[mythtv-users] Mythweb finds no remote controllable frontends

[Ramon Hofer]

On 07/20/2011 06:32 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 07/20/2011 12:23 PM, Ramon Hofer wrote:
>> On 07/20/2011 05:55 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>> On 07/20/2011 06:12 AM, Ramon Hofer wrote:
>>>> On 07/19/2011 05:02 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>>>> On 07/19/2011 09:28 AM, Ramon Hofer wrote:
>>>>>> But I still don't understand how I could run mythtv-setup on the
>>>>>> frontend since there's no mythtv-setup on my frontends?
>>>>>> I must understand it wrong that I have to set my frontends to
>>>>>> backend/frontend combos?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sorry for my slow understanding.
>>>>> You'd need to install mythtv-setup (from whatever package your packager
>>>>> makes it available).  This may well mean installing mythbackend, too.
>>>>> However, you won't make your frontend into a backend/frontend
>>>>> combo--that would imply you would actually /run/ mythbackend.  Instead,
>>>>> you will only install mythtv-setup, run it on your frontend host, then
>>>>> use that to set the IP address setting--as if you were configuring a
>>>>> backend on the host.
>>>> Ah, I see! Backends are of course only the machines that run mythbackend.
>>>>
>>>> Do I get it right: I have to install mythbackend on my frontends, run
>>>> mythtv-setup on each of them to set their IP addresses that they'll be
>>>> stored in the DB? Then I can patch mythweb that it'll look the IP
>>>> adresses up in the DB and uses them instead of the hostnames to connect.
>>> Yes.  That would work.
>>>
>>>> But wouldn't it be easier and more logical to solve my hostname
>>>> resolving problem?
>>>> Or even write the hostnames and IPs directly into the DB?
>>> Well, that would fix the issue for you--but not for all the other users
>>> who lack name resolution on their networks.  This is why we generally
>>> try to use the in-database information to find hosts, rather than just
>>> assume that every network has name resolution properly configured.
>> Aha, I thought it would be only my problem.
>>
>> This sounds like a major change in the mythtv code. Since there must be
>> a mechanism that the frontend sends it's IP when connecting to the
>> backend and then the whole interface would have to be changed so that
>> the backend only uses IP addresses.
>> I haven't looked at all at the source code. But this is how I imagine it...
>>
> If all you're doing is looking up the backend IP address associated with
> the host name, it's a minor change to MythWeb.  We have code exactly
> like that in the preview requesting code, for example.  The big
> difference is that because this is a frontend, there may not be a
> backend IP address for it, so you'd just have to handle that case, too
> (and actually use the hostname if you can't find an address), rather
> than just assume that the IP address will exist in the DB.
>
> As far as the approach you mentioned--that's more like the eventual
> approach we would use with the major redesign Raymond was talking about
> and requires a lot of work, starting with a design that needs to be
> reviewed by several developers and needs to fit into the plans other
> developers have for related code.  I'm not suggesting you take that on,
> but if you want to do the quick change to MythWeb to use the backend IP
> address if it exists, that could likely be incorporated before the next
> release (and you could use the patch with 0.24-fixes until then).  The
> major redesign won't hit before 0.26--maybe even after.

To be honest I think it's not a nice solution.
It doesn't work when the frontend has a dynamic IP.
And I think it would be better just to advise people to use static IP 
and add an entry to the backends /etc/hosts.
Maybe by adding an entry in the wiki page and the documentation?


Ramon