Mythwelcome
From MythTV Official Wiki
Revision as of 00:46, 7 January 2007 by AdrianWilkins (talk | contribs) (Added note about mounting /boot where it isn't already so.)
A new addition in 0.19. This utility program displays a myth themed dialog which shows a welcome/status information screen that is designed to be shown whenever the frontend is not running.
This has been introduced for those people that want to use scheduled wakeup and shutdown to record scheduled shows to save on power consumption. Prior to this the Frontend would always start up which in turn meant that the backend would never shutdown when the recording had finished thus defeating the whole purpose.
The Welcome screen will show the status of the backend and wait for you to manually start the frontend with your remote
Configuration
REALLY-QUICK START
If you're in a desperate hurry:
Run mythwelcome --setup and edit the settings to suit your setup.
Change your system startup to run mythwelcome instead of mythfrontend.
Change the Shutdown/Wakeup Options in mythtv-setup to call the mythshutdown
program.
And if you start wondering why it doesn't work, come back and read the
rest of the file. 8)
WHAT IS MYTHWELCOME
===================
MythWelcome is a Myth themed application that shows a welcome/status
information screen that will be shown whenever the frontend is not
running ie. when an automatic startup has occurred to record a program.
It shows some information about what the backend is currently doing
(idle, recording, commercial flagging, transcoding or locked by a user etc.).
It also shows what the backend is recording, what the next scheduled recording
is and shows a warning if there are any schedule conflicts. There is also a
push button to start the frontend.
It is useful if you want to setup a dedicated MythTV system that you
don't want to run 24/7 but you want to automatically wake up to record
just like a normal video recorder and shutdown again when it is idle.
Mythwelcome will also prevent the backend from shutting down the system
if it is busy commercial flagging, downloading EPG data, transcoding or
shutdown has been locked by a user.
PREREQUISITES
=============
You should have already installed and have a working nvram-wakeup
setup including modifying your bootloader menu to add a Poweroff
menu option if your bios requires a reboot when setting the wakeup
time in the bios.
Mythwelcome/Mythshutdown Settings
=================================
Like most of MythTV Mythwelcome and Mythshutdown store their settings
in the myth database. All of the settings are settable from the GUI.
There are two separate settings pages. One is shown by starting
mythwelcome with the -s/--setup parameter or by pressing the
'SHOWSETTINGS' key (defaults to F11 key) in Mythwelcome. You will probably only ever
set these options once when you first setup Mythwelcome.
nvram-wakeup command - command to set wakeup time in bios
if you are really lucky nvram-wakeup will be able
to recognise your M/B automatically
"/usr/sbin/nvram-wakeup"
if you need to explicitly set the info-writer use
something like this
"/usr/sbin/nvram-wakeup -A -I aopen_ax37"
if you need to use a custom config file use something
like this
"/usr/sbin/nvram-wakeup -A -C /etc/nvram-wakeup.conf"
nvram-wakeup restart - command to set which bootloader menu option to use
command after next reboot. This command is run if your bios
requires you to reboot to allow nvram-wakeup settings
to take effect. Leave blank if your bios doesn't require a reboot.
older versions of grub require something like this
"echo 'savedefault --default=1 --once quit' | /sbin/grub"
(Note use: \' for the single quotes when entering the command else it wont save)
newer versions of grub can use something like this
"grub-set-default 1"
lilo users should use something like this
"lilo -R PowerOff"
Poweroff Command - The command mythshutdown should use to poweroff the computer.
e.g. "/sbin/poweroff"
Reboot Command - The command mythshutdown should use to reboot the computer.
Used when your BIOS requires a reboot to allow nvram-wakeup
settings to take effect.
e.g. "/sbin/reboot" - if bios requires a reboot.
e.g. "/sbin/poweroff" - important to include this if bios does not require
a reboot.
Start XTerm Command - This is the command to use to open an XTerm window.
Leave blank to disable this feature.
Tip: If the default font size is too small to see on your
TV change the default setting to:
'xterm -fa Courier -fs 14' to change the font style and size.
Start Frontend Command - This is the command mythwelcome should use to start the FE. It
is usefull if you want to change the verbose level or add a log
file to output message etc.
The second set of settings are available by pressing 'i/INFO' key in mythwelcome and allows you
to setup the daily wakeup/shutdown periods and control whether to automatically
start the mythfrontend when mythwelcome is started and it is determined that it
was started manually.
Period 1 Start Time - These setting determine a period of time that the master backend
Period 1 End Time should always wake up for. Set both times to 00:00 to
disable this feature.
Period 2 Start Time - Second wakeup/shutdown period settings.
Period 2 End Time
Automatically Start - Normally when mythwelcome starts up it checks to see whether
Mythfrontend the system was started to record something or because of a
wakeup/shutdown period. If not it will automatically start the
frontend. You can disable this feature by unchecking this option.
Shutdown with Master - (Frontend only machines). If set mythwelcome will shutdown this system
Backend when the master backend shutsdown.
MYTHBACKEND SETUP OPTIONS
=========================
The mythbackend needs to co-operate with mythwelcome to work
as intended. It does this by calling the helper program 'mythshutdown'
to check whether it is safe to shutdown, to set the time to wake up
for the next scheduled recording and to do the actual shutdown.
You should run mythtv-setup and on the Shutdown/Wakeup Options page set
the following settings:
Block shutdown before
client connected: should be checked
Idletimeout (secs): any value greater that 0
Wakeup time format: yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm
Set wakeup time command: mythshutdown --setwakeup $time
Server Halt command: mythshutdown --shutdown
Pre shutdown check command: mythshutdown --check
Because 'mythshutdown --shutdown' needs to run grub/lilo, reboot, poweroff
and nvram-wakeup all of which require root privileges if you don't run the mythbackend
as root you will have to use sudo to give mythshutdown root privileges and change the
Server Halt command to 'sudo mythshutdown --shutdown'.
You will have to restart the backend for the new settings to take effect.
BOOTLOADER SETUP
================
If your motherboard/bios requires a reboot after changing the startup time
in the bios with nvram-wakeup you should configure grub/lilo with a special
menu boot option to reboot and immediately shutdown.
In addition, if your /boot directory is in another filesystem it may not be mounted
automatically to protect the kernel. In these cases, instead of calling grub-set-default
directly, you're going to need to use a shell script that mounts the /boot filesystem first.
Grub Users Only
---------------
Simply add the following menu boot option to your grub.conf file:
title=PowerOff
savedefault 0
cat /boot/grub/default
halt
You should change the '0' to the menu item number you want to boot
normally by default. Also add 'default saved' towards the top of the file.
The command to read the file is to force grub to sync the file to disk. Some versions
have a bug which means they do not do this before the halt executes.
set the nvram-wakeup restart command to '/sbin/grub-set-default 1'
the 1 should be the menu item number of the PowerOff menu item you added
above starting from 0.
Lilo Users Only
---------------
As part of nvram-wakeup you can download some kernel images
that do nothing but shutdown the system. (see
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=35022&package_id=91149)
Add a boot option to the lilo.conf file such as:
image=/boot/bzimage.poweroff
label=PowerOff
change the nvram-wakeup restart command to 'lilo -R PowerOff'
See the nvram-wakeup documentation for more info on how to setup lilo.
MYTHSHUTDOWN PROGRAM
====================
The mythshutdown command line utility is a multi-purpose helper program used by
both mythbackend and mythwelcome. The program needs to be configured to
work properly by editing the settings in the GUI. (See 'Mythwelcome/Mythshutdown
Settings' above).
The program can be run with the following parameters:
-l/--lock
this will prevent mythbackend from shutting down the system even if
it is idle. It is useful if you want to do some maintenance on the system
and don't want the backend to shutdown the computer.
-u/--unlock
allows the backend to shutdown when idle
-c/--check
returns 0 safe to shutdown or 1 not safe to shutdown
this is usually called by the backend as the 'Pre-Shutdown Check command'.
will return 1 if shutdown is locked, mythcommflag is running, mythtranscode
is running, mythfilldatabase is running or we are in or about to start a
daily wakeup/shutdown period.
-w/--setwakeup "yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm"
sets the time the next scheduled recording is to start. Does not set the
time in the bios. Usually called by the backend's 'Set wakeup time command'.
-q/--shutdown
does all the hard work of determining when the next wakeup should be.
calls nvram-wakeup to set the time in the bios and calls grub/lilo to reboot
the system if required. Usually called by the backend's 'Server Halt
command'. You probably need to run this with root privileges.
-s/--status
returns a value indicating what programs are running that will prevent
the backend from shutting down. The value is an OR'd flag of the following
values:
0 - Idle - free to shutdown
1 - Transcoding - mythtranscode is running
2 - Commercial Flagging - mythcommflag is running
4 - Grabbing EPG data - mythfilldatabase is running
8 - not currently used
16 - Locked - shutdown has been locked by a user
32 - not currently used -
64 - In wakeup period - In a daily wakeup/shutdown period
128 - About to start wake - Less than 15 minutes to next wakeup period
up period
used by mythwelcome to display a status message to the user and
by 'mythshutdown --check' itself to determine if it is safe to shutdown.
-v/--verbose
By default mythshutdown is silent and does not produce any output on the
console. This is by design because it is called often by mythwelcome and
mythbackend. You can add this parameter to make mythwelcome output some
messages to the console.
-d/--debug
Add this parameter to show more debug messages
ALLOW A USER TO RUN THE MYTHSHUTDOWN PROGRAM WITH ROOT PRIVILEGES
=================================================================
Because you would normally run mythwelcome and the mythshutdown script as
a normal user without root privileges you will need to setup sudo to allow
you to run the mythshutdown --shutdown as the root user to allow it to
run reboot, poweroff, grub/lilo and nvram-wakeup.
add the following line to your '/etc/sudoers' file:
mythtv localhost = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/mythshutdown
Change mythtv to the user you use to run mythwelcome and the mythshutdown program.
You may also have to change the path to mythshutdown to suit your setup.
DAILY WAKEUP/SHUTDOWN PERIODS
=============================
You can optionally set one or two periods in a day that you would like your
Myth system to wake up for. The periods are set on the mythwelcome
settings screen (press i/INFO key). The mythshutdown program will wakeup
the system and prevent it shutting down during these periods even if it is idle.
Note: currently the settings do not handle periods that cross midnight. For
example you cannot define a period of 19.00 to 01.00.
POPUP MENU
If you press the m/MENU key mythwelcome will display a popup menu with the
following options.
Lock Shutdown - Prevents the system from shutting down even if it is idle.
Unlock Shutdown - Allows the system to shutdown when it is idle.
Run Mythfilldatabase - Force mythfilldatabase to run now.
Shutdown Now - Force the system to shutdown even if it is not idle or is
in a wakeup/shutdown period.
FE only machines simply shutdown using the 'Poweroff command'
that has been setup in settings.
Master BE machines will not shutdown if the backend
is recording or is about to start recording otherwise
mythwelcome sets the time of the next wakeup and shuts down
the system.
Requires sudo to be setup properly to allow mythwelcome to call
the mythshutdown program with root privileges. See above.
Exit - Exit the mythwelcome application.
Cancel - Cancel the popup menu.
START XTERM
===========
There is an hidden feature that allows you to start an xterm from the mythwelcome
screen. Useful if you need to do some trouble shooting. You can access it by
pressing the F12 key (default key binding). You can change the command that will
be used to start the xterm on the Mythshutdown settings page (F11 key).
TODO
====
Make the wakeup/shutdown periods a little more flexible by allowing periods to cross
midnight.
EVILWM
======
mythwelcome is known to have focus problems with evilwm. If you are experiencing any
problems try running mythwelcome under a xterm, i.e.
xterm -e mythwelcome
