Installing Mythweb into Your FreeNAS MythTV Jail

In my last blog I showed how I installed a MythTV backend PVR server into a FreeNAS Jail.

A must-have for usability is the Mythweb HTTP-based configuration tool. There’s a lot of hoops to jump through, but you should hopefully make it through unscathed!

Install Mythweb and Dependencies

pkg install mythplugin-mythweb

For me this says that it will install the following:

New packages to be INSTALLED:
 mythplugin-mythweb: 0.27_1
 php56-session: 5.6.7
 php56: 5.6.7
 apache24: 2.4.12
 php56-posix: 5.6.7
 php56-json: 5.6.7
 php56-mysql: 5.6.7

Since it is installing PHP 5.6, you’ll need the “56” version of mod_php as well:

pkg install mod_php56

There are important messages from the installs (shown here) which we’ll address below:

Message for apache24-2.4.12:
To run apache www server from startup, add apache24_enable="yes"
in your /etc/rc.conf. Extra options can be found in startup script.

Your hostname must be resolvable using at least 1 mechanism in
/etc/nsswitch.conf typically DNS or /etc/hosts or apache might
have issues starting depending on the modules you are using.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- apache24 default build changed from static MPM to modular MPM
- more modules are now enabled per default in the port
- icons and error pages moved from WWWDIR to DATADIR
 If build with modular MPM and no MPM is activated in 
 httpd.conf, then mpm_prefork will be activated as default
 MPM in etc/apache24/modules.d to keep compatibility with 
 existing php/perl/python modules!
Please compare the existing httpd.conf with httpd.conf.sample
and merge missing modules/instructions into httpd.conf!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Message for mythplugin-mythweb-0.27_1:
mythweb has been installed into:
 /usr/local/www/mythweb
You need to configure mythweb now according to the instructions in
 /usr/local/www/mythweb/INSTALL
For lighttpd you should have a look at the MythTV Wiki
 http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeb_on_Lighttpd

Message for mod_php56-5.6.7:
***************************************************************
Make sure index.php is part of your DirectoryIndex.
You should add the following to your Apache configuration file:
<FilesMatch ".php$">
 SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch ".phps$">
 SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
</FilesMatch>
***************************************************************

Server-Wide Config

Update “/etc/rc.conf" with the following:

apache24_enable="YES"

Update “/etc/hosts" to something similar to the below – changing the parts in red to suite your IP, hostname and domain:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain mythserver mythserver.gavowen.local
10.69.10.22 mythserver mythserver.gavowen.local

Mythweb Config

You can choose to put your mythweb into the root of the web server, but I prefer to put it off to the side it its own “mythweb” directory.

Copy the mythweb files to where the web server can use them:

mkdir /usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb
cp -R /usr/local/www/mythweb/* /usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb

Apache 2.4 runs as user and group “www” on FreeBSD/FreeNAS, so update the permissions accordingly:

chgrp -R www /usr/local/www/apache24/data
chmod -R g+rw /usr/local/www/apache24/data

TV Icons

I copied mine into my jail, then across to MythWeb’s TV icons directory:

cp /mnt/storage/channelicons/* /usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb/data/tv_icons

Mythweb Apache Config File

The Mythweb Apache config file (“/usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb/mythweb.conf.apache“) is a bit out of date for Apache 2.4 and PHP 5.6, so pull down the latest version directly to the directory you need it in.

cd /usr/local/etc/apache24/extra/
wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MythTV/mythweb/master/mythweb.conf.apache
cp /usr/local/etc/apache24/extra/mythweb.conf.apache /usr/local/etc/apache24/extra/mythweb.conf

Edit the “mythweb.conf" file and change the following:

<Directory “/var/www/html/data”>
to
<Directory “/usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb/data”>

and
<Directory “/var/www/html”>
to
<Directory “/usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb”>

My NAS has plenty of RAM, so I increase the PHP “php_value memory_limit” to 256M. Save the file and quit.

Make sure these lines are uncommented:

 setenv db_server "localhost" 
 setenv db_name "mythconverg" 
 setenv db_login "mythtv" 
 setenv db_password "mythtv"

Apache Config

Backup Apache’s original config file before editing “httpd.conf":

cp /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf.original

Uncomment all these mods. The first two are usually on by default:

mod_env
mod_headers
mod_rewrite
mod_deflate
mod_auth_digest

Uncomment ServerName and change it to match what you’ve done previously in “/etc/hosts" e.g.:

ServerName mythserver.gavowen.local:80

In the “Supplemental Configuration” of the file, I place the following two lines:

# Mythweb configuration
Include etc/apache24/extra/mythweb.conf

Further down you’ll find the DirectoryIndex, where I add “index.php”

<IfModule dir_module>
 DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
</IfModule>

Directly below that part I add the following:

<FilesMatch ".php$">
 SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch ".phps$">
 SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
</FilesMatch>

Restart Apache:

service apache24 start

Now open a browser. Enjoy.

NB: Subsequent restarts of apache can be done with “apachectl graceful"

Troubleshooting

If the page doesn’t load try this:

create user 'mythtv'@'127.0.0.%' identified by 'mythtv'; 
create user 'mythtv'@'127.0.1.%' identified by 'mythtv'; 
set password for 'mythtv'@'127.0.0.%' = password('mythtv'); 
set password for 'mythtv'@'127.0.1.%' = password('mythtv'); 
connect mythconverg; 
grant all privileges on *.* to 'mythtv'@'127.0.0.%' with grant option; 
grant all privileges on *.* to 'mythtv'@'127.0.1.%' with grant option; 
flush privileges; 
exit;

There are other possible issues addressed at this link.

Time Issue

You might get a warning such as:

User Notice at /usr/local/share/mythtv/bindings/php/MythBackend.php, line 132:
 !!NoTrans: Failed to set php timezone to AEST Response from backend was Array ( [0] => AEST [1] => 36000 [2] => 2015-04-25T10:14:06Z ) !!
 Warning: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in /usr/local/www/apache24/data/mythweb/includes/errors.php on line 161

If that’s the case I find installing NTP a good solution:

pkg install ntp

Update “/etc/rc.conf" with the following:

ntpd_enable="YES"

Then start it with “service ntpd start". Issue “date" to see that it’s accurate. Then:

cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini

search for “date.timezone” and change it to suit. For me it’s date.timezone = "Australia/Melbourne"