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

[Mark Perkins]

On 25/04/17 09:42, Andrew wrote:
> 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
>
>
Just compile an 0.23 frontend. 
https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/tree/fixes/0.23 The git repo from quick 
glance has branches going all the way back to fixes/0.18. With your 
skills "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" it should be a pretty trivial exercise.

The rest of your post was trolling so I'll just ignore.