Topic: Beta test of "stub" server

Those of you that are interested in testing the new stub server, here's how:

1) ssh into your device, and add the following line to your "/psp/hosts" file, sync, and reboot:

54.245.171.103 www.chumby.com xml.chumby.com widgets.chumby.com content.chumby.com music.chumby.com insignia.chumby.com pandora.chumby.com ping.chumby.com

This redirects the bulk of your device's traffic to the new server.  It should download a Control Panel, authenticate, and play a single widget.

To restore the device, simply remove that line, and reboot.

Pandora is currently disabled for all devices - hopefully that will be back shortly - it's mainly a configuration issue.  The rest fo the music sources should work, barring regional restrictions.

Note that this is very wet paint.  This is also a very small test server, and can't handle a huge load (which I don't expect at this point, anyway).

This server will be going up and down a lot as I deploy new versions.

Feedback is welcome.

2 (edited by Materdaddy 2013-01-26 17:00:32)

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Way to make me feel like an old man.  I did this on my bed-side chumby classic and I can barely read anything on the left side of the screen! tongue

I'll pile on another thanks that I didn't do on the other thread to keep it on topic.

Other than the tiny text on the widget, everything worked great.  I'll let you know if I see anything funny.  On Monday I'll probably change my work Infocast 3.5 to see if it works on those devices too.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Don't worry about that small text - it doesn't say anything worth reading. They're just greeblies.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Seems to work great!

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Thanks for posting this. It worked fine on my C8.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Seems to be working on my Chumby 8.  I tried out the "edit channel" and "add apps" and only saw the one app.  Trying to delete the clock gave me an error message.  My music streams that I'd saved all continued to work (not a surprise, as this didn't actually update the whole system software).

Do you know if the instructions at http://wiki.chumby.com/index.php/Chumby … _a_channel will work with this build to allow mixing other locally stored widgets in with the clock?

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

I've just redeployed with some fixes to "blue octy radio" (the catalog was being delivered properly, but "play" did not work).  Note also that *all* of the BOR stations should now work, and I've added a couple more.  Some stations in "production" BOR are either down or misdirected, but the system that would normally allow me to fix that is not working.

You should not have to reboot for this change, however, it would be nice if everyone did, since I also added some device analytics so i can see what types of device people are using to test with.

For full disclosure, what I'm keeping track of is device ID, hardware, software and firmware versions, and a count of authorizations.

@unwiredben - on the CC, C1 and I3.5, the "add local widgets to channel" hack should still work.  I don't think this was ever added to the 8" devices - something that probably should be done at some point.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

I should also note that the "blue octy radio", "sleep sounds" and "CBS podcasts" stations have been renumbered in the new system - that means that any alarms that reference them will fall back to a beep unless you reprogram the alarms to pick up the new numbering.

These numbers are auto-generated upon creation of the stations, and since this is a distinct and separate standalone system, the numbers generated are different.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

This didn't work quite as seemlessly on my i3.5 at work.

I added the line to /psp/hosts and rebooted.

When it rebooted the device hung on the green insignia screen and network didn't come up.  This is the second screen.  I believe the first is the bootloader screen that is simply green with the white lines above/below where the G in insignia will be.  The next (second?) screen I see which is still just green, but has insignia as well as the aforementioned white lines I believe is displayed by the kernel.

Since I use a wired USB->ethernet connection I wasn't worried about a wireless issue, so I attempted to SSH/ping/etc. and was unable to reach the device.

I rebooted again and it booted fine.  I'm not sure what the issue was with that initial boot.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

10

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Works perfectly on my classic! smile

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

+1, works on my classic

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

This server will be going up and down a bit over the next day or so as I'm rolling out some complicated updates.

Unfortunately some of these changes are very hard to do in my test environment with my current resources (normally this would be done in a sandboxed copy of production) so I have to do this on the live server.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Duane wrote:

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Not at all......

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

OK, new version of the server is up - all music sources should be operational now, including Pandora.

The deployment went a little easier than I thought, but I'm watching it carefully.

You'll need to edit the hosts file to the new one updated in the first post in the thread, and reboot.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Hmm, there was a minor problem affecting the 3.5" devices, which I've just fixed - please reboot if your device is showing the built-in clock instead of the LCAR clock, or if the device failed to download the Control Panel.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Duane wrote:

Hmm, there was a minor problem affecting the 3.5" devices, which I've just fixed - please reboot if your device is showing the built-in clock instead of the LCAR clock, or if the device failed to download the Control Panel.

I did notice last evening (EST) that the built-in clock was up. I rebooted sometime this morning and there was the BSOD saying that the device failed to download the control panel. This is on a classic. Working fine now.

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Latest beta server code is working well (Music sources, limited use of alarms) -- since Feb 3 -- on my 2 device (a Classic and a C1)!

No problems to report.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

I've been thinking -- could you have a second channel in the stub that just showed a static widget explaining the main Chumby service shutdown?  That would show up if someone went to try to change channels to see why their widgets went away.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Not with the currently deployed implementation.  The server only responds with a fixed channel, ignoring the channel identifier, so you could not actually change to the second channel.

I could change the system to handle this, but then I'd have to remember which channel is showing on which device, and I'm then on the slippery slope to recreating the original system.  Not out of the question, just not now.

My expectation is that people will come to the site when they see something amiss, where we can explain the situation in detail.

I'll basically put up a banner that says "HEY! What happened to my widgets!??!?!?", that links to the information.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Thanks for your effort, Duane!
I was running zurk's since last November, but tried the beta stub server last Saturday.

Are there any changes in the control panel compared to the original version?
In the original panel mp3 playback from my streams stalled several times per hour, and almost never played the full 2 hours for an alarm.
With the beta panel there was not one single interruption. Ok it's only for 4 days now, but still noticeable.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

The beta server is currently sending down exactly the same Control Panel as the current production server - 2.8.85

2.8.85 fixed a few longstanding bugs and reduced network traffic, which might explain the changes in behavior.

You can see the version in the upper right of the main screen.

I don't know what zurk's firmware is using.

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

zurk's version is 2.8.84. So I'll stick with 2.8.85, the WAF is significantly higher if the radio stream is fine smile

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Two questions:

1. As of the end of February, my chumby will brick unless its pointed at the new beta server, correct?
2. If it is bricked, is there any way to ssh into it and update /psp/hosts ?

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Joshua R. Smith wrote:

Two questions:

1. As of the end of February, my chumby will brick unless its pointed at the new beta server, correct?
2. If it is bricked, is there any way to ssh into it and update /psp/hosts ?

1. No, the DNS will be switched over.  The /psp/hosts hack is if you want to test the new server before the DNS change is made.

2. Yes, when the chumby boots, there's a control panel already on the device.  It connects to your network and attempts to download the updated control panel from chumby servers.  If this were to fail, the network will still be up and worst-case, you could put a usb stick in with a "start_sshd" file to get the daemon running on boot to modify the chumby.  But if you read #1, you won't have to worry.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Beta test of "stub" server

Yes, Materdaddy is correct - when the new server goes live, there will be nothing required on the part of the end user, except *maybe* a reboot, if the Control Panel gets confused by the switchover.

The *real* server will not be the one I'm currently testing with, so anyone currently testing would restore their hosts file to the default (ie without the extra line) to get back to the new production systems.

The test server is *very* small - the real server needs to be beefy enough to handle the full onslaught of the devices.

Note that this will undoubted all happen *before* the end of February, since I want the old systems to be up after the switchover in case I need something that I may have forgotten.