[mythtv-users] Adding a new frontend to an old mythtv system

Andrew andrew_mythtv at 16paws.com
Tue Apr 25 00:12:46 UTC 2017


I have a suspicion that I know how this is going to go from the google 
searches that I've made, but I'm going to ask anyway because I find the 
expected answer hard to believe.

I have a MythTV system that has been running for 6 or 7 years.  It 
consists of an x86 Debian backend server, with three HDHomeRuns, and a 
9TB RAID5 fileserver, and one fanless SFF x86 Debian frontend tied to a 
big plasma.  The frontend tells me that it is release 0.23.1, so I 
assume the backend is the same vintage.  I happily use this as my ONLY 
HDTV viewing method, and have done so since 2010.  It works great.

I am trying to add a new frontend box to the system, so I dutifully 
downloaded all the source (0.28), compiled (it took much longer than 30 
minutes, thank you very much) and ran through the wickets to install 
it.  Of course, it refuses to work with the old back end because, well, 
actually I can't think of a good "why".

So that was a waste of time.  How does one get a new frontend 
forward/backward compatible with an older backend.  Please don't lecture 
me on the semantics of what is forward and what is backward because it 
is pointless and both apply depending if one is viewing the problem from 
the frontend or backend - I see that is the standard non-answer from the 
google searches I have made.

My constraints: no, I'm not deleting 9 TB of stored programs, nor am I 
interested in risking losing the database for over 1200 recorded 
programs.  No, I'm not interested in a solution that requires an entire 
system upgrade of every component simply to add a new one later.  In 
particular when any Linux upgrade means that you're likely to lose 
hardware graphics support because, well, fuck you, that's why.  Years of 
experience have taught me to never upgrade anything in a working Linux 
system because the result is a trail of tears until eventually the 
hardware is thrown out.  Not every Linux user is a college kid with a 
low end laptop, leaching free wifi at a coffee shop, with the attention 
span of a goldfish.

How does the rest of the world work as expected when new frontend 
devices, let's call them "TV's", continue to be introduced supporting 
new features (NTSC, ATSC, QAM, IPTV, RS170, S Video, component, VGA RGB, 
HDMI) and yet they still work with older program sources?  It seems like 
an inherently reasonable model.

My skills: 35 years software developer, three electrical and computer 
engineering degrees from a first tier engineering school, have 
used/developed on BSD Unix for 35 years and Linux for 10, and a dozen 
years writing drivers and firmware in the Silicon Valley.  So I'm not a 
noob, and yes I checked the FAQ, it was useless for me.

How how can I add an new frontend to my current MythTV system?

Thanks,

Andrew





More information about the mythtv-users mailing list