Note that mythtv is only available via the deb-multimedia repo and not in the offical debian repos. I first tried to install mythtv that way, and while I got pretty far (scanned for channels etc.) I couldn't get a picture when trying to watch TV using mythtv-frontend. The deb-multimedia packages also screwed up my graphics card set-up somehow, which didn't improve my mood. So while that's probably a viable method, I finally decided to compile things myself. Note that if you do keep deb-multimedia enable and do a dist-upgrade the mythplugins package below will be replaced, and with that the main mythtv package as well, leading to all kinds of fun. You might want to give mythplugins a higher version number than I've done below to circumvent that.
Building
sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash
Select 'No', so that /bin/sh/ points to bash instead of dash.
The next port of call was http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User_Manual:Initial_Installation
sudo apt-get install build-essential liblircclient-dev libasound2-dev libdts-dev libdvdnav-dev \ libxv-dev libxxf86vm-dev transcode libmp3lame-dev subversion qt4-dev-tools libqt4-dev libsamplerate0 \ libxvidcore4 liba52-0.7.4-dev libfame-dev libcdio-dev msttcorefonts libasound2-doc libmad0-dev \ libid3tag0-dev libvorbis-dev libflac-dev libcdaudio-dev libcdparanoia0-dev fftw3-dev libfaad-dev \ libsmpeg-dev libmp4v2-dev libtag1-dev mysql-server libvisual-0.4-dev libexif-dev libxvmc-dev \ libxinerama-dev uuid-dev libicu-dev sudo apt-get install yasm checkinstall gdb python-mysqldb python-urlgrabber libnet-upnp-perl mkdir ~/tmp/mythtv -p cd ~/tmp/mythtv git clone -b fixes/0.27 git://github.com/MythTV/mythtv.git cd mythtv/mythtv/ ./configure --enable-proc-opt make sudo checkinstall --fstrans=no --install=noExclude files that are in the home directory.0 - Maintainer: [ andy@helium ] 1 - Summary: [ mythtv 0.27 ] 2 - Name: [ mythtv ] 3 - Version: [ 0.27 ] 4 - Release: [ 1 ] 5 - License: [ GPL ] 6 - Group: [ checkinstall ] 7 - Architecture: [ amd64 ] 8 - Source location: [ mythtv ] 9 - Alternate source location: [ ] 10 - Requires: [ ] 11 - Provides: [ mythtv ] 12 - Conflicts: [ ] 13 - Replaces: [ ]
Continue:
sudo dpkg -i mythtv_0.27-1_amd64.deb cd ../mythplugins/ sudo apt-get install libmysql++-dev python-oauth libdate-manip-perl libxml-simple-perl libimage-size-perl libdatetime-format-iso8601-perl libsoap-lite-perl libjson-perl ./configure make sudo checkinstall --fsmetrans=no --install=no0 - Maintainer: [ root@helium ] 1 - Summary: [ mythplugins 0.27 ] 2 - Name: [ mythplugins ] 3 - Version: [ 0.27 ] 4 - Release: [ 1 ] 5 - License: [ GPL ] 6 - Group: [ checkinstall ] 7 - Architecture: [ amd64 ] 8 - Source location: [ mythplugins ] 9 - Alternate source location: [ ] 10 - Requires: [ ] 11 - Provides: [ mythplugins ] 12 - Conflicts: [ ] 13 - Replaces: [ ]sudo dpkg -i mythplugins_0.27-1_amd64.deb
Note that you may want to use a much higher version number for mythplugins than I've done above -- with 0.27 the deb-multimedia version of the package will take precendence, and cause all kinds of fun...
Setting up
sudo useradd mythtv sudo usermod -a -G mythtv $USER mkdir ~/.mythtv
Create a file called ~/.mythtv/mysql.txt:
where helium is my hostname.DBHostName=localhost DBHostPing=no DBHostName=localhost DBUserName=mythtv DBName=mythconverg DBPassword=mythtv LocalHostName=helium
Before you can run mythtv-setup you should prepare the mysql database.
mysql -u root -p
> show databases;
> create database mythconverg;zymichost.com
> create user 'mythtv'@'%' identified by 'mythtv';
> create user 'mythtv'@'localhost' identified by 'mythtv';
> set password for 'mythtv'@'%' = password('mythtv');
> set password for 'mythtv'@'localhost' = password('mythtv');
> connect mythconverg;
> grant all privileges on *.* to 'mythtv'@'%' with grant option;
> grant all privileges on *.* to 'mythtv'@'localhost' with grant option;
> flush privileges;
> exit;
Now run setup:
mythtv-setup
The first time I did this it asked about country and language, and then exited. I then ran it again and went through the setup as shown in the figures below. Note that I had to use the IP, 192.168.2.123, of my computer rather than 127.0.0.1 (i.e. localhost).
I then ran
mythbackend
and let it run in a terminal, followed by
mythfrontend
in another terminal. And it worked! I mean, not the first time, but by following the instructions above I actually got it to work -- up to a point. The audio wasn't working.
While TV is a visual medium it's still nice to have sound. So, in mythfrontend I went to Settings, Audio and picked Pulseaudio, since that's what I use by default anyway.
Test driving:
Everything seems to be working fine. Hit M for menu:
Anyway, I'm still exploring. The one thing that's not working yet is the remote control, but that will be solved in due course.
Missing channels:
Mythtv didn't pick up channels Nine, Gem and Go. While scan found them without issue by doing 'scan /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/au-Melbourne > channels.conf', I couldn't find an easy way to import the scan data.
Nine Melbourne:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:519:720:1072 GEM:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:512:0:1073 GO!:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:517:700:1074 EXTRA:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:520:730:1075 EXTRA 2:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:521:740:1076
Trying to import an existing scan in mythtv didn't allow me to provide a URL, but only showed two old scans pre-populating the import dialogue, which was both weird and annoying.
Instead the key was to add a new transport: fire up mythtv-setup, and go to the Channel editor. Note that I'm using a different skin/menu to the default one (Terra), but the process is the same.
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| See scan output above for the values to add here |
