[mythtv-users] Mythweb finds no remote controllable frontends

[Michael T. Dean]

On 07/20/2011 12:23 PM, Ramon Hofer wrote:
> On 07/20/2011 05:55 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>> On 07/20/2011 06:12 AM, Ramon Hofer wrote:
>>> On 07/19/2011 05:02 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>>> On 07/19/2011 09:28 AM, Ramon Hofer wrote:
>>>>> But I still don't understand how I could run mythtv-setup on the
>>>>> frontend since there's no mythtv-setup on my frontends?
>>>>> I must understand it wrong that I have to set my frontends to
>>>>> backend/frontend combos?
>>>>>
>>>>> Sorry for my slow understanding.
>>>> You'd need to install mythtv-setup (from whatever package your packager
>>>> makes it available).  This may well mean installing mythbackend, too.
>>>> However, you won't make your frontend into a backend/frontend
>>>> combo--that would imply you would actually /run/ mythbackend.  Instead,
>>>> you will only install mythtv-setup, run it on your frontend host, then
>>>> use that to set the IP address setting--as if you were configuring a
>>>> backend on the host.
>>> Ah, I see! Backends are of course only the machines that run mythbackend.
>>>
>>> Do I get it right: I have to install mythbackend on my frontends, run
>>> mythtv-setup on each of them to set their IP addresses that they'll be
>>> stored in the DB? Then I can patch mythweb that it'll look the IP
>>> adresses up in the DB and uses them instead of the hostnames to connect.
>> Yes.  That would work.
>>
>>> But wouldn't it be easier and more logical to solve my hostname
>>> resolving problem?
>>> Or even write the hostnames and IPs directly into the DB?
>> Well, that would fix the issue for you--but not for all the other users
>> who lack name resolution on their networks.  This is why we generally
>> try to use the in-database information to find hosts, rather than just
>> assume that every network has name resolution properly configured.
> Aha, I thought it would be only my problem.
>
> This sounds like a major change in the mythtv code. Since there must be
> a mechanism that the frontend sends it's IP when connecting to the
> backend and then the whole interface would have to be changed so that
> the backend only uses IP addresses.
> I haven't looked at all at the source code. But this is how I imagine it...
>

If all you're doing is looking up the backend IP address associated with 
the host name, it's a minor change to MythWeb.  We have code exactly 
like that in the preview requesting code, for example.  The big 
difference is that because this is a frontend, there may not be a 
backend IP address for it, so you'd just have to handle that case, too 
(and actually use the hostname if you can't find an address), rather 
than just assume that the IP address will exist in the DB.

As far as the approach you mentioned--that's more like the eventual 
approach we would use with the major redesign Raymond was talking about 
and requires a lot of work, starting with a design that needs to be 
reviewed by several developers and needs to fit into the plans other 
developers have for related code.  I'm not suggesting you take that on, 
but if you want to do the quick change to MythWeb to use the backend IP  
address if it exists, that could likely be incorporated before the next 
release (and you could use the patch with 0.24-fixes until then).  The 
major redesign won't hit before 0.26--maybe even after.

Mike