Mythtv Backend Init Script?

[John Pierce]

Ok, I have googled around for the last 4 hours or so looking for the
way to modify the mythbackend init script to work on fedora7.

I have found numerous posts indicating that the stock script does not
work on redhat/fedora, but I have not been able to find any indication
of what I need to do to change it so that it will work.

Can somebody point me to a place to fix this, or if someone has one
that works please email it to me.  Off list will be fine.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

["Paul-Erik Törrönen"]

John Pierce wrote:
> I have found numerous posts indicating that the stock script does not
> work on redhat/fedora, but I have not been able to find any indication
> of what I need to do to change it so that it will work.

Would it help to check what ATRpms (http://atrpms.net/dist/f7/) has done?

I suppose there is some reason why you don't use the mythtv packages 
from the ATRpms repository.

Poltsi

[Bill Davidsen]

John Pierce wrote:
> Ok, I have googled around for the last 4 hours or so looking for the
> way to modify the mythbackend init script to work on fedora7.
>
> I have found numerous posts indicating that the stock script does not
> work on redhat/fedora, but I have not been able to find any indication
> of what I need to do to change it so that it will work.
>
> Can somebody point me to a place to fix this, or if someone has one
> that works please email it to me.  Off list will be fine.

Do you realize how rude that is? The "I need help, but send the answer 
to me instead of putting it on the list where it can help everyone" 
attitude.

If the answer is small it belongs on the list, if not the link belongs 
on the list. Lists and newsgroups are for sharing answers, not your 
private free consulting service.
> Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Always glad to explain the elements of net courtesy.

You might look at atrpms.net for a drop-in mythtv.

[John Pierce]

> >
>
> Do you realize how rude that is? The "I need help, but send the answer
> to me instead of putting it on the list where it can help everyone"
> attitude.
>
> If the answer is small it belongs on the list, if not the link belongs
> on the list. Lists and newsgroups are for sharing answers, not your
> private free consulting service.
> > Thanks in advance for any assistance.
>
> Always glad to explain the elements of net courtesy.
>
> You might look at atrpms.net for a drop-in mythtv.
>
> --
> Bill Davidsen

I understand net courtesy, I post lots of assistance to the lists I
subscribe to.  Sometimes it is not possible to post an overly long
solution to the list, so sending it to someone directly is the
alternative.

If you read the entire thread then you will have seen that I did post
back to the thread with the solution I found.

And I was using the atrpms myth packages, it just did not have a
.mysql.txt file in the / folder.

I consider rude to be more akin to your actions, interjecting a
comment into the thread just because you read some line that you did
not like.

[Nick Morrott]

On 03/08/07, John Pierce  wrote:
> And I was using the atrpms myth packages, it just did not have a
> .mysql.txt file in the / folder.

The mythbackend init script available from atrpms.net does not setup
$HOME when the script is run at boot time. This means that $HOME
defaults to / which is why you end up with /.mythtv/ entries in the
filesystem.

The updated scripts in MythTV SVN
(http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mythtv/contrib/init_scripts)
have been updated to daemonise mythbackend with a user (defaults to
root, see below) so that the MythTV config entries are created/read at
init time for a real user.

When starting mythbackend from a terminal, $HOME is already configured
and so mythbackend uses $HOME/.mythtv/. This is the reason you can end
up with separate MythTV configurations in /, /root/ and /home/mythtv/
if you also run mythfrontend as the user 'mythtv'

The reason the atrpms.net scripts do not use the daemonise 'user'
option is due to the lack of the audio and video groups on Fedora.
mythbackend requires access to the AV hardware when it starts and by
default on Fedora, only the root user has access to this. A user needs
to amend their installation's console permissions/udev scripts to
allow non-root users the access to the capture hardware they require
to allow mythbackend to run as another user.

[John Pierce]

> The mythbackend init script available from atrpms.net does not setup
> $HOME when the script is run at boot time. This means that $HOME
> defaults to / which is why you end up with /.mythtv/ entries in the
> filesystem.
>
> The updated scripts in MythTV SVN
> (http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mythtv/contrib/init_scripts)
> have been updated to daemonise mythbackend with a user (defaults to
> root, see below) so that the MythTV config entries are created/read at
> init time for a real user.
>
> When starting mythbackend from a terminal, $HOME is already configured
> and so mythbackend uses $HOME/.mythtv/. This is the reason you can end
> up with separate MythTV configurations in /, /root/ and /home/mythtv/
> if you also run mythfrontend as the user 'mythtv'
>
> The reason the atrpms.net scripts do not use the daemonise 'user'
> option is due to the lack of the audio and video groups on Fedora.
> mythbackend requires access to the AV hardware when it starts and by
> default on Fedora, only the root user has access to this. A user needs
> to amend their installation's console permissions/udev scripts to
> allow non-root users the access to the capture hardware they require
> to allow mythbackend to run as another user.
>
> --
> Nick

Thanks, I read the comment inside the mythbackend init script from the
atrpms package about the user issue, but I could not locate any in
depth explanation about it.

Now I can google for the udev/console perms for myth and maybe find
the needed information.

Again thanks for the explanation.

[Axel Thimm]

On Fri, Aug 03, 2007 at 02:53:43PM -0500, John Pierce wrote:
> > The mythbackend init script available from atrpms.net does not setup
> > $HOME when the script is run at boot time. This means that $HOME
> > defaults to / which is why you end up with /.mythtv/ entries in the
> > filesystem.
> >
> > The updated scripts in MythTV SVN
> > (http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mythtv/contrib/init_scripts)
> > have been updated to daemonise mythbackend with a user (defaults to
> > root, see below) so that the MythTV config entries are created/read at
> > init time for a real user.
> >
> > When starting mythbackend from a terminal, $HOME is already configured
> > and so mythbackend uses $HOME/.mythtv/. This is the reason you can end
> > up with separate MythTV configurations in /, /root/ and /home/mythtv/
> > if you also run mythfrontend as the user 'mythtv'
> >
> > The reason the atrpms.net scripts do not use the daemonise 'user'
> > option is due to the lack of the audio and video groups on Fedora.
> > mythbackend requires access to the AV hardware when it starts and by
> > default on Fedora, only the root user has access to this. A user needs
> > to amend their installation's console permissions/udev scripts to
> > allow non-root users the access to the capture hardware they require
> > to allow mythbackend to run as another user.
>
> Thanks, I read the comment inside the mythbackend init script from the
> atrpms package about the user issue, but I could not locate any in
> depth explanation about it.
>
> Now I can google for the udev/console perms for myth and maybe find
> the needed information.
>
> Again thanks for the explanation.

You will also need root priviledges for some real time capabilities,
or you will need a way to dispatch this to the mythtv user. If you
manage to get it all working the ATrpms init scripts are eagerly
waiting for your patch :)

But beware: Over the years many capable people have been trying to
cleanly sort this out, and finally resorted back to running the
backend under root.