Linksys Media Center Extender and Linux?

[whitefort]

This is a bit of a 100 to 1 shot...

I occasionally write reviews of stuff, and I was recently given a Linksys Media Center Extender (http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/DMA2100) for (mumble) Windows Media Center.

Allegedly this works with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, but since I don't use Vista in any shape or form, I offered to send the hardware back.

They told me, don't worry about it, keep it anyway.

So my question: Does anyone know if (as a relatively inexperienced Ubuntu user), I can actually make use of this thing? Apparently it allows you to stream TV, films, photos, music, etc from your 'Media Center' PC to your TV/Home Cinema - but it's covered in stickers about Vista Premium or Ultimate are required.

I could Ebay it, I suppose, but I don't want the hassle if someone has problems setting it up.

So I thought I'd post, just in case anyone has any ideas what might be done with it.

[DMcA]

I don't know much about this, however I would have thought it is almost certainly possible but potentially very difficult.

The hardware itself is effectively just a glorified NAS right? If you read the license it contains GPL software so I guess it's probably running linux (you could find out) with a load of Cisco software on top. To make it useful you'd probably have to reinstall an operating system or mess about with the software on it a lot, which is completely undocumented. The manual for that thing doesn't even say what hardware it runs.

I'd wait for someone who actually know what they're talking about to comment though

[whitefort]

I'd wait for someone who actually know what they're talking about to comment though

:)

No problem - I'm assuming that something is a) probably possible, and b) WAAY beyond my abilities!!

I think the best thing might be to start searching through family and friends to see if anybody is running software that can use it. Otherwise it will just be an interesting paperweight.

Mind you, any hardware that is 'Windows only' probably deserves to be a paperweight!

[DMcA]

I doubt much (if any) of the hardware will be windows-only. Like I said, it'll probably run linux quite happily, but the software on it'll probably only talk to vista.

I'd love to have something like that to play around with, in fact I plan on building myself a media server in the summer. Without having the specs for that thing it's hard to say what it could do but it looks like it has a USB port so installing your own OS shouldn't be impossible. I definitely wouldn't consider it a paperweight.

[whitefort]

If you click the blue text in my original post, it links to their website, where there's a pdf of the specs, instructions, etc.

It has a USB port listed as 'for service only - do not use'. I'm wondering what would happen if I connected that to a USB port on my Ubuntu computer, but I'm such a hardware klutz that I've been afraid to, in case I blow up my computer! :)

Maybe over the Easter holiday I'll try it, and see what happens.

[DMcA]

I already skimmed them all - that's how I found out it was running GPL software. I couldn't find any particularly useful information about it's processor, memory, hard drive etc though.