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

Nick Rout nick.rout at gmail.com
Thu Apr 19 00:29:45 UTC 2012


On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 10:48 AM, Gary Buhrmaster
<gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Those arguments seem to relate mainly to the backend, and yes some
distros certainly run the BE as root. I see no corresponding need for
the frontend.

I wonder whether something obscure is preventing theme from working
properly when run as root?


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