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cesman
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 Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:35 pm |
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Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2003 7:05 pm
Posts: 5088
Location:
Fontana, Ca
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Perhaps the doc isn't updated because there is no need to update them? Next time, don't scream my name.
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cesman
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:39 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
Posts: 56
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And, does using the wiki's FrontendOnlyInstall work if the FE is also an SBE? Does anyone know? I can try reinstalling only the FE based on the wiki's instructions, but I have no idea in that case how to handle using the 350 in it as a recorder as well. Ideas?
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:49 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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cesman wrote: Perhaps the doc isn't updated because there is no need to update them?
How can you say that? It mentions files that -do not exist- in a fresh A22 install. Other people have had to start threads patching the instructions for A16, IIRC. mysql.txt appears to be in a different place (or several different places). All of these seem to imply that the instructions there are no longer correct. Shall I list all of the changes since you wrote them? Would you fix it if I did? Note that, since I cannot yet get a working MBE and FE/SBE installation, I don't -know- exactly how they're supposed to read---all I can contribute is where the instructions didn't match the reality of a fresh A22 install on a virgin disk. That makes this whole process much more frustrating than it needs to be.
[I think you're too close to the process to realize where people go wrong, and thus aren't noticing the places where your instructions are either ambiguous or just downright wrong with the current release.]
Failing that, can you give me some debugging clues to figure out -why- my FE can't connect to the MBE? Maybe some programs to run? Files to examine? SQL queries to try? Right now, I'm in a situation where the innards aren't well-documented-enough for me to have a good guess at what I should be seeing, so I'm having great difficulty debugging the situation and hence getting going. I'm an experienced computer scientist with 30 years or more in the field, quite a bit of it in Unix-derived operating systems, but I haven't (yet) been able to sort through all the chaff and get a working MythTV installation with one MBE and one FE/SBE. That should be a hint that there's -something- remiss in the instructions, and saying, "it's just people not reading the instructions" probably isn't the whole story.
Thanks.
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cecil
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:50 pm |
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Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2003 6:37 pm
Posts: 2659
Location:
Whittier, Ca
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One cannot do a frontend only install if the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) system is an SBE (it doesn't make sense).
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ceenvee703
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:14 pm |
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Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:08 am
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greenstalk, I would advise walking before you run and taking things one step at a time.
1) get the master backend (and its frontend) working.
2) get a remote frontend working
3) then, and only then, give a shot to getting a slave backend working, even if that means reinstalling the backend from scratch.
PS: I looked at the LinHES instructions and they looked OK to me. Other than version numbers changing, I didn't see anything that was release specific.
The FrontEnd Only instructions on the wiki are for a frontend only (and in fact provide info on how to shut down the backend on the frontend-only install), but they could give you some ideas on what you need to do or not do.
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:25 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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cecil wrote: One cannot do a frontend only install if the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) system is an SBE (it doesn't make sense).
I'm not doing a "frontend only install" from the A22 ISO; I'm doing an "auto install" on both machines. One machine should become the MBE. One machine should become the FE (it's got the 350, through which I'd like to render the video), and it -also- wants to be an SBE (I think!) so its 350 can also be used to record. Is this the right way to be talking about it? Or will my 350-enabled FE record -without- worry about calling it a slave backend? Is that where I'm going wrong?
(At no time am I trying to do a "frontend only" install from the ISO, if that helps.)
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:37 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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ceenvee703 wrote: greenstalk, I would advise walking before you run and taking things one step at a time.
1) get the master backend (and its frontend) working. I think I've accomplished that. My MBE can show me live video, although only to the machine's monitor, since it's only got PVR-250's in it. Quote: 2) get a remote frontend working So far, my attempts at doing so (starting from an Auto Install) have yielded "cannot connect to the backend" sorts of errors. I have -not- tried to do a frontend-only install; I'm not sure if that's what you're advocating above. Quote: 3) then, and only then, give a shot to getting a slave backend working, even if that means reinstalling the backend from scratch. Why would installing an SBE require doing anything to the MBE? (Or, to put it another way, what about an MBE's configuration must change when one adds an SBE?) Quote: PS: I looked at the LinHES instructions and they looked OK to me. Other than version numbers changing, I didn't see anything that was release specific. They appear to talk about editing /home/mythtv/.mythtv/mysql.txt, but there's another copy of that in /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt Should they be identical? Should one be a symlink to the other? On one of my machines, the copy in /home/mythtv/.mythtv/ wasn't there at all; I won't -swear- that I didn't somehow rename it elsewhere by accident, but it seems unlikely. (I'll probably be trying a reinstall of the FE machine soon, so I'll at least look there and see what's going on with it.) There's a mention in the SBE section of "vi mysql.txt" with no directory at all. I'm -presuming- the implied dir was /home/mythtv/.mythtv/, but see above wrt /etc/mythtv/ confusions. They mention doing "rm -fr MythVideo" in /home/mythtv/.mythv (and then creating symlinks), but that file never existed in the first place for me. Was this just caution from a prior installation, or did the structure change such that that directory isn't used any more, and hence the symlink won't be noticed, either? This is unclear to me. And, of course, the kicker is that I followed these instructions as closely as possible, but wasn't left with a working configuration. I'm still trying to figure out how to -debug- that nonworking configuration; the top-priority question is, "why does my FE complain that it can't see the MBEs database?" Since the NFS mounts are working, and they have identical host tables, it's presumably some SQL misconfiguration, but I can't find it. Quote: The FrontEnd Only instructions on the wiki are for a frontend only (and in fact provide info on how to shut down the backend on the frontend-only install), but they could give you some ideas on what you need to do or not do.
Okay. I won't try to use the wiki's frontend-only instructions. (Unless my question above about "how does the 350 get used for recording?" is answered "it will be used for recording by the MBE even if the machine it's on is claimed to be strictly a FE", in which case I -will- try the wiki's frontend-only instructions and see if that helps.
Thanks!
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:50 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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Another datapoint: on my FE/SBE, I can do this:
Code: root@myth-frontend:/var/log# su mythtv
sh-3.00$ mysql -h mbe -p
Enter password: mythtv
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 49 to server version: 4.0.22-log
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
mysql> ?
AND YET---if I then start mythfront on that machine and click on "Watch TV", I get "Could not connect to the master backend server -- is it running? Is the IP address set for it in the setup program correct?"
Does ANYONE have a clue what could be going on here?
[If I kill mythfront and run mythtv-setup on the FE/SBE, then go to General, the very first page claims that SBE's addr is 192.168.0.21, and the Master Server IP Address is 192.168.0.20. Both of these are correct. I can't tell if for some wacky reason my FE/SBE might be using some other password than mythtv, and I can't find anyplace that might be logging failed connection attempts on either end; I've look in the logfiles in /var/log on both ends and seen nothing. Hyyeeelp!]
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ceenvee703
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:12 pm |
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Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:08 am
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Location:
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It's definitely the blind leading the blind here but let me try anyway.
Unless something major has changed about the A22 ISO (which is possible, I haven't looked at it yet), there is no such thing as a choosable "front end only" install from the KnoppMyth CD. You can choose to boot the CD as a front end machine, but you still have to have an operating back end AND have to make the modifications to it described in the FrontEndOnly wiki page.
No, if you want your second front end to also use its PVR350 to record as well as play back, it has to be a slave back end to the MBE you've already got going.
If you can't get the 350-containing machine working as a frontend-only machine, though (even just by booting the KnoppMyth CD as a remote frontend) I doubt you'll have much luck getting it working as a slave backend. Again, the "crawl, then walk" method I described.
Quote: Why would installing an SBE require doing anything to the MBE?
The MBE configuration MUST change to let it know about the slave backend. That's described in the LinHES directions. I've never tried it, but cesman is KnoppMyth's author, I think he might know from whereof he speaks.
There aren't two copies of mysql.txt. There's one real copy and one symlink. Editing either results in changing the one real copy.
You only have to muck with MythVideo directories if you plan on sharing them from your backends to your frontends. Again, can't tell you if anything significant has changed here. If the directory isn't where it says, look around for where it is now.
If you haven't tried reinstalling the master backend, I would nuke it and reinstall and start from scratch. I can't tell you how to debug it, I can just say that the only way I got comfortable with doing the KnoppMyth install procedure was to do it OVER AND OVER and take copious notes.
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:29 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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ceenvee703 wrote: It's definitely the blind leading the blind here but let me try anyway.
Unless something major has changed about the A22 ISO (which is possible, I haven't looked at it yet), there is no such thing as a choosable "front end only" install from the KnoppMyth CD. You can choose to boot the CD as a front end machine, but you still have to have an operating back end AND have to make the modifications to it described in the FrontEndOnly wiki page.
No, if you want your second front end to also use its PVR350 to record as well as play back, it has to be a slave back end to the MBE you've already got going. RIght, and that's precisely what I'm trying to do. Both installs were the "Auto Install" from the A22 ISO. One of them (the MBE) seems to be working. The other one (which I'm -calling- FE or SBE) can't watch TV and complains it can't talk to the MBE. Quote: If you can't get the 350-containing machine working as a frontend-only machine, though (even just by booting the KnoppMyth CD as a remote frontend) I doubt you'll have much luck getting it working as a slave backend. Again, the "crawl, then walk" method I described. Ah, that's an idea; I'll try booting the CD and tell it to be a frontend-only without having it actually try to do an install, and see what it does. Quote: Why would installing an SBE require doing anything to the MBE? Quote: The MBE configuration MUST change to let it know about the slave backend. That's described in the LinHES directions. I've never tried it, but cesman is KnoppMyth's author, I think he might know from whereof he speaks.
There aren't two copies of mysql.txt. There's one real copy and one symlink. Editing either results in changing the one real copy. Not that I saw, but maybe editing one broke the symlink and I failed to notice. (I can't recall if I edited it with Emacs or nano before I had Emacs installed.) Quote: You only have to muck with MythVideo directories if you plan on sharing them from your backends to your frontends. Again, can't tell you if anything significant has changed here. If the directory isn't where it says, look around for where it is now.
If you haven't tried reinstalling the master backend, I would nuke it and reinstall and start from scratch. I can't tell you how to debug it, I can just say that the only way I got comfortable with doing the KnoppMyth install procedure was to do it OVER AND OVER and take copious notes.
Yeah, well, I'm trying not to have to reinstall -both- machines over and over with no clue as to what part of the procedure is defective; it takes at least an hour of futzing with each one to run a test if I'm doing that, and I've -already- done half a dozen reinstalls as it is...
What I REALLY want is somebody who has a WORKING configuration (preferably in A22) so I can compare config files. That sort of thing should presumably isolate the problem really fast. But so far, no one has volunteered...
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:20 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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Well, -this- is interesting...
I disconnected the hard disk on the FE/SBE machine (so the installer couldn't overwrite it if I screwed up), and booted the A22 CDROM and picked the top menu item (e.g,. FrontEndOnly or whatever it's called). I told it that the machine name should be "sbe", that the backend machine's IP was 192.168.0.20, and configured IP address/netmask/broadcast/gateway/nameserver manually (no DHCP), which is what I did for the FE/SBE whenI installed to disk.
Same behavior when I try "Watch TV"---it complains "cannot connect to the backend."
BUT IT -IS- CONNECTING TO THE BACKEND. When I installed the backend, I picked whatever option in some setup menu that says "log all SQL events". I noticed that /var/log/mysql/mysql.log was up to 65+ megabytes in a few hours, and still going, because every 30-60 seconds a dozen lines of logging or so are being added. So I did "tail -f /var/log/mysql/mysql.log", waited for one of the regular log entries, and then hit return on the "Watch TV" menu item on the FE/SBE.
Bam! Dozens of lines, instantly, in the SQL log, all mentioning the SBE. I'm including them below. I have no idea what I -should- be seeing, but it's looking like something is seriously wrong with the error message I'm getting back---instead of "can't connect" it should probably be saying "not getting something I want from all the crapola the database is telling me", or something. I don't know, since I don't have a working test case yet...
Code: 051026 23:07:26 54 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'CustomFilters' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FastForwardAmount' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'RewindAmount' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'JumpAmount' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'UseOutputPictureControls' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'SmartChannelChange' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'IndividualMuteControl' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'UseArrowAccels' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'PersistentBrowseMode' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'OSDDisplayTime' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'AutoCommercialSkip' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'TryUnflaggedSkip' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'TryUnflaggedSkip' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'SmartForward' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'StickyKeys' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewReposTime' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewReverse' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed0' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed0' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed1' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed1' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed2' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed2' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed3' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed3' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed4' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed4' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed5' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed5' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed6' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed6' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed7' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'FFRewSpeed7' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'CCBufferWarnings' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'CCWarnThresh' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'CCWarnThresh' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'VbiFormat' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'VbiFormat' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'GuiSizeForTV' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'UseVideoModes' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'GuiResolution' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'GuiResolution' AND hostname IS NULL
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'GuiWidth' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'GuiHeight' AND hostname = 'sbe'
55 Query SELECT NULL
55 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'WatchTVGuide' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'MasterServerIP' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'MasterServerIP' AND hostname IS NULL
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'MasterServerPort' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'MasterServerPort' AND hostname IS NULL
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'WOLbackendReconnectWaitTime' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'WOLbackendReconnectWaitTime' AND hostname IS NULL
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'WOLbackendConnectRetry' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'WOLbackendConnectRetry' AND hostname IS NULL
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'UseArrowAccels' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'PopupHeightPadding' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'PopupHeightPadding' AND hostname IS NULL
54 Query SELECT NULL
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'PopupWidthPadding' AND hostname = 'sbe'
54 Query SELECT data FROM settings WHERE value = 'PopupWidthPadding' AND hostname IS NULL
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cesman
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:57 pm |
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Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2003 7:05 pm
Posts: 5088
Location:
Fontana, Ca
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Other than trying to get under my skin, what are you trying to accomplish? I try to make the instructions as simple as I can (I'm working on greating expanding the instructions)... If folks need to rewritten them so other can understand, that is fine. Sorry I'm not a technical writer. I'm just some guy working in his spare time so other can enjoy the benefits of a set-top box.
With every upgrade, I follow the same directions myself. If I don't think the instructions need to be change, they don't need to be changed. I'm not going to have an argument over this. If the change ~/.myth/mysql.txt to /usr/share/mythtv.txt has you tripped up, then I am sorry. I don't care for your tone at all. . This is my forum. If you don't like it, I you have options (Fedora, Gentoo, Slackware, etc)... Before you respond, I suggest you take a breath and think about it
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cesman
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!
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greenstalk
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:34 pm |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
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I'm not trying to get under your skin at all. I'm just trying to figure out (a) if the directions are complete, correct, and unambiguous, and (b) why I can't seem to get a working installation by following them. I found them somewhat puzzling. Maybe it's just me---which is why I'm trying to get some feedback on what could possibly be going wrong such that I'm seeing the behavior I'm seeing. But on the other hand, no one has answered many of the simple questions I've asked, so it's hard to tell.
And if it's possible to change them somewhat so it's clearer what's going on, how could that be a problem? Unfortunately, since I'm only halfway through debugging whatever it going on here, I can't (quite) figure out if there's something missing in the directions, if I failed to follow them correctly, or if A22 changed something such that what I'm trying to do won't work no matter how scrupulously I follow your directions. That's part of why I'm posting my debugging so far. (And if you're expanding them, great! If I can be of help in finding confusing/missing/ambiguous parts, just ask.)
You mention "upgrade". Are you starting from fresh installs onto repartitioned disks via the ISOs, or are you doing some sort of upgrade that doesn't involve wiping the disk(s)? I'd guess the latter (since otherwise you might lose all your recordings, etc), and I'm wondering if that's covering up some incompatible change in what's going on with a fresh install from A22.
Either that, or I'm fundamentally confused, in which case I'd like to become un-confused. (For example, I'm still trying to figure out if a normal frontend's card(s) will be automatically used by the MBE for recording, or if any cards on a machine being used as a frontend must also be thought of by the MBE as an SBE. I'd guess the latter---but things aren't working. And I don't yet know why not.)
I'm also trying to figure out why my FE/SBE is clearly talking to the SQL server on the MBE (see the giant log of queries in my previous post), and yet the FE/SBE is claiming that it can't talk to it and asking me to check its IP address, etc. I'm at somewhat of an impasse in debugging this at the moment.
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ceenvee703
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:03 am |
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Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:08 am
Posts: 1637
Location:
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greenstalk wrote: no one has answered many of the simple questions I've asked, so it's hard to tell. What am I, chopped liver? Since you booted with the CD as a remote frontend, and since that didn't work, your master backend is not configured properly. As I said, it's highly likely that it got mucked up somehow when you had two backends running. You have two courses of action: continue trying to ask what's wrong with your current setup and how to fix it, or wipe the slate clean and do a clean install of your master backend. I would say that the latter course of action would be more time-efficient, particularly since your problems seem to have no easy answers (or you'd have gotten one). Note I said clean install, not an upgrade--unless you want to preserve any shows you've already recorded, and yes that's the distinction between an "auto install" and an "auto upgrade"--upgrade preserves the partition that holds your shows and restores settings, assuming you've backed them up via the KnoppMyth menu. But at this point I think a clean install is your best option to confirm any bad settings have been wiped out and not restored. Quote: I'm still trying to figure out if a normal frontend's card(s) will be automatically used by the MBE for recording, or if any cards on a machine being used as a frontend must also be thought of by the MBE as an SBE
I thought I answered that adequately too. A front end has nothing to do with doing the recording, therefore has nothing to do with tuner cards. If you have tuner cards in two (or more) machines, one must be a master backend, and the other(s) must be a slave backend.
So, one more time, and then I give. I would recommend reinstalling your backend from scratch. Test. Make sure it's working as a frontend and backend. Then reconfigure it so that remote frontends will work.
http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/?id=KnoppM ... l#frontend
Boot your remote machine as a remote frontend. Test. Does it work? Great. Then follow LinHES directions for getting Machine 1 working as a master backend and Machine 2 working as a slave backend.
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greenstalk
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:56 am |
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Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:47 am
Posts: 56
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greenstalk wrote: no one has answered many of the simple questions I've asked, so it's hard to tell. Quote: What am I, chopped liver? Of course not... :) One of my questions was, "which mysql.txt file is really used?" See the diff at the bottom of this posting. Nobody's answered this definitively yet, unless I missed it somewhere. Another is, "by changing, on the MBE, DBHostName=localhost in mysql.txt [which one? good question] to DBHostName=192.168.0.20 [the MBE's IP address], did I break something?" Ordinarily, I'd assume that changing localhost to the machine's actual own IP could never break anything, but I've realized in the last half-hour that LINHES says -nothing- about changing mysql.txt files -on the MBE- and I wonder if that might have been my problem. (Though changing both copies back, one by one, and rebooting in between has not made the FE talk to the MBE, so I doubt it.) The other, which I -think- you've now answered, is "Once you've set up a MBE, and a FE-running-only-from-CD-and-not-from-the-hard-disk can talk to it, it -should- work to Auto Install to disk on the FE machine, follow LINHES to make that FE -also- be a SBE, and -then- it -should- work to select "Watch TV" on this combined FE/SBE, and the MBE will -also- be able to use the FE/SBE's tuner to record." Is that right? In other words, there's nothing broken in my assumptions about how this architecture is supposed to work, right? Ordinarily I'd have had no doubt about this, but so far it hasn't worked for me. In other words, if things are properly set up, "Watch TV" should never err on -every- Myth on the network, right? Quote: Since you booted with the CD as a remote frontend, and since that didn't work, your master backend is not configured properly. As I said, it's highly likely that it got mucked up somehow when you had two backends running. Yeah, and frobbing around with it hasn't fixed it yet, so I'm about to follow your advice and reinstall the backend. [Note that -every- time, I've done a full Auto Install, including having the installer completely wipe and repartition the disks, since I have no recordings yet and won't until I get this MBE/SBE thing sorted out.] After the MBE has been reinstalled by the installer (and after I've installed Emacs on it and, I think, done nothing else), I'll try booting the FE machine again from the CD, selecting the diskless FE-only option (the top one on the menu, whatever it's called), and seeing if it can talk to the MBE. If it -can't-, well, then there's more debugging to do... Does this procedure sound correct? I'll be back in about an hour or so, maybe less, depending on how long it takes to reinstall the MBE. (This also involves various recabling since I'm short on CD drives, which is one reason I have to reboot the FE after I've reinstalled the MBE---I need to steal the CD from the FE to -do- the MBE reinstall... :) Quote: I'm still trying to figure out if a normal frontend's card(s) will be automatically used by the MBE for recording, or if any cards on a machine being used as a frontend must also be thought of by the MBE as an SBE Quote: I thought I answered that adequately too. A front end has nothing to do with doing the recording, therefore has nothing to do with tuner cards. If you have tuner cards in two (or more) machines, one must be a master backend, and the other(s) must be a slave backend. Okay, this matches my understanding. I was just trying to make sure that whether a machine was being used as a FE had no connection at all with whether it was or wasn't an SBE, and it seems you're saying that there is indeed no connection. (Again, that was my original assumption---until it didn't work). Quote: So, one more time, and then I give. I would recommend reinstalling your backend from scratch. Test. Make sure it's working as a frontend and backend. Then reconfigure it so that remote frontends will work. http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/?id=KnoppM ... l#frontendBoot your remote machine as a remote frontend. Test. Does it work? Great. Then follow LinHES directions for getting Machine 1 working as a master backend and Machine 2 working as a slave backend. Will do. Back in an hour.
P.S. Here are the two mysql.txt files I found in the filesystem of my current FE, which is booted off the CD (no hard drive connected) in its FE-only mode. I haven't edited either one of them, but they're quite different---it's apparent that the installer is modifying one of them and leaving the other alone.. What I -don't- know is whether it's guaranteed that nothing looks at the one that isn't getting modified---the worst case would be that they're each getting used under different circumstances. I can't provide equivalent data from an actual Auto Install because I've muddied the waters with my debugging, but I'll be able to do so after I've reinstalled the MBE. Note that in addition to IP addresses, the passwords show up in different places, a string with ' ' around it (though commented-out) has backslashes before the ticks in one case, some lines have trailing whitespace that isn't in the other file, there's this mysterious DBType field that I dunno matters, etc.
Code: --- /etc/mythtv/mysql.txt 2005-09-11 20:51:48.000000000 -0400
+++ /home/knoppix/.mythtv/mysql.txt 2005-10-26 23:46:17.455961750 -0400
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
-DBHostName=localhost
+DBHostName=192.168.0.20
DBUserName=mythtv
+DBPassword=mythtv
DBName=mythconverg
+DBType=QMYSQL3
# Set the following if you want to use something other than the
# machine's real hostname for identifying settings in the database.
@@ -8,21 +10,20 @@
# you'll need to reconfigure mythtv (or futz with the DB) every time.
# TWO HOSTS MUST NOT USE THE SAME VALUE
#
-#LocalHostName=my-unique-identifier-goes-here
+LocalHostName=sbe
-# If you want your frontend to be able to wake your MySQL server
+# If you want your frontend to be able to wake your MySQL server
# using WakeOnLan, have a look at the following settings:
#
-# Set the time the frontend waits (in seconds) beetween reconnect tries.
+# Set the time the frontend waits (in seconds) between reconnect tries.
# This should be the rough time your MySQL server needs for startup
#WOLsqlReconnectWaitTime=0
#
#
-# This is the amount of retries to wake the MySQL server until the frontend
+# This is the amount of retries to wake the MySQL server until the frontend
# gives up
#WOLsqlConnectRetry=5
#
#
-# This is the command executed to wake your MySQL server.
-#WOLsqlCommand=echo \'WOLsqlServerCommand not set\'
-DBPassword=mythtv
+# This is the command executed to wake your MySQL server.
+#WOLsqlCommand=echo 'WOLsqlServerCommand not set'
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