OpenVIX 25

[wbarrett]

Updated from 24 to 25 today. This update really should have been renumbered and renamed as it required a USB reflash and no restore of settings at all. I was able to reload my satellite configurations with DreamEdit and was able to reload my ~300 picons with FTP.

The only configuration file I manually was able to restore was LCD4Linux. None of my timers worked. I also had to re-set up all 4 tuners and get all DiSEQc settings rebuilt from scratch manually. None of my MetrixHD skin settings worked either.

This was by far the ugliest update on VIX I have experienced. Certainly one measured in hours not minutes.

That said... Image is stable so far.

===
Bill

[wbarrett]

OK... I do not find this image stable. After playing with it for a couple of hours, I find random restarts of the UI when using channel up or down buttons... Menu may do it... Have not got a replicable set of actions but no way is 25 stable *enough* in my mind.

I am going to save the image 25 so when they do start the bug fixes, I will not have to rebuild from scratch all over... But I am rolling back to 24. Too many introduced issues for my tastes.

===
Bill

[el bandido]

In the past, I have shared your frustrations but there are ways to upgrade or change any e2 image with minimal impact. At the bare minimum, you should be able to keep your antenna settings and the channels. Timers are in a .xml file and should manually transfer easily. Skins may/may not work, depending on what changes were made to the image.
Normally it takes me between 5-10 minutes to transfer antenna settings, channels, satellite file, skins, plugins and other assorted files to any e2 image. It used to take 1 hour or more to do this.

I am working on putting the information on how to do this in a thread and will post a link to it here when I am finished.

[wbarrett]

That would be very handy EB.

I must say though, this OpenVIX update definitely blew my timers.XML files just were not working. At least my recordings_were all OK.

===
Bill

[eastof111]

Bill, don't you keep a backup of your settings for situations such as you describe? Your recordings should not be affected unless you play around with plugins that modify the hard drive such as umount, barry allen, dumbo, multiboot, etc. But just the same I also keep a backup of my hard drive on my pc for those times when I have a senior moment.

I am still using 025 on multiboot and everything works just as in 024.

[wbarrett]

I do make backups and full images. In this case the update to 25 specifically was built to not do any restores from backups. As I stated I was able to reload my satellite configurations from DreamEdit but that was no help with the tuner a d antenna settings. I look forward to getting EBs tutorial on where all config files are saved and which ones can be manually restored. I had copies of other config files like the timers.XML but they did not work in25.

Looking at WOS support for OpenVIX seems a lot of people have issues with 25 similar to me. There is no doubt in my case that 25 was a step backwards just as 23 was!

===
Bill

[eastof111]

DreamEdit does not save your settings, sat file or lamedb files. So, when you do a restore you will most likely have YOUR bouquets with the new default sat, settings and lamedb files. You have to use putty and filezilla to upload YOUR files to match your bouquets and tuner settings.

DreamBoxEdit will save the bouquets, sat, lamedb and settings file. So, when you restore you should have everything working with your old tuner and bouquet settings.

Learned the hard way........

[el bandido]

Build 25 is running very well for me and without any issues. I will run it for a while and see what it does/does not do.

How to transfer antenna settings is here:[Only registered and activated users can see links]

I will try to write up how to transfer plugins and other files as time permits.
The enigma2 operating system is very forgiving in the way of mistakes and is very versatile. These are only a couple of reasons as to why e2 is my favorite operating system for fta.

[wbarrett]

Double checked... I actually do use DreamBoxEdit... Latest version

===
Bill

[eastof111]

Unfortunately, DreamBoxEdit has its quirks too. Sometimes, you may have to use putty and filezilla to get a problem resolved no matter what you may have tried to correct a settings issue. This happens a lot when one tests various images consistently. But in your case, where you have one image in flash, you really shouldn't be having this problem unless one of your settings files got corrupted.

I always keep a folder on my computer for all images I play with and store a virgin settings file along with a corresponding lamedb, sat.xml, timers, profile etc. Should something ever go south, and if I am unable to restore with a backup, I will just load the virgin files via putty and filezilla. Then, the only thing I have to check is if I am missing plugins. Other than that, I will be up and running in 10 to fifteen minutes.

When you do a clean upgrade, open the settings file with an editor similar to Notepad++ and compare it to the problem settings file and you will see the difference in references in each. Usually, it will be a setting in the file relating to starting a plugin that no longer exists or is corrupted, or a video setting issue, or the tuner settings not corresponding to your your bouquets, or lamedb files. Also, your profile file should be fairly consistent from the default to your current one. But, usually it will be the settings file which is the offender in many cases.

Again, I know I complain about gremlins a lot, but it's usually fairly easy to find them by just looking at the settings file.

[el bandido]

I have not used a computer channel editor such as DreamBoxEdit in months. The plugin channel editor in the Duo2 works fine for me. It does not actually delete channels, but it does hide them. And it does allow for PID editing, so it is all that I have needed.

Similar to East, I store satellites .xml and the etc/enigma2 folder from the receiver on my computer. I transfer what I need using FileZilla when I load a different or new image.
I also store the python folder on the computer which contains all the plugins and the usr/share/enigma2 folder which contains the skins. FileZilla can be used to transfer these items too.

[wbarrett]

It will be very helpful to know exactly which customization file and their locations to do an upgrade. There is so many posts out there but none cover it all.

That said... Aside from having the latest & greatest version I have to say that I have yet to see a new feature or some other compelling reason to upgrade. It sure seems VIX has a good release then a bad one. But I have not seen a wow moment in a good dozen upgrades yet.

Am I missing something?

===
Bill

[el bandido]

I will post more information on what files to transfer and where they are located in the receiver as time permits. Tricking the receiver into changing the settings file was the hardest thing for me to find information on. All the rest of the file transfers are nothing more than drag and drop using FileZilla.

It looks like the kernel was upgraded in build#25, and there can be hidden problems when things like this are changed. OpenVix does a good job, but all of these firmware changes have not really done anything for us. The radio channels still will not record for me in build#25, and the AAC radio channels will not play. These are the same problems that existed for me in build#1. Maybe they will fix these problems some day, but I am not holding my breath. Another option is to look at the build logs and see if you want to upgrade to the latest build or skip it.

You may want to look at some other image teams besides VIX. IMO, they are all good, but some have different features and set-ups than others. It is not very appealing to swap images when it takes 1 or two hours to do the swap. But if you know the procedures and where things are located, different team images can be swapped in 5-10 minutes without using multiboot. You can also use one computer to manage several different brands of fta receivers easily, if they are all using enigma2 images and if they are all on the same network.

[eastof111]

From the looks of it, that wow moment isn't going to happen until a coder on this side of the Atlantic purchases a unit and has extra time on his/her hands to add, delete, streamline and refine the code. But, that would only benefit the resellers, so I don't see that happening soon.

Still, I am a happy camper using this receiver as is, even though it has tremendous untapped possibilities. Too bad there aren't any coders out there willing to write and sell a revised code on a receiver serial number basis. Any StiLinux coders out there reading this forum? Maybe after this post is googlized, someone might read this. Dreaming.....

[wbarrett]

Thanks, guys. With 24 nice and stable and doing blind scan I am sticking with this one for a while.

===
Bill

[Pale-Rider]

Updated from 24 to 25 today. This update really should have been renumbered and renamed as it required a USB reflash and no restore of settings at all. I was able to reload my satellite configurations with DreamEdit and was able to reload my ~300 picons with FTP.


In all fairness and I am not here to make excuses. Every other time we have teken the step of renaming the image after a OE-Core update (Zeus, Helios and even Apollo), we received nothing but grief and flack from all sides, so we decided to simply advise users not to use the online update feature. we even made several announcements on our own forum, and social media feeds as well as other forums such as this one. sadly our users have again shown their inability to follow simple advice.

[Pale-Rider]

Unfortunately, DreamBoxEdit has its quirks too. Sometimes, you may have to use putty and filezilla to get a problem resolved no matter what you may have tried to correct a settings issue. This happens a lot when one tests various images consistently. But in your case, where you have one image in flash, you really shouldn't be having this problem unless one of your settings files got corrupted.

I always keep a folder on my computer for all images I play with and store a virgin settings file along with a corresponding lamedb, sat.xml, timers, profile etc. Should something ever go south, and if I am unable to restore with a backup, I will just load the virgin files via putty and filezilla. Then, the only thing I have to check is if I am missing plugins. Other than that, I will be up and running in 10 to fifteen minutes.

When you do a clean upgrade, open the settings file with an editor similar to Notepad++ and compare it to the problem settings file and you will see the difference in references in each. Usually, it will be a setting in the file relating to starting a plugin that no longer exists or is corrupted, or a video setting issue, or the tuner settings not corresponding to your your bouquets, or lamedb files. Also, your profile file should be fairly consistent from the default to your current one. But, usually it will be the settings file which is the offender in many cases.

Again, I know I complain about gremlins a lot, but it's usually fairly easy to find them by just looking at the settings file.

DBE is a very handy program, but it does not properly handle live files in E2, it should put enigma to sleep before transferring or modifying live files as they are very prone to corruption. even some thing as simple as transferring a new bouquet to your receiver should only be undertaken while enigma is asleep as being a live file it can corrupt or the file held in the flash can just overwrite the changes you made with DEB.

[eastof111]

"sadly our users have again shown their inability to follow simple advice". To be fair to some of the users that upgrade and do not follow advice, I would say that there always be reasons for doing so. Lack of time, in a hurry, anxious to see what's new, testing purposes, etc. And yes, the receiver should always be put to sleep for an accurate transfer of files.

But in real life it isn't going to happen and there will always be users that will try to bypass the recommended procedures and experience a problem afterwards. I guess you could put a bigger warning sign up prior to updating and it might alleviate the problem, but I doubt it.

[Pale-Rider]

Well it does not really matter which direction we take with such important upgrades as there will always be a certain percentage who ignore all advice and or complain about it any way. so the best we can do is offer our advice and leave it at that.

I also agree with a post you made earlier (at least I think it was you), where you said that things will not change for the better until such a time as a coder in NA decided to work with the enigma platform rather than relying on others in Europe etc, who in all honesty may not be as interested in producing fixes and features for a market that they can not access. so as always I will say that the OE-A / ViX are always looking for talented coders who can work with python / C++ in order to better Enigma for the users, interested parties need only approach us to see about working together.

[eastof111]

"who in all honesty may not be as interested in producing fixes and features for a market that they can not access".

It would seem to me that there IS a market in Europe for receivers that access features similar to what is requested in NA. Dr. HD, Technomate, etc., offers some of the features that we require in NA. The two mentioned are not selling like gang busters in Europe, but at least they've developed a small niche segment of the market to profit and survive.

[eastof111]

For one of the wow moments, how about adding wifi security camera capabilities for the receiver. Access, control and display on your big screen. Plus recording capabilities for the cameras. I am pretty confident this feature would be welcomed both in Europe and NA.

[Pale-Rider]

"who in all honesty may not be as interested in producing fixes and features for a market that they can not access".

It would seem to me that there IS a market in Europe for receivers that access features similar to what is requested in NA. Dr. HD, Technomate, etc., offers some of the features that we require in NA. The two mentioned are not selling like gang busters in Europe, but at least they've developed a small niche segment of the market to profit and survive.

Both of those receivers and their firmware are closed source, and as such their features are created by paid coders in the employ of the manufacturers, there are some third party firmware patches but on the whole they are for very minor things like keys. it is not the same thing as Enigma2 where the majority of images and plugins are created by individual or teams of amateur coders in their own time and at their own expense.


For one of the wow moments, how about adding wifi security camera capabilities for the receiver. Access, control and display on your big screen. Plus recording capabilities for the cameras. I am pretty confident this feature would be welcomed both in Europe and NA.

That is far beyond the capabilities of most if not all amateur image teams and we are talking about amateurs here not paid professionals, there would need to be significant support from the manufacturers of both the STB and the devices in question in the form of drivers etc before such a project could even be considered.

[eastof111]

Why don't you advertise on your forum for bids for paid professional coders to do a specific coding project. Allow forum members to contribute to the bid process. I sure as heck would.

[Pale-Rider]

Why don't you advertise on your forum for bids for paid professional coders to do a specific coding project. Allow forum members to contribute to the bid process. I sure as heck would.

There is pretty much no point in paying coders to do work that would just end up ripped out of the image and plastered into another image the instant it was released, so I cant see that ever happening.