STV Import: System Monitor

[BobPhoenix]

Just got done installing a VirtualPC SageTV client and this plugin with a fresh install of Win2000. Don't think it is just my PC because even with this fresh install I get the same problem.

FYI for everybody else:
SageTV Client will run on a VirtualPC session and you can get video to play. Looks like you may be limited to basic in the configuration wizard. It also didn't look too bad with some studdering on SDTV files so I wouldn't use this regularly but it might be nice for development purposes. Also don't know what you can use for input since VirualPC2004 doesn't have USB. I just used keyboard.

AMD64 3200+ CPU by the way.

BobP.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Opened Studio and turned on errors like requested in #2 and got the following error dialogs:

1. Parsing Error: Unexpected ")" at column 71. Expression:AddGlobalContext("GlobalSystemMonitorPlugin",new_SystemMonitorPlugin())
2. Parsing Error: Undefined Method SystemMonitorPlugin_RecreateGraphicalSummary Expression: SystemMonitorPlugin_RecreateGraphicalSummary(GlobalSystemMonitorPlugin)

This is most likely from Sage not finding the SystemMonitorPlugin class, and/or failing to create it...

More detailed errors can be found in the logging -- enabled the troubleshooting console (see toubleshooting FAQ on SageTV web site) to view it.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Just got done installing a VirtualPC SageTV client and this plugin with a fresh install of Win2000. Don't think it is just my PC because even with this fresh install I get the same problem.

Well my VirtualPC test is invalid. I realized this morning when I got to work that I forgot to install .NET on my VirtualPC Win2K session. Will do that when I get home tonight.

Originally Posted by nielm

This is most likely from Sage not finding the SystemMonitorPlugin class, and/or failing to create it...

More detailed errors can be found in the logging -- enabled the troubleshooting console (see toubleshooting FAQ on SageTV web site) to view it.

Will do this as well to see if I can get more detailed logs for you deria.

BobP.

[deria]

Thanks Bob,

I think that Nielm's suggestion is probably the next step (turning on the debugging console). I'm not sure what governs where SageTV is looking for the SystemMonitorJNI.dll. I've sent an email to Jeff @ Sage, so I'm hoping he'll have some insight into this. Its quite a major hurdle, unfortunately. I have a feeling its going to affect anyone who tries to add classes/dlls to SageTV.

I'll find the debugging console information and post a link to it in this thread.

[deria]

Here is the debugging console information from the FAQ:

Q: Is there a debugging console for SageTV?


A: The console can be used to troubleshoot problems. You can do this by creating a new DWORD value in the registry. Go to start, run and type in regedit. Here's the path: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Frey Technologies\Common. Right click on the Common folder and select New – DWORD Value. Name it "consolewin" without the quotes and hit enter. Now double click on consolewin and change the value from 0 to 1. This will open up a DOS window for debugging when you start SageTV.

[BobPhoenix]

Thanks I will do that tonight and I am assuming you want me to send you the output. Do you want it by PM or email? If by email I guess I will need that - don't know if I have it or not.

BobP.

[deria]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Thanks I will do that tonight and I am assuming you want me to send you the output. Do you want it by PM or email? If by email I guess I will need that - don't know if I have it or not.

BobP.

Hi Bob,

I sent an STV to your last night at the email address you gave me, so you should have mine, but I'll PM you with it just in case. If you want to email the log to me or PM me with it (either is fine) thats cool. I enabled the console on my test machine and when the errors come up for the SystemMonitorJNI.dll not being found they are in the form "Catbert Method Lookup Failure: <function_name>". It will be interesting to see if you get the same behaviour.

I did some poking around based on that error message and in another thread I saw some people say that if they completely closed sage and then opened it again after doing the import, their errors went away. If you can, please try that. I'm pretty sure that each time I've installed it on a machine, I always closed Sage TV completely after doing so and before running the module. It may not be the case, but it would be worth trying since it only takes a few seconds and might pay off.

[deria]

Hi Bob,

I heard back from Jeff @ Sage. He said that when he was working on the framework (the Java to .NET interface that he developed) he ran into the same problem. His solution was:

"to put the BasicSystemMonitor.dll file into the Windows\System32 directory. The SystemMonitorJNI.dll file is most likely being found (if it wasn't, then all the other DLLs in that folder wouldn't be found as well); but the JVM fails when it tries to load that DLL due to a dependency."

That may not be the most elegant solution, but if it makes it work then it will significantly narrow down the problem.

I think where we're at is: 1) try enabling the console and see what messages are displayed and 2) try copying the .dll files (both, I think, just to avoid confusion) into the c:\windows\system32 directory. After both of these have been done, if it works then I will investigate further into how to control the .dll search path. I believe that under Windows it is possible to modify the path to include any directory you want.

I think we're making progress, though. Thanks for all your help with this, by the way. You've been very helpful and I most certainly appreciate it.

EDIT: Between #1 and #2, it might be worth exiting sage completely and restarting it just to see if it suddenly works after the restart. I'm curious about that.

[BobPhoenix]

Ok will try all of these tonight and post results as well as email you the log. No problem.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

OK all of this was done from my VirtualPC copy with Win2K and SageTV Client 4.0 Java 1.4.2_06 that came with SageTV4

So far no luck here is the sequence:

Finished updating my VirtualPC setup to include Win2K updates including .Net 1.1
Enabled the trouble shooting console - logs attached for all future operations
Selected the system monitor and got errors "Catbert..." you mentioned.
Shut down deleted the STV and copied the original SageTV3.stv again
Opened SageTV and changed to new STV and exited SageTV
Opened SageTV and imported the plugin saved the log then exited SageTV
Opened SageTV excuted the plugin saved the log and exited SageTV
Copied the dlls to Win2000\system32 directory - note I customized the default install location for Win2K would have been WINNT if I remember correctly
Opened SageTV excuted the plugin saved the log and exited SageTV
Extracted the STV and other files you emailed me
Opened SageTV excuted the "Disk Utilization" menu saved the log

Based on what I saw in the logs they all look the same but maybe you will see something different.

I used WinRar to Zip these to ZIP format if you have a problem opening the ZIP file I can install WinZIP if necessary.

I hope these are of some help it doesn't look like I accomplished much for you tho.

BobP.

[deria]

Thanks for giving it all a try. I'll take a look at the logs you posted. I'm more than slightly at a loss to explain why this is happening. Hopefully the logs will reveal something.

[deria]

Hi Bob,

This may not matter, but do you know what version of Java you have installed?

Also, could you try diong the .dll copy to the system32 directory on your regular system instead of the vmware/virtual pc system?

Thanks

[deria]

Another thought; it looks like where the java virtual machine will look for the .dll files is governed by the Java library path. I'm not sure how to modify that, but I'm going to look into it and see if I can come up with something. In the meantime, if you could try the above stuff when you have time that would be great. Thanks.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Enabled the trouble shooting console - logs attached for all future operations
Selected the system monitor and got errors "Catbert..." you mentioned.

Are you sure the .class files are readable by the user that you are running Sage as?
These method lookup errors imply that Sage cannot find the class at all...

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by nielm

Are you sure the .class files are readable by the user that you are running Sage as?
These method lookup errors imply that Sage cannot find the class at all...

This was Win2K and I haven't setup any users yet. This was the adminstrator account and SageTV Client so I am assuming that they are readable. Can you open then with something like notepad and read them? This isn't something I've ever tried and I don't do Java (not yet anyway). However this was on a VirtualPC session so that may have some unexpected bad effects I suppose so tonight I will try it on the MCE2K5 system itself - just got to find a window when it isn't recording or wait until the weekend when I can setup a separate partition to try this. I saw what you said earlier about the .class files and tried copying it to other directories but that made no difference so didn't mention it in an update last night because I really didn't think it would make any difference before I started. This is kind of frustrating because I have loaded your dynamic menus and delete partials for sure and I believe the IMDB STVi's on the version 3 betas with no problems. The only thing I currently have loaded on 4 is the dynamic menus. I have no problems with these but I suppose they don't do the same types of accesses. If I knew what I was doing in Studio and Java I might be able to figure this out!

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by deria

Another thought; it looks like where the java virtual machine will look for the .dll files is governed by the Java library path. I'm not sure how to modify that, but I'm going to look into it and see if I can come up with something. In the meantime, if you could try the above stuff when you have time that would be great. Thanks.

Will try that tonight if I get a window on the machine or this weekend. Also this weekend if I don't make any progress I will setup a separate partition on the MCE2K5 machine with Win2K and try it there. I will also try to keep a better log of exactly what is installed (I.E. visual time stamped display). Sorry this is so frustrating (for me too) I thought that someone should test this out for you but I certainly didn't expect these problems. I have always been able to install these things without too many problems in the past and I don't think I am doing anything different now.

By the way in one of your posts you asked for the version of Java its the one included with SageTV on the VirtualPC session 1.4.2_06 not sure what the version on MCE2K5 is will have to check tonight.

BobP.

[deria]

Hi Bob,

I heard back from Jeff @ SageTV again. He was able to get the plugin working on one of his systems, and he provided some tips that we can try to make it work on yours:

1) What is the value of the following registry key on your system?

HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\NativeLibPath

2) I will compile a new .class file for you that will provide more detailed information about why it can't seem to load the library. To use it, you don't even need to interupt SageTV. You'll just have to open a command line prompt and run the .class file from there (and I'll tell you how when the new .class file is ready).

[deria]

Hi Bob,

I've been talking with Jeff (we're still talking in fact) but so far it looks like the problem is pretty firmly nailed down to this: java finds the SystemMonitorJNI.dll file and has no trouble loading it, but when IT tries to load the BasicSystemMonitor.dll file it looks in several different (wrong) locations and does not find it. Things go bad at that point. There is a tool from www.sysinternals.com called Filemon (http://www.sysinternals.com/Files/FilemonNt.zip) that works just like DebugView (ie: no installation program, starts capturing right after you run it). If you could run it, then run SageTV with and try launching the system monitoring plugin, then the output will show each path that the system is looking in for the .dll file). (There will be alot of other stuff shown too. If you go to the Edit Menu, there is a Find option where you can search for "BasicSystem" and that should take you right to the lines that matter.) I'd be very interested to see what paths its searching on your system. In the meantime, I'll keep worth with Jeff to see if theres any progress to be made on just having it search the right spots for the file.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by deria

Hi Bob,

I heard back from Jeff @ SageTV again. He was able to get the plugin working on one of his systems, and he provided some tips that we can try to make it work on yours:

1) What is the value of the following registry key on your system?

HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\NativeLibPath

2) I will compile a new .class file for you that will provide more detailed information about why it can't seem to load the library. To use it, you don't even need to interupt SageTV. You'll just have to open a command line prompt and run the .class file from there (and I'll tell you how when the new .class file is ready).

Question 1 may be the answer I searched the whole registry not just above key and "NativeLibPath" doesn't exist in the registry certainly not on the "Frey Technologies" key. I visually looked through the whole key on both MCE2k5 machine and the Virtual PC version. Do you want me to add it? And do I point it at the SageTV directory where the dll's are?

Also I tried copying the dlls to the windows/system32 directory on the MCE2k5 real machine but that I'm afraid made no difference.

I'm glad to here he can get it to run. Will wait for your class library. Just saw your latest post will do that now.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

FilemonNT reports 'Cannot find string "BasicSystem".

BobP.