[mythtv-users] mythwelcome and shutdown/wakeup

[Ma Begaj]

2008/1/20, John Veness <John.Veness.myth at pelago.org.uk>:
> James Hood wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm working on building my first myth box and I'm very impressed with the functionality and quality of the software so far. I have two questions related to the auto shutdown/wakeup feature of mythtv.
> >
> > First, does mythbackend take into account the next time it is supposed to grab EPG data when it calculates the next wakeup time? I found this post from June 2007 which provides a SetAlarm script that goes through the pain of searching the mythfilldatabase log for the next suggested update time, checks if
> >  it's sooner than when mythbackend wants to wake the box up and uses the closer time as the wakeup time.
> >
> > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/280050?search_string=acpi;#280050
> >
> > I'm hoping that mythbackend does this automatically in 0.20 (or maybe in svn)?
> >
> > Second, I noticed on a box that's both a frontend and backend, that mythbackend won't auto-shutdown the box if mythfrontend is running, even if mythfrontend has been sitting idle at the menu screen for a long period of time. I've read about mythwelcome, but as far as I can tell, it seems like more of a workaround. Frankly, the mythwelcome screen is very confusing for someone who doesn't know anything about how myth works, i.e., my wife. To me, the ultimate user friendly experience would be to not have mythwelcome at all, and to have some way for mythbackend to know if the frontend (or any frontend) has been sitting idle at a menu for X number of minutes and initiate shutdown of the box then. I know the coding of that may be more complex, but I think the current scheme surfaces far too much detail to the user.
> >
> > I couldn't find any discussion about this in the archives so I hope this isn't something that's already been talked about, but if not, I'd be interested in discussing more user-friendly possibilities. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and contribute some code, but I didn't know if there was a good reason why it's implemented the way it is.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > James
>
> When I first came across mythwelcome, I too thought that it was a bit of
> a kludge. Why does there have to be a separate executable, just to let
> the backend know that noone is running the frontend. Couldn't instead
> the top-level screen of mythfrontend act as a welcome/idle screen? Or as
> you suggest, some sort of idle timer, so it doesn't matter if the user
> does not navigate up to the top-level.
>
> Anyway, since then I've just accepted things are the way that they are.
> I've told my wife that she needs to Esc out until it will go no further,
> and soon the box will automatically shutdown if it's not recording etc.
> and it seems acceptable.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John

I am xscreensaver and a small perl script to handle this. When the
screensaver turns black (blank), a perl script is started which kills
mythfrontend. there is somewhere on the list here.