Mailing List Archive

On Mon, 26 Oct 2015 07:41:07 +1300, you wrote:

>I upgraded my Mythbuntu install from 14.04 to 15.04 yesterday and have
>run into a couple of problems that might interest people.
>
>1) Due to the change to systemd Mythtv doesn't auto start after boot.
> I'm currently manually starting it using sudo systemctl start
>mythtv-backend
>
>2) Mythweb failed with an unhelpful error in the log 'PHP Fatal error:
>Call to a member function query_col' which is usually related to having
>an incorrect password configured. In this case though it seems to be
>caused by too low a php memory_limit set
>in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mythweb.conf
>
>I changed the old default from 32M to the new default of 64M and it now
>works. The configuration line now reads as
>
> php_value memory_limit 64M
>
>Regards
>Mark

I just checked my php_value memory_limit and it was already set to
64M. But the timestamp on the mythweb.conf file was today at the
right time for when I did an apt-get update, so I think the 14.04
0.27-fixes repo already has this fix. Maybe the 15.04 0.27-fixes repo
will also have a fix for your systemd problem.

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On Mon, 2015-10-26 at 11:01 +1300, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Oct 2015 07:41:07 +1300, you wrote:
>
> >I upgraded my Mythbuntu install from 14.04 to 15.04 yesterday and have
> >run into a couple of problems that might interest people.
> >
> >1) Due to the change to systemd Mythtv doesn't auto start after boot.
> > I'm currently manually starting it using sudo systemctl start
> >mythtv-backend
> >
> >2) Mythweb failed with an unhelpful error in the log 'PHP Fatal error:
> >Call to a member function query_col' which is usually related to having
> >an incorrect password configured. In this case though it seems to be
> >caused by too low a php memory_limit set
> >in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mythweb.conf
> >
> >I changed the old default from 32M to the new default of 64M and it now
> >works. The configuration line now reads as
> >
> > php_value memory_limit 64M
> >
> >Regards
> >Mark
>
> I just checked my php_value memory_limit and it was already set to
> 64M. But the timestamp on the mythweb.conf file was today at the
> right time for when I did an apt-get update, so I think the 14.04
> 0.27-fixes repo already has this fix. Maybe the 15.04 0.27-fixes repo
> will also have a fix for your systemd problem.

I'm already using (and was on 14.04)
http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppa/mythtv_0.27 so unless there's a
different fixes PPA it never updated my configuration value.

Another problem I've discovered was that external mythtv front ends couldn't connect.
This was due to two problems.
3) UFW firewall is now active on Ubuntu 15.04 and it blocks mysql, for now
I'm disabling the firewall as there's a few other things on my machine that
are probably blocked that shouldn't be.
sudo ufw disable
4) A different mysql configuration is being used and I had to comment out the bind
address line in it to expose mysql databases.
vi /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf
#bind-address = 127.0.0.1









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On Mon, 2015-10-26 at 17:56 +1300, Mark wrote:
> On Mon, 2015-10-26 at 11:01 +1300, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> > On Mon, 26 Oct 2015 07:41:07 +1300, you wrote:
> >
> > >I upgraded my Mythbuntu install from 14.04 to 15.04 yesterday and have
> > >run into a couple of problems that might interest people.
> > >
> > >1) Due to the change to systemd Mythtv doesn't auto start after boot.
> > > I'm currently manually starting it using sudo systemctl start
> > >mythtv-backend
> > >
> > >2) Mythweb failed with an unhelpful error in the log 'PHP Fatal error:
> > >Call to a member function query_col' which is usually related to having
> > >an incorrect password configured. In this case though it seems to be
> > >caused by too low a php memory_limit set
> > >in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mythweb.conf
> > >
> > >I changed the old default from 32M to the new default of 64M and it now
> > >works. The configuration line now reads as
> > >
> > > php_value memory_limit 64M
> > >
> > >Regards
> > >Mark
> >
> > I just checked my php_value memory_limit and it was already set to
> > 64M. But the timestamp on the mythweb.conf file was today at the
> > right time for when I did an apt-get update, so I think the 14.04
> > 0.27-fixes repo already has this fix. Maybe the 15.04 0.27-fixes repo
> > will also have a fix for your systemd problem.
>
> I'm already using (and was on 14.04)
> http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppa/mythtv_0.27 so unless there's a
> different fixes PPA it never updated my configuration value.
>
> Another problem I've discovered was that external mythtv front ends couldn't connect.
> This was due to two problems.
> 3) UFW firewall is now active on Ubuntu 15.04 and it blocks mysql, for now
> I'm disabling the firewall as there's a few other things on my machine that
> are probably blocked that shouldn't be.
> sudo ufw disable
> 4) A different mysql configuration is being used and I had to comment out the bind
> address line in it to expose mysql databases.
> vi /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf
> #bind-address = 127.0.0.1

I've got mythbackend auto starting after reboot now. There were a few
owner ship changes required (eg sudo chown -R mythtv /var/log/mythtv
among others) and several main problems with setup that have been a pain
to work around as systemd seems geared up towards detecting jobs have
been asked to start and not so much functionality around whether they
are now usable. The changes I've made seem a little bit hacky but at
least it's working for me now (just got to sort out mythweb access,
currently I have mythweb internally or externally available, not both at
the same time though!)


1) Getting it to wait for mysql
Before ExecStart I've added the following
to /etc/systemd/system/mythtv-backend.service (base file copied from
mythtv website)


ExecStartPre=/usr/share/mysql/mysql-systemd-start post

From what I've read this isn't desirable as it looks like long
running ExecStartPre jobs can be killed. I've also set

After=network.target mysql.service NetworkManager-wait-online.service
user_hdhomerun.service sys-subsystem-net-devices-dvb0.frontend0.device
sys-subsystem-net-devices-dvb1.frontend0.device

2) Created /etc/udev/rules.d/99-mythbackend.rules (this probably doesn't
come into play as HD Homerun takes a lot longer to start)

#Create systemd device units for capture devices
#
SUBSYSTEM=="video4linux", TAG+="systemd"
SUBSYSTEM=="dvb", TAG+="systemd",
ENV{SYSTEMD_ALIAS}+="/sys/subsystem/net/devices/$kernel"
#SUBSYSTEM=="dvb", TAG+="systemd"
SUBSYSTEM=="firewire", TAG+="systemd"

3) Created /etc/systemd/system/user_hdhomerun.service

[Unit]
Description=Check if HDHomeRun device is available
After=network.target sys-subsystem-net-devices-eth1.device

[Service]
#oneshot will cause any dependencies to wait
Type=oneshot

#RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/bin/waitForHDHomeRun.sh
#Restart=always
#RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

4) Created /usr/bin/waitForHDHomeRun.sh (and done chmod
+x /usr/bin/waitForHDHomeRun.sh)

#!/bin/bash
echo "Waiting for HD Homerun"
/usr/bin/hdhomerun_config discover

while [ $? -ne 0 ]; do
sleep 10s
/usr/bin/hdhomerun_config discover
done

echo "Found HD Homerun"



That'll teach me for doing an update!!!




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On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 7:41 AM, Mark <markk@kc.net.nz> wrote:

> I upgraded my Mythbuntu install from 14.04 to 15.04 yesterday and have
> run into a couple of problems that might interest people.
>
>
I really do have to wonder why anyone on a myth backend machine would move
from an LTS version of ubuntu to a non LTS version.



> 1) Due to the change to systemd Mythtv doesn't auto start after boot.
> I'm currently manually starting it using sudo systemctl start
> mythtv-backend
>
> 2) Mythweb failed with an unhelpful error in the log 'PHP Fatal error:
> Call to a member function query_col' which is usually related to having
> an incorrect password configured. In this case though it seems to be
> caused by too low a php memory_limit set
> in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mythweb.conf
>
> I changed the old default from 32M to the new default of 64M and it now
> works. The configuration line now reads as
>
> php_value memory_limit 64M
>
> Regards
> Mark
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtvnz mailing list
> mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
> Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/
>

> On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 7:41 AM, Mark <markk@kc.net.nz> wrote:
>
>> I upgraded my Mythbuntu install from 14.04 to 15.04 yesterday and have
>> run into a couple of problems that might interest people.
>>
>>
> I really do have to wonder why anyone on a myth backend machine would move
> from an LTS version of ubuntu to a non LTS version.
>
>
snipped
> Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/
>

Some people want to tutu, some people want to be bleeding edge. In my case
I’m a software engineer whose server is also my primary server and desktop
(if we ever complete renovations that will be split out, I even have the
box for it...) and at times I want certain software upgraded and it’s a
trade off between how it can be done (eg manually download and upgrade one
or multiple packages or do a distribution update if manual install is more
problematic). Sometimes even staying on a LTS version you can encounter
problems, as I encountered with libcec1 on my myth frontend the other day
although generally this is rare :-)

Hopefully my last remaining mythtv problem, an issue with mythweb has been
solved. The Directory value in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mythweb.conf
was slightly different to what it previously was, <Directory
"/var/www/html/mythweb/" > versus <Directory "/var/www/mythweb/" >. The
sympton was interesting, logging in on the local network I saw php script
contents and logging in from an external network I saw the correct mythweb
page, adding or removing '/html' swapped around how it worked.
I took a guess that adding an alias might get it working and my
mythweb.conf now contains an alias line before the directory line.

Alias /mythweb/ "/var/www/html/mythweb/"
<Directory "/var/www/html/mythweb/" >




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Mark Kendall wrote:
>> I really do have to wonder why anyone on a myth backend machine would
>> move from an LTS version of ubuntu to a non LTS version.

> Some people want to tutu, some people want to be bleeding edge. In my case
> I’m a software engineer whose server is also my primary server and desktop
> .....

You need a separate mythbox. Or you need a separate dev box.... same
effect.

My backend does only two things - both of which are fire and forget.
* Myth backend functions
* backuppc

My desktop does all the hard work of testing things, and my general
purpose server does mail and disk shares and web serving etc.

Separation is a good thing, increases SOAF and CAF etc. (that's new PC
version of WAF :)

--
Criggie

http://criggie.org.nz/




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On Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:18:17 +1300, you wrote:

>
>Mark Kendall wrote:
>>> I really do have to wonder why anyone on a myth backend machine would
>>> move from an LTS version of ubuntu to a non LTS version.
>
>> Some people want to tutu, some people want to be bleeding edge. In my case
>> I’m a software engineer whose server is also my primary server and desktop
>> .....
>
>You need a separate mythbox. Or you need a separate dev box.... same
>effect.
>
>My backend does only two things - both of which are fire and forget.
> * Myth backend functions
> * backuppc
>
>My desktop does all the hard work of testing things, and my general
>purpose server does mail and disk shares and web serving etc.
>
>Separation is a good thing, increases SOAF and CAF etc. (that's new PC
>version of WAF :)

But separate PCs increases your power bill and takes up more of your
house. And an extra PC is going to cost $$$ to buy and then more $
every few years to update.

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On 30/10/15 23:03, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> But separate PCs increases your power bill and takes up more of your
> house. And an extra PC is going to cost $$$ to buy and then more $
> every few years to update.

Fair call - so you have no more than one of anything in your house?

And the value of a server that serves as expected all the time far
outweighs the power cost.

If you're serious about the power cost, look at a virtualisation
environment like KVM where the hosts are separate, but you can still
allocate your tuner cards to one stable VM.

criggie@thionite:~/Downloads$ ruptime
mythbackend up 427+11:07, 0 users, load 0.05, 0.17, 0.25 Backend
caffeine up 112+00:14, 0 users, load 3.04, 3.00, 2.52 GP
linux server
thionite up 29+11:56, 0 users, load 0.78, 1.23, 1.29 Desktop
tv2 up 249+02:04, 0 users, load 0.38, 0.50, 0.50 Frontend

--
Criggie

http://criggie.org.nz/


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Get a raspberry pi for the front end (kodi), low power low maintenance you
can power it from the tvs usb port and use the tv's remote (if you have CEC)

On 30 October 2015 at 23:03, Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent@jsw.gen.nz>
wrote:

> On Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:18:17 +1300, you wrote:
>
> >
> >Mark Kendall wrote:
> >>> I really do have to wonder why anyone on a myth backend machine would
> >>> move from an LTS version of ubuntu to a non LTS version.
> >
> >> Some people want to tutu, some people want to be bleeding edge. In my
> case
> >> I’m a software engineer whose server is also my primary server and
> desktop
> >> .....
> >
> >You need a separate mythbox. Or you need a separate dev box.... same
> >effect.
> >
> >My backend does only two things - both of which are fire and forget.
> > * Myth backend functions
> > * backuppc
> >
> >My desktop does all the hard work of testing things, and my general
> >purpose server does mail and disk shares and web serving etc.
> >
> >Separation is a good thing, increases SOAF and CAF etc. (that's new PC
> >version of WAF :)
>
> But separate PCs increases your power bill and takes up more of your
> house. And an extra PC is going to cost $$$ to buy and then more $
> every few years to update.
>
> _______________________________________________
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>



--
"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely
pointless. " - Calvin

On Sat, 31 Oct 2015 09:46:23 +1300, you wrote:

>On 30/10/15 23:03, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>> But separate PCs increases your power bill and takes up more of your
>> house. And an extra PC is going to cost $$$ to buy and then more $
>> every few years to update.
>
>Fair call - so you have no more than one of anything in your house?
>
>And the value of a server that serves as expected all the time far
>outweighs the power cost.
>
>If you're serious about the power cost, look at a virtualisation
>environment like KVM where the hosts are separate, but you can still
>allocate your tuner cards to one stable VM.
>
>criggie@thionite:~/Downloads$ ruptime
>mythbackend up 427+11:07, 0 users, load 0.05, 0.17, 0.25 Backend
>caffeine up 112+00:14, 0 users, load 3.04, 3.00, 2.52 GP
>linux server
>thionite up 29+11:56, 0 users, load 0.78, 1.23, 1.29 Desktop
>tv2 up 249+02:04, 0 users, load 0.38, 0.50, 0.50 Frontend

The MythTV devs do not support virtualisation - they have found it
causes too many problems. Although I have seen several people on the
mailing list saying they have the backend virtualised.

Personally, I have 4 PCs 24x7 at my place (my MythTV box, my mother's
MythTV box, my old OS/2 server box, and my Windows box). But the
power bill would be scary if I was having to pay it ($340 for
October).

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On 31/10/15 15:14, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> The MythTV devs do not support virtualisation - they have found it
> causes too many problems. Although I have seen several people on the
> mailing list saying they have the backend virtualised.
Fair enough - virtualise the dev environment instead, and reap the
benefits of snapshots and rollbacks.
You can run mythtv in the host machine, and use KVM or docker or PVs for
the virtuals.

> Personally, I have 4 PCs 24x7 at my place (my MythTV box, my mother's
> MythTV box, my old OS/2 server box, and my Windows box). But the
> power bill would be scary if I was having to pay it ($340 for October).

Someone's paying for it.

--
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http://criggie.org.nz/


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On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 03:14:43PM +1300, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>
> Personally, I have 4 PCs 24x7 at my place (my MythTV box, my mother's
> MythTV box, my old OS/2 server box, and my Windows box). But the
> power bill would be scary if I was having to pay it ($340 for
> October).

Ouch! Are you saying the bill would be way less if you didn't have those
computers running? For example, I have two laptops on all the time, and
recently just turned off an old 586 compacq which was acting as a
database server, and I'd estimate that my highest bill would be
somewhere in the vicinity of $112.

OK, I don't run any mythtv stuff (gotta get around to that one day.) but
I'd be surprised if it was *that* much of a power hog. I'd definitely be
looking elsewhere to see what is using so much power.

One laptop I've got running 24x7 is only job is doing folding at home,
and the fan is running full on at least every minute or so for a few
seconds. I must get one of those thingamajigs which you put between the
device and the plug, and tells you the power usage.

--
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people
who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the
oppressing." --- Malcolm X

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[.Please don't top post, it makes it hard to follow threads.]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 01:21:45PM +1300, Jason Taylor wrote:
> Get a raspberry pi for the front end (kodi), low power low maintenance you
> can power it from the tvs usb port and use the tv's remote (if you have CEC)

What's 'CEC'?

--
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people
who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the
oppressing." --- Malcolm X

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On Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:37:19 +1300, you wrote:

>On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 03:14:43PM +1300, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>>
>> Personally, I have 4 PCs 24x7 at my place (my MythTV box, my mother's
>> MythTV box, my old OS/2 server box, and my Windows box). But the
>> power bill would be scary if I was having to pay it ($340 for
>> October).
>
>Ouch! Are you saying the bill would be way less if you didn't have those
>computers running? For example, I have two laptops on all the time, and
>recently just turned off an old 586 compacq which was acting as a
>database server, and I'd estimate that my highest bill would be
>somewhere in the vicinity of $112.
>
>OK, I don't run any mythtv stuff (gotta get around to that one day.) but
>I'd be surprised if it was *that* much of a power hog. I'd definitely be
>looking elsewhere to see what is using so much power.
>
>One laptop I've got running 24x7 is only job is doing folding at home,
>and the fan is running full on at least every minute or so for a few
>seconds. I must get one of those thingamajigs which you put between the
>device and the plug, and tells you the power usage.

Laptops are optimised for low power use - they will be using a lot
less than 100 W. Desktops and servers, especially like mine where I
have a huge number of disk drives online, use a fair bit more. I have
a power meter on my Windows box at the moment, and it is saying
140-150 W typically. That is rather less than my old, much less
powerful motherboard used to use, which was around 230 W, if I
remember it correctly. My monitor will be using a fair bit when I
have it on also, and so will the networking infrastructure (routers
(x4), 16-port gigabit switch, ONT). It all adds up.

If the Windows box is averaging say 144 W (what it is registering at
the moment), then that is:

(144 / 1000) kW
* 24 hours per day
* 365 days per year
* 0.25821 $ per kW/hr
* 1.15 for GST
= $374.57 per year
= $31.21 per month on average

Using that as a very rough estimate for the cost of running a PC, that
adds up to $124.85 per month for just the PCs. I also have a fifth PC
I use for testing on, but it is shut down most of the time, and a
laptop, that gets used a fair bit, plus charging the iPad and mobile,
running the two TVs, the Sky box, ... Electronics are now becoming
quite significant energy users in households.

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On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 07:16:16PM +1300, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> Laptops are optimised for low power use - they will be using a lot
> less than 100 W. Desktops and servers, especially like mine where I
> have a huge number of disk drives online, use a fair bit more. I have
> a power meter on my Windows box at the moment, and it is saying
> 140-150 W typically. That is rather less than my old, much less
> powerful motherboard used to use, which was around 230 W, if I
> remember it correctly. My monitor will be using a fair bit when I
> have it on also, and so will the networking infrastructure (routers
> (x4), 16-port gigabit switch, ONT). It all adds up.
>
> If the Windows box is averaging say 144 W (what it is registering at
> the moment), then that is:
>
> (144 / 1000) kW
> * 24 hours per day
> * 365 days per year
> * 0.25821 $ per kW/hr
> * 1.15 for GST
> = $374.57 per year
> = $31.21 per month on average
>
> Using that as a very rough estimate for the cost of running a PC, that
> adds up to $124.85 per month for just the PCs. I also have a fifth PC
> I use for testing on, but it is shut down most of the time, and a
> laptop, that gets used a fair bit, plus charging the iPad and mobile,
> running the two TVs, the Sky box, ... Electronics are now becoming
> quite significant energy users in households.

Thanks for that. I'll have to get one of those gizmos, and start doing
some measurements. :) There is also the school of thought that most
failures occur at startup so therefore never turn it off if
the replacement cost is a lot more than the power savings.

--
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people
who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the
oppressing." --- Malcolm X

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