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mythtv user is /home less and cannot launch X window

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Hi,

I installed Mythtv on two boxes, for probably five times over now, following the instructions provided at this link, http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Installing_MythTV_on_Debian_Etch.

[ This page is very good, don't get me wrong, when I said I had to install five times over and so forth. Without this page, a newbie like me would spend lots more time trying to install the application. Why five times over and over, it is my nature to try different hardware (soft to hardware encoder, wireless card added, different video cards). ]

For some odd reason, my mythtv account does not have a real /home directory. The so-called home directory is /var/lib/mythtv? Has anyone run across the same /home less issue?

I am trying to work on the autologin option, autostart of X window, and launch of Mythtv. And not having a /home directory seems to impede me from start X window using .profile. I tried adduser and create another home/mythtv (I also changed ownership and permission and so forth).

Now, can a quickfix be launching X as part of a script at boot?

Thanks in advance for your input,
Hoang

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mythtv user is /home less

Submitted by pinniped on Wed, 2007-09-19 17:28.

Christian Marillat has been maintaining various "multimedia" software for Debian for a number of years now. You can add MythTV by going to www.debian-multimedia.org, adding the correct URL to your /etc/apt/sources.list file, and after an 'update' you can install MythTV with apt-get.

To find MythTV stuff after the update:
apt-cache search mythtv

»

MythTV install has no /home/mythtv

Submitted by Hoang Pham on Thu, 2007-09-20 09:06.

I wonder if I can put a script called sstartx under /etc/init.d, with the following content
#! /bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/sstartx
touch /var/lock/startx
vncserver -many &

The intent is to startx windows and vnc server since I cannot run a .profile script because of the lack of /home/mythtv.

Thanks,
Hoang

»

MythTV install has no /home/mythtv

Submitted by pinniped on Thu, 2007-09-20 16:14.

If /home/mythtv is your only problem, you only need:
1. create the directory
2. set its permissions
3. put the correct home directory entry for 'mythtv' in /etc/passwd

#3 can be done with 'adduser':
adduser mythtv --home /home/mythtv

I don't know if that automatically creates a directory when the user already exists. If the directory was not created:

mkdir -p /home/mythtv
chown mythtv:mythtv /home/mythtv

I don't know what permissions you'll need in your case, but you might want to change the default using 'chmod'.

»

cannot run .profile

Submitted by Hoang Pham on Fri, 2007-09-21 10:47.

I followed those steps and could not launch any apps listed in .profile.

I also tried it for a 'regular' user by changing the inittab autologin as followed
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/rungetty tty1 --autologin phamh

Here's the listing of the .profile
if [ -z "DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ]; then
while [ 1 == 1 ]
do
startx
sleep 10
done
fi

For both regular and mythtv users, startx did not launch as requested in .profile, which has these attributes
-rwxr-xr-x 1 phamh phamh 103 2007-09-21 07:12 .profile

And here are how the users are listed in /etc/passwd
phamh:x:1000:1000:Hoang Pham,,,:/home/phamh:/bin/bash
mysql:x:103:104:MySQL Server,,,:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/false
mythtv:x:104:105::/home/mythtv:/bin/bash

Wonder if you see anything out of the ordinary?

Thanks again,
Hoang

»

Workaround for autologin and launch of MythTV frontend

Submitted by Hoang Pham on Thu, 2007-09-27 15:26.

I did another fresh install, using the MythTV HOWTO from the Wiki page w/ the following deviation.

Install IceWM instead of Fluxbox
Install GDM and use the Autologin feature
Launch IceWM and Mythwelcome in .xsession script

That's it.

Hoang

»
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