<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/01/2015 8:13 PM, Raymond
Boettcher wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1695355610.134516.1420881234574.JavaMail.yahoo@jws10641.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff;
font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial,
Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px">
<div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_2894">I just
wanted to get an opinion on this topic from a few users in the
mailing list to see what I can do about this.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_2998" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_2984" dir="ltr">So lets
start.... I have read article after article about putting
the backend to sleep after the frontend goes into idle mode.
From what I understand this is handled by the MythWecome
program which launches Mythfrontend. This worries me because
I don't want to put the backend to sleep. The backend hosts
the internet as a router on the network, runs Asterisk PBX for
the phone switch and a few other functions that are outside
the control of MythTV. I just want to put the frontend to
sleep after a specified time of no activity.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
I found MythWelcome to be almost useless for my use case, as when I
configured my frontends to shutdown automatically when not in use, I
found it odd that in order for MythWelcome to shutdown/suspend the
machine, you had to physically exit the frontend. This may have
changed, I am not sure.<br>
<br>
I used the "<a
href="https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/frontend_control_socket">Frontend
Control Socket</a>" to query what the frontend was doing, combined
with xscreensaver to determine when to shutdown/suspend the system.
Not sure if you can query if its playing music outside of MythMusic.<br>
<br>
ie: When xscreensaver has blanked the screen for X minutes, and the
Frontend is not using MythBrowser or in MythMusic then its ok to
shutdown.<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1695355610.134516.1420881234574.JavaMail.yahoo@jws10641.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff;
font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial,
Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_2999" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3000" dir="ltr">The best
method I've seen so far is to monitor 'xset q' for the status
of the monitor. if xset +dpms during X Startup before
mythfrontend is loaded, then MythFrontend will see this and
disable DPMS during times of playback of music, videos or
video games. However, I have found a few exceptions to the
rule that concerns me a little. #1> If you decide to play
music and then jump out of the music player but allow
background playback, Mythfrontend will re-enable DPMS while
music is still playing. If my script checks that the monitor
has been "turned off" and decides to suspend the system, that
would be bad. Not to mention I don't really want the screen
to blank while playing background music simply because it does
show the next song as it comes on. Also, my Flat Screen TV is
finicky about there being "No Signal" due to DPMS being on.
After a certain amount of time the TV will automatically turn
off. Not Standby, if I make the computer comes back on the TV
is still off. I have to press the TV On button on my
controller to get the TV to live again. Nice feature but it
should have been implemented like the monitors handle it, and
there's no reason it shouldn't, the computer is connected to
the Flat Panel TV via its VGA connector.<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1695355610.134516.1420881234574.JavaMail.yahoo@jws10641.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff;
font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial,
Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><br>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3027" dir="ltr">I considered
checking the monitor to see if it has been blanked and
checking the CPU usage to see if its at 0 or near 0. Even the
Mp3 Player will create some CPU load which will prevent
standby. However, my attempts to dive into /proc/stat has
been interesting, and granted I could probably figure out what
all the numbers mean, I don't really see this as the best
approach in handling this.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3098" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3065" dir="ltr">However, I
did notice that the logs suggest this:</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3074" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3075" dir="ltr">2015-01-10
03:09:26.034317 N Suspending idle timer<br style="" class="">
2015-01-10 03:09:42.539346 N Resuming idle timer<br style=""
class="">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3083" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3113" dir="ltr">But I assume
this idle timer is for the backend suspend and didn't see any
options for getting access to that idle timer or using that
idle timer to suspend a FE Only machine at least from Settings
in MythFrontend or mythtv-setup.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1695355610.134516.1420881234574.JavaMail.yahoo@jws10641.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff;
font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial,
Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3114" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3125" dir="ltr">Also, my
second problem is for machines that are in suspend for a long
time. I'm concerned that the NFS handles to the mounts for
the video library, game library, etc will become stale. Then
once the machine comes out of standby those mountpoints will
become dead, especially if the backend server gets rebooted
while the client machine is in standby. However, I am more
than capable of writing a script that would kill mythfrontend,
X11, and dismount those shares before entering suspend (maybe
even via a runlevel). And then spend 5 seconds putting it all
back together after suspend is over... The second option was
a complete power down, however, I do like the fact that I can
make linux come out of standby using the keyboard, or in my
case a Universal Remote programmed with the keys from a
Infrared Keyboard with Sensor. (This method sure makes it easy
to exit Emulators, Navigate BIOS, Select the OS to boot from
LILO or GRUB, etc that don't support LIRC using my TV
Controller...).</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3314" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3325" dir="ltr">Anyhow, I
just want to make a small write up about this and ask how
everyone else is handling this. Currently all my DVR Clients
run 24/7 which makes maintenance a little messy. Fans get
clogged, hard drives fail after 3-4 years, 24/7 power
consumption, etc. All because these machines run 24/7 and get
used maybe 4-6 hours per day depending on who is home. There
is no need, the FE Only machines do nothing while idle except
consume power, create unneeded heat in the house and wear out
internal parts.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3340" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3391" dir="ltr">Anyhow, your
idea's and suggestions would be great. I'm sorry about the
long write up, I just wanted to cover all the bases and could
all be easily solved with a simply "execute command if idle
for x minutes." and that action will have no consequences or
actions on the backend server... Keeping in mind that
background music is still not idle...<br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3418" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3429" dir="ltr">-RayRay-<br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3342" dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420877628798_3076" style="" class=""
dir="ltr"><br style="" class="">
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mythtv-users@mythtv.org">mythtv-users@mythtv.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users">http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette">http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette</a>
MythTV Forums: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://forum.mythtv.org">https://forum.mythtv.org</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>