[mythtv-users] start at boot and permissions

Brad DerManouelian myth at dermanouelian.com
Fri Mar 28 15:44:12 UTC 2008


Darryl Hirschler wrote:
> Last night I installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers which forced me to 
> have to reboot.

You don't have to reboot when installing new drivers.
/sbin/init 3
/usr/sbin/nvidia-graphics-switch
/sbin/init 5

(paths depend on your distro)

> When I rebooted I remembered I have not yet configured 
> my PC to skip login and start MythTV automatically at boot-time.  I then 
> discovered that I had to restart mythbackend because I was logged in as 
> “darryl”, not “mythtv”.  I am always logged in as “darryl though.  So I 
> have a series of related questions now.

If you configure a backend service to start at boot time, it will 
probably be set up to run as the root user - and that's ok. :)

> 
> 1. Somewhere in Myth setup (can’t remember if it was frontend or backend 
> setup, probably backend) I remember setting it to login to Mysql as user 
> “mythtv” with pw of “mythtv”.  I am assuming this will not need to 
> change, right?

That's the mysql username/password. It has nothing to do with what user 
is logged into the system. You do not have to change this, except I 
recommend changing the password if there is any chance this machine can 
be accessed by any other machine outside of your network.

> 
>  
> 
> 2. I found in /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend script is set to USER=mythtv.  
> Do I simply change this to “darryl” or does this need to stay as “mythtv”?

Not sure which script you're using or what distro you're using, so it's 
hard to give a definitive answer. If everything is working for you, 
don't change anything. If it's not, change it. ;)


> 3. This was the source of some of my troubles when I did the initial 
> install, so I have a lot of confusion surrounding this whole subject of 
> who owns what and who needs what permissions.  Can somebody please set 
> me straight?  I just want to understand everything properly.

Generally, I run the backend as root so it has enough rights to do 
whatever it needs to do. Then I log in and run the frontend as a mythtv 
user. My machine is dedicated to myth, so I don't have any other user 
accounts on there. However, mythtv user can be any user you want. Then 
just make sure the user you're logged in as has permissions to run the 
frontend and make sure it works. There are no "you must have this set 
this particlar way or it won't work" type of guidelines. If you're 
having permission issues, change the permissions on what it's nagging 
you about ("sudo chmod 755 filewithbacpermissions" usually does the 
trick). If you are still having problems, search the archives for the 
error you're getting. If you're still having problems, post the error to 
the list and someone will help you out.

> I am very close to putting this box into fulltime service connected to 
> the TV, but I want to get these issues resolved first.  My wife is not 
> Linux friendly.  In fact, she kind of gets tired of my “geek-speak” 
> about Linux and MythTV.  I am anxious to put it into service so she can 
> see just what I’ve been raving about these past couple of weeks.

She'll get used to when she needs to turn off and stop listening to you 
and know in her heart that you will continue to make sure she can watch 
TV. ;)


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