[mythtv-users] MythTV newbie

[Michael T. Dean]

Dewey Smolka wrote:

>On 10/30/05, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>
><snip>
>  
>
>>Running MySQL on a different server works the same as running it
>>locally--with the exception that the MySQL client (Myth) will make
>>connections using TCP (instead of Unix sockets) and MySQL permissions (
>>http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/privilege-system.html ) must
>>allow the MySQL client host (Myth box) to connect to the database.  Note
>>that file permissions are irrelevant (from Myth's perspective) since the
>>MySQL process on the MySQL server writes the table data (so only the
>>MySQL user needs--should have--access to the files).  Myth simply sends
>>SQL commands across the wire to the MySQL server.
>>    
>>
>I thought this worked a little differently. I understand that for TV
>and recordings, everything is done through MySQL and internal Myth
>protocols, making NFS mounts and permissions somewhat irrelevant,
>other than the BE being able to write to the recordings directory.
>  
>
Right, although, if you have an NFS mount with access to the recordings, 
it will be used in preference to having Myth stream the file to the 
frontend.  So, maybe not irrelevant, but not required.

>But with MythVideo and MythMusic (and other plugins), I thought that
>the BE populated the MySQL tables to point to the proper file, but the
>FE launched playback locally, meaning that the video and music
>directories had to be mounted on the FE, and permissions set so the FE
>could at least read the files.
>  
>
Correct.  MythVideo and MythMusic (and other plugins) are part of the 
frontend and must have permission to access the video/music/whatever 
files.  Since you were talking about the backend and MySQL, though, I 
wasn't sure what files you were talking about.

>By this I mean that there are no special setup steps involved in
>getting the BE to show a recording on a remote FE other than setting
>up MySQL -- the BE needs to see Recordings, but the FE only needs to
>see the BE. But for the BE and remote FE to share music, video,
>pictures, etc, those media have to be mounted as NFS/SMB and
>accessible to both the FE and BE.
>
>Do I have this wrong?
>  
>
Nope, except the backend doesn't ever touch the music--a combined 
frontend/backend would, but only through the frontend part of it.

But, I think the OP was talking about having MySQL on a separate server 
and having his frontend and backend elsewhere (either combined or on 
their own systems).  And, MySQL is not a part of either the frontend or 
the backend (but it is used by both of them), so it can be anywhere on 
the net.

>I'm also aware that pretty much everything in Myth is modular, and
>it's at least theoretically possible to have a master BE that records
>from a remote capture source, writes to a remote storage volume,
>manages a remote MySQL, etc. I just meant to suggest that for
>simplicity's sake it is better to keep as much as possible on the
>(master) BE.
>  
>
Yeah.  Keeping it all on one machine can make things easier.

Mike