[mythtv-users] Setting up a test environment

[Richard]

Hi,

I'd like to set up a second Myth environment so that I can try out 
various things like playing with the code and basic preliminary checks 
on new versions.

How do I best go about this whilst preventing any interference with/from 
my main box?

Ideally, the test setup should be invisible to everything else on the 
network.  I don't know exactly how the detection works but I've had the 
test 'master' backend suddenly be commandeered by the main box as a 
slave backend.

I've tried setting up a virtual machine for the backend and the 
database, which allowed me to 'hide' those services beautifully but my 
USB DVB-S receiver doesn't work properly in a virtual machine.

I use my PC as a 2nd frontend to the main box quite regularly so I want 
to be able to swap easily and reliably.  I did set up a test config 
directory and set MYTHCONFDIR before starting mythfrontend to connect to 
the virtualized backend but at some point I suddenly found that the 
connection details had been changed in config.xml to point to the main 
box.  I don't know what I did differently (maybe the test backend wasn't 
running or something like that) but something caused the config details 
in the test directory to change.

I could of course just disconnect from the network whilst running tests 
but that's not really a satisfactory solution.

How do you handle this?

Richard.