Linux users set up their systems headless (without a monitor) which is how I run it. This allows you to uses minimal install and use most of your PC resources for PVR.

You likely need to make decision become what else do you want to use the PC for, I expect you will continue to use Windows for most things so the choice of GUI and Windows-like interfaces is maybe not that important. MX Linux and Mint are popular though but nothing wrong with Ubuntu or Debian.

If you do want to use Kodi as a client on the same PC then LibreELEC might turn out to be you best choice. The client is optimized and the server installs as an addon. It doesn't give a lot of Linux functionality but maybe enough for your needs. Their support might get you through some trouble spots though.

Martin

[Paul_G]

Thanks Martin, I'm just going to use the PC as a PVR, so it won't have windows on it other unrelated applications

[mvallevand]

So look at minimal installations or and don't worry too much about the GUI. If you want Kodi for playback consider LibreELEC.

If it is an old Win 7 machine, you can use it as is to get started with NextPVR.

Martin

[VCR58]

I have used MX Linux before and it works well.

With MX Linux you will probably have to switch from their default "sysVinit" system and service manager to "systemd" for NextPVR to work. There are easy GUI settings to change this and make "systemd" the default. MX Linux also has a very nice package manager.

Currently I am using Openmediavault for my Linux NextPVR server. It is Debian 11 based and has a web GUI to easily configure shares for your home network. You can run NextPVR in a Docker container or you can just install it directly with Martin's deb installer which is what I did. The only catch is to make sure you create a /home/user directory to install NextPVR in. Otherwise it will install as root and may not work so well (learned this by experience .

You can also install Webmin on Openmediavault (or any other Debian distro) which uses a web GUI. It has a nice file manager along with other tools. Web GUI's are nice for those transitioning from a desktop environment to CLI.

[mvallevand]

The only catch is to make sure you create a /home/user directory to install NextPVR in. Otherwise it will install as root and may not work so well (learned this by experience .

It shouldn't do that, you may have installed as the root user instead of the recommended practice of installing as a user using sudo. 

Martin

[VCR58]

Yeah, I think I was root when I tried it first.

I believe I had to create a user and make sure the setting was checked to "Create user home directory" in OMV.