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Boot process as non-root user

I have an AMD64 box running sarge - meant for a HTPC with mythtv compiled from source (v0.18) - there are no AMD64 Debian mythtv packages. After a long period of problems, I almost have it working.
However, upon bootup the following script

Code:

# Check the SQL database and fix if necessary(disabled for now)

# mysqlcheck -r mythconverg



# Start the lirc daemon

/usr/local/sbin/lircd -d /dev/lirc0



# Start mythbackend

/usr/local/bin/mythbackend > /home/matt/mythbackend.log 2>&1 &

starts the 'mythbackend' process, owned by root using the following symlink:

# ls -l /etc/rc2.d/S91mythbackend
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2005-05-05 20:52 S91mythbackend -> /etc/init.d/mythbackend

I am pretty sure i need to run mythbackend (and lircd) upon startup owned by my regular user ('matt') and not root - what do I need to do?

Re: Boot process as non-root user

I would modify the script to run the command as matt:

Code:

# Check the SQL database and fix if necessary(disabled for now)

# mysqlcheck -r mythconverg



# Start the lirc daemon

/usr/local/sbin/lircd -d /dev/lirc0



# Start mythbackend

su matt - -c '/usr/local/bin/mythbackend > /home/matt/mythbackend.log 2>&1 &'

Because the script will be called as the root user, you won't be prompted for a password.

run this by hand to see that it works, then just add to /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Code:

# Check the SQL database and fix if necessary(disabled for now)

# mysqlcheck -r mythconverg



# Start the lirc daemon

nohup su matt -c '/usr/local/sbin/lircd -d /dev/lirc0'



# Start mythbackend

nohup su matt -c '/usr/local/bin/mythbackend > /home/matt/mythbackend.log 2>&1' &

not 100% sure that this will fly in Debian. If you try it let me know the outcome please.

EDIT - rjlee beat me to it ;)

Thanks for the help - appears to running fine.

Here is what the opertional script looks like:

Code:

# Check the SQL database and fix if necessary: (disabled for now)

# mysqlcheck -r mythconverg



# Start the lirc daemon

nohup /usr/local/sbin/lircd -d /dev/lirc0 &



# Start mythbackend

nohup su matt /usr/local/bin/mythbackend > /home/matt/mythbackend.log 2>&1 &

I couldn't get the -c option with su to work properly, and i have to run lircd as root.

Ho wdid you do that?

Hi,

I have an AMD64 (sarge) too, and I can't get mythv to work, this is what I got:

Code:

ldd /usr/local/bin/mythtv | grep not

        libmythtv-0.18.1.so.0 => not found

        libmythavformat-0.18.1.so.0 => not found

        libmythavcodec-0.18.1.so.0 => not found

        libmyth-0.18.1.so.0 => not found

I'm quite fed up with those lib32 lib64 problems...

How did you get around that problem (I think you had it too, didn't you?)

Benjamin

I don't think I had that particular problem, but I never knew what the command 'ldd' did until I googled it just now.

I had some library problems during installation.
One set went away when I compiled with gcc 3.4 instead of gcc 3.3 (careful - gcc 3.4 caused major headaches when I tried to install it under 2.6.8, had to use 3.3 to compile the kernel up to at least 2.6.10, and then install 3.4)
The other set was related to X, I had to manually correct a lib64 symlink before installation of my nvidia drivers.

I have a fairly detailed command-by-command instruction of how I built the system up from a bare hard drive. I was going to post it here as a HOWTO as soon as I ironed out the last few problems:
- My own stupidity in choosing ReiserFS for the /video partition, and then not including support for it in the kernel, (I couldn't figure out why it would quit recording after a few hours - it was filling up the / partition!) The last recompile of which then knocked out the remote
- Settling on a better mapping for my remote keys
- Checking for readability and errors
- Getting a chance to upgrade to v18.1 from v18

You're welcome to it in its primitive state, if you like - maybe i'll see if it can be posted here in incomplete form.

Hi fatman,

that sounds great, if you want you can mail me your document and I'll tell you if can help a non-geek to get it to work!

Benjamin