[mythtv-users] Seriously need help fixing new setup

[R. G. Newbury]

On 11/19/2011 02:45 PM, steve wrote:
> On 11/15/2011 8:46 AM, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>> On 11/14/2011 08:33 PM, networks1 at cox.net wrote:
>>> ---- Mike Perkins<mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk>    wrote:
>>>
>>> =============
>>> On 13/11/11 23:11, networks1 at cox.net wrote:
>>>> 2011-11-13 15:56:57.654 Already running as 'root'
>>>>
>>> This is probably not a good idea. It might not be the problem you are attempting
>>> to solve, but it's almost certain to introduce others.
>>>
>>> For example, any recordings you might make like this could have owner root,
>>> group root. When you finally get your system fixed, you might not be able to
>>> read these any more.
>>>
>>> Both your back end and your front end should /probably/ be running as user 'mythtv'.
>>>
>>    >   Right.  I must have accidentally been logged in as su when I
>>    >   installed it.  Not sure how to fix this, except to un/reinstall.
>>    >   Maybe that would be a good idea anyway given that everything is so
>>    >   screwed up.
>>
>> Mythbackend runs as 'root' under Fedora and all recordings are root:root
>> with -rw-r--r-- permissions. (The .png files are -rw-rw-rw-).
>>
>> You should not need to re-install. This looks more like a mysql access
>> problem.
>>
>> Did you perchance change the name of your computer when you upgraded to
>> Fedora 15? The error printout in your original message shows a
>> 'localhost value' of 'mythtv.mythtv'. This is weird. Fix your
>> /etc/sysconfig/network file to add a
>> "HOSTNAME='my-mythbox-computer-name'" line. Fix your /etc/hosts file to
>> have a '127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost' line.
>
> I named the host mythtv.mythtv, which is what I had named the old setup
> (I think).  That's what it says in /etc/sysconfig/network.  Should I
> name it something else? There is the stated line in /etc/hosts for localhost

That *could* be the problem. A full hostname is something like 
'flaky.domain.com' and the short name would be 'flaky'. I suspect that 
something could go wrong if the name resolution system were to slice the 
name at the first 'dot'. (Although you say it worked before, so I could 
be FoS).

>> Do you have multiple (differing) copies of config.xml and mysql.txt
>> littering your file space? It looks like you are using /etc/mythtv for
>> these, in which case any others should be symlinks to that folder.
>>
>> Does a 'mysql -u mythtv -pmythtv mythconverg' get you to the 'mysql>'
>> prompt?
>>
>> There are at least 2 threads in the last 6 weeks exploring the deduction
>> process for fixing failed mysql access.
>>
>> Your config.xml file is munged. Looks like the opening '<' is missing.
>> It should look like:
>>
>> [snip]
>
> I do indeed.  Not sure how they got there.  Not by anything I did on
> purpose.  They are in /etc/mythtv, /root/.mythtv and
> /home/mythtv/.mythtv  All the config.xml look like you specify, except
> the one in /etc/mythtv which just has a comment "to be filled in by
> setup program."  So there's a problem I guess; question is, why is setup
> not writing it? Should I set up symlinks in /etc/mythtv to one of the
> other dirs?  As I said I didn't so any of this and I'm not sure why if
> symlinks are needed the install didn't create them

I have never seen mythtv-setup write anything to /etc/ except for the 
backend service scripts. Mythtv-setup does create entries in the home of 
the user running the setup, so if you run it as 'mythtv' and again as 
'root' (su mythtv-setup) then you get 2 instances which may be different 
if you make different entries.

Since myth NEEDS a 'home' make /home/mythtv your 'master' for all of 
these conf files. In fact, if you use external scripts initiated through 
your remote (such as frontend startup etc) you NEED to have a 'export 
HOME=/home/mythtv' line in the script.

> I have run the setup program, all the way through as you suggest,
> however as I said in an earlier post there is something weird going on
> with that and frontend where there are getting bogged down.  For setup
> that means when I get done with a section it sometimes does not always
> go back out to the main menu.  In particular, on input setup after I
> finish the section and escape to get back to the main menu, it goes to a
> blank beige screen, sits there for a while, then writes the time in a
> small white box at the lower right and puts empty small white box at the
> center top of the screen.  This is not normal judging by past setups.
> It sits there with no disk activity that I can tell.  After a while I
> get tired of waiting and hit escape to get back to the menu.  Sometimes
> it does that and sometimes it exits out completely.  Maybe this is why
> the input setup is not getting written.

You should not have to (nor should you) 'escape' from any section of the 
setup program. Use the 'Next' and 'Finish' buttons in the bottom right. 
If any page hangs, it probably means that mythtv-setup is trying to 
contact the mysqld server. The setup program basically just captures 
your selections and writes to the database.

If it cannot do that, then communication with the database is failing. 
It more and more appears that this is your situation. The setup is 
sometimes finicky, and a missing character or typo can be fatal but all 
to easy to mis-read, as we often read what we expect to see.

Try this:
Start mythtv-setup from a console, and Alt-Tab from the graphical screen 
to that console to see the output. Even better is running setup in a 
dual monitor mode, with the screen size set small enough to see the 
setup screen AND the console output. At the very least, start 
mythtv-setup with --loglevel debug -l <filename> to capture the output.


> I can connect the mysql/mythconverg using the mysql command line
> client.  I opened up the settings table and had a look.  Some relevant
> entries are:
>
> BackendServerIP    127.0.0.1    mythtv
> BackendServerPort    6543    mythtv
> BackendStatusPort    6544    mythtv
> SecurityPin    0000    mythtv
> MasterServerIP    127.0.0.1
> MasterServerPort
>
> I also deleted the ICEauthority per Mike's suggestion.
>
> Thanks to you both for the suggestions.  This is frustrating, because I
> have gotten MythTV working on two other setups in the past and strange
> things are happening that AFAIK I am not causing.

Hah! There is no hostname associated with the MasterServerIP setting. 
(Or is that a cut-n-paste error?)

Fix that first.
Since you can get into mysql from the console, but it appears that myth 
cannot, it seems to point to mysql.txt and config.xml as the culprits as 
they are the operative config files in the startup process.
Check them VERY carefully.

Geoff