I am having problems getting a remote front end to connect to the master server. I have done a fresh install with R5A22. The backend is up and the local frontend is working fine.
I have installed a frontend only on another box and can not get it to connect when I select liveTV or watch recordings. I get the same error when booting from the CD and running a frontend.

This is what I am seeing on the remote frontend log:

Connecting to backend server: localhost:6543 (try 1 of 5)
Connection timed out.
You probably should modify the Master Server
settings in the setup program and set the
proper IP address.

I have changed both IP numbers on the backend configuration page, but it still keeps trying to connect to localhost instead of the IP of the backend.
Is there some other configuration that I am missing on the backend?
How do I tell if my settings for the master server are correct?

Umm... You need to change the IP on the frontend also. If you don't tell the frontend where to look, it will look at itself.

I did change the IP on the front end, It is connecting to the backend, at least enough to launch the program. With out the correct IP I can't even get to the main menu. It is only when I click on watch liveTV or try to watch recorded programs that it says it could not connect.

Not according to your log. Localhost means it's looking for the server on itself (127.0.0.1). It should say something like 192.168.1.100:6543

I believe you also have to enable networking for the database. I'm not sure how, but I know it's been covered on this forum.

I have enabled networking, I have also checked to see that the backend is listening on port 6543. I am setting the IP address in the settings page on the front end, but it doesnt seem to be working. I have also edited /usr/share/mythtv/mysql.txt to point to the IP of the backend and not localhost. I didn't have this problem with R5A16, I had no problems getting the front end to connect. I have done all the same config steps that I did with R5A16, but something is not being set right. I have the same problem when I boot for the CD and run as a frontend.
Where does the frontend get the setting for the Master Server? Is it from the frontend config setting, or does it get any settings from the backend?

Some times I wonder if folks even read the documentation....

Well I have to join bjenx here. I tried to run the frontend from the CD and I'm getting the same error. I can confirm that /home/knoppix/.mythtv/mysql.txt is being modified and shows the IP for the backend, but the frontend is still trying to connect to localhost:6543. /usr/share/mythtv/mysql.txt refers to localhost but it's read only (I'm assuming it's on the CD, hence RO). Is the frontend using the wrong mysql.txt file or am I missing something?

As far as "reading the documentation", that is my mistake, my last question should have asked if this setting, the master server address, is obtained from the backend. I have not seen any documentation that describes what settings are passed, not that I have have found anyway. I am trying to find out where this setting is coming from and why it is still set to localhost instead of the backend IP. Is it a frontend problem that is not using the correct value, or is something wrong on my backend.
I have followed the documentation for setting up a frontend both here
http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... l#frontend

and here
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-10.html

and also for setting up a frontend only install
http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... nlyInstall

I used these to set it up when I was running R5A16 and I worked fine. I follow the same documentation, and now it is not working. I am just trying to find out where to start looking, because as far as I can tell, I am following the documentation and yet it is not working. So what else could I have set wrong

I finally got my laptop to connect using the CD frontend. I had to edit the /home/knoppix/.mythtv/mysql.txt file and change

LocalHostName=mythfe1
to
LocalHostName=mythtv

Why the CD defaults to mythfe1 during boot is beyond me. I also don't understand why this change even works, but it does. So bjenx, try editing /home/mythtv/.mythtv/mysql.txt and add LocalHostName=mythtv. That should work.

That worked for getting to watch live TV, however when I go into the media library and try to watch one of the recorded shows, It tells me that the file can not be found. Look at the log, it is still trying to find the file local and not on the backend. I saw this same problem with R5A16 when I had my frontend only box. I had to name the localhostName to something unique for it to be able to play the recorded files. If it is mythtv, then I can see the database and stream live TV, but it tries to find recorded files local and then can't find them. Changing it to anything else it would work fine.
For this problem, the front end is either not using the address being passed from the backend, or the backend is passing the wrong value. I am still trying to figure out how to see what the backend is passing so I can decide which end the problem is on.

It seems like a problem with the frontend to me. When I used mythfe1 it tried to connect to localhost:6543. When I changed it to mythtv, it tried to connect to 192.168.1.101:6543.

I'm having very similar problems.

In particular, I've got a MBE with several 250's, and a FE with a 350 which is also supposed to be the SBE to the MBE. The SBE has NFS-mounted the MBE's filesystem, though I'm not exactly sure all the links are pointed where they're supposed to be pointed (see comment below re Cesman's LINHES). (Like, are -all- the links describe in LINHES for watching live and recorded video, or are some unnecessary if I'm not doing music, etc?) I -think- I've updated the correct mysql.txt files, but they're scattered all over the place (one in /etc on one host and on the other it's even a symlink!), and this is complicated by a conceptual question---in my current situation, should I have mythbackend processes running on -both- hosts? If I need to configure the 350 on the FE/SBE, is that being configured in some local-to-the-FE/SBE host's SQL database, or should it be getting configured in the MBE's SQL database? [Note that -both- of these machines were just installed last night from the A22 release, so I'm particularly baffled by the differences in the mysql.txt files vs symlinks, etc. It's -possible- I've screwed something up here, but it seems unlikely.]

I've noticed also that, e.g., un-commenting-out the "# LocalHostName=sbe" in /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt (and simultaneously doing so in /home/mythtv/.mythtv/mysql.txt, which didn't even -have- one when I first looked--which one is -really- consulted in A22?) and rebooting the frontend suddenly caused it to ask me what my language was, and caused its theme to change to G.A.N.T. instead of the six blue circles---and yet selecting Watch TV says "Could not connect to the master backend server -- is it running? Is the IP address set for it in the setup program correct?" They -seem- correct, but yet... [And please tell me that when the installer asked for a Webmin password, it did -not- use that to change the SQL database's password, right? Presumably I -can't- change that password without mysqladmin, right?]

And if I rerun mythtv-setup on the FE/SBE, it keeps resetting "IP address for sbe" to 127.0.0.1 instead of 192.168.0.21, which is its actual address. Furthermore, it magically changed the directory to hold recordings from the default of /mythtv/tv (I think) or my choice of /mnt/tv to /var/lib/mythtv/ ! Ditto changing "directory to hold the Live-TV buffers" from (I think) /cache/ or somesuch to /var/vache/mythtv/! I -know- for a fact that -I- never typed in those directories---where are they coming from, and what's changing them behind my back? The size of the Live TV buffer also magically changed from 15 (the -wrong!- 2GB-bigger-than-the-partition default) -and- my setting of 12GB down to 5GB---what caused -that-? There's no clear documentation on what's caching this information, how many SQL databases there -should- be in this configuration, or anything like that, and it's making debugging really, really difficult. Nor do I have a working A16 installation to try this on---but I'm beginning to think that maybe I should punt A22 and install A16 instead if I can't figure this out, given other comments in this thread.

[Should I even be trying to -run- mythtv-setup on my FE/SBE? Is that the problem? If not, how do I configure inputs & so forth on the 350 that's in it? How do I tell it where the MBE is? How many actual SQL databases are there in this situation, and what should they say?]

CESMAN: The instructions in LINHES are -rotted-. They describe a release that's at least a year old. Several files are either missing or in different places, and without an already-working installation, it's difficult for me to see exactly which files are supposed to be where. Saying "read the documentation" isn't as helpful as you think in this case, and, given the prominence of your LINHES page (it's toplevel on the site, rather than buried in the forums), it would be really, -really- helpful if it was updated to talk about A22, and not some (undocumented!) past release. (Yes, it's not even obvious what release it -was- written for, without grovelling through the forums trying to find later patches to its procedures, so a brand-new user might assume it actually describes A22, which it does not.) I can work up a list of which files appear to -not- be where you describe if it would be helpful in updating it, but there may not be much point unless it'll get updated. Thanks!

For concreteness in the above discussion, here are the relevant lines from /etc/hosts on both machines (they both have -identical- /etc/hosts files):

192.168.0.20 myth-master-backend myth-mbe mbe mb
192.168.0.21 myth-frontend myth-slave-backend-0 sbe0 sbe-0 sbe mf
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

P.S. As me (not as root, which might matter---'cause some of these config files seem not to have world-read permission? I don't recall which one I tripped over recently) I tried "find / -name "mysql*" -print0 | xargs -r0 grep localhost", and only found that /usr/share/mythtv/mysql.txt.dist seems to have that string with a DBHostName= before it, and presumably that's not the active file. OTOH, rerunning that while grepping for "-i dbhostname" found these matches:

/etc/mythtv/mysql.txt:DBHostName=mbe
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/mysql.txt:DBHostName=mbe
/usr/share/mythtv/mysql.txt:DBHostName=mbe
/usr/share/mythtv/mysql.txt.dist:DBHostName=localhost

[This grep was on the FE/SBE, of course.] Is this correct? Am I missing a location? Which of these locations matter? Should I have written the IP address instead, in the assumption that something isn't looking at /etc/hosts?

Has anyone in this thread seen or used the FrontEndOnly install docs on the wiki?

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... nlyInstall

Note that it states you do not have to (nor do you want to) run mythtv-setup on the remote frontend. I believe that doing so can screw things up.

At some point you just have to start clean and try again, getting the backend setup and working, THEN adding in a front end or slave backend.

I did read the wiki, but I was just running the frontend off of the CD. In my case, the wiki didn't help. The problem as I see it is the LocalHostName must be set to mythtv to connect to the backend. The CD (R5A22) defaults to mythfe1. This seems like a bug to me.