[byronl]

I've got two new ATVs all running 10.0.9 fine. I've spent ages messing with sources.xml and passwords.xml (not documented very well) and have put in all possible paths with the user/pass for the shares from my windows vista server.

I know the shares work, as they have been accessed by XBMC (current release) HTPC (windows) and 3 XBOXen/XBMC on for many years from the same server.

I just rebooted the server and rebooted one of the AppleTVs. Check all the sources and very very happy that they all appear to work. I have two multipath ones with 7 and 8 shares respectively. The movie share content scan starts and I jump back to the movie share it looks like it's opening all 8 paths, but in fact only one (random) opens. Go to another share and the user/pass pop up appears despite that path and user/pass being in passwords.xml. Reboot ATV and again random paths work and not work.

I can post all the files and a debug log, but I do wonder if this has been fixed in the latest nightlys before I bother or any other clues.

I've read all the other threads on share and file permissions and that's not the issue and the user/pass I use is the administrator for the server and works fine for all other XBMC instances so I'm certain this is a ATV build issue.

Thanks

B

[Ned Scott]

10.0_9 is the same as a nightly, just older. As in there's no reason to not upgrade to the unofficial nightly. They're both "unstable", though the Aug 8th (most recent unofficial build posted here) nightly is working awesome for me.

[Jezz_X]

And your not supposed to edit source.XML and passwords.XML it's all done from the ui

[byronl]

And your not supposed to edit source.XML and passwords.XML it's all done from the ui

Understood, but it's incredibly slow adding all the sources via the GUI, also I couldn't find a way to edit the name of the source on the AppleTV.

Also it seems to decide when adding sources that my user/pass is not valid (in that save for this folder screen), and you've just browsed to that source succesfully and seen all the files. I've been editing the .xmls since my first xbox/xbmc 6-7 years ago and never had issues like this. I'm sure it's not the formatting of the file (if it was, why do some shares work and not others).

I can try creating the sources and passwords.xml from scratch in the GUI but i'm reasonably convinced thats not the issue as this started occuring when creating the paths via the gui in the first place before i'd even gone digging. I've just gone and put read permission for Everyone on every file in every share and still I get failures (log shortly). I've checked the windows log and there are no errors. This is on the 11 Aug Latest nightly after full reboot.

One thought is why passwords.xml when you can embed user/pass in sources.xml?

I'm happy to redo things if I can make this reliable.

Thanks

B

[byronl]

Platform - Apple TV 2
Version - iOS 4.3 build 8F305 /w Apple TV software 4.2.2
XBMC - Built on Aug 8 2011 (Git:20110808-6b994c5)
Install - dpkg (as per the nightly FAQ). First update after fresh NitoTV install of 10.0-9

XBMC.OLD.LOG - http://pastebin.com/TFs45VGD
XBMC.LOG - http://pastebin.com/0bZj5MSn
XBMC extract/summary of above - http://pastebin.com/6mmxHDHt

As described in previous posts I seem to have flakey random SMB to my windows vista server from the XBMC/AppleTV only. Server is extremely stable and has been sharing to XBMC on XBOXen and Vista HTPC and desktops for years without issue.

Issue either arises in one of three ways;
1) You get the "Lock Settings (?)" Screen re-asking for the login credentials if opening the source fails. You can see this in the attempt to open "Recorded TV" in the attached logs and extract.

2) The multipath shares fail to open but you do not get asked for your login credentials - happens in both logs. As you can see it's a bit random for the chosen examples (Series and Movies). Single path sources tend just ask for user/path and even with the correct user/path it will fail (see (1)).

3) The results are somewhat random. Sometimes a source will work perfectly and continue to work, but if (1) or (2) occur then a restart is required for the next round of randomness.

Other notes:
a) Movie library enabled, but scans turned off since this makes the logs a mess (I have it scan on startup usually).

b) The XBMC.LOG and XBMC.OLD.LOG are taken minutes apart, the only difference is a restart of XBMC in between.

c) an extract log shows the sort of before/after shots of the behaviour for 3 different sets of sources.

d) All sources/shares use the administrator account for access (only account on the server) and all shares have identical permissions and security is set to Read etc for "Everyone".

e) Behaviour in 10.0-9 and the latest nightly is the same.

f) I have edited the sources.xml and passwords.xml. Sources was edited to rename the movie and series sources originally. I did try user/pass in this to no avail. Passwords was edited to try and see if this was an issue. I notice when browsing to add sources I may or may not be asked for password (after the first time), and I can succesfully browse to the subfolder on the share, press ok etc, and then when you try and exit/save the multipath source you get the credentials/lock screen. Other times you don't and even if I do browse/add to a source it may not open when you try and navigate to it.

g) All devices are hardwired on Gbe networks.

h) AppleTVs are replacing two xboxes/XBMC at the same network locations and they had run for years without issue.

i) server rebooted cleanly today and all other XBMC instances and desktops can access shares with no issue,

j) No authentication issues in windows security log.

Things to try:
a) nuke sources.xml and passwords.xml and created sources from scratch.
b)

Any and all help appreciated.

Thanks

B

[byronl]

Oh and given the many years of very happy XBMC'ing I've just donated $50 to get these ATV2s stable, it's been a while since my last donation.

Cheers

B

[byronl]

Passwords.xml - http://pastebin.com/QKYQYxLu
Sources.xml - http://pastebin.com/EB09TcyW

Sorry forget them.

Thanks

[byronl]

Did some more thinking and with the AppleTVs on permanently I was wondering if they were burning up all the inbound SMB sessions.

Checked MaxMpxCt and I must have done the adjustment to 255 already some time back. Wish is was that easy.Mind you I wasn't getting errors per se on the server side.

More testing to come.

Byron

[byronl]

Did some other server side local policy items from the following thread.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...smb&page=4

Specifically the shares that can be access anonymously is what I think did the trick. Not ideal, but it's only read only.

That seemed to make the access failures very consistent (same drives). Re-applied read/execute access to all the files on those shares and seemingly the access is working consistently.

Why this is necessary with the appleTV version of XBMC and not the XBOX and PC version is somewhat confusing for me.

I tried starting with a fresh sources and passwords.xml and I still got errors.

Updates later once this has been proven stable.

Cheers

B

[Ned Scott]

Did some other server side local policy items from the following thread.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...smb&page=4

Specifically the shares that can be access anonymously is what I think did the trick. Not ideal, but it's only read only.

That seemed to make the access failures very consistent (same drives). Re-applied read/execute access to all the files on those shares and seemingly the access is working consistently.

Why this is necessary with the appleTV version of XBMC and not the XBOX and PC version is somewhat confusing for me.

I tried starting with a fresh sources and passwords.xml and I still got errors.

Updates later once this has been proven stable.

Cheers

B

I honestly don't know, but I would wager a guess that it has something to do with the ATV2's weaker CPU. The ATV2 can play the same videos because of hardware video decoding, meaning the CPU doesn't have to do that. The CPU still has to handle other things like the GUI and network protocols. Different settings in SMB might have different demands on the CPU. However, this just a guess and is a bit out of my area of knowledge.

[byronl]

I honestly don't know, but I would wager a guess that it has something to do with the ATV2's weaker CPU. The ATV2 can play the same videos because of hardware video decoding, meaning the CPU doesn't have to do that. The CPU still has to handle other things like the GUI and network protocols. Different settings in SMB might have different demands on the CPU. However, this just a guess and is a bit out of my area of knowledge.

It is odd. I tested the other ATV2 and it's fine as well now. Very odd. I wonder if it is a timeout/cpu issue as the appleTV is no quicker at opening the multipath sources than the old xboxes were.

It still appears fixed and hopefully someone else can learn from this. Thanks for the advice Ned and Jezz_X.

Cheers

Byron