MSHEETDIR migration guide

[KAD]

yep delete the path in webend
reboot
then ssh the cmd's

KAD

[apwood]

I have two USB hard drives (2Tb - MOVIES) and (1Tb - TVSERIES) - ideally either or both could be connected to my WDTV at a time. I have MSHEETDIR working as a test using 1.05.04_V_WDLXTV.COM_EXT3-BOOT_LIVE-0.5.1.1 using the MOVIES drive.

Once I've confirmed I'm happy with this firmware (not noticed and significant bugs so far) I intend to flash the firmware permanently so I can attach both drives. At that point, I expect that I will have to empty MSHEETDIR and start again.

Whilst I do have some basic unix and symlinks understanding, I've no detailed understanding of unions and no specific Linux knowledge (or its use on WDTV) - though of course I could read up on all that when necessary.

So I'm uncertain about a few things.

1. Am I correct I would need to have both my USB hard drives connected when setting up MSHEETDIR again from scratch, so everything gets scanned into /msheets allowing me to copy the moviesheets to the location of my MSHEETDIR

2. But that would mean MSHEETDIR on one of the USB hard drives - so, if the other drive is attached on its own, then its moviesheets could not be found, though presumably having the MSHEETDIR USB drive attached on its own would be OK. Agreed?

3. Is it possible to have the MSHEETDIR on both USB hard drives at the same time? My guess is that it might be technically possible, since each symlink would only point to the USB drive that contains that moviesheet (and there are no duplicates on the two USB drives) - but I'm not sure how I could achieve that, and maybe the linksheets scripts would need to be edited to allow for this?

4. Can you suggest any other way to enable the MSHEETDIR to work correctly if I attach both USB drives, and also if I attach only one of them?

I suppose I will have to simply set up MSHEETDIR when both drives are attached, and accept my moviesheets will not be displayed unless the drive containing MSHEETDIR is attached.

If I need to have the other drive attached on its own would it be possible to disable MSHEETDIR temporarily through WEC, and let linksheets work as normal? Note I will not delete the original moviesheet jpg files. Would that cause problems though when I renable MSHEETDIR?

Note - I'm hoping to try following advice elsewhere to allow my two USB drives to be union'd so they all display as one big folder on the WDTV - not sure if that might conflict with MSHEETDIR though?

[KAD]

1. Am I correct I would need to have both my USB hard drives connected when setting up MSHEETDIR again from scratch, so everything gets scanned into /msheets allowing me to copy the moviesheets to the location of my MSHEETDIR

that might be easiest that way to do it

2. But that would mean MSHEETDIR on one of the USB hard drives - so, if the other drive is attached on its own, then its moviesheets could not be found, though presumably having the MSHEETDIR USB drive attached on its own would be OK. Agreed?

here's what I would do, put the MSHEETDIR on a thumbdrive, then it doesn't matter what hdd is connect you'll have sheets, and you could also buy a usb hub and have sheets for all drives at the same time

3. Is it possible to have the MSHEETDIR on both USB hard drives at the same time? My guess is that it might be technically possible, since each symlink would only point to the USB drive that contains that moviesheet (and there are no duplicates on the two USB drives) - but I'm not sure how I could achieve that, and maybe the linksheets scripts would need to be edited to allow for this?

it can be done, but not automatically, you'd have to create an S99user-script that would add an additional aufs brach to the union

4. Can you suggest any other way to enable the MSHEETDIR to work correctly if I attach both USB drives, and also if I attach only one of them?

buy a powered usb hub, best soluton
or keep 2 copies of MSHEETDIR (that's 1 MSHEETDIR to handle everything) and a copy of it on both drives
but even then you would have to change the directory path manually each time you change drives

you can enable disable MSHEETDIR as often as you like on 5.1.1, on prior version there is some conflict

sounds like you're talking about unioning local drives and using MSHEETDIR, that's what I do

my set up
usb hub with 4 hdd's and wifi adaptor
4 hdd's each contain various genre folders, which are merged using a local aufs set up
total of 4 local aufs directories involving 8 folders from 3 drives (other drive is not part of the unions and is handled normally)
with MSHEETDIR at the same time
but I keep my MSHEETDIR and root.bin and plugins, app.bin .. etc all on a thumbdrive directly attached to the WD

KAD

[apwood]

Thanks for all the excellent information and your advice. I'll have to think it all over.

my set up
usb hub with 4 hdd's and wifi adaptor
4 hdd's each contain various genre folders, which are merged using a local aufs set up
total of 4 local aufs directories involving 8 folders from 3 drives (other drive is not part of the unions and is handled normally)
with MSHEETDIR at the same time
but I keep my MSHEETDIR and root.bin and plugins, app.bin .. etc all on a thumbdrive directly attached to the WD

KAD

Presumably the hub must be powered by plugging into the mains - there is no passive unpowered option ? If so, I'll have to check how much power these draw.

Wouldn't running root.bin, plugins etc from a thumbdrive cause the WDTV to respond slowly and especially to boot up and resume from standby more slowly? I guess this means you have no permanent flash of the firmware on WDTV?

Looks like I might have to read up on aufs set up!

Thanks again.

[KAD]

what I mean by powered hub is the usb hub must have it's own power cord

usb hubs that rely on 5V power taken from the usb port directly usually don't work well with WD

aufs is in my opinion the best option for local unions, but unionfs is still available and better documented

as for slowness, a lot will depend on how fast the thumbdrive is and what you want to do off of it
but I didn't notice any particular slowness

KAD

[the5280]

is there an easy way to delete all the menu sheets from each and every folder??? well other than opening and deleting them one by one??


--

Okay now wait, with the latest firmware. ver 0.5.1.1, there is no need to actually change/delete "moviename_sheet.jpg/mkv?" Well i did back my .MSHEETDIR up. and after going though maybe 20 different movie folders just said lets see what will happen, turned wdtv plus on via power cord. booted up and instantly all my movie sheets are there with no wait!!! to confirm i am using the wall setting

[Ry-man]

I'm early booting my USB drive and successfully ran the migration tool. I just can't get them to work again.

I put the path into WEC, /tmp/mnt/...../msheetdir. But, when I boot up my msheets don't appear in OSD. Also, I read somewhere on the forum that the /msheets directory should be empty after MSHEETDIR is turned on. However, it still shows all the files (or links) in there.

[KAD]

did you reboot yet?

also now that you're done creating your msheetdir make sure you turn linksheets back on

and yes, if this is working properly /msheets will be empty, because using MSHEETDIR is this way completely by passeses /msheets
by putting everything in /osd

KAD

[bchtpc]

Almost there.

I have read this entire thread at least twice and have learned a lot of stuff but there is something holding me back from completing the migration with the rest of the herd.

My configuration:
WDTV live plus
0511 firmware
Port 1 has a USB hub with kingston thumb drive
Port 2 has a HD dock with either 1 TB or 2 TB drive installed depending on what I want to watch.

Linksheets are working fine with images distributed in each folder, 1 movie per folder. I used thumbgen to create moviesheets for all iso/mkv's.

I want to have my moviesheets on the thumbdrive so that linksheets doesn't have to re-scan each time I change the HD in the dock.

I created a folder MSHEETDIR on the root of the thumb drive.
Ensured MSHEETDIR= (blank) using WEC.
Enabled earlymount for Port 1 (kingston thumb drive) in WEC.
Restarted. Waited till scan was complete.
Telnet and used cp /msheets/* /tmp/media/usb/USB1/FCF9-C644/MSHEETDIR to copy all jpgs etc to thumbdrive.
Use WEC to set MSHEETDIR= /tmp/mnt/FCF9-C644/MSHEETDIR

Here's where the problem starts. After I restart WDTV, it still scans the attached disk and as a test I removed one of the moviesheets from one of the movies. This movie indeed shows up without a sheets thus confirming that it is still using the linksheets to display sheets from individual folders, not the thumb drive.

After much puzzling, I noted that:
1) I can't see the MSHEETDIR folder in /tmp/mnt/FCF9-C644 using Dolphin file manager. I verified that /tmp/media/usb/USB1/FCF9-C644/MSHEETDIR exists and has all of the sheets in it.

2) I investigated with grep -i sheet /tmp/messages.txt and noted that:

Dec 31 16:02:05 WDTVLIVEPLUS user.notice S67msheet: MSHEETDIR ( /tmp/mnt/FCF9-C644/MSHEETDIR ) DOES NOT EXIST!
Apparently I should set the clock on the WDTV but why does the folder not exist in the mnt?

I re-formatted the thumbdrive FAT32 with no change in result.

I then moved the MSHEETDIR folder from the thumbdrive to the 1TB drive (NTFS) in the dock, changed the early mount to that port, changed the MSHEETDIR= to the new location using WEC, rebooted, and all seems fine. The /msheets folder is now empty like I would expect.

Why won't this work with the thumbdrive? I could leave it on the 1TB drive but this defeats the purpose of having a static central sheet repository.

Any suggestions?

Edit: This problem was solved by swapping the ports for the thumb drive and the hard drive dock, moving the thumb drive to the back port and plugging the hard drive dock into the side port. Not sure why it won't work with the thumb drive in the side port.

[KAD]

the script that executes MSHEETDIR runs very early in the boot process and from the investigation you did

it is not available when the script runs
you said you enabled early mount - which is what is required
but for wharever reason it's not happening

early mount is always done under /tmp/mnt/<UUID>/....

until you can get the drive to show up in /tmp/mnt/... MSHEETDIR will not work
at least now you know what to trouble shoot

here's what I would try
plug the thumbdrive in directly to the WD
and the hub can use the other port allowing access to your hdd

KAD