I wonder if it is a difference between builds of MythFrontend then. This has been confirmed by a few other Mac users, but I'd like to see confirmation from Linux users.

Here are the steps I'm repeating:

1) take a box with MythFrontend on it, other than your MBE
2) change it to a new hostname (by un-commenting, then changing the entry in mysql.txt: #LocalHostName=my-unique-identifier-goes-here -- or by NOT un-commenting this and just changing the host name)
3) launch MythFrontend (since you have a new hostname, it should ask you for the language, this is your cue that it is creating the new database records in the MBE settings table)
4) query the MySQL search table on your MBE for all the new records that should have just been created where hostname column = your new hostname

Do you see a new record with "MasterServerIP" in value column and your new hostname in hostname column? The correct format for this new row is:

Well, I'm a Linux user, and it was happening repeatedly to me, both in an FE installed to disk, and when using the FE booted off the CD. The hosts involved were two identical Linux boxes running A22 on the BE and (usually) A22 on the FE (except for one test of involving booting A15.1 from the CD as the FE, which didn't fix the problem). Note that I didn't run -exactly- your test below, but I -was- getting the "what's your language" prompts when setting up the FE.



By "correct", you mean "triggers the bug", right? Since it was having the FRONTEND_HOSTNAME_HERE field be NON-null that caused the FE to be unable to do "Watch TV", and setting just that one field to NULL fixed it. I'm not sure if the NULL is the correct value, or if bashing that field papers over a bug somewhere else, though.

And did you really mean to type FRONTEND and not BACKEND? In my case, it was the -backend- hostname there, and I think that's what you meant, too, since presumably it's the -backend- hostname that should be associated with the backend IP in a row that's talking about MasterServer, yes?

This is what i posted to the mythtv mailing list. oddly enough, i did the same thing he did. I forgot to disable skip netowrking at first. I'm used to the gentoo documentation, not hte knoppmyth docs. This was my frist knopp myth FE and MBE in knoppmyth.

---

i have two frontends and they both do the same thing. i can't watch
tv or watch recorded videos because it asks if the ip is correct in
the setup program. I set the ip in the setup program to 192.168.1.4
and looked in mythconverg.settings and found as such.

mysql> select * from settings where data = "192.168.1.4";
+-----------------+-------------+----------+
| value | data | hostname |
+-----------------+-------------+----------+
| MasterServerIP | 192.168.1.4 | tvbox |
| BackendServerIP | 192.168.1.4 | tvbox |
+-----------------+-------------+----------+
2 rows in set (0.03 sec)

the ip is actually 1.4 as shown here:

root@tvbox:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8D:34:0C:25
inet addr:192.168.1.4 Bcast:255.255.255.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

the frontends are mac and knoppmyth on x86. the mac prints out this.
knoppmyth shows the error but i haven't run it front a terminal to
find what error it shows.

2005-10-29 15:31:26.434 Connecting to backend server: localhost:6543
(try 1 of 5)
Connection timed out.

Both frontends are obviously connecting to the backend to get mysql
information including programing guide info. There is a third
frontend running on the backend which works perfectly. And it shows
itself connecting to the right ip. or 192.168.1.4 in the consol when
run. Why would the local frontend get a different ip that the remote
frontend. I've rebooted all machines involved and deleted ~/.mythtv/
on the remote frontends but not the local frontends because they work
: )

thanks for any help.

the null thing works for me too... watch recordings... live tv is recordingnow so i don't know.

By "correct", I mean the frontend works. The bug is that the row isn't created automatically. To clarify, here is an example "correct" record.

if your MBE IP is 10.10.10.44
and the hostname of the machine you are running your frontend on is "foobar"
the row that must be in the "settings" table would be:




Sorry, I haven't tried having it be null. Maybe null makes it a wildcard setting that would apply to all new mythfrontends? That would be handy. I'll have to test that. All I can say is that a row like I typed above fixed the bug in my tests.



It's just like this:



When the frontend launches it looks for its settings in the settings table by matching its hostname with the value in the third column, "hostname". There should be quite a number of these rows for each frontend launch under a new hostname.

This particular setting is called "MasterServerIP", and has the ip address of the "Master Server" or MBE.

Although if what you're saying below is correct, I'm a little nervous about NULL being something of a risky solution, since I don't know if it's -intended- as a wildcard. It is kind of curious that the installer isn't creating the row for the frontend.



Oh, -I- see how the table's being used now. (Is there any documentation anywhere of the various table schema besides "read all the code of mythfrontend and mythbackend and maybe something else?" I'd really like to see what the documented, designed behavior is supposed to be, given that that table is where -everything- is being stored, basically...)

Thanks!

For the record, I also had problems getting a remote frontend (booted from the CD) to connect to a master backend on a different host using R5A22.

I had installed a complete (auto) install to a machine that has my tuner cards installed: PVR-250 and AirStar HD5000. I was delighted that the AirStar card "just worked" as part of the install! I got everything set up and working on that machine, i.e. I could watch and record live TV, even digital ATSC programs, although the CPU was not powerful enough view full HD content. I could however record both from cable and from OTA HD with very low CPU usage.

The problem came when I tried to boot my windows PC (which is more powerful) from the R5A22 CD and run the frontend from CD. I encountered both the "could not connect to the [mysql] database" and "could not connect to the backend server" errors.

Here is a BIG gotcha that others might run into - the live CD evidently does not support the ethernet devices built into my nforce2 ultra motherboard (Epox 8RDA3+). I figured this out using ping - and eventually threw a spare Linksys network card into the system, restarted, and voila- I could actually ping the backend machine using the eth2 connection (Linksys).

In tandem with getting a working network card, I followed all posted instructions previously mentioned in this thread (briefly summarized below):

Enable networking for MySQL on backend
Change IP settings to the actual IP of the backend machine in setup

After doing these things, I overcame the mysql db connection problem, and could get the frontend to come up and appear to work. But upon trying to watch live TV or access program schedules, I got the "cannot connect to the backend" failures that others have mentioned.

To get around that, I also had to perform the change of the Master backend hostname to NULL in mysql, as suggested by user bjenx (Thanks!). This particular tweak did not appear as obvious to me as the first two, and I do not understand exactly what effect this has? Is the backend host supposed to be NULL, or is this merely a hack that works? I can share the frustrations of other folks, being new to mythtv and its internal implementations, but badly wanting to get it up and have it "just work" like any other application. I am however, thankful for the work Cecil and others have done to get us this far!

Anyway, I wanted to add my experience to help others who may be struggling with similar problems.

Regards...
T

I've been scratching my head for a few hours trying to get my front ends to talk to the back end, went through much of the same troubleshooting steps others did, and found that the following mysql query fixed it:

update settings set hostname = NULL where value = "MasterServerIP" and data = "192.168.1.154" and hostname ="mediacentre";

And now my front ends will talk to the backend, though now I get an error about the wrong networking protocol version on my ubuntu boxes, so looks like I'll have to source a newer copy of myth than is in the breezy repositories.

Thanks!

-Rich

I have setup several frontend and after working with r5a22 I could not get it working. I reinstalled and all..

To get it working all you have to do is what BJENx said to do.

root@mythtv:/var/log/mysql# mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 18 to server version: 4.0.22-log

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> use mythconverg
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed
mysql> update settings set hostname = NULL where value = "MasterServerIP" and data = "10.0.24.92" and hostname ="mythtv.samc.org";
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0

mysql>

Make sure you use the Master Backend IP and put the correct hostname.

I'll say it over and over.. GREAT JOB! on the product.

Just to add to the list.

I too had this problem and wasted a few hours, would have wasted many more if you guys hadn't found the trick.

Again I was doing a fresh install using autoinstall from the backend.

My diskless frontend, had this problem.
My booting from ISO on my laptop also had this problem.

The image I downloaded was from: http://hust.la/KnoppMyth/KnoppMythR5A22.iso

Perhaps upgraders using existing DB's would not see this issue.

I bet DNS is the main issue, If I had my internal DNS server configured these hostnames would also resolve adn ip versus name is a non-issue (or a fully populated /etc/hosts file - rather archaic)

Eduardo.

same problem with R5A26 and xebian 1.1.4 on my xbox frontend. changing the mythtv to null in my backend database did the trick.

first time mythtv user. already love it. thanks for the hard work guys.

I had the exact same problem as posted on this thread using R5A30.1. I did a fresh install for a mbe/frontend server as well as a fresh install for a frontend system with it's mysql and mythtv-backend turned off. Mbe/frontend server worked fine, but couldn't get the remote frontend system to work without the tweaks mentioned in this thread. Thanks for the help.

me too, xbox frontend and RSA30.1, thatks guys

Wrong.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

How do you mean wrong? Are you saying that I did not have this problem, but in fact experienced another problem, with the same symptoms, for which the same fix worked?

If so, can you tell me what the problem was? I had this problem after a clean install of R5A30.1. I was running 16 before, and i did not re-install the xbox frontend.