[mythtv-users] Frequent mythfilldatabase download errors

[R. G. Newbury]

On 21/11/14 09:12 AM, Dan Wilga wrote:
> On 11/20/14 4:57 PM, Bill Meek wrote:
>> On 11/20/2014 12:25 PM, Dan Wilga wrote:
>>> The other night I realized that some regularly-scheduled programs
>>> weren't going to be recorded. I quickly discovered the problem: MFD
>>> had been
>>> failing to download listings for one of my sources.
>>>
>>> I manually ran it from the commandline, and confirmed that it wasn't
>>> working. About 10 minutes later I tried the exact same commandline
>>> and it
>>> DID work. It's been failing again for the last few days when run
>>> automatically.

>>
> Of course, I tried it just now and it worked fine. I'll try again the
> next time I see a failure in the logs.

I ran into something like this about a year ago. It turned out to be a 
sleepy DNS system, graciously not provided by my cableco.

Write a little wrapper script for you mfdb call.
Put "ping -c 3 'somewhere-else-in-the-world.com'"
as the first line.

Use an address outside your ISP/ cableco's network structure. What seems 
to happen, is that the cablemodem goes to sleep when not 'roused' 
recently. It took long enough to wake up, that the mfdb call failed.

Don't know if that is your problem, but the fact that it will not work 
on its own, but does when you try it manually *a short time later* is 
very suspicious.

Geoff

PS:  You DO realize, I hope, that when making a sacrifice to appease the 
gods of the black arts, so that this sort of thing does not happen 
again, that not just *any* chicken will do.... Any goat is acceptable , 
but for chickens, you need the correct breed and sex *for the phase of 
the moon*....
Of course, it's not written down!

   ;-)
G.