[mythtv-users] Mythpower guinea pigs wanted... +[patch]

[Christian Hoenig]

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Hi,

Calvin Harrigan wrote
> Over the weekend I've put together a little perl script to handle power
> management on a mythtv setup.  Currently it permits the computer to
> autoboot and shutdown depending on it's recording schedule.  I would
> like some folks to go through the docs, try it out and make any
> suggestions for improvement.  I am hoping that it will be added to
> contrib directory at some point in the future.

I have a patch (for current CVS), which adds the ability to shutdown / wakeup 
the myth-computer, in my privat CVS tree since a long time, now.  I didn't 
have too much time to finish it to Isaacs needs, but lately I worked on it 
again and went more in Isaacs direction with it (I hope).

This patch does (exactly?) the same thing (and a little more), as your script 
allows, but it would be an internal way to accomplish things. And the little 
README.sdwu explains how to use it, hope that is not too complicated ;-).

Have a look at it, if you like :-)

Any feedback is highly appreciated!

@Isaac:
I intended to send you the patch within a month or so, so this one shouldn't 
be the final one. Though it would be really nice if you could have a look at 
it and comment on it again =).
The most important thing I changed since my last 'try' is, that it can handle 
slavebackends now, too, and the settings stuff is where it (hopefully) 
belongs. Unfortunately mythfrontend/main.cpp still misses to find out if 
clienthost==backendhost, to allow or disallow user-shutdown dependendly.


thanks so far...
take care, have fun
/christian
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Here is a little description on how to use this addon (but be sure you
first run setup/setup to set the new settings):


There are diff'rent ways to accomplish the wakeup of your server using the 
Shutdown/wakeup (sd/wu) stuff. 
One way is to use the bios-clock to wakeup your masterbackend, another is to 
use a 24/7 server to wakeup your backend using WakeOnLan (wol). 

In the following I first explain how the shutdown part of  sd/wu work with 
its settings:
The scheduler keeps track of the idle-status of the servers. 
The server is idle, when there is no recording starting within a given 
timeperiod (setup/setup:"Max. wait for recording (min)"). If a recording 
starts within that time, it simply waits for it, otherwise it is idle. Now it
stays idle for another amount of time (setup/setup:"Idle timeout (secs)") 
before shuting down. After it idled for that time it calls the 
'set wakeuptime command', passing the wakeuptime in 'wakeuptime format' 
as $time, which should set the wakeuptime for the next recording. If you use 
bios-clock wakeup you simply have to use your preferred tool here. If you use 
WOL I discribe later how that can be accomplished.
Now it is ready to shutdown and tells all slavebackends to shutdown using the 
'server halt command' and then shuts down itself using the same command. 
At the time of the next recording, your server should wakeup and start 
the recroding.

Using nvram tools for wakeup:
Since I can't use it, I don't know the details about that, but you can find
tools that support setting the bios alarms here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nvram-wakeup
http://www.malloc.de/tools/wakeup_clock.html

Using WOL to wakeup your MBE:
This is the way i use to wakeup my MBE. I have some little bash scripts which 
help. Additionally I use 'nc' (netcat) to send the data from one to another 
machine:
[in the following change $PORT and $SERVER to your local needs]
On my MBE I have a script that gets called as 'setwakeuptime command' which 
looks like the follwing:
	#! /bin/sh
	echo $@ | nc $SERVER $PORT
'nc' is a little neat tool, that allows to cat text thru tcp/ip.
On my $SERVER I have (x)inetd listening on $PORT starting a little script which 
cares about setting the atjob.
The following (changes) is necessary:
in /etc/*inetd.conf add:
	mythwake stream tcp nowait mythtv /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/bin/mythwake
in /etc/services add:
	mythwake        $PORT/tcp
/usr/local/bin/mythwake:
	#! /bin/sh
	#this should be a command to wake your server
	WAKECMD="#!/bin/sh\n /usr/local/bin/wakeMBE"
	#first we need to delete all wake jobs in queue
	for JOB in `atq | cut -f 1` ; do
	        atrm $JOB;
	done
	#now we read the date from 'nc'
	read date;
	#now set the atjob
	echo -e "$WAKECMD" | at $date ;

SECURITY WARNING:
Be sure, to secure $SERVER:$PORT from untrusted networks, because this 
allows 3rd people to run arbitrary code on your server!


Now the wakeup part of sd/wu:
Again you have several options in distributing your 
frontend/sql-server/master/slavebackends.
If you start your frontend, you can have it wakeup your sql server using wol 
(see the sql-wakeup part of setup/setup).
*	Then the frontend can start the masterbackend using wol (see the 
	backend-wakeup part of setup/setup). 
*	When the masterbackend is up, it can start all its slaves (using the 
	'wake slavebackends command'). 
*	There is only a single command that is executed. This script should 
	contain all wakeup calls for your different slavebackends.





Tips/Tricks:
- 	If, for example, one of the slaves is your desktop computer, you could
	simply use a little script as 'server halt command' which first calles
	'/sbin/shutdown -t TIMEOUT' with a TIMEOUT you like to have to react, 
	then popup a window using *dialog asking for permision, and if the
	user cancels the shutdown, simply call '/sbin/shutdown -c' .