Troubleshooting connectivity problems
From TivoZA
| Table of contents |
The below guide is designed to help emuProxyZA users of both networked and un-networked TiVo's generate debug files that can be used to troubleshoot problems when trying to connect to the TiVo service or an emulator.
emuProxyZA installation
If you are using the TivoZA image then you already have a copy of emuProxyZA running on your TiVo. If using the OzTiVo service then you can follow the "Optional OzTivo Install" guides for details on how to install emuProxyZA in place of emuProxy2. For all other users I assume you are using emuProxyZA for its Location ID fix, the guide for how this fix works as well as how to install emuProxyZA fo it can be found here. The rest of this guide will assume that you know have a working copy of emuProxyZA installed.
NB: The current version of the TivoZA image has a slightly older version of emuProxyZA installed. The only major limitation is that you cannot specify in which directory the log files should be stored. By default the log files get stored in the TiVo's '/tmp' directory which gets cleared after each reboot, this isn't a problem for users with network access as they can copy the log files across before the reboot but for users without network access they will need to update to the latest version of emuProxyZA (available in the Downloads section). The emuProxyZA update can be performed in a similar manner to "TivoZA stuff", as was shown in the "Extra setup requirements" section of the "OzTivo Install". Just make sure to start from the '/mnt/tivo/etc/hack' directory, not '/mnt/tivo/etc'. Users of the TivoZA image with network access to their unit can simply update their version by typing the following from the TiVo telnet prompt:
rw cd /etc/hack ps ax (look for the emuProxyZA pid in the list returned) kill pid (replace pid with the emuProxyZA pid from above e.g. kill 154) wget tivoza.nanfo.com/downloads/emuProxyZA.gz gzip -d emuProxyZA.gz ro
Debugging options
emuProxyZA provides a couple of debug options that allows for trace files to be made of each request sent and response received as well as a detailed log of the interaction between the server and the client. The debug options are as follows:
- -d Debug info
- -d2 Debug with even more info
- -ds OutputPath Save server requests to OutputPath, default: /tmp/
- -dc OutputPath Save server responses to OutputPath, default: /tmp/
These parameters just need to be added to your call to emuProxyZA. To make use of the "-d" or "-d2" parameters you need to either run emuProxyZA from the telnet prompt and view the output displayed or alternatively you can run emuProxyZA from the 'rc.sysinit.author' file as normal and pipe the output to a log file, the latter method is needed by those without network access to their TiVo.
Enabling debugging
An example of running the latest version of emuProxyZA, full debugging can be achieved as follows. This method will work for those with and those without network access. First thing that needs to be done is to enable the debug parameters, to do this we need to edit the '/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author' file.
If you have network access then this can either be done from the telnet prompt by typing:
rw joe /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author
If you don't have network access to your TiVo you will need to mount your TiVo hard drive inside your PC and boot your PC using the TivoZA (OzTivo) installer as was described how to do in the "Initial_Setup". Once the installer has booted up you need to select "Set the TiVo disk", this step is described in greater detail in the guide: "Preparing the TiVo drive". Now select "Edit rc.sysinit.author" from the menu and you are ready to add the debug parameters.
For both users with or without network access you now need to add the debug parameters to the emuProxyZA call. Still viewing the file 'rc.sysinit.author', scroll down till you reach the line that reads (or something similar to this):
/etc/hack/emuProxyZA -s tivoza.nanfo.com &
You need to insert the debug parameters into the above line, just before the " & " character, your line should now read as follows (assuming your emuProxyZA call read as per the above example):
/etc/hack/emuProxyZA -s tivoza.nanfo.com -ds /var/log/ -dc /var/log/ -d2 > /var/log/emuProxyZA.log 2>&1 &
Note if you have network access and are still using the old emuProxyZA that came with the TivoZA image you can use the following line instead:
/etc/hack/emuProxyZA -s tivoza.nanfo.com -ds -dc -d2 > /tmp/emuProxyZA.log 2>&1 &
Once you are finished making the above changes you need to save the file, this is done as follows:
Press: Ctrl K (This enables the command menu mode) Press: X (This will save the file)
If you made the above changes from the telnet prompt you will need to reboot the TiVo for the changes to come into effect, you may also want to put your TiVo back into "Read Only" mode. Both of these can be done by typing the following at the telnet prompt:
ro reboot
If you made the above changes with the TiVo hard drive mounted inside your PC you can now reinstall your drive back into your TiVo unit as per the steps followed in “Mounting the drive” during the "Initial_Setup".
Viewing debug logs & trace files
You will not have any logs or trace files available until you have completed a daily call, a failed call is fine if this is the problem you are trying to fix. You can "Make Daily Call Now" either from the TiVoWeb Phone menu or from the "Recorder & Phone Setup" menu in TiVo Central, note you will need to be in maintenance mode in order to access the "Recorder & Phone Setup" menu. Once you have completed the daily call you will now have a whole bunch of trace files as well as a log file. It is best to usually perform the daily call twice when generating the logs, this is useful for determining whether or not the dial-in has simply exceeded the 15 minute window allocated to complete before being terminated.
If you have network access to your TiVo, using a ftp client browse to your TiVo's '/var/log' directory (or the '/tmp' directory if you were using the older version of emuProxyZA).
If you don't have network access you will once again need to mount your TiVo drive into your PC as explained above, again booting from the TivoZA (OzTivo) installer but this time once it boots just select exit. You will then need to mount the drive as explained here. Once that is done, move to the TiVo's '/var/log' directory by typing:
cd /mnt/tivo/var/log
Once you are at the '/var/log' directory (using either of the above methods) you will find the log files 'tclient' & 'emuProxyZA.log' as well as all the trace files, they are of the format epXRequest.log & epXResponse.log. If using ftp you can copy these files across to your PC, if you have the TiVo hard drive mounted you will need to mount a floppy disk as described in the Extra setup requirements and copy the files across to the floppy disk. Mounting the floppy disk and copying the files across could be done as follows:
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy cp tclient /mnt/floppy mv e* /mnt/floppy umount /mnt/floppy
Note you may require two or more floppy disks for all the trace files, using the mv command above will move the files so no duplicate files should appear on the separate disks. Before switching disks you need to unmount the currently inserted disk and then mount then new disk when inserted.
The 'tclient' file, that you have made a copy of above, can be very useful as it usually indicates at what point in the process the TiVo failed.
Now that you have the log and trace files, feel free to have a look and see if you can find your problem. If you are still stuck, zip up all the trace files as well as the logs and post them on the TivoZA forum (http://tivoza.nanfo.com/forum/). When posting your files on the forum, be aware that if your TiVo is connecting via modem, the 'tclient' file contains your ISP username & password so you may want to remove those details from the file first. Once your files have been posted, either I and/or hopefully others will be able to give you some guidance as to where you are getting stuck.
