Category Archives: IT

MythTV: xmltv returned error code 1

If you check your System Status page on MythTV and see “FAILED: XMLTV returned error code 1” makes sure you have symlinks in /home/myth/.mythtv/<XMLTV Config file> to where the files truly exist.

Why: mythtv-backend runs mythfilldatabase when needed but it runs as the user “mythtv”, not the user you set everything up in, as for me – “myth”.  My “Comcast 0.xml” files were in my user account.  I created symlinks as shown below and then let mythbackend run as needed and all is better now.

$ channels -> /home/myth/.mythtv/channels/
$ Apr 21 10:33 Comcast 0.xmltv -> /home/myth/.mythtv/Comcast 0.xmltv
$ Apr 21 10:33 Comcast 1.xmltv -> /home/myth/.mythtv/Comcast 1.xmltv
$ Apr 21 10:33 Comcast 2.xmltv -> /home/myth/.mythtv/Comcast 2.xmltv
$ Apr 27 2016 config.xml -> /etc/mythtv/config.xml

When it works your status screen should look like this (sorry, no before screenshot when it had the error,  oops!)

MythTV Front End Status Info screen showing working guide update.
MythTV Front End Status Info screen showing working guide update.

I had googled for “xmltv returned error code 1” and all I could find was crap posts with no solutions.  Hopefully, this will help someone else.