On 2022-03-19 7:46 p.m., Geoffrey Leach wrote
F35, fresh install. I have an ethernet-connected device (HDHomerun, fwiw) newly re-compiled on the newly-installed F35 xfce4 workstation. As far as I can tell from trying every network analysis I can find, the connection is good (exception, no response to ping) The interface was configured with the NetworkManager app, that assigned the device eno1.
eno1 is your internal network port. Not the hdhomerun unit. My hdhr units (I have 2 therefor 4 tuners) respond to ping. But it sounds like your computer does not know where the hdhr is (ie its IP address). It won't show up unless you know what that is.
I could really use some help.
You are working from the wrong end, so to speak. It is highly likely that your hdhomerun is working perfectly but nor receiving the ping.
First: edit your /etc/hosts file to give the hdhomerun unit a fixed IP address. Your computer should have a static address too. The line in my hosts file looks like this:
192.168.1.80 hdhomerun1 # 00:18:DD:04:67:E1 "10467E14"
(All tuners of a 2 or 4 tuner hdhr are at the same IP address).
Plug a network Cat5 cable from the hdhr to your router, and another from your computer to your router. It should work if you have a direct connection but then how are you going to talk to the world?
You can also fix static IP addresses for the computer and the hdhr in your router. You *should* have a static IP address, so that it does not change on reboot. Mythtv and most other digital tv programs *require* this. Once your computer and router know where the hdhr is, reboot.
During your install of the hdhomerun you should have received/installed a program hdhomerun_config and/or hdhomerun_config_gui. If the hdhr 'address' is not posted on the back of the unit, use hdhomerun_config discover to discover that address/id. You will see something like this:
hdhomerun device 10467E14 found at 192.168.1.80
You need the id to test the unit. Using hdhomerun_config you can scan and set options, including the channelmap (us-bcast), and actually watch programs. This is incredibly clunky however, so I presume that you will have something like mythtv or vlc installed to control the unit, and to watch on. Those programs can control the hdhr unit, and will receive and store the digital stream for later viewing.
There is lots of stuff on the silicon dust website (the manufacturer) and lots on the mythtv wiki (mythtv.org/wiki) including specific pages for the various types of hdhr boxes. Basic setup of a hdhr on mythtv is described here:
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Silicondust_HDHomeRun_setup
HTH
Geoffrey (also!)
On Sat, 2022-03-19 at 23:44 -0400, R. G. Newbury wrote:
edit your /etc/hosts file to give the hdhomerun unit a fixed IP address.
When has the /etc/hosts file ever given anything an IP address?
On Mar 20, 2022, at 04:17, Tim via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
When has the /etc/hosts file ever given anything an IP address?
I don’t know the exact details of this particular problem, but if you install the “dnsmasq” package, it includes dns and dhcp service, and by default it parses /etc/hosts and uses it for DNS names.
https://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html
— Jonathan Billings
On Sun, 2022-03-20 at 08:50 -0400, Jonathan Billings wrote:
On Mar 20, 2022, at 04:17, Tim via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
When has the /etc/hosts file ever given anything an IP address?
I don’t know the exact details of this particular problem, but if you install the “dnsmasq” package, it includes dns and dhcp service, and by default it parses /etc/hosts and uses it for DNS names.
I think Tim's point is that the /etc/hosts file doesn't *assign* IP addresses, it merely *records* them.
poc
On Sun, 2022-03-20 at 13:08 +0000, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
I think Tim's point is that the /etc/hosts file doesn't *assign* IP addresses, it merely *records* them.
Yep.
In a nutshell, if you haven't manually configured your PC (or other device) to use a specific IP address, your PC gets given an IP from a DHCP server. And if it doesn't receive such instructions it may:
Automatically pick a random one from the 169.254.x.y range, first trying to see if nothing else is already using that same address. It can do this entirely by itself without mDNS, Avahi, Bonjour, ZeroConf.
It may just leave the network port in an offline state.
Once it has an IP, it can find out the address's name by looking for entries in the hosts file, or checking with a DNS server, or a broadcast query using on of those ZeroConf protocols I just mentioned. Which essentially broadcasts a query for the desired device to identify themselves, rather like you ringing a phone number and a guy picks up and says, "Hi, George here." (Good luck on a LAN where someone has given two things the same hostname - e.g. two "my computer" PCs in a home, or two identical printers.)
Some of those protocols can have a look inside their own hosts file to find the answer (if they have one). However, that's going to go wrong if the devices don't get the same IP each time. Apparently mDNS can somehow get answers from a DHCP server. I'm not sure how it'd do that from mine, my DHCP server seems limited to:
* A client says it'd like to use a particular IP. * My DHCP server says yes and leases it, or says no and tells it to use another IP instead.
There doesn't appear to be a mechanism to query what's Fred's IP, or who's at 192.168.1.64. And why should it, that's a DNS server's job.
Again, all that would fail if the client's assumed IP wasn't entered into that database.
If you want a predictable LAN, then I really only see two ways to manage that without major pain:
1. Run a DHCP server with a DNS server. That DHCP server doles out addresses, and puts those addresses into the DNS server as it doles them out, or makes use of addresses that you've already put in the DNS server (or a mix of both techniques, as I do - guests get doled out a spare address, resident devices are always assigned the same ones).
2. Manually configure each device to have a fixed IP. And if you want name resolution, hand configure each devices hosts file, or a DNS server that they all query. This can be impossible in some LANs (how do you preset an IP into your smart light bulb?)
For a lot of people, there's only one device in their home LAN that other things want to make use of - their printer. Everything else is just browsing the internet independently. They're never going to know if their LAN isn't working well, and probably put all printing gremlins down to the printer just being a pain, switching things off and on until they work.
On 3/20/22 07:10, Tim via users wrote:
Some of those protocols can have a look inside their own hosts file to find the answer (if they have one). However, that's going to go wrong if the devices don't get the same IP each time. Apparently mDNS can somehow get answers from a DHCP server. I'm not sure how it'd do that from mine, my DHCP server seems limited to:
mdns is independent. The device gets its IP address from the DHCP server and then it broadcasts that using mdns. Any other device on the network can see the broadcast or it can query the device's IP address by asking for "devicename.local". ".local" is reserved for mdns use. There's no dns involved at all.
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Jonathan Billings -
Patrick O'Callaghan -
R. G. Newbury -
Samuel Sieb -
Tim