Amiko Alien2 / SAB / GM / ST7162 ** ENIGMA ** Discussion Thread

deezell

Slevster wrote: »

Looks like its tinkering time again!


(Mean that in the non racial kind of a way, of course!)

BTW unix script files have to be made executable, as they contain unix commands, this is done with the command 'chmod 755 filename'
I've not looked too close at timeshift, I dont have it on permantly, It seems to just come on of I press pause, then play. There's configuration for this in recording on the main menu I think (permanent timeshift plugin is not on the list, so it must be the built in one?), you can set the device to usb, hdd. There might be a setting for duration, I'll have a look when I get home, but this would resrtrict the file size to say, a number of hours. Maybe it doesn't work like that, just looked at my HDD remotely from work, it has a number of large files, recordings I made, no sign of any residual files from the few times I used time shift, so I assume these files are released when timeshift is turned off. With permanent timeshift I assume it would be different.

Slevster

deezell wrote: »

BTW unix script files have to be made executable, as they contain unix commands, this is done with the command 'chmod 755 filename'
I've not looked too close at timeshift, I dont have it on permantly, It seems to just come on of I press pause, then play. There's configuration for this in recording on the main menu I think (permanent timeshift plugin is not on the list, so it must be the built in one?), you can set the device to usb, hdd. There might be a setting for duration, I'll have a look when I get home, but this would resrtrict the file size to say, a number of hours. Maybe it doesn't work like that, just looked at my HDD remotely from work, it has a number of large files, recordings I made, no sign of any residual files from the few times I used time shift, so I assume these files are released when timeshifte is turned off. With permanent timeshift I assume it would be different.

Actually not sure , how long Timeshift files stick around. But they do get deleted. I have set pt to start 2 secs after turning to a channel (its a must have feature in the house)
Not aware of a duration setting in the baked in time shift. (Haven't used the plugin since v3)
The settings in the "record" sub menu allow you to set how many days a deleted item stays in the trashcan before permanent deletion.

To be honest, its not that big an issue, but at one point, it had built up to about 300gb! (That was before I kept an eye on it!)

championc

All you need to do is add the following to your Crontab

* 2 * * 6 rm /media/hdd/crossepg/*

If you find the directory for Timeshift, you could substitute this for the CrossEPG path. You can get Crontabs to do all sorts of tasks



** The Ideal beginners image - everything you could possibly need all setup and working **
** See Post #2 of this thread or the Readme file in the download directory **

_______________________________________________
Champions OpenATV AA2/7162 Image Download Link - http://goo.gl/j8y5fW

Champions OpenAR-P AA2/7162 Image Download Link - http://goo.gl/2DuVm0
Champions OpenAR-P SAB Solo/8900 Image Download Link - http://goo.gl/up5tIu

deezell

championc wrote: »

All you need to do is add the following to your Crontab

* 2 * * 6 rm /media/hdd/crossepg/*

If you find the directory for Timeshift, you could substitute this for the CrossEPG path. You can get Crontabs to do all sorts of tasks

It should be that simple, but theres no way of knowing if crontab is properly implemented on your image without testing. On Zardoz' image, the command exists, but returns a missing directory structure message, "can't change directory to var/spool/cron/crontabs". Manually creating this structure allows the command to function, and the command 'crontab FILENAME' where filename is a file which contains a line of code like the one above, will place that line in the var/spool/cron/crontabs/root file where all line are stored (it will delete all others though) If you want to add additional lines, you can use FTP to edit the file named 'root' in the crontabs directory, or use the command 'crontab -e' which brings up the editor in telnet. I haven't been able to get any timed events to occur, I've followed the syntax, I've used both FTP and the crontab inbuilt editor, a tricky interface called busybox which operates in Telnet, but I can't get a response. The absence of the directory structure seems to indicate that cron is not installed. An openpli site advises to run the command 'opkg install busybox-cron' but this fails as the busy-box install package file itself is not on the image. I'm not convinced this is the solution, as the busy box editing interface, also known as VI or VIM, seems to work fine and creates and saves lines in crontab/root file. it's just that nothing happens when the timed event arrives.EDIT. I've had a good dig and found a similar scenario for an Enigma box, brand Cuberevo IP 9000. You have to create the directory structure before crontab will work, which I figured, but you also have to run the command crond, which is in folder sbin. This has to added to a user startup script, filename rcS _user on the Cuberevo box which probably corresponds to a file named rcS. on my sab triple. I think the S stands for superuser. I'll have a meddle tomorrow, just run crond command first to see if the timers work, then put it in a likely start up file to see will it work after a reboot. Probably a lot of work for a feature I'm not likely to use, but it would be useful knowledge to have on the thread for all. Btw, theres a timeshift item in the PKT bluepanel menus which has an adjustable slider on it. It's not labelled but I'm guessing it represents the proportion of the hdd to give to timeshift. Might be a simpler solution to the paused overnight box Slevster mentioned which kicked off this quest.

Slevster

deezell wrote: »

...... mentioned which kicked off this quest.

A quest it maybe . however its' way above my payscale ! Fair play.

Not sure what that slider is for. could be timeshift duration . have wondered about it before.

deezell

Slevster wrote: »

A quest it maybe . however its' way above my payscale ! Fair play.

Not sure what that slider is for. could be timeshift duration . have wondered about it before.

Well set it to its smallest, press pause and hit the sack. Check tomorrow what happens and how big the timeshift file is.

Slevster

deezell wrote: »

Well set it to its smallest, press pause and hit the sack. Check tomorrow what happens and how big the timeshift file is.

will look into it and report back

deezell

OK, crontab success. I had to set a path for crond to see the crontab directory.

A quick guide to crontab on the triple, with hyperion Image. There are many flavours of Unix, linux, and many other device images. There are different interpretations of the crontab command, and cron or crond commands/daemons. Heres what worked on this box. crontab is a command for setting up timed events, cron or crond is a command/service, (daemon in Unix speak) which runs in the background and checks the crontab list for events, executing them at the time specified.

Use Telnet from any interface, I used DCC and PC Command Prompt. Login to the box.
Type the command 'crontab -l' . If this returns a 'can't change directory to var/spool/cron/crontabs' error, Create this directory structure as follows. Type 'makedir -p var/spool/cron/crontabs' .
You can add the file named 'root' to this by typing 'touch var/spool/cron/crontabs/root'. This will be created anyway if you invoke the crontab command with a filename or using the crontab editor, (type 'crontab -e' ). Keep away from the editor for the time being

Typing 'crontab -l' should now return an empty list.
The syntax for timed events is MM HH DD MM D followed by commands, or the path and name of a file containing commands (a script)
An asterix can replace any of the timed fields, MM is minutes, HH is hours, DD is date, MM is month, and D is weekday, (0-6 for Sunday to Saturday). the other four fields can be single or double digits, but a single asterix if not used. I'll use the syntax with the times and commands in the line. The next example removes the file named photo.jpg from the hdd at ten past twelve pm every day.

10 12 * * * rm /hdd/photo.jpg

Create a timed event in a seperate file using a text editor on the PC. Type in the line above, save with a filename of your choice to the PC, call it say, myevent. FTP this file to the HDD. FTP the file named in the timer event (photo.jpg) to the hdd. Unix is case sensitive, if the filename is uppercase, then the filename in the timed event must also be uppercase.

To put this event into the crontab list, using Telnet type the command 'crontab /hdd/myevent' . if you FTP'd the file to somewhere else on your box or gave it a different name, use that path and name. Double check that the event exists by typing 'crontab -l'. The event text should be returned. You can use FTP also to check this.

Wait for the event time to elapse and check to see if the file is deleted from the box hdd. If the file has not been deleted, and you have the correct path and file name in your event line, its likely that the crond command is not pointed to the crontab directory.
Type crond or crond -? . This brings up the synatx for crond, if it is on your image. 'crond -c' sets the directory.
Type 'crond -c /var/spool/cron/crontabs' to ensure the crond daemon finds the crontabs/root file where the events are listed. Edit your event file to a future time, say a few minutes away, and resubmit it with the same command, 'crontab /hdd/myevent' or whatever path and filename you used. After the event time has passed, the file named in the event should be deleted. I'm assumimg that the the crond daemon runs in the background when the box is booted. I typed the command 'crond' which in effect runs the busybox binary which implements crond, I assume this is running on startup.

TomPetty

Hi Folks,
Getting a message about upgrading "cooltvguide" at a particular website, whenever I select the EPG button on the Remote.
Have a searched forums for a resolution but cannot find one. Any suggestions ?

Many thanks,
Tom.

how.gareth

TomPetty wrote: »

Hi Folks,
Getting a message about upgrading "cooltvguide" at a particular website, whenever I select the EPG button on the Remote.
Have a searched forums for a resolution but cannot find one. Any suggestions ?

Many thanks,
Tom.

I had the same problem a few months back and I think it was either slevester or zardoz who guided me through it. It was in the previous enigma 2 thread

mrbloop

Hi lads,

anybody got a nice picon for Spike Tv?
Thanks

PS. Is there only certain size picons that work on the Alien 2?

mrbloop

Hi lads,

anybody got a nice picon for Spike Tv?
Thanks

PS. Are there only certain size picons that work on the Alien 2?

Gerry Wicklow

Picons are usually 100x60

Rough Spike picon

techdiver

To follow up on my progress installing the core Hyperion image on my box, I would recommend this approach highly especially for anyone having issues.

My box is snappier, more stable and hasn't crashed once since.

It was quite easy to install and setup (admittedly I'm a software engineer, but I still think it is very manageable for any moderately tech savvy person), in fact it wasn't much more work than flashing some of the images supplied by posters like zardoz, fteshpots, champions etc. The majority of the work was installing a few plug ins (cool tv guide, autobouqets, oscam, etc), and scanning and ordering channels.

I haven't loaded a huge amount onto it, just enough for tv viewing and sharing recordings over my network.

I'm using the default pkt silver skin which seems quite snappy too.

Gerry Wicklow

Updated satellites.xml for recent subtle FEC changes and some QVC channels I had missed. (How can I ever forgive myself :rolleyes:)

EDIT: You must do a full reboot after you ftp this in. Then do a single satellite scan. Current total 968 channels found. Takes about 2 mins to scan.

mass_debater

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Updated satellites.xml for recent subtle FEC changes and some QVC channels I had missed. (How can I ever forgive myself :rolleyes:)

EDIT: You must do a full reboot after you ftp this in. Then do a single satellite scan. Current total 968 channels found. Takes about 2 mins to scan.

Nice one, spotted those FEC changes on my rss feeds yesterday.

Slevster

deezell wrote: »

OK, crontab success. I had to set a path for crond to see the crontab directory.

A quick guide to crontab on the ............

Its posts like yours that make this thread so valuable.
Thanks

Davey123Boy

I have been using crossepg on my amiko alien 2 for the past year with no problems up until 3 weeks ago. Now all it will download is 6-8 hours.
I have tried using a few different images over the past few days to see if this solves it but am getting the same results.
I have now tried HDMU, Hyperion 4.0, Hyperion 4.5, VIX4 and OpenATV but no success.
I am using a 500GD external hard drive which I formatted after I loaded each image.
Am I missing something are is there some new crossepg setting I need to change?

Slevster

Davey123Boy wrote: »

I have been using crossepg on my amiko alien 2 for the past year with no problems up until 3 weeks ago. Now all it will download is 6-8 hours.
I have tried using a few different images over the past few days to see if this solves it but am getting the same results.
I have now tried HDMU, Hyperion 4.0, Hyperion 4.5, VIX4 and OpenATV but no success.
I am using a 500GD external hard drive which I formatted after I loaded each image.
Am I missing something are is there some new crossepg setting I need to change?

Odd that it has happened with different images. Have a look at the following. May be overkill but hopefully should get you back on track (but no promises!)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=94966788&postcount=3405

deezell

Davey123Boy wrote: »

I have been using crossepg on my amiko alien 2 for the past year with no problems up until 3 weeks ago. Now all it will download is 6-8 hours.
I have tried using a few different images over the past few days to see if this solves it but am getting the same results.
I have now tried HDMU, Hyperion 4.0, Hyperion 4.5, VIX4 and OpenATV but no success.
I am using a 500GD external hard drive which I formatted after I loaded each image.
Am I missing something are is there some new crossepg setting I need to change?

The fact that you have the same problems with fresh images would seem to eliminate a software bug. That just leaves the hdd and the system memory. Have you booted into Spark, which is stored in a different part of flash than the Enigma images. There could be a fault in the flash memory. The hdd USB controller and associated input /output code would be common to both though. The operating system runs but fails to complete writes to storage. Is your hdd at fault? Is record and timeshift working? Try using a memory stick instead for epg storage, set it to usb in epg configuration. Perhaps your hdd needs to be mounted, I had this problem that my Hdd did not correspond to the hdd in the image, so the box used flash instead, though the configuration was set to HDD. The flash memory quickly ran out.

Davey123Boy

Thanks for replies.
I have actually tried this on a few different boxes and using different hard drives but get the same result on all.
If I select Rytec France XLMTV as 1 of my XMLTV providers, I get a few hours extra on some channels but that is the best I can get.
I have read that Rytec sources need to be updated, is there any truth to this?
Thanks

deezell

Davey123Boy wrote: »

Thanks for replies.
I have actually tried this on a few different boxes and using different hard drives but get the same result on all.
If I select Rytec France XLMTV as 1 of my XMLTV providers, I get a few hours extra on some channels but that is the best I can get.
I have read that Rytec sources need to be updated, is there any truth to this?
Thanks

One thing is certain, if your'e getting the same bug on different images, boxes and drives, then it's something your'e doing. Are you using vanilla images, and doing all the setup, scanning, pluginns etc. yourself? Have you used a recent user image from here, ready set up which will have very recent files for the Satellite channles. in particular the channel used for downloading the EPG. try Champions image or Zardoz image. Unmount any hard drive listed nad plug in your own and remount, then reassign to crossepg, record and timeshift.

deezell

mass_debater wrote: »

Nice one, spotted those FEC changes on my rss feeds yesterday.

FEC changes on 12110.00 Mhz from 2/3 to 5/6 since yesterday. This is the Sky Sports SD transponder, plus other channels. I think modern boxes autodetect FEC. TV3 now has a TV3+1 on 12305.00 Mhz, Vincent Browne an hour later!
http://en.kingofsat.net/news28.2E.php

Davey123Boy

Would you have a link where I could get that Champions Image or Zardoz Image?

deezell

Davey123Boy wrote: »

Would you have a link where I could get that Champions Image or Zardoz Image?

Championc most recent post is http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=95075670&postcount=3514 He has links in here, or click on his name and search for recent post.
Zardoz posted this in march http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=94611179&postcount=2908

Davey123Boy

Sorry about this. I have already tried Champions Image yesterday and no crossepg and just now have tried Zardoz Image and same result.
When I go in to CrossEpg settings and try to update rytec providers, I get the error message - Cannot retrieve rytec sources.
This seems to be happening on every image that I try.
I'm totally confused because it has been working perfectly up until 3 weeks ago???

deezell

Davey123Boy wrote: »

Sorry about this. I have already tried Champions Image yesterday and no crossepg and just now have tried Zardoz Image and same result.
When I go in to CrossEpg settings and try to update rytec providers, I get the error message - Cannot retrieve rytec sources.
This seems to be happening on every image that I try.
I'm totally confused because it has been working perfectly up until 3 weeks ago???

Have you checked your Internet connection

Davey123Boy

Internet connection fine, all channels working fine and TSmedia hub on box working.
Over the past few weeks I have tried different images on different boxes in different locations to eliminate all possibilities but same result every time - epg will only load for 6 - 8 hours with the exception of maybe 5 channels.
Strangely BBC2 loads for the full 7 days!

Gerry Wicklow

Forget XMLtv and Rytec it's web based and slow to update last minute changes. Use OPENTV and select Sky uk 28 ONLY (forget exact name) which reads the data direct from the satellite. From distant memory, people had issues using more than one source.

Gerry Wicklow

More FEC changes today so satellites.xml updated again. Unusual this late in the week.