MythTV/Install/Server/Frontend

Install MythTV Frontend

Believe it or not, the hard part of the install is done. The majority of the rest of the work should be handled by debian packaging.

Installing the frontend software will be a little more time consuming since apt will have to download and install a very large amount of packages to resolve dependencies.

Install the frontend software. Openbox will be installed to provide a very lightweight window manager for mythtv-frontend to run on top of. "Heavy" window manager like kwin and metacity will just slow down the boot process of the machine.
- ```
sudo apt-get install mythtv-frontend gdm openbox gnome-screensaver xserver-xorg gsfonts-x11 xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi msttcorefonts xfonts-base ubuntu-artwork xterm usplash-theme-ubuntu
```
  1a. If you have a proprietary graphics card driver that needed to be installed, you will need to complete the installation for it right now.
  - Nvidia: sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
  - ATI: sudo aticonfig --initial
Now, we will create a session for the automatic mythtv login. Create the file /usr/share/xsessions/mythtv.desktop. Place these contents into that file:
- ```
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=MythTV
Comment=Use this session to run MythTV
Exec=/usr/local/bin/mythtv.sh
Icon=
Type=Application
```
Create a script, /usr/local/bin/mythtv.sh that will be spawned when you login to your MythTV session. Place these contents into that file:
- ```
gnome-screensaver
mythfrontend&
exec openbox
```
  - If you are running lirc and using irexec for any of your key detection, you probably also want to add this section. It will be sure that if X is ever restarted, irexec doesn't spawn multiple instances
```
killall irexec
irexec -d
```
  - If you are running an nvidia graphics card, you should add:
```
nvidia-settings -l
```
  - If you are planning on running the myth transcoding daemon for ripping dvds, you will want to add:
```
mtd -d
```
  - If you come up with anything else for your custom startup script, /usr/local/bin/mythtv.sh will be the place to add it.
Be sure to make this script executable
- ```
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mythtv.sh
```

Start GDM & Login.

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

At the bottom left, choose Options. Pick "Select Session".
When Given a list of sessions, choose Openbox.
Login as the user created at installation, NOT `mythtv`. The `mythtv` user is only used for the backend process.
You will be given an option to make this default. Choose "Just For This Session".

Right click the desktop and choose the terminal.
- Right click the desktop and choose "Terminal Emulator".

Run gdmsetup.

sudo gdmsetup

Gdmsetup is used to configure an automatic login for your main user name (in this case superm1) as well as a time delayed login if you logout. This will make the bootup a lot more streamlined (especially for HTPC use)

Next, add yourself and any other users that need MythTV acces to the mythtv group.
- To add users to the mythtv group, use this command:
```
# sudo usermod -a -G mythtv USERNAME
```
- Where USERNAME is the name of the user you are adding to the mythtv group.
Right click the desktop and log out of the openbox session.
- Right click the desktop and choose "Exit".

Set the newly created MythTV session to be the default. This will make sure that on the next reboot, MythTV comes up by default.

At the bottom left, choose Options. Pick "Select Session".
When Given a list of sessions, choose MythTV.
Login as the user created at installation, NOT `mythtv`.
You will be given an option to make this default. Choose "Make Default".

Note: at least one user had difficulties logging out of the openbox session to return to the login screen. If you encounter similar issues, you should try to first restart GDM.
- Switch to virtual terminal 1 (CTRL-ALT-F1)
- Login
- Restart GDM
  - ```
  sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
```
- If restarting GDM didn't work, reboot your machine to see if GDM comes up after the fresh boot.

The first time mythtv starts, it will ask you to connect to your backend. Enter the appropriate information, and verify that it works on your network.
- If you setup a backend using Ubuntu, that machine will have the correct password protected mysql information in /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt. Be sure to take note of that password as you will need it the first time you start the frontend.
- From this point forward, you are done with your Ubuntu portion of the install. Follow any mythtv related documentation for how to configure the frontend itself (as its well beyond the scope of this guide).

Ubuntu Documentation

Install MythTV Frontend