Comprehensive Tvheadend, XBMC, HDHomerun How To

M B · 2012-01-16T18:13:45+00:00

The purpose of this post is to document how after much trail and error I was able to get XBMC to play live TV from my HdHomerun via Tvheadend. I hope it is u...

Anonymous

Hello Richard,

I have made some further changes to my upstart scripts, I too had a long delay at shutdown after all. Now I have the following:

/etc/init/dvbhdhomerun-utils.conf

# HDHomeRun DVB Driver # # The userspace daemon that talks with the SiliconDust HDHomeRun. description "HDHomeRun DVB Driver Userspace Daemon" author "Villy Thomsen <tfylliv@gmail.com>" start on net-device-up IFACE=p10p1 stop on starting shutdown expect fork script exec /bin/userhdhomerun -f -d end script emits dvbhdhomerun respawn respawn limit 2 3600 post-start script sleep 8 initctl emit dvbhdhomerun end script

The loop has been replaced by the sleep 8 before the emit dvbhdhomerun, adjust the 8 to more or less, depending on how fast or slow your boot is. If it is too low, you won't see any adapters in tvheadend.

You have to change the interface name to what you are using, probably eth0 or maybe also p10p1.

I start the driver with -d because I don't want all the logging but you can leave that out if desired.

/etc/init/tvheadend.conf

# tvheadend - DVB/IPTV streaming server # # Tvheadend is a TV streaming server for Linux supporting DVB, ATSC, IPTV, # and Analog video (V4L) as input sources. description "Tvheadend DVB/IPTV streaming server" author "Adam Sutton <dev@adamsutton.me.uk>" start on dvbhdhomerun stop on runlevel [!2345] expect fork respawn script exec tvheadend -f -u hts -g video end script

Let me know if this works better for you as well.

Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

durandal therogue

I too had this and tracked it down to it's root cause. I came with the same solution as your final one, Frank, but was not happy with it since it didn't use the config file.

The final solution is, from the original conf file, delete the 'sleep' line and set 'start on dvbhdhomerun'.
I detailed full cause and solution in the other thread:
https://tvheadend.org/d/777-unable-to-stop-tvheadend-service?r=10146

M Anderson

I'm attempting to follow this guide using Ubuntu 12.04.3 Server. Almost everything works, but when I attempt to install dvbhdhomerun-dkms and -utils, I always get an error message:

First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 3.8.0-29-generic
Building initial module for 3.8.0-29-generic
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.8.0-29-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/dvbhdhomerun/0.0.16~precise/build/make.log for more information.
Setting up dvbhdhomerun-utils (0.0.16~precise) ...
start: Job failed to start
invoke-rc.d: initscript dvbhdhomerun-utils, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing dvbhdhomerun-utils (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Errors were encountered while processing:
dvbhdhomerun-utils

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I've also tried building them from the source and I get error messages there as well.

Can anyone offer me a solution to get this guide working?

Darren Cunningham

I'm having the same problem with Ubuntu 12.04.3, you figure anything out?

M Anderson

Yes.

Apparently, newer versions of the Linux Kernel are not compiled with something called the "DVB Headers," and DVBHDHomerun needs them.

The solution is to recompile your Kernel with the DVB Headers, or to use an older version of Ubuntu. I don't know how to recompile the Kernel, so I went back to Ubuntu 10.04.4 Server and got it working. However, the TVHeadEnd Repo won't work on Ubuntu 10.04.4, so you'll have to manually add the repo or download the package and install TVHeadEnd manually.

If you or anyone knows how to recompile the Kernel with the DVB Headers in Ubuntu, please post it here. I'm working on a newer complete how-to guide and plan to post it in a couple of days.

For now, there are instructions on how to recompile in Debian, which you can find here:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/dvbhdhomerun/wiki/Building

M Anderson

I just posted a complete set-up guide. You can find it here:

https://tvheadend.org/d/1587-complete-setup-guide-for-tvheadend-ubuntu-hdhomerun-tuner-xbmc-and-north-american-program-guides

K Shea

The first post (and some subsequent posts) in this thread makes this sound quite complicated, probably because much of the information was applicable to older versions of the operating system and software that are all fairly outdated by now, but I have found that in Ubuntu 14.04 Server Edition most of the above steps are totally unnecessary. I recently installed Ubuntu 14.04 Server and this is all I really had to do:

1. Download and install Ubuntu Server - http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server

2. Do any necessary configuration on the server (mainly, give it a static IP address so Kodi can find it on the network).

3. Install the HDHomeRun drivers:sudo apt-get install hdhomerun-config hdhomerun-config-gui (note this will automatically bring in a bunch of Linux dependencies, many of which are probably not needed in a server environment but they don't hurt anything).

4. Install TVHeadend: I installedTvheadend - Master branch - 'unstable' releases using the instructions at https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/AptRepository - I have read that the "unstable" release is actually fairly stable, and I have found that to be true. I've also read that it will contain the latest bug fixes long before they get put into the "stable" branch.

And that was all I needed to do to get TVHeadend working - my HDHomeRun adapters showed up in THVheaded's configuration, and everything works normally. I did not need to start any "little helpers" and I did not need to install anything else, other than tv_grab_file (https://github.com/Rigolo/tv-grab-file) so that I could use zap2xml (http://zap2xml.awardspace.info/) to get schedule information (mc2xml no longer works to get free schedule information). tv_grab_file goes in the /usr/bin directory along with the other grabbers and must have the same ownership and permissions as the other grabbers (root:root and executable). I also installed Webmin (http://www.webmin.com/), which makes system administration tasks a bit easier (especially if you aren't a Linux guru) but that's totally optional, and most experienced Linux users won't need it. Just one caution, don't ever use Webmin to stop TVHeadend (from Webmin's Bootup and Shutdown menu) or you will never be able to get TVHeadend to restart automatically after a system reboot until the next update to TVHeadend is installed.

M Anderson

Thank you for updating the instructions. I wrote a set of instructions quite some time ago, after doing so, I decided not to use TVHeadEnd for a variety of reasons. I'm glad to see that the process has become easier. :)

Nowadays, I might attempt to install on Debian rather than Ubuntu...

K Shea

No, you do NOT want to use Debian, unless you feel confident in your ability to compile TVHeadend from scratch or it doesn't bother you that at some point you may not be able to upgrade TVHeadend without first upgrading Debian. I made the mistake of using Debian on my first install of TVHeadend and have regretted it ever since, in part because I'm now stuck on the 3.9 branch on that system (not the same one I use with the HDHomeRuns). Admittedly if I were to install Debian Jessie (rather than Wheezy, which is what I have) then I could use a newer version, but it seems TVHeadend primarily supports Ubuntu, not Debian.

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