[mythtv-users] Starting Myth TV without desktop environment (ie KDE)

[Andy Grundman]

Lance Tost wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, K Chaloupka wrote:
> 
>>I'm tring to boot up directly into MythTV without using KDE. I've
>>created a xinitRC file that starts the backend server and lircevent and
>>then calls mythtv. I execute this from runlevel 3 using startx (RH 9.0).
>>That works fine. How can I get the box to autologin as the mythtv user
>>and call startx? I've tried modifying the grub inittab file without any
>>success.
>>
> 
> 
> I use gdm to log my myth user in automatically.  See if you have 
> /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf.  Look for the [daemon] section:
> [daemon]
> # Automatic login, if true the first local screen will automatically 
> logged
> # in as user as set with AutomaticLogin key.
> AutomaticLoginEnable=true
> AutomaticLogin=mythtv

Here's what I do.  This might work better if you don't feel like 
installing Gnome to get gdm.

At the bottom of your startup file (I use Gentoo so it's 
/etc/conf.d/local.start):
while 1; do su - mythtv -l -c '/usr/X11R6/bin/startx -- -dpi 100'; done

This should login as mythtv, run X, and run it again if someone exits. 
(dpi 100 is to fix fonts in my high-res HDTV output)

Then you also need a suitable .xinitrc for the mythtv user which it 
sounds like you already have:
xset s off      	# no screensaver
fluxbox & wmpid=$!	# start a lightweight windowmanager
mythfrontend &
wait $wmpid		# don't shutdown X until the windowmanager exits

Honestly, I just set my system up so I haven't actually rebooted yet to 
test if this works, but in theory it should. :)  The window manager 
steps are optional but I think you need one if you want to run external 
apps like mplayer or emulators.  Let me know if this works at all.

-Andy