<div class="gmail_extra">On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 7:29 PM, Nick Rout <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nick.rout@gmail.com" target="_blank">nick.rout@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 10:48 AM, Gary Buhrmaster<br>
<<a href="mailto:gary.buhrmaster@gmail.com">gary.buhrmaster@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 22:18, Nick Rout <<a href="mailto:nick.rout@gmail.com">nick.rout@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> ....<br>
>> Why on earth are you running mythfrontend as root?<br>
><br>
> I am not going to defend the practice(*), but depending on<br>
> the distro, setting the permissions on (in particular)<br>
> video and audio devices for access by a non-root user<br>
> used to be a real challenge. And I am pretty sure you<br>
> can still find references on the 'net that say run as root<br>
> (they may be obsolete references, but your search<br>
> engine results may vary, and put them at the top of<br>
> the list...). I am certain some packagers used to<br>
> have mythtv run as root (because they could not also<br>
> package the permission changes required). Perhaps<br>
> some packagers still do.<br>
><br>
> Note that changing to a non-root user after running<br>
> as root is usually a challenging task. Too many<br>
> (obscure) files now have the wrong ownership or<br>
> wrong permissions.<br>
><br>
> Gary<br>
><br>
> (*) I have never run mythtv as root. I do not recommend<br>
> it. I strongly discourage it. But, your system, your<br>
> rules.<br>
<br>
</div>Those arguments seem to relate mainly to the backend, and yes some<br>
distros certainly run the BE as root. I see no corresponding need for<br>
the frontend.<br>
<br>
I wonder whether something obscure is preventing theme from working<br>
properly when run as root?<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br></div></div></blockquote><div><br>Can someone explain how he is in a root shell and the frontend is running with a Microsoft GDI renderer? <br></div></div></div>