[mythtv-users] running mythtv-backend in a VM?

[James Abernathy]

On Mon, May 8, 2023 at 3:06 PM Klaas de Waal <klaas.de.waal at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, 8 May 2023 at 20:35, James Abernathy <jfabernathy at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> While playing around I have discovered that in some distros it can be
>> complicated to get mythtv running.  So I was wondering if you have a
>> requirement to run a distro that is not Mythtv friendly. What about using a
>> VM?
>>
>> I setup KVM/QEMU and created a VM of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. I setup a share
>> directory between the host and Ubuntu guest machine using virtiofs and
>> mount that via /etc/fstab.
>>
>> So Installing mythtv on Ubuntu is relatively easy.  Since my PC is uses a
>> network bridge, the VM is on the same subnet as the home network and can
>> see the HDHR tuners.
>>
>> This works without any noticeable performance impact on the  PC.  So to
>> me keeping Mythtv simple by running it in a Ubuntu VM seems to be a perfect
>> solution if you are required to run another Distro and want Mythtv?
>>
>> What am I missing?
>>
>> Jim A
>>
>>
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>
>
> For a backend this is perfect if you have networked tuners, e.g.
> HDHomeRun, SatIP or other IP based tuners.
> I suspect that USB tuners will not work or with very high CPU load and
> that PCI/PCIe bus tuners are even more difficult.
> The last time I did play with a VM there was also a virtualized graphics
> card that was not suitable for video playback by mythfrontend.
> So yes, but for backends with network tuners. Of course, I would like to
> be proven wrong on this.
>
> Klaas.
>

In my case the tuners were HDHR networked tuners.  The VM video card is not
good enough to run playback, but it is good enough for Program guide stuff
and setting up recordings.  However I'm running mythweb on the VM as well
so I can control things from there. I went back and built a VM with just
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and did all the setup via ssh -X jim@<ip-address>.  All I
have remaining to do is figure out how to start the VM on boot of the host.
I know people do it all the time, but I need to research it.

I'm using Kodi with kodi-pvr-mythtv to test it as I have the mythfrontend
on the host already dedicated to another backend.  It seems to be a
reasonable solution for someone wanting to run Fedora or Opensuse and not
wanting to mess with the complication of building from source and setting
up mythconverg.

Setting up the backend in a Ubuntu VM is really easy at least for me since
I've done it so much.

Jim A
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