[mythtv-users] low footprint Mythtv backend compile and install on Slackware 10

[Sonni Nørløv]

Chera Bekker wrote:

>Hi list,
>
>I would like to run the Mythtv backond on a 24/7 headless server running
>slackware 10. What would be the best way to have a very low footpint
>compilation and install of just the backend? Do I still need Qt for
>instance?
>
>The server is a Celeron 400Mhz with 398 Mb of memory and it doesn't pack
>all the Qt, KDe and other bloated packages. And I'd like to keep it that
>way :-).
>
>The ideal situation would ofcourse be that Mythtv already exists as an
>Slack package....
>
>Regards
>
>Chera Bekker
>
>_______________________________________________
>mythtv-users mailing list
>mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>  
>
Hi,

When I initially installed mythtv on my boxes, back in the days of 
v0.15, I kind of had the same requirements, with the main exceptions 
being, my 24/4 server was only an p2 266Mz with 320Mb memory, and 
located in a room with no antenna connection. And I had a pvr250 that I 
need the remote control for the frontend.

I then found that the backend required a tuner, which kind of prevented 
me from running a backend on the 24/4 server. Don't know if this has 
changed since then (someone?)
So I decided to install the mythtv backend and frontend on the same box 
(p3 733Mhz with 256Mb mem), running in a diskless setup, not really 
needed, but I did not want to listen to the disk noise in my living room.
On the 24/4 server I already had a MySQL database running, so besides of 
this I installed the mythfilldatabase to update the DB once a day.
Now to get things to record, I used wake-on-lan to fire up the backend 
and some scripts to communicate with the at daemon (it is called "at") 
on the 24/4 server, which would then schedule the next wakeup.

The advantages of this setup is:
   - No footprint of the backend on the 24/4 server
   - Possible to use the remote on the pvr 250
   - No idle power consumption from the pvr card when not recording
The drawbacks of this setup is:
   - More work to get it running
   - MythWeb requires that the backend is started (I  have to wait for 
the boot process)
   - Having a frontend besides from the one along with the backend, 
requires the backend to be booted.
   - Recording scheduling is only done when the backend is started. 
Recording something or using the frontend once every 3-5 days, depending 
on the length of you program guide info, will prevent this issue. If you 
use it more rarely, say when on vacation, the backend need to be started 
once in a while.

I guess that you still need Qt libs on the server, for mythfilldatabase 
to work, but this could properly also be moved to the backend+frontend box.

When watching live Tv the server is hardly working:
top - 12:55:17 up 10 days, 14:45,  2 users,  load average: 0.36, 0.71, 0.47
Tasks: 100 total,   1 running,  99 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.6% us,  3.6% sy,  0.0% ni, 90.9% id,  1.2% wa,  0.4% hi,  
3.4% si
Mem:    320996k total,   287676k used,    33320k free,    19468k buffers
Swap:   524624k total,    11820k used,   512804k free,   154100k cached

 PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
6337 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  1.2  0.0   4:39.56 nfsd
6336 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  1.0  0.0   4:35.29 nfsd
19304 mythtv    17   0  1760  940  712 R  1.0  0.3   0:09.07 top
6331 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.8  0.0   4:41.23 nfsd
6334 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.8  0.0   4:31.15 nfsd
6335 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.8  0.0   4:38.86 nfsd

Where as the backend+frontend box is doing:
top - 12:57:27 up 7 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.93, 1.49, 0.81
Tasks: 114 total,   1 running, 113 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 51.0% us,  4.5% sy,  0.0% ni, 40.3% id,  0.3% wa,  1.0% hi,  
2.9% si
Mem:    256344k total,   251232k used,     5112k free,        0k buffers
Swap:   199992k total,        0k used,   199992k free,    99284k cached

 PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
2206 root      15   0  166m  34m 156m S 14.0 13.9   0:45.15 X
2139 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  1.0  0.0   0:04.11 lirc_dev
2421 mythtv    15   0  147m  94m  66m S  0.3 37.6   0:57.96 mythfrontend
2539 mythtv    16   0  1948  992 1720 R  0.3  0.4   0:02.00 top
....
2511 mythtv    15   0 65632  19m  34m S  0.0  7.8   0:00.75 mythbackend

regards
Sonni