[mythtv-users] Myth backend: Console or GUI OS ? Init level 3 or init level 5 ?

[Ian Clark]

On 13 September 2011 14:16, Kris B. <krisbee at krisbee.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday, September 13, 2011 1:33 PM, "Ian Clark"
> <mrrooster at gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
>> >
>> It'll be running in the background, which means more stuff started at
>> boot so slower boot times, and a greater load on the system. (although
>> this last point is probably moo.*)
>
> I tend to ssh into my boxes, so I am with most people with that... you
> rarely need a monitor to work on a machine... any updates/tweaks/etc. on
> my frontend is done via a laptop.
>
If you're running myth anything less is probably quite masochistic!. :)

> However, just my opinion, but in regards to a DE,

It's the term DE that's a bit confusing here I think, or a bit over
encompassing. :)

KDE is a DE, however it includes a window manager, and a whole shed
load of other programs too, eg the text editors you mention, and a lot
of background stuff like the login handler etc.

If you install KDE as a desktop environment you'll get all the crud,
and the windowmanager which you don't need.

> you know text editors
> are fine, but sometimes having a "clipboard" is handy - when I work on
> the .xml files of a remote machine, it is nice to be able to copy and
> paste between two windows when working on a remote machine.  Those kind
> of features are only available with the extra crud of a DE, as far as I
> know.  If they are available in terminal text editors, I bet they are a
> pain to use :)
>
It depends on the text editor. If you install KEdit (or whatever it's
called) with your package manager I would expect it just to bring in
enough of KDE for that to work.

Remember when you're working remotely the desktop environment is
provided by the host system, the remote system only needs enough
libraries to get the program running.

If you use something like the text editor for KDE you'll probably end
up installing a good chunk of the KDE libraries, if not all the
ancillary programs.

However, if you go for something with a few less dependencies (nedit
used to be quite good) then you can get away with probably just the
basic X client libraries.

Cut and paste are available in terminal editors, and are probably a
pain to use, yes. However if you use something like pico (or nano) you
can just cut and paste between terminal windows. (I use putty on
windows, which makes this easy, mind you I tend to use vi too... )

> Having said that, if all you need to do is install xterm for your
> package manager to install just enough x to work, that sounds like a
> good solution, too. :)

Yes, that should be sufficient, I don't have a huge amount of
experience with this. I've only used debian in this way, and certanly
'apt-get install xterm' brings in enough bits to make Xterm work
remotely.

The main issue is X is horribly complex, and possibly 'interestingly'
designed. This leads to confusion over what you need to install, and
what's used by what.

In general programs, (ie, myth, text editory, internet browsers) will
use the X client libraries, they connect to an X server (either
locally or remotely) to draw. These will need to be installed to use
graphical programs, like mythfrontend.

The drawing is handled by an X server, which also has it's own set of
dependancies. These do not need installing unless you're running a
local GUI.

A window manager is used by the local X server to draw pretty borders
around windows, and interact with the non program specific bits of the
desktop UI. A window manager is a component of a DE.

> It isn't like you can't add that stuff later if
> you are against the wall.

Exactly!!

If you use a decent modern snapshotting FS (btrfs for example) you can
even install the system, then take an FS snapshot so you can roll back
if you mess it up. :)

Cheers,

Ian