Compiling Mythtv-0.21 on the Sheeva Plug

From ComputingPlugs

It is possible to compile Mythtv-0.21 on the Sheeva Plug with a bit of work and about 4 hours. First, get the v0.21 source from MythTV and unpack it.

Next you need to get the development libraries

apt-get install build-essential libqt3-mt-dev libmp3lame-dev

You need to make sure to install the qt3 development libraries and not the qt4 development libraries. MythTV v0.21 does not support qt4 and will not compile. If you have already installed qt4 development libraries in your system, be sure to

apt-get remove libqt4-dev
apt-get auto-remove

Then you need to configure the source tree. I have to disable dvb because the build will failed with it enabled. .

./configure --disable-dvb --cpu=armv5te

If you don't disable dvb, you will get this error message during the build

In file included from videosource.cpp:43:
dvbtypes.h:23:6: error: #error "DVB driver includes with API version 3 not found!"
dvbtypes.h:33:2: warning: #warning DVB API version < 3.1
dvbtypes.h:34:2: warning: #warning ATSC will not be supported using the Linux DVB drivers

The error indicates that a proper version of the DVB driver is not installed. I image installing it would fix the problem. Since I do not plan to use DVB, I simply disabled it.

After configure, type

make; make install

I may have forgotten addition libraries that are need. If so, simply search for them with

aptitude search <library name>

and install the appropriate package. Know that all the necessary libraries to build MythTV are in the repository.

Before you can use MythTV-setup to configure the backend, you need to setup mysql and the mythconverg database. You can follow these instructions to setup the database on the Sheeva Plug. The instructions are for a configuration where the mythconverg database is expected to be accessed remotely. That is likely what you want because you will probably have a separate frontend.

Once the database has been installed, type

mythtv-setup

to setup the backend. Then run mythfilldatabase to fill the mythconverg database. When it is done, you can start the backend with:

mythbackend

Mythbackend should run and connect to the database. If you want to start the backend automatically each boot, you can use this start up script I took from the Ubuntu distribution. You may have to change line 31:

USER=mythtv

to whatever user you've used to configure the backend. The script looks for the file ~/.mythtv/mysql.txt that is created during the backend setup. You may also have to edit line 12:

 DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/mythbackend

if mythbackend is not installed in /usr/local/bin. Copy mythtv-backend to /etc/init.d/ and type

update-rc.d mythtv-backend defaults

Then setup the log directory so that mythbackend has a place to put the logs.

mkdir -p /var/log/mythtv
chown mythtv /var/log/mythtv

If you do not have an user mythtv then replace the second argument of chown with the appropriate username.

In my setup, I have a separate slave backend that handles task of recording. This is because:

• I don't have a USB tuner card, the only tuner card I have is PCI.
• I found a USB tuner card that has hardware mpeg encoder but it doesn't look like it is supported by Linux yet.

So I could not test the recording capabilities of the Sheeva Plug. However, I believe that as long as the driver exists for the USB tuner the backend should record with no problems.

Comments:

Kenny Says: May 18 2009 3:52 pm Please keep comments clean and constructive. Inappropriate comments will be removed. Thank you. Jeff Says: May 19 2009 10:04 am Have you considered streaming from a network HDTV tuner like a HDHomerun? Kenny Says: May 19 2009 2:22 pm I don't have HDhomerun so I could not test the setup. But the mythbackend supports it and it compiled without any errors. Also it was a selectable tuner type during the mythbackend setup. So I think it should work. chi hair straightener Says: Sep 16 2009 9:26 pm Thank you for sharing this information. eFfeM Says: Oct 27 2009 12:22 am login did not allow me to create an account so can't fix this myself. first step: apt-get build-essential libqt3-mt-dev libmp3lame-dev should be apt-get install build-essential libqt3-mt-dev libmp3lame-dev Kenny Says: Oct 27 2009 9:12 am Thanks for the catch eFfeM, I made the fixed.

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