[mythtv-users] Home Run doesn't operate with Myth

Stephen Worthington stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz
Tue Aug 30 13:48:04 UTC 2016


On Tue, 30 Aug 2016 11:20:33 +0100, you wrote:

>On 30/08/16 10:18, GT wrote:
>> On 15/08/16 10:03, GT wrote:
>>> On 14/08/16 11:54, Jim Abernathy wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>>>> From: GT at pl19.eu
>>>>> Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2016 10:00:39 +0100
>>>>> Subject: [mythtv-users] Home Run doesn't operate with Myth [may be
>>>>> a    duplicate message]
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> My HD Home Run worked fine with previous generations of Ubuntu & Myth
>>>>> but having upgraded to 16.04 - nada.
>>>>>
>>>>> The HD HR Config utility tunes stations OK.  VLC then displays TV OK.
>>>>>
>>>>> MythTV backend set-up finds loads of transmissions but the frontend
>>>>> fails for live TV or recordings - it just sits there and sulks.
>>>>>
>>>>> Logically my simple mind says this has to be a Myth problem but I have
>>>>> tried a range of configurations and none of them helps . . . ?
>>>>>
>>>>> All suggestions gratefully received!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> m/c is Revo Aspire R3610
>>> Myth is V0.28-2-g15cf421
>>> Tuner is HD-HR4-2DT (Home Run Connect)  Firmware updated to 2015 08 26
>>
>> Since then the system has been disassembled in order to fit an SSD.  
>> At some stage during the rebuild process I DID have the HDHR running 
>> again but not now.
>>
>> 1.    Power supply changed.
>> 2.    Firmware downloaded and updated to 2015 08 26 (again).
>> 3.    HDHR configuration gui installed and running.
>> 4.    That config program finds TV transmissions which VLC displays.
>> 5.    Myth B/E set-up: delete all tuners then install HDHR.
>> 6.    Tuning process finds ~150 channels.
>> 7.    Restart the m/c.
>> 8.    Myth F/E live TV falls back immediately to the basic menu.
>> 9.    System status show 6 tuners not recording (3 recs each).
>> 7.    Unsurprisingly recordings on the HDHR also fail to capture the 
>> transmission before timing out.
>>
>> In short the HDHR is ignoring the Myth F/E.  I am sure there is a 
>> software switch or configuration option somewhere which is disabling 
>> the HomeRun with MythTV.  Anyone know what might be the problem?
>>
>> GT

>I don't have HDHR, but I note you have an SSD.
>
>In step 7 how did you restart the m/c ? If it was a reboot you might 
>have been hit with a problem of networking not being fully up when 
>mythbackend starts, in which case it only listens on local addresses.
>
>There is a  check you can run to see if this is the problem:
>
>In a terminal run (probably best to check port 6543 as well):
>
>sudo netstat -nlp|grep 6544
>tcp        0      0 192.168.0.20:6544 0.0.0.0:*               
>LISTEN      26862/mythbackend
>tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:6544 0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      
>26862/mythbackend
>tcp6       0      0 fe80::922b:34ff:fe:6544 :::*                    
>LISTEN      26862/mythbackend
>tcp6       0      0 ::1:6544 :::*                    LISTEN      
>26862/mythbackend
>                 :::*                    LISTEN 26862/mythbackend
>
>If you do not see the network IP (192.168.0.20 in my case)  try 
>restarting mythbackend :
>
>sudo systemctl stop mythtv-backend.service
>
>followed by
>
>sudo systemctl start mythtv-backend.service
>
>and rerun
>
>sudo netstat -nlp |grep 6544
>
>On my systems I use /etc/network/interfaces to assign a static IP, 
>rather than using DHCP Reservation on a Router (I found that using a 
>Router assigned IP showed this problem, a static IP setup in 
>/etc/network/interfaces does not).
>
>As I said I do not have HDHR so may be completely off base on this.
>
>
>Mike

I have just been helping someone else who had exactly this problem -
he upgraded to 16.04 and installed an SSD at the same time, and
mythbackend was starting before his tuners were ready (both HDHR and
internal HVR-2200 tuners).  The use of systemd in 16.04 speeds up the
startup of quite a few things, including mythbackend, and an SSD
speeds everything up.  The package file for mythbackend installs a
systemd /lib/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service file that does not
take into account HDHR tuners at all - it has nothing in it to make
mythbackend wait until external networking is up and an IP address has
been assigned.  This is the line it does have:

After=mysqld.service network.target

So it only waits for MySQL to be up and minimal networking.  When
mythbackend starts, it immediately checks all the tuners by trying to
tune each one for a short time.  Any tuner that does not respond is
marked as unavailable.  And it never later checks to see if a tuner
has subsequently become available.  So if mythbackend comes up before
an external IP address is assigned, it will try to talk to the HDHR
tuners before any packets can be sent to them, will get no response,
and will never try to talk to them again.

The solution is to add a new After condition that makes systemd wait
for full networking with an external IP address to be up before it
starts mythbackend.

There is a page here:

https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Systemd_mythbackend_Configuration

that explains how to set up systemd to work with MythTV, but it is
generic rather than directly applying to Mythbuntu 16.04.  The
following is what you need to do in 16.04.

First create a new directory:

sudo mkdir /etc/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service.d

Then in that directory, create a new file mythtv-backend-override.conf
(the name does not matter but the .conf does).  In that file,
put the following two lines:

[Unit]
After=NetworkManager-wait-online.service

What that does is to tell systemd to wait until the
NetworkManager-wait-online service is running.  I believe that file
needs to be owned by root and have restrictive access rights, so you
may need to run these two commands to ensure that it is set up
correctly after you create it:

sudo chown root:root
/etc/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service.d/mythtv-backend-override.conf
sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o=r
/etc/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service.d/mythtv-backend-override.conf

Those two lines are long enough that they may be wrapped by the email
processing.  Make sure they are one long line each when you paste
them.

Next, run this command:

sudo systemctl status NetworkManager-wait-online.service

If the output of that command says that NetworkManager-wait-online is
not running, then it is likely disabled and needs to be enabled (I
believe it is disabled by default in Ubuntu 16.04).  So enable it:

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager-wait-online.service

Then you should be able to reboot and mythbackend will be started much
later after the external IP address is available.


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