[Solved] XMLTV Grabber Schedules Direct Sqlite Setup

[gnurocks]

For those struggling with the “leap” to XMLTV schedules, the following is how I got things working. I installed Ubuntu MATE 22.04 / Mythtv v32 (from the PPA), then used “Jim A’s” outstanding guide. See http://mythtvinstall.blogspot.com/2018/ ... nd-on.html

For my workflow, I ran mythtv-setup as $USER and ran the tv_grab-zz_sdjon_sqlite setup files as mythtv (Jim A’s guide, step 24). Yes, I know of the Mythtv XMLTV Wiki warning about running mythtv-setup as $USER.

For step 26 of Jim A’s guide, “Create links for all the files created by XMLTV setup in /home/mythtv/.xmltv and /home/mythtv/.mythtv in /home/$USER …,” I did the following:

HARD LINK (not symlink) the database file to /home/$USER (allows mythfilldatabase to be run correctly by mythtv or $USER):

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sudo ln /home/mythtv/.xmltv/SchedulesDirect.DB /home/username/.xmltv/SchedulesDirect.DB

Give RW permissions for the mythtv user group to SchedulesDirect.DB (default is read only or 644):

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cd /home/mythtv/.xmltv
sudo chmod 664 SchedulesDirect.DB

COPY (not hard link or symlink) the XXXX.xmltv file to /home/$USER:

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cp /home/mythtv/.mythtv/XXXX.xmltv /home/username/.mythtv/XXXX.xmltv

Edit only the newly copied XXXX.xmltv file that now resides in /home/$USER/.mythtv/:

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nano /home/username/.mythtv/XXXX.xmltv
Edit first line to reflect database=/home/username/.xmltv/SchedulesDirect.DB

Change or verify ownership and permissions of XXXX.xmltv:

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cd /home/username/.mythtv

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sudo chown username:username XXXX.xmltv

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sudo chmod 664 XXXX.xmltv

Follow the rest of Jim A’s checklist and after step 32 (exit back to $USER):

Optimize auto mythfilldatabase downloads by going into mythtv-setup -> General -> Program Schedule Downloading Options -> Automatically Update Program Listings -> Guide Data Arguments, and input the following two arguments: --no-allatonce --refresh 0-21

The argument “--no-allatonce” in conjunction with "-–refresh 0-21,” will acquire tomorrow and future days and will also update all changes to preexisting days, all with minimal memory usage. See #12758 patch post, Peter Bennett’s Comment 7 here: https://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/12758

Hope this helps.

[bill6502]

Due respect, the preferred solution is here: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3480&start=15#p19508
It requires no links/copies of files. It does required running mythfilldatabase from the command like as user mythtv
(the recommended user that the backend runs as). Creating an alias for running the command makes life easier.

[gnurocks]

Thanks. I'll try out your suggestion and also try using an alias. Like you mentioned, it should make things a lot easier.

[gnurocks]

Due respect, the preferred solution is here: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3480&start=15#p19508

Thanks, bill6502, for the great head-start for my setup. I settled on using the SQLite grabber. After much time and testing, I've found that CABLE and OTA do not do well comingling on the same DB. So, I had to split the DB into one for CABLE and one for OTA. Since then, I have had no dreaded "Malformed XML file" errors.

Also, I cleared the "perl module JSOB::XS not installed. JSON encode/decode performance will be poor." error you may have seen while using the third setup command, "tv_grab_zz_sdjson_sqlite --days 0 --config-file $HOME/.mythtv/SD.xmltv" by installing libjson-xs-perl. Once installed, recurring XMLTV grabber updates accelerated by ~10 minutes.

Here's my setup:

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Example for distributions that store MythTV data relative to ~mythtv/.mythtv,

/
└── home
    └── mythtv
        ├── .mythtv
        │   ├── CABLE.xmltv # Which contains:
        │   │       database=/home/mythtv/.xmltv/SchedulesDirectCABLE.DB
        │   │       lineup=USA-IL90210-X
        │   │       lineup!USA-OTA-90210
        │   │       3rdparty-metadata=disabled
        │   │       mythtv-categories=enabled
        │   │       station-logo-order=
        │   │
        │   └── OTA.xmltv # Which contains:
        │           database=/home/mythtv/.xmltv/SchedulesDirectOTA.DB
        │           lineup!USA-IL90210-X
        │           lineup=USA-OTA-90210
        │           3rdparty-metadata=disabled
        │           mythtv-categories=enabled
        │           station-logo-order=
        │
        └── .xmltv
            ├── SchedulesDirectCABLE.DB
            │
            └── SchedulesDirectOTA.DB

[gnurocks]

Apologies. I caught an error in the original posting of the above depiction. Now updated to show how the XMLTV configuration files point (database=/...CABLE.DB or ...OTA.DB) to separate DB files.