BLACKHOLE V1.7.7 & 1.7.8 Experience

[casper2]

Have upgraded the FPGA to v4.5 and tried both Blackhole 1.7.7 & 1.7.8.
Both install and for me operate to some extent. However i cannot get the EPG to populate. I end up with only a very few channels with EPG data on 28.2E.
I also find that I get green screen crash on changing to many HD channels.
What experiences are you all having with these versions or am i just doing something stupid?


VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.6 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

[sonic1]

Working here just fine, to stop the crash on HD carry out a manual scan.

Check your epg storage device is mounted ok, maybe try a format if you use a USB.

[casper2]

Thanks for responding. I am using the harddrive for EPG storage and seems to be mounted and accessing fine.
I am running a motorised system with most sats between 45E and 45W thats a hell of a lot of manual scanning.
I have always used Catseye E2 motorised settings as it is very nicely structured, are we saying that it is so much out of date at the moment that EPG won't populate?
I would hate to have to do this all manually every few days.
Just to clarify, are you running 1.7.7 or 1.7.8. Did you do the FPGA upgrade to v4.5 and if yes did you do it before upgrading Blackhole to 7 or 8?
I'm clasping at straws at the moment.

I had very good EPG before i upgraded so i think i am missing something. I'll start from scratch again in case i missed something. I'd really like to know if you hav got 7 or 8 running successfully. Many Thanks

VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.6 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

[DCG]

you tryed just a manual scan on 28.2e to stop the hd gsod crash

[casper2]

Yes a manual scan scan has stopped the HD crash but EPG still won't behave. I will go back and do a clean install because i have messed this one about so much i'm not too sure what state it is in.
Are you running Blackhole v1.7.7 or v1.7.8? I would like to get confirmation that v1.7.8 is behaving OK.
Many thanks for your suggestions and help, it's much appreciated.

VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.6 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

[CokeAddict]

1.7.7 and 1.7.8 both work fine with my ultimo, and crossepg.

I use the opentv option to get the 7 day epg.

The main thing with the epg is do not download too many packages.

I tend to just get sly uk and sly italia epg, if you download too many it causes all sorts of issues.

[jrbmw]

I did have some trouble with catseye settings on 1.7.7 and 8 ....green screens changed to vhannibal and was ok.now using black pole ,catseye settings ok on that

[casper2]

Many thanks Great suggestions. I am finding the same as Cokeaddict, because i am motorised and do use a lot of sats across Europe i was downloading nearly all EPG packages and although this worked on 1.7.6 it seems to give trouble on 1.7.7 & 8. Have tried UK packages on their own with no problems. So will have to add on 1 package at a time to try and find out which are causing problems.
I don't want to have to do manual scans every few days/weeks so jrbmw your suggestions are interesting and i'll have another look at different settings etc.
Again many thanks to all.
Is anyone aware of other need to know issues on v1.7.7 & 8? Would be very welcome and useful to all.

VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.8 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

[Bbigfoot]

Hi casper2,

Have you tryed (Openvix) image its specifically
designed for the VU+ boxes.
I have a VU+ Uno and had a problem with
channels freezing on 28e, loaded Vix image
with Vix's 2.2.1 CCcam, now the Uno is
as solid as a rock.

The Vix;s EPG is quite good when you but
up the channel list for any provider, when
you click on your channel it give you a full
EPG of now & next as well as a small
picture screen.

Once you have loaded Vix it will update
through the net connection.
The Vix has a green spot in the info bar,
when it flashes green (New Update) you just goto
Menu-Setup-Software Update to upload
new Vix image. No need to load in
catseyes setting or you CCcam.cfg file,
all loaded back in for you.

BF.

[CokeAddict]

Hi casper2,

Have you tryed (Openvix) image its specifically
designed for the VU+ boxes.

Just to correct you on this point.

As good as the ViX / OpenViX image is, it is NOT Vu+ specific, they do images for Vu+, Technomate, Xtrend/Clarktech ET range, Unibox and maybe a few others too.

[casper2]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried a few images but still like the layout of the BH image.
I just wish they would concentrate on getting the basics working and rock solid before adding more and more features. I'm not against new features but the basics must behave before expanding. The best example i can think of is EPG update, if you just auto update 1 or 2 packages it works great but if you have a motorised system and want to update nearly all packages it just does not work automatically and you are forced to do the updates manually. Also i have never been able to get Universes to behave properly. That my be my fault as i haven't spent much time chasing it.
If anyone has got auto EPG update on nearly all EPG packages across europe to work automatically then i would love to hear from them and find out what needs to be done.

Idead and suggestions always welcome so feel free to comment. It all helps


VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.8 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

[CokeAddict]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried a few images but still like the layout of the BH image.
I just wish they would concentrate on getting the basics working and rock solid before adding more and more features. I'm not against new features but the basics must behave before expanding. The best example i can think of is EPG update, if you just auto update 1 or 2 packages it works great but if you have a motorised system and want to update nearly all packages it just does not work automatically and you are forced to do the updates manually. Also i have never been able to get Universes to behave properly. That my be my fault as i haven't spent much time chasing it.
If anyone has got auto EPG update on nearly all EPG packages across europe to work automatically then i would love to hear from them and find out what needs to be done.

Idead and suggestions always welcome so feel free to comment. It all helps


VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.8 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

It isn't an issue with the image, when you download the epg onto your usb stick or hdd, it's stored there without a problem, but when you load the epg (so that it can be seen on the screen) this loads the data into ram on the box. There is only so much stuff that can be stored in ram before everything goes slow or gets dumped for more stuff to fill the ram.

As I said I tend to just grab 2 or 3 of the packages I use the most.

[casper2]

Hi cokeaddict. I understand what you are getting at but that cannot be the case.
I can download all EPG packages at the same time manually and the whoile EPG successfully populates therefore there is enough memory to support this.
It is simply that the same operation will not work when requested to update automatically.

Yes i agree that if you only request two or three packages then it works fine. That does not explain why it can be done manually and not automatically.
There has to be a problem with the automatic process since it can be done manually.

I do still have to say it is the best of all the Images that i have tried and although there are a few niggley problems it is an excellent achievement and the developers should be thanked and praised for their efforts and achievement. It takes a lot of effort and dedication to put an Image like this together and i for one thoroughly appreciate it. Please keep up the good work.

VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.8 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.

[CokeAddict]

If all packages can be loaded and populated at the same time, then I am very surprised (have to admit i've not tried that on the ultimo, but with the duo 4 packages and it used to be on it's arse and anymore it would just crash).

Anyhow all I can suggest is setting it up with a timegap between each package of say 10 - 15 mins (if you haven't already) just to be 100% sure it's had time to download, extract and populate each package before it's told to start the next.

[ian]

well with BP you set the order of the packages you wish to download the data for,and it then simply moves the dish to the next package in line,after the previous download has finished.

but as cokeaddict told you,unless you have **** loads of ram you will just send the box onto a go slow and it wont respond from remote control commands.this is because the EPG data is loaded into ram and if all of your ram is taken up with that,it leaves nothing left for general usage,even the running of cams will be effected.

i cant speak for the ultimo either,but as i said,unless you have oodles of ram in that machine,what you are trying to do cannot be done.

Ian.

[casper2]

I don't know if you guys have tried this but i certainly have. I have a standard Ultimo with a 1TB Harddrive attached, normally use Catseye Settings and acces most sats between 45E to 45W.
You can select all EPG update packages in say XEPGDB, manually download now, Force EPG.dat conversion and Force EPG reload. This does take about 10 - 15 minutes and during that period you cannot do very much with the box as it is fully occupied on these processes. The dish does not move as all downloads are from the network internet connection so you can continue to watch normally whatever program you were watching while this process progresses. The data is stored on your designated storage device ie USB or Harddrive and as i understand it the box loads whatever data is required into ram/flash as requested by the settings displayed at that time. In reality it may be a combination of flash storage, RAM and External Storsge.
If it was only stored in ram then when you turn the box off at the mains then all data would be lost.
Now if you kook through the whole range of satellites on the box you will find that a high proportion of all settings are EPG populated. Some parts are not and i assume are simply not provided via the updates.
I have a standard Ultimo and have done this many many times and the majority of the settings are populated with EPG data and after the download process is completed then the box behaves as normal ie no change to response time etc.
You can see the crossepg data folders on the harddrive, why would they be stored there if the data was was not made use of?

I don't know the exact operation of the Ultimo as far as memory management is concerned. If no harddrive or USB storage is attached then the box must operate within the onboard memory constraints (i have never tried that) but when external storage is installed the image can potentially use the external storage in the same way as windows uses a page file (i do not know if BH/Linux use this approach) . I have spent most of my life working on embedded system design and this type of memory usage is common. If BH does not do this then they are really putting some severe constraints on potential system operation.
If anyone knows the detailed memory management structure of the Ultimo with BH installed then i would very much like to understand it. Please feel free to chip in and add your views.

For info the DUO has 384MB RAM and 128MB Flash, ULTIMO has 512MB RAM and 1024MB Flash

There's a very big difference between Flash sizes which perhaps partially explains the amount the Ultimo can display.

Going back to when this conversation started my simple question was - i can do this multi EPG package download manually and successfully display the EPG on multiple sats. However i have never been able to make it work automatically. It works manually so why not automatically? Is there a time limit on the automatic update? Is there a maximum number of packages that can be downloaded automatically? But i always come back to - it works manually so why not automatically.

I am definately not a Linux guru and may have got this totally wrong. I am simply stating what i can do manually and cannot do automatically. And simply want to understand why.

I will stop here before everyone who reads it falls asleep.

Please keep up the good work, i really appreciate your comments as every bit of info is of benefit to all. I can put up with manual updates but the design engineer in me wants to know why.

VU+ ULTIMO, 1.2M 36v Motorised Visiosat, VBox III, Invacom C120 Quad LNB, Visiosat Feedhorn
Blackhole v1.7.8 also HTPC with Skystar HD2.