Embedded Development

Now that we have the software all installed, let's actually get mythtv running by setting up our environment: First mythtv backend requires it's own user so let's add it: sudo useradd --system mythtv Now we need to tell mysql about time zones: mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql It is safe to ignore the warnings from not being able to load some zone info tabs. Mythbackend will create our database and upgrade the previous mythconverg db schema to the latest version so let's run it: mythbackend Note that it will auto shutdown and any further attempt to run it will end in an error saying no capture cards are defined in the database. Next it's time for some fun gui ease.  Either connect a keyboard / mouse /monitor and run mythtv-setup from the command line or run it via a remote x screen by clever use of ssh (i.e. something like this: ssh -X linaro@000.000.000.000 /usr/bin/mythtv-setup). Setup your backend for either your cap

Welcome to the plugin fun.  This is entirely optional, so feel free to skip it if you don't desire to see all that your new DVR has to offer! Let's start back from the /media/sdcard/mythtv/mythplugins directory. cd /media/sdcard/mythtv/mythplugins Let's run a ./configure command and see what will build and what wont: ./configure The output will help tell you what is missing in your library dependencies for each plugin you want, install what's missing with apt-get install.  Keep at it till you get something you're happy with.  This is what my configure looks like: Configuration settings:         qmake          /usr/bin/qmake         MythArchive    plugin will be built         MythBrowser    plugin will be built         MythGallery    plugin will not be built         MythGame       plugin will be built         MythMusic      plugin will be built         MythNetvision  plugin will be built         MythNews       plugin will be built         MythW

I recently decided that I needed a better DVR, (Digital Video Recorder) with the purpose of getting better features, use less electricity to do it and provide a platform that can launch all sorts of other projects (home security, home automation, and home AI (Alexa or google assistant style system). Sounds great right?  Well let's get started: The first step in all this is to look at what's already out there that does the work of a DVR to get a minimum viable solution.  MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org) is a stable wonderful system with all sorts of great features.  I've used it in the past with setting up similar projects that involved a desktop tower sized computer box.  However, that's years ago, let's see if we can't use our embedded knowledge to make this more compact, less noisy, and use much less power, without sacrificing features. Other projects have successfully used a raspberry pi  (rpi), however, as even the official blog notes , this backend pract