[mythtv-users] mythtv-setup with mouse cursor problems and blank screen

[John.Veness.myth at pelago.org.uk]

(Hello list, this is my first post after lurking for a year).

Robert Bradbury wrote:
> b) Connecting the Video Source to PVR-150-1 is a nightmare because it 
> seems to require the mouse to open a pull-down menu with options one 
> selects from.  On my system when you move the mouse cursor over the 
> MythTV image the mouse disappears!  I've done some searching and web 
> comments range from the fact that some older versions had problems 
> displaying the mouse cursor to some debate over people not getting the 
> mouse cursor to disappear in full screen mode (where one presumably 
> wants it to go away).
> 
> Q1) Precisely *what* switch/config-file parameter/database-table entry 
> needs to be changed to control mouse cursor visibility?

I believe that mythtv-setup uses many of the configuration options from 
mythfrontend, such as the theme, whether to display in a window, whether 
to hide the mouse cursor and so on. You could try running mythfrontend 
and changing those options, although I agree that that is sometimes not 
easy if you haven't yet got mythtv-setup configured. I don't know the 
precise database entries to control mouse visibility, but you might want 
to look in the docs [1] and/or wiki [2].

Regarding drop-down menus, everything in mythtv-setup (and mythfrontend) 
is configurable using the keyboard, e.g. up/down/left/right, Return, 
Esc. Also D for delete (to delete channels, video sources etc.) which 
was non-obvious to me.

> c) After noticing the slow startup times, the large size, etc. I browsed 
> around in the setup program (or perhaps the frontend) and reconfigured 
> the display mode of the option/selection icons to use one of the lower 
> CPU overhead options (I think there were 3-4 options involving 
> low/medium/large) overhead.  A much better option would be a completely 
> separate control window (as is the case in GIMP) that one uses to 
> control MythTV, then I could move it to a separate workspace in Gnome if 
> I wanted ( i.e. one workspace in full screen to watch TV while the rest 
> in "work" mode).  I also changed it to use OpenGL rather than QT (though 
> I'm running an xorg.conf *without* "glx" because in the 2.0.0/2.0.1 
> releases of xf86-video-i810 seem prone to generating segmentation faults 
> in the Xserver OpenGL functions when switching virtual terminals (highly 
> annoying that one...).  At any rate after making these changes the 
> MythTV window got really flakey.  If I was using the simple theme and 
> used right-arrow to move to the next menu option the previous selection 
> icon would disappear.  I'd have to go into some sub-menu and then return 
> to the main menu to get all of the icons back.  Many sub-menus would 
> display nothing but a blank (blue) background.  Needless to say its now 
> unusable.
> 
> Q2) How do I reset image/window related settings in MythTV to the 
> installed defaults (without deinstalling and reinstalling which suspect 
> probably involves having to reconfigure and reload all of the channels, 
> channel lineups, etc.)?

You should bear in mind that mythtv-setup and mythfrontend are designed 
to be displayed on a TV with no visible desktop and controlled with a 
remote, so moving controls to a separate Gnome workspace wouldn't work. 
It would be nice if there was a separate GUI-friendly Myth client, with 
a resizable window and 'normal' menus and toolbars, but that would be a 
separate project.

There is I believe a way of turning off OpenGL from the command-line 
(effectively overriding the MySQL setting), as quite a few people got 
themselves into the situation you are in. Again, search the docs [1] or 
the wiki [2] or the mailing list [3] to find the exact setting. You 
certainly don't need to reinstall and lose your channels.

> Q3) Is there a *simple* configuration utility?  If not, is there a 
> configuration file?   (I learned how to use vi 30+ years ago, I think I 
> can handle that.)
> 
> Or does MythTV foolishly store *everything* in MySQL? (not a very 
> "light" approach IMO)
> If so I can handle some select/insert/modify statements if people can 
> tell me precisely which tables and rows I should be looking for to force 
> the graphics themes/icon overhead/QT/OpenGL options back into their 
> original state (I can even read source to determine specifics if pointed 
> in the right direction).

Almost everything is in MySQL, apart from control files for lirc, xmltv 
etc. I agree that it doesn't seem very 'light', and does mean that you 
can't even use a frontend for MythVideo/Gallery etc. without MySQL being 
available. Still, that's the way the devs decided to develop it, and 
there are advantages of centralising config in the database. For 
example, if you need to reinstall or replace a frontend, as long as you 
give it the same name as the old one, it will pick up the old config 
straight away.

> Q4) Can one delete most of the 13 MB of "themes" [1] without causing 
> problems or is there some database table or index file that requires 
> their existence?
> 
> 1. Ignoring the 65 MB of "extra" themes I could have installed...  Did 
> the mythtv developers work for a disk drive company?  If there are that 
> many visually oriented "theme" developers around, then I have a project 
> known as Nano at Home which could benefit from the extra time they seem to 
> have on their hands...

I have no problem with the size of the themes. I like MythTV to look 
good. 100MB is only a few minutes of recorded TV.

[1] http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInstall
[2] http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
[3] http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/

John Veness