How to execute a command remotely

[fw12]

When I execute this command on my machine:
/usr/bin/tvtime

It fires up the TV program (TVTIME).

I want to be able to do the same thing remotely via ssh. But when I do, I get this error:

Running tvtime 1.0.1.
Reading configuration from /etc/tvtime/tvtime.xml
Reading configuration from /root/.tvtime/tvtime.xml
xcommon: No DISPLAY set, so no output possible!

[1]+ Exit 1 /usr/bin/tvtime

Any suggestions on how to run tvtime remotely?
I don't have to have any output on my ssh client, I just want the program to run on the remote machine.

Thx.

[nick.stumpos]

if you can turn off the X output in tvtime then that would work( I dont use the prog though so i dont know, if you are on a maching with a x server use the -X flag in ssh, if it is from a windows client I know there are progs for it, but i never used them google should tell you what the are.

[fw12]

Thanks for your input. I've searched online, and I've looked in the config file, tvtime.xml. Nothing points to how to turn off X output in tvtime.

I came across some discussion about setting display=:n. E.g.

/usr/bin/tvtime display=:0

I don't know what that means, but it did not work anyway.

[nick.stumpos]

that just sets the display, what are you using to ssh in is it ssh on another linux box or a windows one

[fw12]

putty on win xp

I am trying to use PHP to change the parameters of my tvcard. That way I can just go to a webpage from any remote location and send a command to my machine from there.

I've tried PHP's exec(), system() to no avail. An example is:

exec("/usr/bin/mplayer [options]");

Since my web server is running under apache user, I've given permission in sudoers file for apache to run /usr/bin/mplayer. Hence, the final command is:

$command = "sudo /usr/bin/mplayer [options]";
exec("$command");
exec("echo '$command' > /tvoutput");

I know exec() works because exec("echo '$command' > /tvoutput"); worked.
I can issue /usr/bin/mplayer [options] from an ssh terminal and get the desired effect.

I'm just baffled as to why I can't do it via a PHP script.

I've tried:
exec("/usr/bin/mplayer [options] > /dev/null");
No luck.
Runs over ssh, but not from a script.


Any ideas?

[fliddell]

As this last post is about 5 years old, this may no longer be an issue or care.

If you don't care about security, you can edit your httpd.conf file and change the user that apache uses to load web pages.
Change:

User apache
Group apache

To

User <your username>