Difference between revisions of "Mythwelcome"
(Updated mythshutdown parameter description) |
m (→Archive: Using mythwelcome with nvram-wakeup) |
||
Line 228: | Line 228: | ||
= Archive: Using mythwelcome with nvram-wakeup = | = Archive: Using mythwelcome with nvram-wakeup = | ||
− | '''This section is archival in nature and may not be up to date.'' | + | '''This section is archival in nature and may not be up to date.''' |
== Configuration == | == Configuration == |
Revision as of 23:23, 10 January 2010
Contents
Introduction
Mythwelcome is an mythTV application that can 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. Mythwelcome can be very useful if you run both frontend and backend on a single machine and use ACPI_Wakeup to automatically shutdown and wakeup your machine. Proir to the introduction of MythWelcome, MythFrontend would always start up, and, therefore, MythBackend would never shut down.
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.
Working with mythwelcome
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.
Using MythWelcome/MythShutdown with ACPI
See the ACPI_Wakeup page for details on setting up ACPI Wakeup
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.
Note: When performing testing be aware that mythshutdown will never shut down the system if there is less than 15 minutes till the next wake up time.
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 just sets the value in the database. Usually called by the backend's 'Set wakeup time command'. -t/--setscheduledwakeup sets the time the next scheduled recording is to start. Does not set the time in the bios just sets the value in the database. Differs from --setwakeup as this will query the database directly so doesn't need the time passed to it. -q/--shutdown calls the mythwelcome 'Set Wakeup Time Command' and then runs the mythwelcome 'Shutdown command'. Usually called by the backend's 'Server Halt command'. -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 - Recording in progress... 16 - Locked - shutdown has been locked by a user 32 - Has queued or pending jobs - 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 255 - Setup is running... - mythtv-setup is running 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
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.
Command to Set Wakeup Time Command to run to set the ACPI alarm in bios. The $time variable will contain the next wakeup time Wakeup time format Format for the time string passed to the 'Set Wakeup Time Command. Set to 'time_t' for seconds since epoch. nvram-wakeup Restart Command Must be set to a blank value is using ACPI wakeup. Command to reboot Command used to reboot system. Command to shutdown Command used to shutdown system. Command to run Xterm 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. Command to start the Frontend 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 Note: Period 1 and period 2 should be in correct chronological order. So for example if you have two periods 10:00-13:00 and 19:00-22:00 then 10:00-13:00 must be period 1 and 19:00-22:00 must be period 2. This is because if the start times for both daily wakeup periods has passed for today then the next wake time will be set to the first daily wakeup time tomorrow even if the second daily wakeup time is before the first. 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.
A popup menu is available by pressing the 'm/MENU' key in mythwelcome and allows you to lock/unlock the machine from shutting down, run mythfilldatabase or do a shutdown now.
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 a 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).
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
Archive: Using mythwelcome with nvram-wakeup
This section is archival in nature and may not be up to date.
Configuration
REALLY-QUICK START
If you're in a desperate hurry:
Run mythwelcome --setup from a terminal and edit the settings to suit your setup.
Change your system startup to run mythwelcome instead of mythfrontend.
Change the General=>Shutdown/Wakeup Options in mythtv-setup to call the mythshutdown program.
If your mythtv user is not root you will need to run Mythshutdown with root privileges,see section below on root privileges
And if you start wondering why it doesn't work, come back and read the rest of this article.
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 ''recent changes(post 0.20.2) to the time format code cause problems'' nvram-wakeup only accepts time_t (seconds since unix epoch) as a date/time format. mythshutdown only uses ISO-8601 (yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss). Both programs now use the same setting name in the database for their format token. Since getting the wakeup time in the BIOS involves using both programs, it's now impossible. You can get around this like this "date -d "`echo $time | sed "s/T/ /"`" +%s | xargs nvram-wakeup -s" Replace the preset arguments on the end with the ones that work for you. The sed is in there to strip the "T" because gnu date can't parse ISO-8601 format properly (a bug known for at least 3 years), despite being able to produce it. 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" Note that Mythwelcome will append "--settime xxxxxxxxxx" to this command where xxxxxxxxxx is the next wakeup time in UTC format. 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" OpenSUSE Users should use "/usr/sbin/grubonce x" (run as root) where x is the menu entry in your grub boot menu. If you run "grubonce" with no prarameters it will print out boot the menu list 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 Note: Period 1 and period 2 should be in correct chronological order. So for example if you have two periods 10:00-13:00 and 19:00-22:00 then 10:00-13:00 must be period 1 and 19:00-22:00 must be period 2. This is because if the start times for both daily wakeup periods has passed for today then the next wake time will be set to the first daily wakeup time tomorrow even if the second daily wakeup time is before the first. 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 -H 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.
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
then in mythtv-setup change the "setwakeup time command" to
sudo -H mythshutdown --setwakeup $time
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.