[mythtv-users] Mythtv installation

jarpublic at gmail.com jarpublic at gmail.com
Wed Jan 14 00:07:33 UTC 2009


On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 5:15 PM, Igor Chudov <igor at chudov.com> wrote:

> I blew away mythtv, dropped mythconverg database and started over
> again, trying to follow http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php
>
> I installed
>
> apt-get install mythtv mythtv-doc mythweb mythmusic mythweather mythgallery
> mythvideo mythgame mythstream mytharchive
>
> Then I ran mythtv-setup.
>
> And I ran into all sorts of troubles right away. The same deja vu.
>
> This time, I think that I am beginning to understand things a little
> better. Apparently,
>
> 1) despite asking for mysql root password during apt-get install,
> mythtv-setup is unable to connect to MySQL database. But it never says
> so explicitly, and instead quietly fails to create "mythconverg" database,
> and then of course nothing works.
>
> OK, I can workaround this by blanking out root password.
>
> 2) I planned on running mythtv as a unprivileged user "tv" that has
> minimum rights and certainly no sudo rights. This is so because I will
> have guests and kids watch this TV and I do not want to give them any
> access besides running in an X session.
>
> Apparently, the Ubuntu install scripts assumes that the user running
> mythtv-setup does have a privilege to run sudo. Which I sort of
> understand, as it needs to stop and start mythtv-backend. And what it
> really means is that this sort of work should have been done by dpkg
> instead of mythtv-setup.
>
> So what I am going to do is, delete and purge and uninstall everything
> again, temporarily set mysql root password to blank (horrors!) and add
> "tv" to admin group.
>
> I will post updates on my progress.
>
>
It seems like you are making this much much more difficult on yourself than
it needs to be. That guide seemed a little outdated and most of it is
certainly unnecessary with mythbuntu-control-centre. If you use aptitude to
install mythbuntu-control-centre, then you can accomplish all of this in a
very simple straightforward manner. You can even ask it to do an automatic
login to a lightweight xfce session with a user of your choice, and startup
mythfrontend automatically. The control centre just uses aptitude to install
the appropriate packages with aptitude and it makes sure you have the right
files in the right place. It won't mess up your current setup. I still use
my desktop like normal. If you could explain why you have issues with the
mythbuntu control centre we might be able to help you more, since this is
the method that the vast majority of ubuntu users will use.

I have done installs with using a root password and installs without a root
password, and both worked fine. There are two spots in the dialogue where it
asks for a mysql password. The first one is when it asks for the root
password and it uses that to setup the user 'mythtv' to use mysql and it
creates the 'mythconverg' database. Later I believe it prompts you for the
mysql password for the 'mythtv' user. Mythbackend and mythtv-setup login to
mysql as user 'mythtv'. If you don't set a mysql password for 'mythtv' then
the setup creates a random one and stores it in /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt. If
you are still having issues with the database I would do as others have
suggested and make sure you can log into mysql from the command line. Try
logging in as root with your root password, then try logging in to the
mythconverg database as 'mythtv' with the password that is stored in
/etc/mythtv/mysql.txt. That should help you figure out why there is some
problem logging into the database. Once you have the command line sorted
out, then you can use dpkg-reconfigure mythtv-database and dpkg-reconfigure
mythtv-common to try having the packages setup things with the right
usernames and passwords again.
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