[mythtv-users] BE3 - Issues with installation and database

[Stephen Worthington]

On Sun, 2 Jun 2019 12:48:04 -0500, you wrote:

>Hi Stephen!
>
>
>Think I may have found something as to shy the (Raspberry Pi) Frontend 
>isn’t able to obtain the video files from the Backend ==> the “Can’t 
>start playback TV Player Failed to open remote file 
>mytht://backend-3/<file number>.ts” error. The entire /home/barry/Mythtv 
>directory where I have the recordings (*.ts) files, banners, coverart, 
>and other directories seems to have an odd Permissions display:
>
>Owner (blank!) Create and delete
>
>Group Mythtv Create and delete
>
>Others (nothing -never is) Access files
>
>
>I’ve always seen ‘somebody’ (usually root or me) as owner.

I am not sure about how MythTV-lite installs on RPi, so I do not know
what the correct ownership should be.  But if the RPi is only being
used as a frontend, its backend should not be running, and it is the
backend that uses those files on the RPi.  The recording files the
frontend should be accessing are on BE3.

You should be able to use any of your working frontends to connect to
BE3.  Just take a copy of the existing /home/barry/.mythtv/config.xml
file and save it as a different name, then copy in the BE3
/etc/mythtv/config.xml file and edit it to use 192.168.0.3.  Then
start mythfrontend.  To go back to normal on that frontend box, copy
back the old config.xml file and restart mythfrontend.  I normally
keep copies of the config files for all three of my backends on all my
frontends:

stephen at mypvr:~/.mythtv$ ll co*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 stephen stephen  629 May 26 05:06 config.xml
-rw-rw-r-- 1 stephen stephen 1038 Sep 20  2013 config.xml.crw-pvr
-rw-rw-r-- 1 stephen stephen  623 May  7  2016 config.xml.lith
-rw-rw-r-- 1 stephen stephen  629 May 26 05:06 config.xml.mypvr

So switching that frontend to talk to lith instead of its local
backend (mypvr) is as simple as:

cd ~/.mythtv
cp -a config.xml.lith config.xml

and switching back to normal is:

cd ~/.mythtv
cp -a config.xml.mypvr config.xml

>Also, and a bit of good news is I was able to access the Backend from my 
>(no MythTV) computer to Backend-3:
>
>
>http://192.168.0.3/ Unable to connect
>
>http://192.168.0.3/mythweb Unable to connect
>
>http://192.168.0.3:6543/ Waiting for 192.168.0.3
.
>
>http://192.168.0.3:6544/ Tab title: “MythTV WebFrontend” and display as 
>above.
>
>Turned on (loaded FE at BE3 and now at bottom is:
>
>“Frontend Status
>
>“Backend-3 idle”
>
>|
>
>Even when FE playing a show!
>
>
>Not quite sure what any of this is telling us but figured worthwhile.
>
>
>Barry

Does BE3 have the mythweb package(s) installed?  That might be why
http://192.168.0.3/mythweb does not work.  Or there could be Apache
config problems, which would show up in the Apache log files.

Webfrontend (port 6544) should always be installed as part of
mythbackend, so that should work, as long as mythbackend is using
192.168.0.3 as the IP address it is binding, and it has started up
properly.

The "Backend-3 idle" simply means BE3 is not recording at the moment.
Playback is not counted in that status.