WebIf Browse Media Files Really Slow . . .

hy4boy

New Member
Hello all,

Just wondering if one of you guys might be able to offer some info on a problem I'm having.

Been using custom firmware for a long time now and everything's been great but recently, last few weeks or so, the WebIf has become really slow when browsing files. Almost to the point where it's taking a few minutes to complete the list and when looking at my external USB drive it seems to fail to complete the list.

The problem hasn't progressively got worse, it was fine one day then bad the next. Don't know if that ties it in to any update or anything?
Currently running:
Web interface version: 1.2.3-3
Custom firmware version: 3.03 (build 2368)
Humax Version: 1.02.32 (kernel HDR_CFW_3.03)

Normal operation via remote control is fine and the box is doing everything it should when it should as it always has.

Just wondering if anyone could shed any light on what might be wrong or advise me on things to try? Have re-installed OE firmware and then put custom back on but the problem persists?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Best regards
 
Have a look in the diagnostics logs, see if the CF auto processes are getting stuck on something.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Just gone through the 11 log files and can't see anything that looks too weird (although admittedly I'm not 100% what I'm looking for exactly!). I've saved all the files and then cleared them all. After doing this I've used the WebIF, done the usual media browsing etc. (still very slow) and as of yet, no entries at all in any of the logs - all 0 bytes.

I presume these update in real time?

Thanks again for your help - much appreciated!
 
Our boxes are noticeably slower to populate with increasing numbers of files in the requested folder, so are you sure it isn't just you are filling the disc up?

(Incidentally, one of our boxes (with older loader and bigger disc) is always much slower on WebIf response as well, sometimes to the extent of the browser timing out.)
 
Hello,

Thanks for the reply too.

I don't think it is to be honest, the disc has been 'fuller' than it is now and not had these problems before. Also, it hasn't been a gradual slow down over time, it's pretty much as if a 'switch' has been flicked.

Speed of operation in general is excellent, it's just the WebIf that seems to be suffering but only when browsing files. Incidentally, I've got some music albums on there as well and when I navigate to them they come up instantly. So it only seems to be the video files that are slow, regardless of whether they are on the internal or external drive.

Thanks again.
 
Hello again,

So I set that going this morning and it's just finished - took a while and appeared to be doing nothing at times but the help pages were reassuring that this would be the case :)

Unfortunately the problem still persists - exactly as it were prior to the disk check.

The only thing which wasn't as expected, upon entering maintenance mode where the tuner etc. isn't supposed to work, I had a frozen picture of whatever was being transmitted at the time and the audio continued as normal. However the telnet session continued as expected. I was expecting a blank screen and no sound etc. but this wasn't the case, naturally I got the 'Maintenance' message on the front panel display.

Any ideas where I can go from here?

Thanks again for your time and help!
 
The only thing which wasn't as expected, upon entering maintenance mode where the tuner etc. isn't supposed to work, I had a frozen picture of whatever was being transmitted at the time and the audio continued as normal.
This is normal and expected.
 
OK thanks for that, the help pages I was reading suggested otherwise. So I can at least rule out that being a clue towards anything then :)
 
If you can point to exactly which help page you were reading, somebody might review it.
 
Thanks for all the help so far but just wondering if anyone else can offer any help?

Really struggling with it now, got a 'folder' with 30 'episodes' in it and trying to rename them with their respective episode number to keep them in order. Using the web interface it's taking 8 minutes and 32 seconds to refresh the data after renaming each episode. Therefore I'm looking at about 4 and a quarter hours as opposed to what used to take about 5 minutes . . .

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks for the reply.

Both of those are fine. Used Telnet via Putty to do some of the diagnostics (disk check etc.) and done FTP transfer without any issues - all normal kind of speeds. Even tried streaming from PC to Humax yesterday and all totally fine. Also tried using a different PC just in case there was anything funny going on with firewall / anti virus etc. but all exactly the same . . .
 
Hello All,

Been doing a lot of reading of various threads today and wondering if the issue could be file permissions related?

Using PuTTY / telnet I'm getting:

Please select option: cli
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now starting a system command prompt. You can make this the default by
enabling 'Expert mode telnet server' on the web interface settings page.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Humax HDR-Fox T2 (humax) 1.02.32/3.03
To return to the menu, type: exit
humax# ls -l
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 608 Mar 4 23:21 bin
drwxrwxr-x 5 root root 2140 Jan 12 2013 dev
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 446 Mar 4 23:21 etc
drwxrwxr-x 3 root root 23 Jan 12 2013 home
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 668 Jan 11 2015 lib
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 Jan 1 2000 media
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 84 Jan 11 2015 mnt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Mar 4 23:21 mod -> mnt/hd2/mod
drwxrwxr-x 3 root root 22 Jan 12 2013 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 56 root root 0 Jan 1 2000 proc
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 3 Jan 12 2013 root
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 594 Mar 4 23:21 sbin
drwxrwxr-x 3 root root 23 Jan 12 2013 share
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 0 Jan 1 2000 sys
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 340 Jul 19 19:54 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 96 Jan 11 2015 usr
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 88 Mar 4 23:21 var

Not quite sure why the highlighted line looks so different!

And also when I try to fix the flash packages I get:

>>> Beginning diagnostic fix-flash-packages
Running: fix-flash-packages
Re-installing dbupdate
Removing package dbupdate from root...
Installing dbupdate (1.0.0) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/dbupdate_1.0.0_mipsel.opk.
Configuring dbupdate.
Re-installing disable-dso
Removing package disable-dso from root...
Installing disable-dso (0.2) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/disable-dso_0.2_mipsel.opk.
Configuring disable-dso.
Re-installing disable-ota
Removing package disable-ota from root...
Installing disable-ota (1.0.3) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/disable-ota_1.0.3_mipsel.opk.
Configuring disable-ota.
Re-installing multienv
Removing package multienv from root...
Installing multienv (1.7-1) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/multienv_1.7-1_mipsel.opk.
Configuring multienv.
Re-installing rsvsync
Removing package rsvsync from root...
Installing rsvsync (1.0.3) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/rsvsync_1.0.3_mipsel.opk.
Configuring rsvsync.
Re-installing tmenu
Removing package tmenu from root...
Installing tmenu (1.12) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/tmenu_1.12_mipsel.opk.
Configuring tmenu.
Re-installing webif
Removing package webif from root...
Not deleting modified conffile /mod/webif/html/favicon.ico.
Installing webif (1.2.3-4) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/webif_1.2.3-4_mipsel.opk.
SMART: (PASSED)
realloc: 0
spinretry: 0
pending: 0
offline: 0
Configuring webif.
Collected errors:
* file_md5sum_alloc: Failed to open file /mod/webif/html/favicon.ico: No such file or directory.
>>> Ending diagnostic fix-flash-packages


Just wondering if the collected error (missing file / directory) might explain the delays? If the system is trying to access this file at every item in the media list and hence taking a long time to realise it's not there before moving on?

Sorry to waffle on so much, out of my depth really, but it's become a personal challenge now to try to get to the bottom of this.

Any help is as always, much appreciated!

Thanks.
 
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 84 Jan 11 2015 mnt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Mar 4 23:21 mod -> mnt/hd2/mod
drwxrwxr-x 3 root root 22 Jan 12 2013 opt
[...]
Not quite sure why the highlighted line looks so different!
[...]
* file_md5sum_alloc: Failed to open file /mod/webif/html/favicon.ico: No such file or directory.
>>> Ending diagnostic fix-flash-packages

Just wondering if the collected error (missing file / directory) might explain the delays? If the system is trying to access this file at every item in the media list and hence taking a long time to realise it's not there before moving on?

Sorry to waffle on so much, out of my depth really, but it's become a personal challenge now to try to get to the bottom of this.

Any help is as always, much appreciated!

Thanks.
Well, I reckon the highlighted line isn't an issue - that's how symbolic links are meant to look.
As for the missing file, I have to warn you I'm a total noob to the custom firmware, but it's just possible that you might be on to something there. My box does have a favicon.ico at that path, and it's a symbolic link (funnily enough, given your earlier concern):
/mod/webif/html/favicon.ico: symbolic link to `img/fav/favicon.ico'
The linked file is around 10kB in size, and "file" says it's a "MS Windows icon resource - 3 icons, 16x16, 256-colors".

Have you tried a "fix-webif" at all, which would reinstall the web-if files? NB: I'm not suggesting you do this, cos I'm a noob, and I'm unsure what the side effects will be (possibly none).

Final thought: if you have sysmon installed, you could see what the CPU load does while it's browsing. In fact, you don't even need to use the sysmon interface in the web-if - once you have installed sysmon, it pulls in the procps package too, which includes the very useful utility "top". If you invoke this from the cli, it'll show you the processes which are consuming the most CPU time (then just press "q" to quit it).

EDIT:
Sorry, I just re-read your post and noticed some lines I missed the first time (!):
Re-installing webif
Removing package webif from root...
Not deleting modified conffile /mod/webif/html/favicon.ico.
Installing webif (1.2.3-4) to root...
Downloading http://hpkg.tv/hdrfoxt2/base/webif_1.2.3-4_mipsel.opk.


I think this means that it already tried to reinstall the webif, so disregard the "fix-webif" question above. More importantly it said "Not deleting modified conffile /mod/webif/html/favicon.ico." which suggests that you have had something happen to that file. Simply deleting it will probably cure the issue, but it would be interesting to see what you get if you do "ls -l" on it, and if it is a symbolic link, then "ls -lL" on it also, to make it follow the link and see what's at the other end. NB: this may be a red herring of course, but them's the breaks when the blind are leading the blind ;) [Edit again: font change]
 
Last edited:
Have you had a look at the disk contents by FTP or SMB (or Telnet ls commands)? Does it look "normal" - ie (usually) a set of four files per recording (.ts, .hmt, .nts, .thm)? There has been a recent report of failed processes creating thousands of orphaned files, which would definitely slow down the media listing!
 
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