MythTV Configuration Suggestions

###Overview Items listed here should help users solve basic MythTV configuration problems. In no way, is this intended to replace their Wiki. The search box on that page is quite helpful.

###1st things 1st What version of MythTV is running? The answer can be found by typing: mythbackend --version on the backend. The relevant line looks like this:

MythTV Version : v0.27-x-gxxxxxxx

and the version must be v0.27 through v0.28.

mythbackend must be started with proper settings for the environemtal variables LANG and LC_ALL. Settings like: de_DE.UTF-8 or en_US.UTF-8 are correct.

###Where are the log files? This is a very good question because there isn't a simple answer.

Before even explaining how to find them, a special note (if this isn't done, looking at logs could be a waste of time.) MythTV doesn't log all the messages used by this application by default. Their logging must be turned on. Type: mythbackend --setverbose upnp (the backend must be running 1st.) To turn the messages off, type: mythbackend --setverbose general. Or, the backend can be restarted with the -v upnp option set. In 0.28, a new logging component was added, use: upnp,http for additional information. Or, for even more detail use: upnp:debug,http:debug.

Log files are stored in different places. Their directory and filename are the choice of the distribution and/or the user. If the location is unknown, type: ps ax | grep mythbackend | grep -v grep on the backend. The result will look (in part) like one of these lines:

mythbackend --logpath /var/log/mythtv
mythbackend --syslog local7

If --logpath is used, then look in the directory following it for the most active file named mythbackend.<timestamp>.<pid>.log. If --syslog is used, then logs are written to /var/log/syslog, unless rsyslog is configured, in which case the typical place for those logs is back in /var/log/mythtv and the file name is mythbackend.log. There are good details on logging and for rsyslog in the MythTV Wiki pages. Another tool to use (if using --syslog and systemd ) is journalctl --unit=mythtv-backend.

Finally, the most frequently used MythTV log for this application is the backend log. However, users may be asked to look for others, for example, the mythtrasncodelog. The good news is that it's probably in the same directory found above.

###No playback: MythTV logs report missing or inaccessible streaming files Look for errors with text like the following:

Error: Could not create builtinStorage Group directory '/home/mythtv/.mythtv/tmp/hls' for 'Streaming'

If no streaming storage group is defined (which is OK,) then a path to a built-in one will be developed. Or, if there's a need to store the streaming files elsewhere (due to disk space restrictions,) then use the mythtv-setup program on the Master Backend to configure (or repair) a Streaming storage group with one or more directories. An example would be /mnt/mythtv/streaming.

In either case, user mythtv, must have read-write permissions on the directory chosen and be its owner and group.

###Recordings don't play If a distribution or user built MythTV and run configure without the --enable-libx264 switch, attempts to transcode and stream video will fail. A clue would be text in the backend log file that looks like this:

HLS(): Command '/usr/bin/mythtranscode --hls --hlsstreamid 48 --verbose general --loglevel info --syslog local7' returned 255