On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 5:40 PM, steve wrote:
> Greetings.  I’ve got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR.  It
> periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted.  Yesterday I missed some
> recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed.   So I’m
> wondering if there’s any way to notify myself when this happens.  I’m pretty
> sure there’s nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I’m wondering
> if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
> check with MythTV--to see if it’s operational and, say, send myself an email
> if it’s not.  Any ideas appreciated.

It is a super hack job and could really be cleaned up, but here is my
script, I found I have to hard boot the hdpvrs twice to get it to
work, which is what the iboot.pl script does:

#!/bin/bash
logerror=`grep 'Recorder Failed' /var/log/mythbackend.log | tail -1`
if [ "$logerror" ]
then
md5=`echo $logerror | md5sum `
md5=`expr "$md5" : '\([0-9a-z]\+\)'`
previous=`cat /var/tmp/pvr-fail-previous | grep $md5`

SUBJECT="HDPVR FAILURE"
EMAILADDRESS="[YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE]"
EMAILCONTENT="/tmp/emailmessage.txt"
echo "HDPVR Recorder Failed: $logerror ">$EMAILCONTENT
if [ "$md5" != "$previous" ]
then
/bin/mail -s "$SUBJECT" "$EMAILADDRESS" < $EMAILCONTENT
rmmod hdpvr lirc_zilog lirc_dev
/usr/local/bin/iboot.pl
sleep 25
modprobe hdpvr lirc_zilog
/usr/local/bin/iboot.pl
sleep 25
/etc/init.d/mythbackend restart
fi

echo $md5 > /var/tmp/pvr-fail-previous
fi
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On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 5:40 PM, steve wrote:
> Greetings.  I’ve got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR.  It
> periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted.  Yesterday I missed some
> recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed.   So I’m
> wondering if there’s any way to notify myself when this happens.  I’m pretty
> sure there’s nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I’m wondering
> if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
> check with MythTV--to see if it’s operational and, say, send myself an email
> if it’s not.  Any ideas appreciated.

It is a super hack job and could really be cleaned up, but here is my
script, I found I have to hard boot the hdpvrs twice to get it to
work, which is what the iboot.pl script does:

#!/bin/bash
logerror=`grep 'Recorder Failed' /var/log/mythbackend.log | tail -1`
if [ "$logerror" ]
then
md5=`echo $logerror | md5sum `
md5=`expr "$md5" : '\([0-9a-z]\+\)'`
previous=`cat /var/tmp/pvr-fail-previous | grep $md5`

SUBJECT="HDPVR FAILURE"
EMAILADDRESS="[YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE]"
EMAILCONTENT="/tmp/emailmessage.txt"
echo "HDPVR Recorder Failed: $logerror ">$EMAILCONTENT
if [ "$md5" != "$previous" ]
then
/bin/mail -s "$SUBJECT" "$EMAILADDRESS" < $EMAILCONTENT
rmmod hdpvr lirc_zilog lirc_dev
/usr/local/bin/iboot.pl
sleep 25
modprobe hdpvr lirc_zilog
/usr/local/bin/iboot.pl
sleep 25
/etc/init.d/mythbackend restart
fi

echo $md5 > /var/tmp/pvr-fail-previous
fi
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On Thu, 29 Jul 2010, steve wrote:

> Greetings. I've got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR. It
> periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted. Yesterday I missed some
> recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed. So I'm
> wondering if there's any way to notify myself when this happens. I'm pretty
> sure there's nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I'm wondering
> if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
> check with MythTV--to see if it's operational and, say, send myself an email
> if it's not. Any ideas appreciated.

I use a package called logcheck for this.

Configuring it is a bit of a pain... lots of regexes, and you generally
filter things out rather than just list what you are interested in.

You could also just have a script run from cron that greps for some
failure string in the mythbackend.log file and sends mail to you if it is
there. There are generally log messages about recordings failing.
Fortunately, my HD-PVR hasn't failed in the last week, so I don't have an
example message. (logs have rolled)

The downside of the simple grep + email is that it wouldn't reset... you'd
keep getting emails for old failures. Once you get into the territory of
tracking the file length, etc, you may be better off with a pre-built
package like logcheck. There may be similar packages that are easier to
configure for a single file...

-Tree

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On Thu, 29 Jul 2010, steve wrote:

> Greetings. I've got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR. It
> periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted. Yesterday I missed some
> recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed. So I'm
> wondering if there's any way to notify myself when this happens. I'm pretty
> sure there's nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I'm wondering
> if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
> check with MythTV--to see if it's operational and, say, send myself an email
> if it's not. Any ideas appreciated.

I use a package called logcheck for this.

Configuring it is a bit of a pain... lots of regexes, and you generally
filter things out rather than just list what you are interested in.

You could also just have a script run from cron that greps for some
failure string in the mythbackend.log file and sends mail to you if it is
there. There are generally log messages about recordings failing.
Fortunately, my HD-PVR hasn't failed in the last week, so I don't have an
example message. (logs have rolled)

The downside of the simple grep + email is that it wouldn't reset... you'd
keep getting emails for old failures. Once you get into the territory of
tracking the file length, etc, you may be better off with a pre-built
package like logcheck. There may be similar packages that are easier to
configure for a single file...

-Tree

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mythtv-users@mythtv.org
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What are the symptoms of it crapping out?

Does the device node disappear? If so cron an ls command to see if it
is there and tkae the appropriate action.

Basically if you can identify a command that responds differently
depending whether the device is working or not you can script it into
a cron script.

Also you might be able to take the steps to reset it, although a power
cycle will require some sort of external controllable power switch.

But really you should find out why it craps out. I know these things
have firmware that can be updated, but I have no idea of the most
stable version.

Are they prone to overheating? If so move it somewhere cooler.

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 12:40 PM, steve wrote:
> Greetings.  I’ve got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR.  It
> periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted.  Yesterday I missed some
> recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed.   So I’m
> wondering if there’s any way to notify myself when this happens.  I’m pretty
> sure there’s nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I’m wondering
> if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
> check with MythTV--to see if it’s operational and, say, send myself an email
> if it’s not.  Any ideas appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thx,
>
>
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@mythtv.org
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What are the symptoms of it crapping out?

Does the device node disappear? If so cron an ls command to see if it
is there and tkae the appropriate action.

Basically if you can identify a command that responds differently
depending whether the device is working or not you can script it into
a cron script.

Also you might be able to take the steps to reset it, although a power
cycle will require some sort of external controllable power switch.

But really you should find out why it craps out. I know these things
have firmware that can be updated, but I have no idea of the most
stable version.

Are they prone to overheating? If so move it somewhere cooler.

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 12:40 PM, steve wrote:
> Greetings.  I’ve got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR.  It
> periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted.  Yesterday I missed some
> recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed.   So I’m
> wondering if there’s any way to notify myself when this happens.  I’m pretty
> sure there’s nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I’m wondering
> if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
> check with MythTV--to see if it’s operational and, say, send myself an email
> if it’s not.  Any ideas appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thx,
>
>
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Greetings. I've got my MythTV set up with a Hauppauge HDPVR. It
periodically craps-out and needs to be restarted. Yesterday I missed some
recordings I really wanted before I discovered it had crashed. So I'm
wondering if there's any way to notify myself when this happens. I'm pretty
sure there's nothing built in to MythTV for this purpose, so I'm wondering
if I might be able to write an external app to check it periodically--or to
check with MythTV--to see if it's operational and, say, send myself an email
if it's not. Any ideas appreciated.

Thx,

Steve