Customised HDF file released

[af123]

I've just uploaded an updated web interface package which includes csudcy's database dump script and an updated scheduled recording screen from xy321. I may have complicated things slightly because I've renamed the package from af123-webif to just webif.. You'll need to do:

humax# opkg remove af123-webif
humax# opkg install webif

instead of the usual upgrade.

Out of interest, does everyone else see the 'Software Update' task in the scheduled recordings table? If so, then those people who wish to prevent OTA updates may be in luck..

 

[Black Hole]

Does the web interface mean we can "do stuff" from a browser instead of Telnet? I appreciate it may be rudimentary at the moment.

 

[af123]

Does the web interface mean we can "do stuff" from a browser instead of Telnet? I appreciate it may be rudimentary at the moment.

Yes, although at the moment it is limited to turning services on/off, viewing installed and available software, viewing scheduled recordings and what is currently being recorded/played. The next thing I was planning to add was more package management.

 

[James]

It was a little slow, but no where near as slow as the portal.
.................
It also has to be an SSL based connection.

Are you serious in that the portal is being encrypted/decrypted every time its used! - This may well be a lot of the overhead that the processor is having to do to load up the portal........

Oh and what happens if we point it back at its own IP address/localhost?

The only problem with doing it the HOSTS way is that you will now need to reference the portal by IP address instead (which obviously may well change) when linking back to it!

 

[af123]

Are you serious in that the portal is being encrypted/decrypted every time its used! - This may well be a lot of the overhead that the processor is having to do to load up the portal........

The connection to the portal web site is encrypted using standard HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) and authenticated using a client certificate which is unique to the model of the box. The connection also passes over the box system ID and MAC address. The client authentication is presumably used to ensure that a Humax PVR is at the other end and the System ID is currently used to enable the beta features.

I managed to get the box to load a standard HTTP site by changing one of the configuration files - worked ok but a bit small on the TV as you'd expect

 

[Dan]

I'm having a few problems with the custom firmware loading the additional features when the box comes up because it is recording. Specifically if I turn the box on when its already part booted because it is recording then I cannot connect via telnet nor the web interface (I can FTP). I use DHCP on the router end, but with a reserved IP and the box is manually configured for that IP. I also have a terebyte USB plugged in which might interfere with boot sequence. Can someone suggest a fix please or is this a normal quirk of the custom firmware.

Thanks again for everyone's hard work.

 

[af123]

I'm having a few problems with the custom firmware loading the additional features when the box comes up because it is recording. Specifically if I turn the box on when its already part booted because it is recording then I cannot connect via telnet nor the web interface...

Is this an HDR model?
Next time it happens, could you grab a copy of /tmp/modinit.log and /tmp/rag.log (via FTP) and post/PM them? Can you also check which version of the mod you're using? There should be a file called /etc/modversion which tells you. Something in those files should show what the problem is.

I don't experience this with my box but I don't have external storage permanently connected.

 

[oijonesey]

I loaded this up last night (and I'd barely even heard of Telnet before finding this thread so you don't need to be an expert, just follow the instructions on hummypkg.org.uk)

Thank you af123 (I like your postcode by the way! I hope they're not keeping you there against your will) and raydon and all the other contributors - a really nice job on the web interface - looks very professional (Humax are you watching??!!).

Just one thing I noted though that might help people trying to install updates - various people have posted that they've had problems getting the update to kick in from a USB stick and I don't think I've seen this solution mentioned before. I had the same problem - tried 3 sticks all FAT32 formatted as per instructions but nothing happened - even the stick I'd used to apply the last official update didn't work. So to re-create the setup as it was when I did get an update to work I unplugged the USB HDD I had hanging off the back connection and it worked straightaway. I could speculate that the Humax boot order is the rear USB first but then if it finds something attached (that doesn't have an HDF file on it) then it doesn't bother doing anything with whatever it finds at the front?

Anyway - if your update isn't working and you have something else plugged in the rear USB take it out and try again.

Now I'm off to try and work out exactly what I do now that I've put "Samba" on the box!!

Thanks again

Oi Jonesey

 

[Jonl]

Out of interest, does everyone else see the 'Software Update' task in the scheduled recordings table? If so, then those people who wish to prevent OTA updates may be in luck..

I do.

Thanks to all working on this. Opens up the Humax beyond belief. I love this box. I started off with the Philips box which was buggy and clunky. By comparison the Humax is so smooth.

Jon

 

[James]

Has anybody got the http server running on an ssl connection yet? The reason I'm thinking of this is as i'm wondering where I should put the new web pages I'm writing for a new portal startup page

 

[oijonesey]

Can anyone advise please? I got the (new) web interface to work the other day just after I had first installed the custom firmware - but since then I can't connect to it. I enter the IP address in my browser but ie keeps saying "cannot display the webpage". The box has auto powered off since I installed it. This is the list of what's installed if that helps. Sorry if this is a dumb question I'm very new to this.

humax# opkg list-installed
auto-unprotect - 1.0.1
busybox - 1.18.3
cifs - 2.6.18
cron-daemon - 1.18.3
dedup - 1.0.0
hmt - 1.0.3
jim - 0.71
jim-cgi - 0.1
jim-sqlite3 - 0.71
lsof - 4.82
mongoose - 2.11-1
samba - 2.2.12-1
service-control - 1.0
sqlite3 - 3.7.6
virtual-disk - 1.1
webif - 0.2
humax#
Thanks

OiJonesey

 

[Kev_w]

Out of interest, does everyone else see the 'Software Update' task in the scheduled recordings table? If so, then those people who wish to prevent OTA updates may be in luck..

I've just installed the web interface - very nice!

I do see the "software Update" in scheduled recordings. Should I be worried that its scheduled for tomorrow? I might unplug my box!!

 

[af123]

I've just installed the web interface - very nice!

Thanks - I've got an update almost ready to roll out too.. adding more features all the time.

I do see the "software Update" in scheduled recordings. Should I be worried that its scheduled for tomorrow? I might unplug my box!!

If you look at the icons, it's a 7-day repeating event. I've never been up to check without the PVR already being on, but it looks like it wakes itself up every morning to check for an OTA update. Most of the time there's nothing there for it.

 

[af123]

Can anyone advise please? I got the (new) web interface to work the other day just after I had first installed the custom firmware - but since then I can't connect to it. I enter the IP address in my browser but ie keeps saying "cannot display the webpage".

Can you still telnet to the box? (just wondering if the IP address has changed). If so, run the 'service' command to see if the web interface is running and set to start up at boot time. You're looking for the mongoose service.

humax# service

Name                Installed  Autostart  Running
----                ---------  ---------  -------
...
mongoose            Yes        Yes        Yes

If it isn't set to auto start then do:

humax# service start mongoose
humax# service auto mongoose

 

[af123]

Has anybody got the http server running on an ssl connection yet? The reason I'm thinking of this is as i'm wondering where I should put the new web pages I'm writing for a new portal startup page

The binary in mongoose is compiled without SSL support.. Mongoose does support SSL though so I could recompile it if you wish to run an SSL server. For redirecting the portal start page, we can look at doing another tweak to the firmware to move the start page to HTTP. We'd need to work out the details but it might be better than adding SSL overhead.

 

[af123]

...if I turn the box on when its already part booted because it is recording then I cannot connect via telnet nor the web interface.

It seems that the box assigns the internal disks as sda on normal boot but sdb on a recording boot.. very strange. I'll update the custom firmware to cope with this.

 

[pk79]

Just had a scan through whats going on here. Is the customised hdf of any use to a non-programmer at the moment? I have managed to use the ftp server with filezilla and that's about my level. Am I right in thinking you are at the early stages of making changes and there is not much new for the end user just yet?

 

[Black Hole]

Just had a scan through whats going on here. Is the customised hdf of any use to a non-programmer at the moment? I have managed to use the ftp server with filezilla and that's about my level. Am I right in thinking you are at the early stages of making changes and there is not much new for the end user just yet?

I think that's pessimistic. I'm also a "non programmer", and have been sitting on the fence for a while monitoring the situation about to put my toe in the water (I'm busy for a couple of weeks but after that...).

All we have to do is load the custom firmware and a few packages and then: 1. HD recordings can be copied to a memory stick and played elsewhere just like SD; 2. HD or SD recordings can be copied (thus decrypting them) to the internal disc and served across a network to DLNA clients (media players) elsewhere; 3. Another tool will scan the files and change the names to the episode title instead of the series title, and move any duplicates detected to a holding folder (where you can dispose of them as you like). As I see it, those are the main benefits so far.

If you want to see how easy this is likely to be, check this topic: http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/dnla-server-alternative-strategy.256/

Before I do that though, I'm going to start by FTP to fetch an HD recording's parameter file (.hmt) to a PC, use Foxy to clear the "enc" flag and FTP it back - that will also enable an HD programme to be copied to USB "in the clear" but without having modified anything in the Humax.

.

 

[af123]

I've updated the webif package to include an initial EPG interface. I'm still working on it but it's fairly feature complete now. It uses a backend EPG utility that I've written based on the excellent python EPG parser written by csudcy*. For command line access to the EPG you can install the epg package and then use the epg command.

* The FoxxyWeb interface by csudcy has a much nicer EPG implementation in it but in its current form it's really too slow to run on the Humax. I think there are plans to improve the speed.

(the more eagle eyed readers may spot that the Next programme in the above image is actually the one after next.. that will be fixed in version 0.4 later on today)

 

[pk79]

I think that's pessimistic. I'm also a "non programmer", and have been sitting on the fence for a while monitoring the situation about to put my toe in the water (I'm busy for a couple of weeks but after that...).

All we have to do is load the custom firmware and a few packages and then: 1. HD recordings can be copied to a memory stick and played elsewhere just like SD; 2. HD or SD recordings can be copied (thus decrypting them) to the internal disc and served across a network to DLNA clients (media players) elsewhere; 3. Another tool will scan the files and change the names to the episode title instead of the series title, and move any duplicates detected to a holding folder (where you can dispose of them as you like). As I see it, those are the main benefits so far.

If you want to see how easy this is likely to be, check this topic: http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/dnla-server-alternative-strategy.256/

Before I do that though, I'm going to start by FTP to fetch an HD recording's parameter file (.hmt) to a PC, use Foxy to clear the "enc" flag and FTP it back - that will also enable an HD programme to be copied to USB "in the clear" but without having modified anything in the Humax.

.

I think I subconsciously wanted someone to summarise the progress so far and to explain what is of use to someone like me and you did just that, Black Star.

I had a go with the "Foxy" download and it worked on an HD recording. Am I right in thinking the Humax can only write to FAT32 USB drives? The HD recordings are likely to be over the 4GB limit. Is there a way round this?