[mythtv-users] Anyone using/upgraded to Fed17 for Myth yet?

[Mike Perkins]

On 31/05/12 19:31, Eric Smith wrote:
>
> 1. Somehow during my initial setup I created a user mythttv with an
> extra t typoed.  I thought no big deal, I'll just rename the user when
> I'm done.  Nope, when I try to rename it, it tells me the user mythtv
> already exists.  (Eh?)  This caused some issues I had to work through
> with making sure permissions were correct for the user mythttv.  (Not
> necessarily a f17 issue, but with the upgrade, mythbackend is now
> being executed by mythtv (the user that shouldn't exist?) and not by
> root as it has been for me for many years.  While I'm sure this is a
> "good thing" it did add to my permissions issues I had to work though.
>
The mythtv user is probably automatically being created as a 'system' user, ie 
with a low UID and GID, as part of the mythtv package install. One problem with 
this approach is that from install to install you may get given random numbers 
for these... makes a mess of all those media files you've built up. Can also 
cause problems between separate front end/back end setups as the mythtv user can 
be assigned different UID/GID sets on each machine... fun times.

The home directory can also be placed in a less-than-useful place, usually 
/var/lib/mythtv. If you're rebuilding your OS you may wish to nuke /var without 
disturbing your user info. This is because *other* system users can *also* be 
given random UID/GID sets, making upgrades a real mess.

My answer to these problems is to create the mythtv user *before* installing 
anything mythtv related. This allows you to give it a normal UID/GID combination 
and one which can be replicated across hosts as required. It also gives you the 
opportunity to make sure the home directory is under /home where you can manage 
it the same as your other users.

-- 

Mike Perkins