[mythtv-users] 0.25 upgrade - mythfrontend blank menu-page unless...

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 22:18, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
....
> Why on earth are you running mythfrontend as root?

I am not going to defend the practice(*), but depending on
the distro, setting the permissions on (in particular)
video and audio devices for access by a non-root user
used to be a real challenge.  And I am pretty sure you
can still find references on the 'net that say run as root
(they may be obsolete references, but your search
engine results may vary, and put them at the top of
the list...).  I am certain some packagers used to
have mythtv run as root (because they could not also
package the permission changes required).  Perhaps
some packagers still do.

Note that changing to a non-root user after running
as root is usually a challenging task.  Too many
(obscure) files now have the wrong ownership or
wrong permissions.

Gary

(*) I have never run mythtv as root.  I do not recommend
it.  I strongly discourage it.  But, your system, your
rules.