[mythtv] X-less Backend Setup

[Joseph A. Caputo]

On Tuesday 09 December 2003 19:16, Keir Christian Lauritzen wrote:
> I just went through a major upgrade my myth systems I wanted to share my
> experience and add some feature requests. I do want to thank everyone who
> works on Mythtv and I am not complaining as my setup works, these are just
> optimization issues.
> 
> I went from my personal computer as a frontend/backend to 3 systems: a 
dedicated headless
> backend, a mame arcade frontend, and my computer occasionally runs the
> frontend.
> 
> For me to setup the headless backend, I had to install X, Qt, and set it
> up.  Is it possible easy to have a X-less setup and write an ncurses
> setup program?  I run Gentoo and it adds a while to include all of that.
> Is Qt necessary to run a backend and could it be seperated?

Yes, you need Qt, but you could probably compile mythbackend agains 
Qt/Embedded, and so eliminate the need for X.  Also, you can run the setup 
program telneted or ssh'ed in from a remote machine with a remote X display, 
so you don't need to actually run X on the backend.  Ever.

> It would be nice to have a desktop friendly frontend. I like to run Myth
> on my desktop machine, but when I do I need to run the frontend.  A
> program which btter fits a mouse/keyboard environment just for mythtv (to
> start) would be awesome.  The frontend is not intended for the desktop.
> If a seperate frontend where made it could also probably be ported to
> windows so people in mixed households can use it.

That's correct, the frontend is not intended for the desktop.  I doubt any of 
the primary developers are interested in a mouse-enabled frontend.  Mythweb 
plus the new DirectShow filters is probably as close as you'll get.

> The arcade machine works great with myth.  The one thing that would make
> it better is some sort of machine profiles.  I  could say I have a mame
> machine, an it would use lctrl as enter.  It could also reverse map the
> arrow buttons, which are backwards on many mame boxes.  Other devices
> might benefit from this function as well.

You can do this now in CVS, though there isn't yet a screen to edit the 
keybindings, so you'd have to edit the database by hand.

-JAC