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https://github.com/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv

[read-only mirror] MythTV server in Docker
https://github.com/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv

docker docker-image mythtv

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[read-only mirror] MythTV server in Docker

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# Docker MythTV Images



**This repository is no longer hosted at Github; see its [new homepage on Salsa](https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv).**



This is a set of images that makes it simple to set up a basic

headless server for [MythTV](http://www.mythtv.org).  These images

run on top

of my [Debian base system](http://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-debian-base),

which provides excellent logging capabilities.  This image is part of the

[docker-mythtv](https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv) image set.



MythTV is a large and complex piece of software, and will require customization.

Some people use the MythTV backend to talk to local PCI or USB TV framegrabber/tuner

devices.  Such use, if it is even possible under Docker, is out of scope of

this document.  However, many TV tuners are now network-accessible, and thus

may be used over a local LAN with a Docker container without incident.



These images, therefore, handle the installation of MythTV for you.  You will

be responsible for the configuration to your own situation.  Please familiarize

yourself with the information on the MythTV website before proceeding.



You can view the [documentation for these images](https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv)

on their Github page.



These images are provided:



 - [jgoerzen/mythtv-backend](https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv-backend) - the MythTV backend server processes

 - [jgoerzen/mythtv-backend-mysql](https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv-backend-mysql) - as mythtv-backend, but with an integrated MySQL/MariaDB server in

   the container



If you do not already have a database server on your network, selecting the

mysql variant will simplify your installation, though it is optional.



You can download with:



    docker pull jgoerzen/mythtv-backend-mysql



And run with something like this:



    docker run -td -p 6554:6554 -p 6543:6543 -p 6544:6544 -p 6549:6549 -p 5901:5901 \

    --stop-signal=SIGPWR \

    --hostname=mythtv-backend \

    -v /musicdir:/music:ro \

    -v /playlistdir:/playlists:rw \

    --name=mythtv jgoerzen/mythtv-backend-mysql



On a newer host, like Debian bullseye, use this instead:



    docker run -td -p 6554:6554 -p 6543:6543 -p 6544:6544 -p 6549:6549 -p 5901:5901 \

    --stop-signal=SIGRTMIN+3 \

    --tmpfs /run:size=100M --tmpfs /run/lock:size=100M \

    --hostname=mythtv-backend \

    -v /musicdir:/music:ro \

    -v /playlistdir:/playlists:rw \

    -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:rw --cgroupns=host \

    --name=mythtv jgoerzen/mythtv-backend-mysql



(Omit the `-mysql` from both commands if you have a MySQL server elsewhere that you

will connect to.)



Note: it is **critical** that the hostname be specified.  MythTV uses the

hostname as a key into its settings database, and Docker's randomly-assigned

hostnames will cause issues in this scenario.  See

[more about hostnames on the MythTV site](https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Database_Backup_and_Restore#Change_the_hostname_of_a_MythTV_frontend_or_backend).



# Initial Setup Background



Although the MythTV backend is able to be run as a headless server, it

nevertheless requires setup to be done via a graphical program.  This

poses a bit of an annoyance for the normally all-text Docker environment.



I have, however, provided you with two options for accessing it.



Option 1 is to use VNC.  If Docker is running on localhost, or a host you

can ssh to with port forwarding, it will expose VNC screen 1 on port 5901.

You can connect to this with a VNC viewer and control it that way.



Option 2 is to use SSH with X11 forwarding.  This is a more advanced

option that is largely outside the scope of this document.  The basic steps

are to add `-e DEBBASE_SSH=enabled` to your `docker run` command, forward

port 23 into the container, provision a password for a user inside the container

with `passwd` or similar, and then use `ssh -X` to connect to it.



Please note that SSH is an encrypted protocol, but VNC generally is not;

it is not secure to expose the VNC port over the Internet.



Either way, you will need to know how to get a shell prompt within your

container.  If you, for instance, named it mythtv-backend, then

`docker exec -ti mythtv-backend bash` will do the trick.



As we go along, I will try to make it clear what steps you can do with

your own Dockerfile (which will be most of them).



## jgoerzen/mythtv-backend (non-mysql) only: Prepare database



The `mythtv-database` package generally wants to be installed on the database server itself.

You may have some trickery to do here.



First, let's assign a username and password.  Run:



    dpkg-reconfigure -plow mythtv-common



Next, if you do not already have a MythTV database,

install the package that configures or sets up the MythTV database.

Because it requires a database to be present to install, it is only provided by

default in the mythtv-backend-mysql package.  This package will configure your database to an

existing server.  Open a shell in the container and run:



    apt-get update

    rm /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/docker-clean

    apt-get install --no-install-recommends mythtv-database



It will ask for a password for the administrator account.

It will then create the needed database.  Please note that this only needs

to be done once; you do not need this package installed in your

ongoing containers.



## All setups: configure the backend



Now you're ready to configure the backend.  Fire up the VNC server with:



    su - mythtv -c startvnc

    su - mythtv -c "DISPLAY=:1 xterm"



The first time you run `startvnc`, it will prompt you to enter a password.

Make up something secure.



On your workstation, a command like this should connect you to the GUI:



   xvnc4viewer localhost:1



Enter the same password you set before.



In the GUI that appears, run:



   mythtv-setup



On the general settings page, the IP address of the backend should be set to

the interal IP address (more on that below).



When you are all done, stop the VNC server with:



    su - mythtv -c 'tigervncserver -kill :1'



# Hints for your own Dockerfiles



Here are some files you may want to install:



 - ~mythtv/.mythtv/config.xml (/var/lib/mythtv)

 - /etc/mythtv/config.xml



You could prime the Debconf database with the MythTV passwords with:



    echo 'mythtv-common mythtv/mysql_mythtv_password password foo' | debconf-set-selections

    echo 'mythtv-common mythtv/mysql_mythtv_user string mythtv' | debconf-set-selections

    echo 'mythtv-common mythtv/mysql_mythtv_dbname string mythconverg' | debconf-set-selections

    echo 'mythtv-common mythtv/mysql_host string localhost' | debconf-set-selections



# IP address notes



So this is pretty annoying.  MythTV insists on storing the IP

address as seen by the backend in its database, and other

machines use that IP to reach it.  With docker, there is generally

no way tihs works because of NAT.



Also, if you use a capture device like the HDHomeRun which communicates

back to MythTV via random UDP ports, it can be just about impossible to

make things work with the standard docker port forwarding.



However, there are some workarounds.



You can:



 - Use NAT reflection on your firewall to forward packets

   back in to your network.

 - [Bridge your Docker containers to the network](https://developer.ibm.com/recipes/tutorials/bridge-the-docker-containers-to-external-network/)

   - An example: `docker network create --driver=bridge --ip-range=192.168.0.192/29 --subnet=192.168.0.0/24 --aux-address "DefaultGatewayIPv4=192.168.0.1" -o "com.docker.network.bridge.name=brlan1" brlan1`

   - After that, you can add `network=brlan1 --ip=192.168.0.193` do your `docker run`, and you do not need

     any `-p` because it will be directly accessible on the new IP.

 - Add egress iptables rules to your frontends

 - You can set the BackendServerIP and MasterServerIP to the "visible" IP

   of the backend (will probably have to do this via mysql).  mythbackend

   will fail to bind to a visible IP, but a userland redirector like `redir`

   may do the trick.



I tried adding `-O BackendServerIP=blah -O MasterServerIP=blah` to my

mythfrontend command line.  That let it boot, but wasn't sufficient for

streaming.



# Bugs



mythbackend doesn't seem to properly write its PID to /var/run/mythtv, and

therefore commands that try to kill it won't work.



# Source



This is prepared by John Goerzen  and the source

can be found at https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-mythtv



# Security Status



The Debian operating system is configured to automatically apply security patches.

MythTV, however, does not have such a feature.



# Tags



Because this is built from the deb-multimedia.org sources, I cannot easily

provide historical builds, since deb-multimedia itself does not.  Threfore,

only current deb-multimedia.org builds are available.



# Copyright



Docker scripts, etc. are

Copyright (c) 2017-2022 John Goerzen

All rights reserved.



Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without

modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions

are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright

   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright

   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the

   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors

   may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software

   without specific prior written permission.



THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND

ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE

IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE

ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE

FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL

DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS

OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)

HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT

LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY

OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF

SUCH DAMAGE.



Additional software copyrights as noted.