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       TCS - Frequently Asked Questions Under Construction

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Q: Something doesn't seem to work. (Insert anything you want as the something.)
A: Have you looked at the log file, /var/log/tcs, to see if TCS is telling you what's wrong?

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Q: I tried to extract the archive using tar, as described in the readme, but the tivo responds with: "bash: tar: command not found"
A: tar is not included in that standard tivo distribution. Either you don't have it, or it isn't in your path. You can alternatively use the cpio command as documented in the fast readme. It does exactly the same thing as tar.

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Q: Does TCS work on a series 2?
A: Theoretically, yes, with a couple of caveats. I don't know of anyone currently running it on an S2, although someone cranked it up on an S2 running 3.2 and it seemed to work. newtext2osd won't work on an S2, and, no, you can't just recompile it as the hardware is different. Same deal with jpegwriter. You could change the prefs to have tcs use the standard tivo text2osd as opposed to newtext2osd, which should get everything except the weather maps. It may be possible to hook TCS into whatever an S2 running HMO uses to display jpegs. Who knows.

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Q: When I try to start TCS it complains and gives the following error:

invalid attribute: TimeZone
while executing
"dbobj $setupobj get TimeZone"
("uplevel" body line 9)
.
. etc

A: TCS can't find the timezone and daylight savings policy information in MFS. This probably means that you are running version 4.0 of the software. If someone tells me where to find that information in MFS on 4.0, I can fix it. I don't have an S2, so until someone does your SOL.

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Q: When I start TCS it hangs at:

Loading Event Server
Creating event mempool
Server PID XXX
Waiting for server to initialize mempool

A: Mempools seem to work differently on 4.0. Try turning off the event server in config/prefs. This may reintroduce the event bug, but I don't know if that even exists on 4.0.

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Q: Everything seems to work OK, but module X never seems to update from the web. Everything else does though.
A: See the first question in the FAQ. Perhaps the source web page (ESPN, Weather Channel, etc) is down. Occasionally, the format of the source pages will change a bit, confusing the parsing of the page. When this occurs, you need a newer version of the effected module. I generally get problems like this fixed within a day or two. TCS will automatically retrieve and install new versions of modules when they become available, unless you turned that feature off, or deinstalled the UpdateCheck module. If the problem persists, post in the support thread, I might not be aware something has broken.

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Q: Weather doesn't seem to work. It always displays the Weather for Hoboken, NJ.
A: TCS is distributed with weather display files from Hoboken. This problem just means that TCS has been unable to get an update from the web. Perhaps TCS can't find your zipcode, or something is preventing updates. The first problem isn't likely, but it can be fixed by adding a zipcode config file, as described in the readme. Alternatively, it may be that TCS just can't get to the net. See the first question in the FAQ.

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Q: I tried to specify a zipcode in the zipcode file, but TCS responds that there is a malformed zipcode?
A: The zipcode file is 5 characters, all numeric. Create the file on the tivo, don't create it on the PC and ftp it in, as end of line differences between unix and windows may cause problems.

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Q: Its up and running, but it doesn't display anything when I press a command from the remote.
A: See the first question in the FAQ. There is probably a problem launching newtext2osd. Make sure you have it installed, make sure TCS knows where it is (config/prefs) and make sure it is executable. (chmod +x newtext2osd)

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Q: Everything works except the WeatherMaps.
A: See the first question in the FAQ. There is probably a problem launching jpegwriter. Make sure you have it installed, make sure TCS knows where it is (config/prefs) and make sure it is executable. (chmod +x jpegwriter)

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Q: The Weather maps work, but when I clear the screen a bunch of garbage is displayed.
A: There are two known causes. A new version of jpegwriter was posted on the Tivocommunity underground forum, labeled as jpegwriter version 1.1. It does a better job centering the picture, however it seems to muck up the color map in a way that the original jpegwriter did not. Don't use version 1.1, its not compatible.

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Q: The weather map displays for a half a second or so, then the screen gets messed up.
A: Turn off the on screen clock backdoor, that musses the osd resolution.

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Q: The weather maps are chopped off on the right of the screen. Is there any way I can center it?
A: Jpegwriter draws the image flush to the right of the screen. That can not be changed. Television sets standardly are tuned to chop a little bit off the top, bottom, left and right hand sides of the screen. If the amount being chopped off is significant, your television needs to be adjusted. Here, significant probably means something along the lines of more than 1/4 to 1/3 of the weather channel logo in the map.

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Q: When I try to display the second or latter pages on my D-Tivo, the page down button also switches tuners.
A: Didn't read the readme did you? The select key does the same thing just for all you D-Tivo guys!

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Q: The log file seems to indicate that none of the modules can get to the internet, but the daily call works fine through my net connection.
A: Check your default route to your internet gateway.

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Q: When I try to start TCS, I get the following error:

Checking TCS home for updates
Opening TCS network socket
couldn't open socket: address already in use
while executing
"socket -server tcsAccept $port"
(procedure "OpenNetworkSocket" line 6)
invoked from within
"OpenNetworkSocket $NetworkPort"
(file "/var/hack/tcs/tcsd.tcl" line 3022)

A: Something is using the TCS socket, 8762. Probably another copy of TCS is already running.

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Q: When I shut down TCS there are still some TCS processing running, the event server and/or the sendkey client. What's wrong?
A: TCS needs the commands ps, grep and bash to function to kill processes. Make sure the paths are correct in config/prefs. ps is not standard on the tivo, see the TCS download page for a link to where to find it. Remember to chmod +x!

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Q: None of the kill process commands work.
A: TCS needs the commands ps, grep and bash to function to kill processes. Make sure the paths are correct in config/prefs. ps is not standard on the tivo, see the TCS download page for a link to where to find it. Remember to chmod +x! Note that this could also cause problems restarting processes, as the first step in a restart is a kill.

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Q: I have TCS installed in a read only partition, so it can't write the display files. Is there any way to make TCS work from a read-only partition.
A: Yes. TCS writes data into 2 places in the TCS tree, the displayfiles directory and the config/IPAddresses file. First, make copys of the files displayfiles/blank.jpg and displayfiles/sportscommands. You could then create a symbolic link to a writable directory with something like: cd tcs; rm -rf displayfiles; ln -s /var/displayfiles, and do something similar for the IPAddresses file. Copy the saved files into the new directory. Copy the original IPAddresses file the new location. If you want the displayfiles to live in /tmp, you can do that but its a little more tricky. From rc.sysinit you would need to create /tmp/displayfiles directory, and copy the files blank.jpg and sportscommands from the saved location to the new directory. Since the IPAddresses file contains the addresses of your nameservers, and since TCS will occasionally rewrite that file when it detects an ipaddress has changed, it really isn't possible to put it in /tmp without some really ugly shenanigans. Put it somewhere in /var.

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