SageTVService slow startup

[tomfisk]

So I decided that it was time to update my sister's SageTV system. It was running SageTV 6.2 something and needed a driver and software refresh.

Did you ever notice that sometime when you think you are going to be making "progress" you end up loosing ground? Several problems, but I'll focus on one that I finally worked around, but has me still wondering...

After the upgrade to 6.6, I noticed that it would take a long time for the SageTV service to get going. Consistently around 12 minutes. During this time the PC is mostly usable...everything else appears to be running normally. However, things like modifying a service or trying to install/uninstall an application would hang until the SageTV service "unpaused".

Turned on the debug log...nothing remarkable except that it pauses...no errors.

I downloaded BootLog XP and looked at it's trace. It appeared that Sage was paused in the process of loading DShowFilter.dll. Don't know what that meant...

My initial thought that Sage was deadlocking with some other process for some resource and it took 12 minutes for the deadlock to timeout. Started turning off services that looked like candidates and rebooted after each. Still 12 minutes...

Finally decided to disable the SageTV service. PC booted up very quickly. Immediately after boot, brought up the SageTV service control panel, enabled it, and started it...started up right away.

So...turns out that the SageTV service can not be started immediately after a boot. I wrote a script that waits 15 seconds after boot and then does a "net start sagetv". That is working...however I'm left with a niggling feeling that I shouldn't have to do that...and that more "fun" is lurking around a corner somewhere...

[nyplayer]

I do the same thing I start the Service via batch-file also after a reboot. I have recordings on a NAS and sometimes the service would hang if it started before the NAS came online... Delaying the start-up works for me also.

There are no ill effects from doing this once the service is started if it crashes it will restart again anyway you start it.

[zoltran]

I have a sort-of-similar problem.
Sometimes the sage service starts before windows has finished enumerating the tuners.
The result is sage only sees one of them, and the fix is to simply restart the sage service.

Would you mind posting the batch file/script you used to delay sage from starting?
Thanks in advance

[DigitalMan]

You can try setting a dependency for the Sage service on one of the other services that you think it might have issues with, then it won't start until the other one(s) do.

[tomfisk]

Originally Posted by DigitalMan

You can try setting a dependency for the Sage service on one of the other services that you think it might have issues with, then it won't start until the other one(s) do.

I did try that...supposedly the print spooler is one of the last services to start and I made Sage dependent on that. Still didn't work.

Here is the script...I use Kixtart...pretty simple.

Sleep 15
Net Start SageTV

I use Fire Daemon Pro to run this script at boot...there is probably an easier way but it was simple for me to add it to Fire Daemon.

[matt91]

can't you just drop the .bat file in your startup folder (in XP)?

should run fine from there. I use this on my work computer to auto-open Outlook, etc.

[CarlR]

I have this problem as well.

In XP you can define a scheduled task call the .bat file, which can be set to fire on system startup or user login.

[nyplayer]

1. you have to make sure the service is set to manual.
2. Make sure your computer is on autologon and your logon has administrative privileges.
3. Set up in task schedule and make sure you check to run at logon.

startsage.bat
Sleep 30
Net Start SageTV

[src666]

How many shows are recorded, and how much history is there in the WIZ.BIN file? I've got a 3 year old Sage install, with nearly 3 TB of recordings, and it takes close to 20 minutes for Sage Service to stabilize after a restart. I think it's just a matter of Sage having to check everything to make sure nothing is wrong, look for orphaned recordings, etc. when it first starts.

[DigitalMan]

I've never seen this happen on any of the 3 different servers I've used with Sage over the years.

You guys should file a bug report on this.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by DigitalMan

I've never seen this happen on any of the 3 different servers I've used with Sage over the years.

You guys should file a bug report on this.

I see it happen all the time if the NAS is not online at the time Sage tries and start ... it is not a bug. It looks for the recordings on the Nas to verify and hangs for a while... I have over 2000 recordings on my NAS. I prefer starting sage after the server has completely reboot and all the network devices are connected.

[mickp]

I've been experiencing this for years. Here's another thread on the subject.

I'd love to know the cause of the problem. I don't think it's necessarily related to nas based storage as mine is all local to the machine and should be available at the time the service is starting.

Mick.