Ubuntu
wvdial package

MythTV backend does not recognize valid password: no GUI

Bug #1203184 reported by rfpeake
12
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
wvdial (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

 Version: mythtv 2:2.0.26+fixes.20121118.340ubuntu1
Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit: AMD Phenom II x6 1090T

I am attempting to configure MythTV backend for use with XBMC. I presume that clicking the MythTV icon for the backend will produce the backend setup GUI. It does not because of a password glitch.

A valid password is rejected when attempting to enter MythTV backend setup: clicking the myth TV icon displays a notice that the backend processes must first be closed and requests user assent. Selecting YES displays the prolematic dialog.
The dialog asks for "current login password," presumably the current linux user's password. However, using the logged-in system administrator password results in the message "Incorrect password... try again." The same result is achieved by using the current user's mythtv MySQL password or the mythtv MySQL password (85ctLXIf). These passwords have all been verified using the MySQL Workbench, which indicates that the connection parameters are correct. Attempting to bypass the dialog by selecting cancel displays the MythTV Setup Terminal, not the familiar GUI.

There is no way to access the backend setup.

This bug was submitted to MythTV [ Ticket #11696 ], which responded:
"This sounds like a Mythbuntu or Ubuntu issue. MythTV itself does not ask
for login passwords. Please ask the Mythbuntu/Ubuntu team for help."

Help! And many thanks for any assistance.

Revision history for this message
rfpeake (robert-peake) wrote :

After further experimentation, starting setup from XTerm using: sudo /usr/bin/mythtv-setup successfully starts the GUI. The notice that the backend processes must be closed appears, but no password request dialog is displayed. I hope this helps to identify the problem.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in wvdial (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Steve S (spamsteve04) wrote :

First, I just wanted to say thanks to rfpeake for posting the work around. That also worked for me.

For further collaboration, I was experiencing the same exact scenario on a newly setup KVM box running Ubuntu 12.04.4 with ubundu-desktop installed followed by mythtv-backend, mysql-server, and mythtv-database. Nothing else had been installed at this point. Clean fresh setup.

I went one step further to verify gksudo by using this command to launch a clock requiring the GUI.
$ gksudo xclock

the graphical interface did accept my sudo member password and launch the clock, but the graphical password verification that is launched by myth backend setup never would accept the correct password. I did notice that the password prompt brought up by the clock test did not have the option to save the password, which the prompt for MythTV did. So I'm assuming MythTv is using a different interface for password verification then gksudo.

One last observation if it helps. MythTV would never acknowledge that my user was in the group called mythtv. It would prompt me to add myself which of course launches a graphical password prompt which fails. After manually adding myself to the group using command...

$ sudo adduser steve mythtv
verifying success with
$ cat /etc/group

and then logging out and back in. MythTV continued to balk that I needed to be in that group. It's almost as if the interface between MythTV and the local security systems of Ubuntu is in some part disconnected. I chose to disable the message and MythTV seems to work after I completed the configuration.

Once again, thanks to rfpeake for taking the time to post your workaround for those of us that didn't come up with that on our own. :)

Revision history for this message
Steve S (spamsteve04) wrote :

Quick update for anyone that comes across this page looking for a solution.

I just discovered that mythtv elevates via gksu and not gksudo. At least on my system.
A fix for the various graphical mythtv password prompts on my system was to change the authentication mode of gksu from su to sudo.
Launch the config using this command...
$ gksu-properties

then using the drop down I changed the mode from su to sudo. And off I went to test. All the myth password prompts I can find are now working with my password.

More info here and explained much better as well...

http://askubuntu.com/questions/48215/password-not-working-in-graphical-applications-gksu-works-with-sudo

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