[mythtv-users] LCD Does Not Display Backend Status

[Josh Rosenberg]

On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 2:17 PM,  <mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org> wrote:
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 06:57:00 -0800
> From: Jay Foster <jayf0ster at roadrunner.com>
> To: Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] LCD Does Not Display Backend Status
> Message-ID: <5470A43C.9080503 at roadrunner.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
>
> On 11/19/2014 08:50 AM, Jay Foster wrote:
>> On 11/19/2014 6:51 AM, Dan Wilga wrote:
>>> On 11/18/14 8:14 PM, Jay Foster wrote:
>>>> On 11/17/2014 12:22 PM, Dan Wilga wrote:
>>>>> On 11/17/14 2:54 PM, Jay Foster wrote:
>>>>>> I have upgraded to a new MythTV machine (combined FE/BE), with a
>>>>>> fresh install of mythbuntu 14.04.1 (0.27.4-fixes).   The LCD does
>>>>>> display frontend activity (clock, menu navigation, recording
>>>>>> playback, etc.), but does not display any BE status (recording). I
>>>>>> checked and the show backend info checkbox is checked in the
>>>>>> setup.    Any ideas on how to fix this?  I have rebooted, restarted
>>>>>> the FE and BE in different orders, and still no joy.
>>>>> I haven't read this whole thread, so I apologize if you've already
>>>>> tried this:  Did you check your LCDproc settings to make sure they
>>>>> match what your display is actually capable of? There's a chance
>>>>> that the display isn't showing recording status because it's being
>>>>> "drawn" on a row your display doesn't possess.
>>>>>
>>>>> You might also try setting it to use the "curses" driver with
>>>>> something large-ish like "Size=20x4", so that you can see the output
>>>>> in your terminal. This is in LCDd.conf.
>>>> I'm using the lis LCDd driver.  It did have the Size unspecified, but
>>>> the comment states it is 20x2.  I uncommented it to 20x2.  I
>>>> restarted LCDd, mythfronted, and mythbackend. Still no difference.
>>> You actually need to restart mythlcdserver (or, more accurately, stop
>>> it and the frontend will restart it automatically.) Stopping the
>>> frontend should also stop mythlcdserver, though I've seen cases where
>>> it doesn't.
>>>
>>> Restarting the backend shouldn't be necessary after changing the
>>> config, though restarting the frontend might be, I'm not sure.
>>>> If I were to try the curses driver, where would the LCD output go?
>>>> Which shell window?  Is there any reason to even suspect that
>>>> mythbackend would use rows 3 and 4? I would be surprised if it did,
>>>> since most LCD displays I have seen only have two rows.
>>> It's been a long time since I've looked at it, but I think you use
>>> "lcdvc" to display the curses-based text in a console.
>>>
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>> I checked (with ps aux | grep myth) and stopping mythfrontend did not
>> stop mythlcdserver.  mythlcdserver was still running after mythfrontend
>> had exited.
>>
>> Last night, on a whim, while the BE was recording (and the LCD was only
>> showing the clock), I restarted LCDd again.  When LCDd restarted, the
>> LCD display showed the standard LCD proc startup message, then the
>> clock, and then started showing the BE recording status.  It started
>> working.  I again checked and mythlcdserver had not been restarted (same
>> PID).  I do not know why it just started working.  I suspect that there
>> is some kind of race condition in the startup of LCDd, mythlcdserver,
>> mythfrontend, mythbackend, and if I reboot, it might not work again.  It
>> is only the BE status messages that do not seem to work reliably.
>>
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>>
> As I suspected, the problem has returned.  Mythfrontend and mythbackend
> were stopped and restarted as part of a mythbuntu update.  After that,
> the LCD was back to only showing mythfrontend status.  Restarting LCDd
> (while the FE and BE were running) restored the BE LCD status.  Seems
> like a bug to me.

I am experiencing the same symptoms. I used to get both BE and FE
display with no problems. At some point, without changing anything in
particular that I know of, I stopped getting BE display on my LCD.
Restarting LCDd fixes it.

Josh