[mythtv-users] [mythtv] MythTV Raspberry Pi2 frontend testers

[Lawrence Rust]

On Wed, 2015-11-18 at 14:42 -0500, Joseph Fry wrote:
[snip]
> > Just to save others the headache; the precompiled package is not
> > compatible with Raspbian Jessie, libicu is at version 5.2, but it's looking
> > for 4.8.  Rather than working through dependancy hell, I am just installing
> > Wheezy to give it a shot.
> >
> 
> So, got it installed on Raspbian Wheezy, when I run it I get the DB
> configuration window, then it restarts and gives me a black screen with a
> mouse cursor (if I move the mouse).
> 
> Really cool that this appears to be running in directfb, no need for X!
> Even cooler if I could get the frontend to display.

Qt >= 5.4 supports EGL which avoids the Xv overhead.  The platform can
be chosen at runtime using the QT_QPA_PLATFORM shell variable.  The
platforms supported are stored in mythtv-rpi/plugins/platforms.  So to
use X prepend QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb to the mythfrontend command.

> Am I missing something?  If I could switch to the console and see the
> output I may be able to figure out where its failing, but I don't know how
> to kill it without a reboot (ctrl-alt-del).

The best way to setup mythfrontend is to initially ssh to your RPi.
This also provides an opportunity to configure the database etc:

ssh -YC pi at raspberrypi "QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb\
 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/mythtv-rpi/lib\
 QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$HOME/mythtv-rpi/plugins\
 ~/mythtv-rpi/bin/mythfrontend -w -geometry 1280x720 -p"

This forces the FE into configuration mode in a window on your host
system - no need to have a screen on your RPi yet.  When you are happy
all is correct, exit and start the FE on the RPi screen:

ssh pi at raspberrypi "QT_QPA_EGLFS_FORCE888=1 QT_QPA_PLATFORM=eglfs\
 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/mythtv-rpi/lib\
 QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$HOME/mythtv-rpi/plugins\
 PYTHONPATH=$MYTHTVDIR/lib/python2.7/site-packages\
 ~/mythtv-rpi/bin/mythfrontend -v playback"

This way you get to see the console output and the FE.

-- 
Lawrence Rust