[mythtv-users] MythTV User Status ??

[jim]

On 01/12/2015 10:28 AM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 9:56 AM, jim <jim_32766 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks (or is that dank je?), Hika. The less /etc/passwd worked as
>> advertised and I now can see the user mythtv, plus can see that user has
>> a home directory and shell via "/home/mythtv:/bin/sh".There is no
>> password for this user to login though, correct?
> I don't run Mythbuntu, but most Linux distributions are set up to use
> shadow passwords.  If the /etc/passwd file has an "x" in the password
> field (the one after the first colon, following the username), then
> the password is defined in the file /etc/shadow, not /etc/passwd.
> Usually the permissions on the shadow file are more restricted, such
> that normal users cannot read it.  If you see an x there, you would
> need to check the shadow file to know if the account has a password or
> not.
>
> And accounts without passwords can still log in, they just need to use
> an authentication mechanism other than a password (e.g. ssh keys or
> something like that).
>
> Eric
>
Comparing entries in the /etc/shadow file for my user and the mythtv
user I can see the difference you mention. My user has $6$ in the second
field and the mythtv user has a *. It appears that users without regular
login passwords, e.g. pulse, are indicated by the * in the second field.
The only exception is mysql which has a ! in that field.
Would it hurt to add a regular password for mythtv and make it more like
my regular user account. For a HTPC would it be better to only have the
mythtv user account?
One thing I am failing to accomplish is having a program run that checks
the DVD title. I can't seem to find a mount point when MythTV is
running. It's not under /media/user as it is on my other linux mint
system (without MythTV). Maybe it would be if I had set up a mythtv user
before installing MythTV?
Thanks for helping the new kid!