Mythbuntu in gnome.

I had researched media center solutions for almost a week. After settling on mythbuntu and reading all available documentation, I decided to roll it out in the normal way: Install it in a virtual machine, take note of all the problems and the test environment and then move to production.

Mythbuntu is a distribution specific version of MythTV.
MythTV has a familiar client server model. The backend is supposed to do the heavy lifting: Capture, transcode and stream out to any frontends. As I had guessed, the backend does not really need any UI. The frontend however quite obviously will need a really slick UI - and it rocks!

The way the frontend is actually installed however, is more than what I wanted or needed.
Mythbuntu installs xfce and makes it the default window manager. It also changes the boot splash to say "mythbuntu".

I like my ubuntu the way it is: with gnome and with a splash screen that says "Ubuntu". Bet you thought that I was going to put a sappy coffee joke, didn't you?

So this is what worked best for me in the virtual machine:
1. Install Ubuntu AMD64 8.10
2. Go to the Mythbuntu website and click on "Add to ubuntu"
3. The PHP script will start the package manager. Let it install the bare minimum mythbuntu files. Once the install ends, you'll end up back at the desktop.
4. System -> Administration -> Mythbuntu Control Centre
5. Select System Roles. Ensure that the Frontend role is selected. Enable the role of Primary Backend and press Apply. MCC will invoke the package manager to install the necessary files.
6. In Artwork and Login Behavior, you need to unselect ""Mythbuntu Artwork & Settings". However, it is initially grayed out. To disable it, you need to select "Automatically start MythTV standalone session upon boot" then unselect the artwork and then unselect the auto-login. Click apply. This will prevent the splash screen from changing.
7. Then go into System -> Login Window and set the default Login back to gnome. You may have to read about "usplash" on Google to fix it permanently.