[mythtv-users] help: i can't record tv after upgrade to ubuntu-13.04/mythtv-0.26

[Mike Perkins]

On 28/06/13 07:20, mythtv at raf.org wrote:
>
> as far as i can tell, it seems that the original issue
> was that the upgrade added the line:
>
>   <LocalHostName>my-unique-identifier-goes-here</LocalHostName>
>
> to config.xml but didn't put the local hostname in
> there automatically and didn't alert me to the fact
> that it needed to be modified. but it seems hard to
> believe that mythtv would actually accept that
> "my-unique-identifier-goes-here" was a real hostname
> and therefore decide that the local backend was not
> the master backend and then proceed to let all hell
> break loose.
>
This is a specific dummy value to tell the myth system to use whatever it can 
determine for hostname from the system. This might be a hostname or a FDQN. YMMV 
depending on your OS.

> as for then following the dubious advice on the net to
> use "127.0.0.1" as the local backend ip address
> (rather than the ethernet address), i think mythtv
> could have pointed out that that was a useless value
> to put there if the purpose of the value is to
> determine whether or not the local backend is the
> master backend or not. 127.0.0.1 is the address of
> all local backends. it doesn't say anything that
> mythtv didn't already know and it could have
> prevented me using that value.
>
127.0.0.1 used as an IP address tells the myth system that it consists of a 
single host which contains both mythbackend and mythfrontend, ie a stand-alone 
system.

For *all* other configurations, the IP address of a real network inteface should 
be specified.

In mythtv-setup, the thing that distinguishes the master backend from a slave 
backend is that the two IP addresses are the same. If they are the same  it is 
the master backend. If these are both 127.0.0.1 the system concludes that it is 
stand-alone (and master). If they are different, the first value is that of the 
current host and the second is that of the master backend.

> a bit more defensive input validation with educational
> explanations wouldn't go astray. but i understand that
> there are limited resources for such niceties so it's
> not surprising that the blind end up leading the blind
> out in the wild old web. a lot of mythtv's setup is
> fairly cryptic and people tend to try silly things
> when nothing is working and then forget to undo them. :-)
>
> it's nice to know that this list is here and there are
> excellent people willing and able to help.
>
When you don't know what's going on it is easy to flounder. Once you have built 
your system you'll be able to understand what's happening and it will all fall 
into place.

-- 

Mike Perkins