OpenDCT Network Encoder Walkthrough - V1

[SageWizdom]

The below is an effort to document the install of OpenDCT on Linux (x64). This assumes you've used the Linux SageTV install thread here.

** See automated install script for Sage and encoders here (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=585773)

As noted in the OpenDCT page (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62774) Use the beta version for ClearQAM or ATSC support.

A Windows walkthrough by daweeze is here

1) Download OpenDCT
This will specifically download the .deb package for use with 64 bit Ubuntu.

Current Release (25 Feb 2016)

>> wget https://bintray.com/artifact/download/opendct/Releases/releases/0.3.17/opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb

Beta Release (25 Feb 2016)

>> wget https://bintray.com/artifact/download/opendct/Beta/releases/0.4.27/opendct_0.4.27-1_amd64.deb

2) Install OpenDCT
Use dpkg to install the downloaded file

>> sudo dpkg -i opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb 

Selecting previously unselected package opendct.
(Reading database ... 102018 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking opendct (0.3.17-1) ...
Setting up opendct (0.3.17-1) ...
To use the provided ufw rules type:
/opt/opendct/enable-ufw-ports

To delete the provided ufw rules type:
/opt/opendct/disable-ufw-ports

To start the OpenDCT service type:
service opendct start

3) Configure Firewall
As noted when OpenDCT installs, it provides a script to open ports using ufw. For whatever reason, this does not run properly on my system (workaround below).

To try the provided script run:

/opt/opendct/enable-ufw-ports

*Note* In the script it uses the "sudo" keyword to get the required admin privileges. If you are asked for your password, this is why.

If the above gives errors

>> sudo /opt/opendct/enable-ufw-ports 
Skipping adding existing rule
Skipping adding existing rule (v6)
ERROR: Bad port
Skipping adding existing rule
Skipping adding existing rule (v6)
ERROR: Bad port

You can do the same things the script is trying to do with the following commands. Note the script and below commands both allow access from any incoming IP, versus a limited source ip range.

sudo ufw allow proto tcp to any port 9000:9100
sudo ufw allow proto udp to any port 8300:8500
sudo ufw allow proto tcp to any port 7818
sudo ufw allow proto udp to any port 8271

3B) Make sure opendct autostarts at boot
mikejaner noticed that opendct was not starting automatically at boot time and provided the below fix. Run the below command.

sudo update-rc.d -f opendct defaults

4) OpenDCT first run
The first time OpenDCT is run, it needs to be run from the command line so it can detect everything and generate the "opendct.properties" file.

> cd /opt/opendct
> sudo chmod a+x ./console-only
> sudo ./console-only

[.... lots of text as the application runs.... ]
INFO   | jvm 1    | 2016/02/25 13:35:45.392 | 13:35:45.388 [WrapperSimpleAppMain] INFO  UpnpManager - Starting UPnP services...
INFO   | jvm 1    | 2016/02/25 13:35:45.493 | 13:35:45.443 [WrapperSimpleAppMain] INFO  Main - Running in daemon mode...

> Ctrl-C (to kill the process)

[... more text as OpenDCT shuts down ...]

# start the service
> sudo service opendct start
Starting OpenDCT Digital Cable Tuner for SageTV...

When the service starts it will go detect all of your encoders / etc. If you want to edit the config (based on the main page) you need to stop the service using the same command as above but with "stop" at the end.


5) Update SageTV Config File
To configure the tuners in Sage, first we need to shut down Sage, then edit the .properties file. As is often noted in the forms, this is a good time to backup a copy of your Sage.properties and Wiz.bin.

# Change to your SageTV server directory
> cd /opt/sagetv/server

# Shutdown Sage
> sudo ./stopsage

# Backup files with a time stamp
# ex Sage.properties.backup<date>
> cp Sage.properties Sage.properties.backup20160225
> cp Wiz.bin Wiz.bin.backup20160225

# Edit Sage to look for network encoders
> sudo nano Sage.properties

# Edit / add the following entries
encoding_discovery_port=8271		-- I had to manually create this entry
network_encoder_discovery=true		-- this existed but was set to false

If you have previously had network encoders configured, I believe you should remove the config from the Sage.properties file. To do this, delete all lines that start with "mmc/encoders/."

If using nano, you can use the Ctrl-K key combination to delete a line.

When done editing press Ctrl-O to save and Ctrl-X to exit the nano editor.

6) Configure Tuners in SageTV
It is now time to restart SageTV and detect / configure the tuners.

Change to the SageTV server directory and start the SageTV Service

>> cd /opt/sagetv/server
>> sudo ./startsage

-- ok... so far this didn't work... time to try again.. I'll keep updating until ready.

[EnterNoEscape]

Nice how-to!

You caught a problem with the firewall rules script. 14.04 did not complain about the port range formatting, but apparently newer versions do. It would be nice if Ubuntu offered a more modular approach to the default firewall like CentOS and Fedora. To add proper rules to Ubuntu you need to add entries to a large configuration file so instead of possibly accidentally ruining people's setups, I opted for a firewall rule script. Full disclosure: I'm a Fedora guy, so Ubuntu doesn't get tested as much. Also if I recall correctly Ubuntu doesn't have the firewall enabled by default, so the firewall script may not be needed for all users. The script will be fixed in the next release.

Was ./console-only not already marked executable?

Also since this might help some of the newer to Linux crowd, one of my favorite commands when I want to see what OpenDCT is doing when it's running as a service is:

tail -f /var/log/opendct/opendct.log

Hit Ctrl-C to stop following the log.

[SageWizdom]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

You caught a problem with the firewall rules script. 14.04 did not complain about the port range formatting, but apparently newer versions do.

I've run into this a couple times. I'm actually automating a birth to live runtime for my home virtual server so I'm trying to keep on top of this.

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

It would be nice if Ubuntu offered a more modular approach to the default firewall like CentOS and Fedora.

Ha! oh right sorry.

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Full disclosure: I'm a Fedora guy, so Ubuntu doesn't get tested as much. Also if I recall correctly Ubuntu doesn't have the firewall enabled by default, so the firewall script may not be needed for all users. The script will be fixed in the next release.

How do you like Fedora? Its funny, I've been building on Ubuntu because the currently available builds are .deb (or .tgz) and I like leveraging the package manager for any dependency resolution, but historically I've used CentOS more.

You are correct that the firewall is disabled by default, but I like to throw in the entries as at some point, I'm going to make the darn FW work correctly (still dreaming).

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Was ./console-only not already marked executable?

It was 550 and owned by user opendct. The a+x allowed sudo to run it. I could also have just chown'ed it, but this seemed just as easy since in normally will be automatically run by the service, so it was really just this once.


Thanks for all the great work on OpenDCT. I'll admit, I think I broke it when I set it up the first time. I'm going to blow it away and let the whole install flow. I'm going to re-read the main thread and may hit you up there for some troubleshooting.

Thanks.

[EnterNoEscape]

I predominantly use Linux for terminal activities, so I may not be the best person to ask about a holistic Fedora experience. When I do use the Gnome desktop in Fedora, I find it very pleasant and to the point.

The only thing that's a little scary in Fedora is the upgrade cycles, but that's the price you pay for having the latest reasonably tested releases. If you want stable for years with a similar feel, CentOS 7 is a good choice. If you want the latest without being on the bleeding edge, Fedora is a very good option.

I have one server running CentOS 7 because the 4.0+ kernels no longer play nicely with the InfiniTV tuner drivers. That box is also running KVM with a few redundant VM hosted services so I can bring any server down and it doesn't make my wife angry. My other server running Fedora 22 is also running KVM with everything else and has 23TB of disk space backed using bcache by 1.2TB of writeback redundant solid state drives. It took a while to iron out all of the bottlenecks in my system, but now it's very fast even during rebuilds. I'm also using RAM deduplication and compression to fit a lot more VM's than you should be able to fit in 32GB of RAM.

Also if you go headless like I mostly do, cockpit is really awesome. You can see and change what's going on with the server and even manage docker containers. CentOS I believe as of 7.1 has cockpit now.

[SageWizdom]

Thats awesome.

[mikejaner]

Hey, I followed your instructions for installing SageTV on Ubuntu(Thanks for these BTW), and now these OpenDCT ones. I am running into the following error after the step of starting the opendct service. Do you have any idea what this means. I am a linux wannabe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mjaner@sagenix:/opt/opendct$ sudo service opendct start
Failed to start opendct.service: Unit opendct.service failed to load: No such file or directory.
mjaner@sagenix:/opt/opendct$


Edit: The install didn't complain. I even tried the beta before this, with the same results.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mjaner@sagenix:~$ sudo dpkg -i opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package opendct.
(Reading database ... 102121 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking opendct (0.3.17-1) ...
Setting up opendct (0.3.17-1) ...
To use the provided ufw rules type:
/opt/opendct/enable-ufw-ports

To delete the provided ufw rules type:
/opt/opendct/disable-ufw-ports

To start the OpenDCT service type:
service opendct start
mjaner@


Mike

[dranockcir]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Hey, I followed your instructions for installing SageTV on Ubuntu(Thanks for these BTW), and now these OpenDCT ones. I am running into the following error after the step of starting the opendct service. Do you have any idea what this means. I am a linux wannabe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mjaner@sagenix:/opt/opendct$ sudo service opendct start
Failed to start opendct.service: Unit opendct.service failed to load: No such file or directory.
mjaner@sagenix:/opt/opendct$


Edit: The install didn't complain. I even tried the beta before this, with the same results.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mjaner@sagenix:~$ sudo dpkg -i opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package opendct.
(Reading database ... 102121 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack opendct_0.3.17-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking opendct (0.3.17-1) ...
Setting up opendct (0.3.17-1) ...
To use the provided ufw rules type:
/opt/opendct/enable-ufw-ports

To delete the provided ufw rules type:
/opt/opendct/disable-ufw-ports

To start the OpenDCT service type:
service opendct start
mjaner@


Mike

I know you were asking SageWisdom but did you run /opt/opendct/console-only (step 4) I believe you have to do that to have a properties file created.

[mikejaner]

Yes, I did that, and waited a few moments before stopping it. Thanks, any help is welcome

[ranger]

Check and see if the folder /var/run/opendct exists. When opendct starts up it uses that folder for the pid file. The folder did not exist when I did the install tonight.

I've got the service running, but SageTV still isn't seeing the opendct tuners

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by ranger

Check and see if the folder /var/run/opendct exists. When opendct starts up it uses that folder for the pid file. The folder did not exist when I did the install tonight.

I've got the service running, but SageTV still isn't seeing the opendct tuners

The folder exists, but there is no files in it, so I guess it didn't write the .pid after I ran the console-only.

[ranger]

There will only be a pid file if the service is running. If the folder exists for you, your problem is different than my earlier issue.

[dranockcir]

Originally Posted by ranger

Check and see if the folder /var/run/opendct exists. When opendct starts up it uses that folder for the pid file. The folder did not exist when I did the install tonight.

I've got the service running, but SageTV still isn't seeing the opendct tuners

Oh yeah, Mike can you "sudo mkdir /var/run/opendct" and see if that helps.

Ranger, did you enable network encoder discovery in Sage.properties? Looks like this

network_encoder_discovery=true

You can also disable the firewall in Ubuntu to see if that is the problem by "sudo ufw disable" use enable to turn it on again.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by dranockcir

Oh yeah, Mike can you "sudo mkdir /var/run/opendct" and see if that helps.

It says the file already exists.

[mikejaner]

Hey guys. I realized I was running Ubuntu 15.10. Went back to 14.04LTS and everything works.

[dranockcir]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Hey guys. I realized I was running Ubuntu 15.10. Went back to 14.04LTS and everything works.

Awesome. I wonder if it was your Java version? I think opendct requires at least java7. I have had it all working on 15.10 and right now I am actually using 16.04 beta. I figure since it's the next LTS, due the end of April, I would just try building on that.

[mikejaner]

It was Java 8, because I followed the build guide from SageWizdom. Not sure what I did wrong, but if nobody else saw it, then it must be minor.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by dranockcir

Awesome. I wonder if it was your Java version? I think opendct requires at least java7. I have had it all working on 15.10 and right now I am actually using 16.04 beta. I figure since it's the next LTS, due the end of April, I would just try building on that.

My intention is to standardize on the LTS releases for Ubuntu since that probably the most desirable for a server. Once 16.04 is actually released. I'll make sure OpenDCT works correctly with it.

[dranockcir]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

My intention is to standardize on the LTS releases for Ubuntu since that probably the most desirable for a server. Once 16.04 is actually released. I'll make sure OpenDCT works correctly with it.

That's awesome and a great idea. it only makes sense to stick with LTS versions. I like to mess with stuff, I have a Windows 7 SageTV 7.1.9 server that the family uses and this Linux one that I play with. I have used 14.04 for my desktop since, well, April 2014.

I figured I'd build myself a nice media server that was the latest of everything and then leave it alone to run for a few years. It has SageTV, Plex Media Server and Owncloud on it now. Eventually, hopefully this summer, I will replace the Windows 7 SageTV server and a separate Plex/Owncloud server with this one.

[SageWizdom]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Hey, I followed your instructions for installing SageTV on Ubuntu(Thanks for these BTW), and now these OpenDCT ones. I am running into the following error after the step of starting the opendct service. Do you have any idea what this means. I am a linux wannabe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike

Mike, sorry I was away and not able to get back to you. It looks like things are now working and you've given me a couple ideas for testing and validation. Do you have everything working at this point?

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by SageWizdom

Mike, sorry I was away and not able to get back to you. It looks like things are now working and you've given me a couple ideas for testing and validation. Do you have everything working at this point?

Yes, it works, but I did notice opendct does not start at boot like sagetv does.
I did some digging to try to do it myself and kept running into issues. I noticed sagetv was using the old rc.d (system v?) style of startup, and opendct has a linked startup file in the same directory, so I tried to tell rc.d to configure opendct to start and got the following error.

root@sagelinux:/etc/init.d# update-rc.d opendct enable
update-rc.d: warning: start runlevel arguments (none) do not match opendct Default-Start values (2 3 4 5)
update-rc.d: warning: stop runlevel arguments (none) do not match opendct Default-Stop values (S 0 1 6)
System start/stop links for /etc/init.d/opendct do not exist.


Here's ls of the init.d directory

root@sagelinux:/etc/init.d# ls
acpid grub-common procps sagetv umountnfs.sh
apparmor halt rc screen-cleanup umountroot
apport irqbalance rc.local sendsigs unattended-upgrades
atd killprocs rcS single urandom
console-setup kmod README skeleton x11-common
cron networking reboot ssh
dbus ondemand resolvconf sudo
dns-clean opendct rsync udev
friendly-recovery pppd-dns rsyslog umountfs



[EDIT]
I fixed it doing the following:
update-rc.d -f opendct defaults