22 replies to this topic

[SekaPalle]

Hi friends,

I've come back to my preferred image, openPLI, after a short experience with openATV, to see if I was more happy seeing my old XTrend ET-8500 well functioning.

I haven't understood if I can ask help regarding this old, no more supported, stb, but perhaps just some tip cold be very helpful.

I've installed on one of the two partitions of the Xtrend flash just the necessary, that is OpenPLI 8.1 and only the 3 tools I need:

1. OpenVPN as server to connect with another my external stb (running openVPN as client in the city where I work and sleep during week);
2. oscam to let both my family and me - when I'm far from home -  see my two cards in XTrend;
3. I-settings just to manage settings.

Everything seems to run correctly (openvpn connect without problems and oscam runs well) but often, after simple actions through the RCU as changing channel or a little zapping or looking at EPG, happens that user interface hangs up and you can't see or do more nothing through the RCU and TV or through a PC acting through webIF... seems E2 has died , but stb has not crashed:

• I can still connect through telnet;
• openVPN is still running with my other decoder connected;
• oscam is running too and my remote client is descrambling through the info passed by Xtrend.

Simply my Xtrend becomes unusable locally.

The courious thing is that the same behaviour happened also with OpenATV 6.4 installed. I've tried first to OpenATV because I'had seen there was a lot of activity and tips regarding VPN in general on their forums. I thought the problem was due to the fact that in OpenATV I've made a lot of changes, installing and disinstalling VPN plugins, so I decided to retry starting with a fresh installation of OpenPLI 8.1... evidently without luck .

Please can you give me kindly a little help... tips about what log's files to control and where they are, just to understand what is the problem?!?

Thanks a lot. Many regards

 

 

[Pr2]

Hi,

 

I guess that there is not enough memory left in the ET-8500 to run all the plugins, EPG, OScam. You can may be try to create and enable a swap file to give it some more memory.

 

Regards,

 

Pr2

[SekaPalle]

Hi Pr2, thanks for your answer.

I can rember E1 times, when we had the need to move the "var" directory to external memory in order to free memory for a better functioning of our stb.

Sincerely I've got a thought in this direction an so I've controlled in OpenPLI menu about System Info, looking at the memory status section. Here I can see that usually the stb has MemTotal of 309076 Kb, MemFree of 162572 Kb (more than 50%) and MemAvailable 215084 Kb, so I was bring to suppose this is not the problem.

The set top box seems very fast and responsive in operation too, imediately before E2 services hang-up.

I know that Xtrend ET-8500 has the following amount of memory:  1GB DDR 3/512MB Nand Flash. Do you think is too poor for nowadays images?!?

Anyway I'll try to follow your kind indication activating a swap partition on a dedicated pendrive I'll attach to it and I'll tell you if the problem persist.

However can you give me also a tip about how to activate some type of logging to try monitoring what happens?

Many thanks again and good afternon

 

Paolo

[nevil]

Buona sera, confermo quanto descritto provato su zgemma h9 , h5 , mentre sulla versione openpli8.0 tutto fila liscio . Non è un problema di memoria .

 

[40H3X]

Buona sera, confermo quanto descritto provato su zgemma h9 , h5 , mentre sulla versione openpli8.0 tutto fila liscio . Non è un problema di memoria .

 

English please, translated by Google:

 

Good evening, I confirm what has been described tried on zgemma h9, h5, while on the openpli8.0 version everything goes smoothly. It is not a memory problem.

[WanWizard]

Smells like a routing problem. Are you getting routing commands from the other side, or is split tunneling disabled?

[SekaPalle]

Hi WanWizard,

thanxs for your contribute too.

I don't know what's nevil's case, so I just speak about my situation. I'm not a networking expert and I've got my troubles in making my self-configured openvpn, although it was the simpliest possible configuration (just a server with one client).

My only requirement was to share TV programs among family members, between two places in which we live, so I haven't used routers to built my VPN but I choose the solution to construct it directly using two my decoders.

In the udp tunnel just passes protocols used by oscam and nothing more. Each of the two decoders uses the resorces of the LAN they belongs (to navigate, to stream to the tablet, ecc.) and they only see each other with no access to other members of respective LANs.

I think I could define it a sort of split tunnel if you (@WanWizard) were intending something similar.

I don't know how and where to look for something wrong in my configs, but it seems strange to me thinking it's due to a network problem since, as I've explained in my first post, both openvpn tunnel and oscam decoding still work correctly, assuring vision to my remote decoder.

It seems to me more reasonable it could be a consequence of insufficient memory, as supposed by Pr2.

After his tip regarding a memory problem, I kept on controlling memory status ot the decoder through OpenPLI's Main menù > Informations > Systems Informations > Memory Informations and I realized that sometimes (I don't know the reason) the information I've reported at post #3 above, regarding the memory state of my decoder, are not always true.

In fact I've seen situations in which MemFree has drastically fallen to 3600-4900 Kb.

I can't undestand the meaning of MemAvailable which still remains at high values 211000 - 215000 Kb.

Anyway yesterday in late evening I made what Pr2 suggested to me: I put a 2 Gb pendrive in the decoder and with the plugin "swap-manager" I've given a present to my Xtrend activating a 1 Gb swapfile... since than the decoder is well functioning... I'll keep monitoring it in next days.

The usual menu I spoke above reports a SwapTotal of 1048572 Kb and an equal SwapFree.

I ask you: before to use the swapfile the decoder ha to reach MemFree = 0 Kb ?!?!?

Thankyou very much for your help guys. Have a good night

[WanWizard]

If you don't have split tunneling active, then all local traffic on both locations will work, and traffic between the two boxes will work, but the client box will not have any connection beyond that, as all traffic will be routed into the VPN tunnel instead of to the local router.

 

In any Linux device, MemFree of 0 is actually a good thing, it means it uses all available memory. My VU+ has 1GB memory, and still MemFree is only 8688Kb. If you are not experienced and know how to interpret the data, don't look at it.

[nevil]

Good evening, I confirm what has been described tried on zgemma h9, h5, while on the openpli8.0 version everything goes smoothly. It is not a memory problem.

 

I also tried the new 8.1 version released today but the problem persists.

[nevil]

I also tried the new 8.1 version released today but the problem persists.

[SekaPalle]

These evening the problem has come back, after almost two days of correct functioning.

This happened although the creation of 1 Gb swap file on the attached pendrive.

The executed operation that formally gave origin to E2 hung-up was a simple change of channel remaining in the same bouquet.

Connecting with telnet to the decoder I've seen it's alive (command ps shows the various processes in execution) and looking at Os*am Webif I've seen it is still functioning and decoding.

Looking at Os*am log instead I've noticed a strange error - I think correlated to the channel change.

 

The error is the following:   "(dvbapi) Error: error on poll of 6 fd's (errno=2 No such  file or directory)"

 

Tomorrow I'll try to search about this... do you think this could be the problem at the root of the loose of control of the decoder?!? It becomes irresponsive to the RCU and I've to command a reboot from telnet or to bring away the power through the switch in the rear side of stb.

 

 

@WanWizard:

 

 

If you don't have split tunneling active, then all local traffic on both locations will work, and traffic between the two boxes will work, but the client box will not have any connection beyond that, as all traffic will be routed into the VPN tunnel instead of to the local router.

I thinked it was the opposite, that is, with split tunnel the two decoders in different LANs uses the tunnel just to speak eachother (Os*am comunication protocols in my case), meanwhile for normal traffic they use the local resources they see (their local default gateway, DNS servers etc.).

I preferred my remote decoder doesn't use the tunnel to navigate forward the WEB, even if it's unusual for me such use of decoder.

My openVPN tunnel works in this way (I think :-) ).

 

Thankyou for your appreciated help

[WanWizard]

Normal VPN behaviour = all traffic goes through the VPN tunnel.

 

Split tunneling = only traffic specifically routed into the VPN tunnel goes through the VPN tunnel, other traffic stays local (hence the word "split").

[Pr2]

Then sounds to me that there is a memory leak somewhere, creating the swap extend the time before it crash.

[nevil]

Normal VPN behaviour = all traffic goes through the VPN tunnel.

 

Split tunneling = only traffic specifically routed into the VPN tunnel goes through the VPN tunnel, other traffic stays local (hence the word "split").

Hello Wanwizard Good morning, we can understand why with version 8.0 the vpn works perfectly while with 8.1 both iptv and ccam crashes.
Stop vpn and everything restarts regularly

[dolphs]

@Nevil - You do realise in 8.1 OpenVPN v 2.5 ( and diff. OpenSSL ) is onboard while in 8.0 it is 2.4, different configs. perhaps culprit to be found in that direction ?

I don't have any issues on my ET10000, Vu+ or H7 - except if server side is being rebooted ( software updates ) or if IP address changes when Provider upgrades/restarts modem, that takes approx. 3 minutes before dns record is being updated ... 

[nevil]

FCSB, I have tried to read the log file but I can't figure out where the error might be. If I post it you are able to analyze it to understand what we need to change to make it work. This morning it worked a little x then now it crashes all the time

[SekaPalle]

...

Looking at Os*am log instead I've noticed a strange error - I think correlated to the channel change.

 

The error is the following:   "(dvbapi) Error: error on poll of 6 fd's (errno=2 No such  file or directory)"

 

Tomorrow I'll try to search about this... do you think this could be the problem at the root of the loose of control of the decoder?!?

...

 

Hi friends,

better reflecting on what I've wrote above and about my doubt regarding if the dvbapi could be the cause of the partial crash of the decoder, i'm quite sure that this error and others similars I've observed yesterday and today, always regarding dvbapi on channels my cards normally decripts, are a consequence of the problem rather than the cause.

 

Pr2 is supposing it's a consequence of poor memory of my decoder, but dolps above said he has an ET10000 (if my memory don't fail... comparable to my ET8500) functioning without any issues, even if he doesn't specify clearly if using openvpn and what else.

WanWizard thinks probably is due to a bad config of my VPN tunnel, but I don't know what to look at and where.

 

So... I don't know what to test or try.

 

Thanks for the help

 

[nevil]

Last night I was in contact with surfshark support but we could not understand the problem. The beauty is that it works smoothly from time to time

 

Edited by WanWizard, 16 October 2021 - 14:00.
once is enough, and we can read normal size letters too...

[nevil]

WanWizard I noticed it after the duplicate But I think it was not a big problem Then it was not possible for me to modify it

[SekaPalle]

Hi friends, I'm still looking to focus the problem on my decoder, but with poor progress.

I would like to try transferring the role of server (and various configs) from my old Xtrend ET-8500 to a new and more performant STB so to exclude the problem is in a my misconfiguration of the old decoder.

Anyway I need another decoder so this could be the manner, I hope, to obtain a double result.

I will ask you a hint about a new decoder to buy. I suppose to look for:

• a quite recent model, still produced, mantained and findable on sale;
• a product with 2 card-readers (I've got 2 cards) and the capability to have installed an HD inside;
• a model with a certain amount of memory, a modern processor and working well with OpenPLI.

I've recently bought a GigablueTrio 4K but I evaluate bad its RCU, I don't like the necessity to use an external HD with USB interface in a stb with a lot of unused space inside, just one card reader, a poor led display etc.

I've seen some GigaBlue UHD Quad 4K on sale but I think this is not a very recent model  (on market since 2018?). If haven't misunderstood there is also the problem Gigablue doesn't colaborate with OpenPLI development so this isn't a good thing for the decoder's future support.

 

Something newer and possibly better?!?

Thanks a lot for yours tips.