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DeltaXFX

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2006-08-01

Posts: 74

[SOLVED] MythTV multiple frontends questions

I'm on a MythTV kick right now.
I set up a backend server, and have 2 frontends. I'm getting the hang of it, but I have a few questions...
First, here is the wild plan I have in mind right now. I would like to run my backend that will hold the database and all my movies/recorded shows. I want to be able to connect to it from two frontends over my LAN, and would like to have up to 4 more frontends connecting over the internet (for family to be able to access).

I read in the mythtv wiki that if you have multiple frontends you might want to run multiple databases so each user can have their own look and feel. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it worth it? Won't every user have to update things like videos (mythvideo plugin) and IMDB info on their own? I want to make it as easy as possible for me to administer for a rather computer illiterate family.

If I kept everything in one database the other frontends would lose their customizations, right? But it should be easier for me to administer, I could update the video list and all the IMDB info so the users wouldn't have to worry about it. But how would I lock them out from accidentally changing settings or deleting things? Let them connect to the database with a less privileged user? Won't that give a lot of error messages?

Also, right now I don't have a tuner, and don't plan to get one any time soon. Is there a way to get rid of the error message when I start "mythtv" on my frontend that says the program list wasn't found? I think thats what the error was, I look again when I get home. But I have to use "mythfrontend" instead when I want to use my frontends because of that error.

Thanks in advance for any hints and suggestions!

Last edited by DeltaXFX (2008-08-17 19:50:00)

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boomshalek

Member

Registered: 2007-10-12

Posts: 105

Re: [SOLVED] MythTV multiple frontends questions

To my mind, i would use only ONE DB. Look and Feel is stored for each Frontend separately within the DB (usually using the Frontends' Hostname). Using multiple DBs will definetely increase complexity for you to administer the DBs, Backends, and Frontends.

You are able to protect the sensible settings with a PIN in the settings of mythtv, which should be OK IMO. An exception is the Keyboard/Remote settings plugins (mythcontrol) which is accessible without password.

For the program list errors, i think just creating one station entry with 'mythtv-setup' should remove it.

DeltaXFX

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2006-08-01

Posts: 74

Re: [SOLVED] MythTV multiple frontends questions

Ok, I went with the one db idea. The PIN isn't good enough for what I want. It will keep a user from changing some settings but they can still get to the video settings and change / delete the metadata.
The solution I came up with is to make another user, I named it 'unpriv' and give them no privileges at the user level, and just create and index at the DB level, then the rest of the permissions at the table level. Then just revoke update and insert permissions for user 'unpriv' at the table level for the videometadata tables. This way, anyone who logs in with 'unpriv' won't be able to change the videometadata. And mythtv doesn't give any error messages when it can't write to these tables. So it works like a charm in my situation.
I wrote a howto here http://schlunix.org/2008/08/lock-mythtv … -metadata/
I thought about putting it in the wiki but there doesn't seem to be much interest in this even over at mythtvtalk. But it's there in case anyone else is paranoid...

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