2014-03-17, 20:34
Actually openelec IS linux, just a specialised one.
2014-03-18, 15:23
Yeah I figured that. I thought I read in the description somewhere that it's not even a distro, it's a full blown OS built from the ground up to run XBMC. Clearly they used Linux as the foundation, it even says that during boot. It's working great. No freezing or crashing to desktop like on Windows. Like someone else said, they don't even equate Windows with htpc's. I understand why now. Unless I'm going to run it with gaming video cards and play games, there's no need for Windows.
2014-03-19, 00:25
Well Prof, I powered down last night after 2 days of the system eorking perfectly and now I power up and have issues. Here is what I posted on the a OpenElec forums but I thought maybe you might have an answer.
I've had OpenElec working rest for a couple days. Inhave my regular TV show source and smart playlists for Bluray and 3pD Bluray. Starting today, I powered it up and selecting TV Shows or Movies or 3D a Movies goes to some mine showing a list big Files, Playlists, and a Video Addons. Why is it not just displaying my video like it was yesterday? I can select files, but I don't understand why TV Shows would Dow me all my TV shows yesterday and today it goes to this menu. Any help?
EDIT: I went back and checked my sources and all of them are set to none now. Setting them asks me if I want do an update and IR does nothing for like a second and then the source is back to none again. I can't figure out why it worked for 2 days and now after powering off I lost my sources and can't set them. How do I check the permissions again and make sure they are set to let me modify them?
I've had OpenElec working rest for a couple days. Inhave my regular TV show source and smart playlists for Bluray and 3pD Bluray. Starting today, I powered it up and selecting TV Shows or Movies or 3D a Movies goes to some mine showing a list big Files, Playlists, and a Video Addons. Why is it not just displaying my video like it was yesterday? I can select files, but I don't understand why TV Shows would Dow me all my TV shows yesterday and today it goes to this menu. Any help?
EDIT: I went back and checked my sources and all of them are set to none now. Setting them asks me if I want do an update and IR does nothing for like a second and then the source is back to none again. I can't figure out why it worked for 2 days and now after powering off I lost my sources and can't set them. How do I check the permissions again and make sure they are set to let me modify them?
2014-03-19, 00:51
That sounds like a default view of the Video Library with no content. I think your edit supports that - your sources are gone - although if the library is intact, you don't technically need the sources anyway. So something's eaten your library for that view to appear as you describe.
You have nothing in TV Shows or Movies?
Do you have a scrolling ticker on the home screen? Could it be a failure to initialise the network connection properly (indeed, if at all)?
Is your mysql database accessible from other machines? If it weren't, there's no reason why the library would auto-clean, but that's a different matter... if the library is accessible to XBMC then you should see the entries and be able to play the files, sources or no sources.
I suppose one test is to ssh to the box... if you can, then it has a network connection. I can't remember where you said you store your media and mysql database, but, from the command line, try pinging that source (ping x.x.x.x where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the source). Is the source powered up?
You have nothing in TV Shows or Movies?
Do you have a scrolling ticker on the home screen? Could it be a failure to initialise the network connection properly (indeed, if at all)?
Is your mysql database accessible from other machines? If it weren't, there's no reason why the library would auto-clean, but that's a different matter... if the library is accessible to XBMC then you should see the entries and be able to play the files, sources or no sources.
I suppose one test is to ssh to the box... if you can, then it has a network connection. I can't remember where you said you store your media and mysql database, but, from the command line, try pinging that source (ping x.x.x.x where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the source). Is the source powered up?
2014-03-19, 01:02
I ssh'd into it fine. In fact, I deleted the advancedsettings.xml and then setting content for my sources worked again and it's scraping. I recreated the advancedsettings using vi in the meantime. It's weird. It's like can't turn off the machine. I guess I'll put bit in sleep mode from now on. Something really odd must have happened after shutting off because I've let it sleep before and I haven't lost my sources.
I've read some posts from others with problems having an advancedsettings.xml in there. I guess if I do anything but shut it down I should be fine?
Well, I had it all set up and rebooted and now my sources are set to none again. I can't figure this out...
I've read some posts from others with problems having an advancedsettings.xml in there. I guess if I do anything but shut it down I should be fine?
Well, I had it all set up and rebooted and now my sources are set to none again. I can't figure this out...
2014-03-19, 01:20
Immediately after a reboot, do you still have sources.xml and advancedsettings.xml?
Let's check permissions... if you ssh in and:
cd .xbmc/userdata
ls -la *.xml
... what do you get?
The only other thing that immediately occurs is that something is trying to update and is resetting to defaults - that would blow away these custom xml files - maybe check the Update SMB share of the OE machine (navigate to it through WIndows Explorer from another machine) and see if there's anything in it... if there are files called kernel and system and a pair of md5 files, that's a problem).
Another thought... get it running, and turn debug logging on (System -> Settings -> System). Reboot the system... when you get the problem, ssh in and grab a copy of the log and let's take a look at it. See Log_file (wiki) for more information.
(I'll be going to bed soon, maybe nickr will pop along and pick it up as his sun rises
)
Let's check permissions... if you ssh in and:
cd .xbmc/userdata
ls -la *.xml
... what do you get?
The only other thing that immediately occurs is that something is trying to update and is resetting to defaults - that would blow away these custom xml files - maybe check the Update SMB share of the OE machine (navigate to it through WIndows Explorer from another machine) and see if there's anything in it... if there are files called kernel and system and a pair of md5 files, that's a problem).
Another thought... get it running, and turn debug logging on (System -> Settings -> System). Reboot the system... when you get the problem, ssh in and grab a copy of the log and let's take a look at it. See Log_file (wiki) for more information.
(I'll be going to bed soon, maybe nickr will pop along and pick it up as his sun rises
)
2014-03-19, 01:36
I will check that out. The system is so fast that I already reinstalled it and created my xml's and now it's scraping and keeping the content ever after a reboot. All I can think of is last night I shut off the machine with the power button on the remote. Maybe that caused something to get messed up. Next time lose my content type, I'm going to ssh in and check the permissions like you said.
2014-03-19, 01:42
If perchance it's just eating those files for some bizarre reason, you can always keep backups locally...
cp <file>.xml <file>.bak
and, if it breaks later,
cp <file>.bak <file>.xml
And reboot. If the reboot kills the files, stop XBMC as before, restore the files and then rm the xbmc.disabled file to restart XBMC. And if that destroys the files, it's definitely debug log time as that really shouldn't happen.
cp <file>.xml <file>.bak
and, if it breaks later,
cp <file>.bak <file>.xml
And reboot. If the reboot kills the files, stop XBMC as before, restore the files and then rm the xbmc.disabled file to restart XBMC. And if that destroys the files, it's definitely debug log time as that really shouldn't happen.
2014-03-19, 01:59
ok I had a mistake in advancedsettings so I edited and rebooted and now my sources are gone and set to none.
With ls -a *.xml I get
-rw-r--r-- for all 5 listed
With ls -a *.xml I get
-rw-r--r-- for all 5 listed
2014-03-19, 02:49
Well, I reinstalled it and waited for it to reboot this time and rebooted for the update to do its thing then restart again. After all that I vi'd my sources and advancedsettings. The sources didn't show up so I added them manually. The watched status wasn't there so I rebooted and this time the sources were retained and the database synced. I'm only wondering why I can't shut the machine off without it stopping working. I'm also afraid of the next update causing a reboot and losing my sources again. In just can't figure out why the sources get set to none under certain circumstances and won't change. Is OpenElec maybe not meant to work with SQL?
2014-03-19, 16:06
I did.
Is it possible that the machine is rebooting too fast and networking isn't activated fast enough and that's why I lose my sources? It doesn't explain why I can't reset them but might explain why I have the problem on startup/reboot,
Is it possible that the machine is rebooting too fast and networking isn't activated fast enough and that's why I lose my sources? It doesn't explain why I can't reset them but might explain why I have the problem on startup/reboot,
2014-03-19, 22:16
Well, thinking about it all day, if the problem happens all day I'm going to give Ubuntu a whirl. Do I have to use some repo to get graphics drivers for HD audio, etc.? Anything else I need to know about Ubuntu like SMB support or anything? Can I make it boot right to XBMC similar to OpenElec?
2014-03-20, 00:22
The easiest Ubuntu-with-XBMC is XBMCbuntu - that will boot straight to XBMC or to a desktop as you wish. You can configure regular 'buntu to do the same but it's more of a faff.
