Linux OEM Server Tips and Tricks

[bcjenkins]

This thread is meant to be a clean source of verified information. I would ask that people limit the posts to verified solutions. All other questions should be posted in other threads.

Thanks for the cooperation.

B

[bcjenkins]

The dependencies listed by SageTV as requirements are incomplete:

The server has a few dependencies to run on the system :
- Java runtime 1.5 : http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp
- mad library : http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/
- lame library : http://lame.sourceforge.net/download/download.html
- faad2 library : http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/mydownloads/

In your terminal shell:

cd /opt/sagetv/server
ldd * |grep not\ found

Then install the missing libraries. Ubuntu instructions below:

sudo apt-get install libfaac0 liblame-dev libxvidcore4-dev libraw1394-8 libavc1394-0 libiec61883-0 liba52-dev; sudo ln -s /opt/sagetv/server/libTSnative.so /usr/lib/libTSnative.so; sudo ln -s /usr/lib/liba52.so /usr/lib/liba52.so.0

Confirm all libraries by running the ldd command above.

B

[bcjenkins]

dmesg logs indicated firmware was not correct revision. I found this site:

http://dl.ivtvdriver.org/ubuntu/

which has update instructions.

B

[bcjenkins]

Problem:
I use 4 BAFO 810 serial adapters for DirecTV tuning. Unlike Windows which seemed to remember serial adapter locations through reboots, Ubuntu seems to load devices based on IRQs assigned by the BIOS at boot. This resulted in inconsistent device names of the serial ports. On top of that, SageTV's serial tuning only supports devices with the name or ttyS0-9.

Resolution:
The BAFO 810 adapters I use offered no uniquely identifiable serial numbers via udev probing. However, the USB ports did. Since udev can't address information outside of a single group, I have to use a script. From that point I could create device aliases for the serial ports from ttyUSB0-4 to ttyS4-7 using the following udev rules and associated script. The script needs to be placed in a location which is accessible during boot.

Bash script:

#!/bin/bash

if echo $2 | grep -q coms67; then
  if [ $[6+$1] -gt 7 ]; then
    echo $[4+$1]
  else
    echo $[6+$1]
  fi
elif [ $[6+$1] -gt 7 ]; then
  echo $[2+$1]
else
  echo $[4+$1]
fi

udev rules:

KERNEL=="ttyUSB*" , ATTRS{serial}=="0000:00:1a.0" , PROGRAM="/opt/sagetv/server/scripts/udevtty %n coms45", SYMLINK+="ttyS%c"
KERNEL=="ttyUSB*" , ATTRS{serial}=="0000:00:1a.2" , PROGRAM="/opt/sagetv/server/scripts/udevtty %n coms67", SYMLINK+="ttyS%c"

[bcjenkins]

It took me a while to think through this, but the answer was in the client debug log all the time!

As part of a test I created a directory called z: in the /opt/sagetv/server directory. Even though I was not supplying a fully qualified path, SageTV was sending one to the client.

\opt\sagetv\server\z:\DVD2\Videos\13 Going on 30\VIDEO_TS

So tossing out a mapped network drive as an option I resorted to junction links/sym links. The only caveat to this working is that it seems to require Vista or higher. Vista's new symlink feature actually let's you effortlessly make a symlink to a smb share. I first tried this on the theater room PC which is running XP MCE and XP's junctions don't support this.

Prerequisites:
- Samba server on linux with dvd location shared out
- Windows Vista (I have Ultimate, can anyone confirm on a different version?)
- Running the following as Adminitstrator and this assumes everything is in the default locations on the linux server

From a cmd prompt on the Vista machine being run in Administrator mode:

mkdir -p \var\media
mklink /d \var\media\videos \\server\share

That's it. I guess I will be upgrading the theater room to Vista unless anyone knows how to do this on XP.

B

[bcjenkins]

Greetings,

I took a few notes the past upgrade cycle to make this as clean as possible. If you merely untar/gzip the files into the same directory, some preconfigured files will be overwritten. This is my attempt at streamlining an upgrade to allow for a workable backup to be kept and keeping some of you preconfigured settings.

B

#!/bin/bash
cd /opt/sagetv
server/stopsage
mv server server.bak
wget http://download.sagetv.com/linuxweb/server.tar.gz
tar -xzf server.tar.gz -C /opt/sagetv/server
cd server
cp ../server.bak/Sage.properties ./
cp ../server.bak/Wiz.bin ./
cp ../server.bak/activkey ./
cp ../server.bak/key ./
cp ../server.bak/menu.xml ./
cp ../server.bak/sageshowinfo.dtd ./
cp ../server.bak/weather_cache.properties ./
echo 'Interactively merge RemoteClients defaults from old install and new install. Use "L" and "R" keys to choose.'
mv RemoteClients.properties.defaults RemoteClients.properties.defaults.new
sdiff -o RemoteClients.properties.defaults ./RemoteClients.properties.defaults.new ../server.bak/RemoteClients.properties.defaults
cp ../server.bak/adapter*.frq ./
cp ../server.bak/QAM*.frq ./
cp -uR ../server.bak/JARs/* ./JARs/
cp -uR ../server.bak/STVs/SageTV3/* ./STVs/SageTV3/
cp ../server.bak/ChannelLogos/* ./ChannelLogos/
cp ../server.bak/clients/* ./clients/

[_Demo_]

Some of those files should not be copied this way :
RemoteClients.properties.defaults (new defaults are added with new versions)
JARs/* (you should only copy the jar files you added yourself because new version can ship with updated files)
STVs/SageTV3/* (Those should not be copied over or you won't see the new user interface, if you added extensions you should add them again after the upgrade)

_Demo_

[bcjenkins]

Thanks for the input. I'll have to work on my bash scripting for the remote defaults, but..

cp -uR is supposed to copy missing or newer. Unless someone "touched" files then all that should come over are missing.

If you have a better suggestion, I am all ears.

Thanks!

B

[warwon]

I found a way to solve all my issues, in ubuntu

My folder layout in case someone wants to follow

/opt/sagetv/server
/optsagetv/client

As with the option peope doesn't work even with a "Sudo" command gets a permision deined.

cd /opt/sagetv/server
ldd * |grep not\ found

What to do?

cd /opt/sagetv/server
chmod 777 *
cd /opt/sagetv/client
chmod 777 *

Add sagetv server to the rc.local script so that it loads on start and without permission issues
RUnning the ./shsageclient without any issues now settings save, and it loads fine.

[bcjenkins]

Thanks Neil.

[al_uk]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

It took me a while to think through this, but the answer was in the client debug log all the time!

As part of a test I created a directory called z: in the /opt/sagetv/server directory. Even though I was not supplying a fully qualified path, SageTV was sending one to the client.



So tossing out a mapped network drive as an option I resorted to junction links/sym links. The only caveat to this working is that it seems to require Vista or higher. Vista's new symlink feature actually let's you effortlessly make a symlink to a smb share. I first tried this on the theater room PC which is running XP MCE and XP's junctions don't support this.

Prerequisites:
- Samba server on linux with dvd location shared out
- Windows Vista (I have Ultimate, can anyone confirm on a different version?)
- Running the following as Adminitstrator and this assumes everything is in the default locations on the linux server

From a cmd prompt on the Vista machine being run in Administrator mode:

mkdir -p \var\media
mklink /d \var\media\videos \\server\share

That's it. I guess I will be upgrading the theater room to Vista unless anyone knows how to do this on XP.

B

I have made DVDs work on an XP client with a Linux server.

Movies are on a samba share on a different server from SageTV at \\tower\movies.

I created a directory called "\tower" (note single "\") on the SageTV server by typing "mkdir \\tower"

I then mounted my movies share underneath that, so they were accessible at "\tower\movies".

Then I changed the Video import directory on Sage to point to the \tower\movies directory. Sage thinks it is called /\tower/movies.

This all sucessfully translates to \\tower\movies\moviea\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO when I play a movie from XP.

Not the most elegant, but it works. Hope this helps someone.