[mythtv-users] Why do I need to launch frontend with "-O ThemePainter=OpenGL"? And what relation does this have with vnc?

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Thu Jul 2 21:23:38 UTC 2009


On 07/02/2009 04:52 PM, Matt Beadon wrote:
> I often check on my myth system over vnc since I don't have a keyboard
> attached but ever since I installed it I've been hampered by the fact
> that the frontend doesn't always update the screen over vnc.
> So what I'd see is that on the tv all the menus would appear but over
> vnc I would just see the background image.  This didn't seem to change
> with different themes so I grumbled and figured it was something odd
> about vnc/frontend.
>
> Then I had a crash (likely HVR-2250 related) and after restarting the
> menus had disappeared from the tv as well as over vnc.  After poking
> around the logs&web I found an old suggestion from this mailing list
> archive that pointed me to using "-O ThemePainter=qt" when launching
> the frontend.  I tried it and [insert sounds of marching bands] poof
> now the menu works on the tv and over vnc.  :-)
> I guessed that "-O ThemePainter=OpenGL"

The value (not the human-readable name) for the setting is opengl, not
OpenGL.  With caps, it is equivalent to "-O ThemePainter=qt" or "-O
ThemePainter=xbmc" or "-O ThemePainter=Smith&SonsSpeedyHousePainting". 
(I.e. anything that's not "opengl" uses the default, which is the Qt
painter.  And, really, even "opengl" uses the Qt painter if the frontend
was not compiled with OpenGL support.)

> would also work and since I have a geforce 9300 I decided to use it
> instead of qt.  This choice was based on the setup comments that said
> something to the effect of "if you have decent hw use opengl".
>
> My questions are:
> 1) have I got something misconfigured that requires this ThemePainter
> argument or is this a default that should be added for everyone?


The -O argument to myth applications is the, "Settings Override,"
argument--meaning, "For /just/ this one execution, ignore the value of
the setting that I configured and stored in my database and use the one
I'm supplying on the command line."  So, you just need to fix the
setting in mythfrontend settings under TV Settings|Appearance.  If you
can't use OpenGL (and, when you're using VNC, you probably can't use
OpenGL as VNC has no OpenGL--though it might kind of work with
sufficient processor power if using a :0 VNC session), set the Theme
Painter to Qt in settings.

Mike


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