[mythtv-users] Setting up a backend on Ub11.10

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/07/2011 11:14 AM, Tyler T wrote:
>>> However, because they do not officially support a backend/frontend setup split
>>> between different machines, they were unable to help me further.
> This has always bothered me. Why put the code in if you're not going
> to support it?

Have any of you realized how much difference there is between the size 
of a MythTV frontend and backend install and either a MythTV frontend 
only install or MythTV backend only install?  We're talking maybe 10MB 
of HDD space total.  What's the point--on /any/ HDD or SSD or flash 
drive?  Now, if you were trying to install it into the 2MB or 4MB 
storage available on a router, I could see the complaint--but since 
that's not possible...

The problem with the, "Only install the parts of MythTV I need," idea is 
that nearly all of MythTV's code exists in libraries that are shared by 
the frontend and backend--meaning those libraries need to be installed 
whether you install the frontend or the backend.  Therefore, don't think 
of this as system bloat, think of it as getting the frontend installed 
"just in case" on a backend system for only 2.5MB extra or the backend 
installed ("just in case") on a frontend-only system for only 1.5MB or 
mythtv-setup installed (for setup) on a frontend-only system for only 377kB.

Now, if your distro installs things like MySQL server and Apache httpd 
on a system that you plan to use as a frontend-only system when you 
install mythbackend, the problem isn't that MythTV doesn't support 
installing frontend-only systems--it's that your distro's packages don't 
let you decide whether to do a master-backend install or a remote 
backend install, where the required-only-for-one-system-on-the-network 
external dependencies are only installed on one backend system.  Note, 
also, that the size of MySQL server or Apache httpd is /much/ greater 
than the size of the few MythTV binaries that you won't be using on a 
frontend-only install.  That said, packagers have to decide between ease 
of use (ability of users to figure out how to use the packages and get 
MythTV working) and flexibility of install (ability of a random user to 
save some amount of HDD space usage), and, IMHO, ease of use is far more 
important.

Mike