A few things, mostly technical notes...

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Watch mythtv remotely over ssh

Watch mythtv remotely.


I've machine A, which is the myth-tv monster - this guy runs mythbackend, and stores the files. It also runs mythfrontend when I watch myth on it.

Machine B - is my ubuntu laptop, and is as mobile as a laptop can be.

Here's how I watch mythtv remotely on laptop B.

Lets assume A.B.C.D is A's IP address.

  1. Install mythtv-frontend on B

    $ sudo apt-get mythtv-frontend

    This would install stuff like mythtv-common, mythtv-frontend. mysql-client and libsqlite3-0 etc.

  2. Setup ssh equivalency between B and A

    The idea is, B (laptop) should be able to access A without being prompted for a password. Check this link out for more help.

    To test this, running the following on B should get you an xclock window from machine A:

    $ ssh -X A.B.C.D xclock


  3. Create /usr/bin/wmyth (on B)

    Create wmyth with the following contents, and chmod it to executable:

    #! /bin/bash


    xterm -title "Close_me_after_myth" -e "ssh -C -L 6543:localhost:6543 A.B.C.D cat - " &
    xterm -title "Close_Me_After_Myth" -e "ssh -C -L 3306:localhost:3306 A.B.C.D cat - " &

    sleep 2
    /usr/bin/mythfrontend 2>/dev/null
    pkill -TERM xterm


  4. Create $HOME/.mythtv/mysql.txt (on B)


    DBHostName=127.0.0.1
    DBUserName=
    DBPassword=
    DBName=


    Important thing here is 127.0.0.1 - if it is set to anything else it may not work, as we're doing port forwarding over ssh.

  5. Create a Launcher (on B)


    Run /usr/bin/wmyth. (You may get added to mythtv group in /etc/groups) It should get you a remote myth window on your laptop, B.

    If it works, go ahead and create a taskbar launcher.

    Enjoy.!

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