June update now 'buffering'

[ChrisM]

Just updated to the June version, and now I can no longer watch stuff. The problem is that OSMC is now ‘buffering’ on its 100mb/s hard link to the NAS. The NAS hasn’t changed, it’s still a HP MicroServer running FreeNAS and still serving stuff. So what happened to OSMC on a RPi3+ that’s made it buffer? What diagnostics should I grab if anyone asks?

Chris M

[Tom_Doyle]

To get a better understanding of the problem you are experiencing we need more information from you. The best way to get this information is for you to upload logs that demonstrate your problem. You can learn more about how to submit a useful support request here.

Depending on the used skin you have to set the settings-level to standard or higher, in summary:

• enable debug logging at settings->system->logging

• reboot the OSMC device

• reproduce the issue

• upload the log set either using the Log Uploader method within the My OSMC menu in the GUI or the ssh method invoking command grab-logs -A

• publish the provided URL from the log set upload, here

Thanks for your understanding. We hope that we can help you get up and running again shortly.

OSMC skin screenshot:

[ChrisM]

Thanks for your advice. Please see https://paste.osmc.TV/adaxirebog for the first 5 mins of a film with 2 buffering incidents,

Chris M

[ChrisM]

By the by, it’s interesting that when the RPi isn’t logging, the buffering incidents are every 15-20 seconds…

[Tom_Doyle]

Hi,

I’m not aware of any changes in june update that would have caused this behaviour and nothing in the logs is giving an indicator. But you would benefit by adding some video cache though:

https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache

These used to work quite well on my pi3:

<advancedsettings>
  <cache>
    <buffermode>1</buffermode>
    <memorysize>52428800</memorysize>
  </cache>
</advancedsettings>

Also I would suggest looking at kernel mounts aswell, autofs being the easiest to setup:

Mounting network shares with autofs (alternative to fstab)

This how-to describes how to mount your network shares via autofs. Autofs should be as performant as fstab based mounting but has the advantage that your shares are mounted on demand which also should give you more reliability in case of network interuptions. First install the autofs package sudo apt-get install autofs If you already have mounted your shares already via fstab comment out that line in fstab and reboot. For this how-to we are going to use a directory for each server, if you wa…

Thanks Tom.

[ChrisM]

Hi Tom,

Very interesting and I’m putting them to use. Oh, and finding I need to make a grovelling apology along the way…

See, to put the advancedsettings.xml file in, I’d have to connect to the RPi and it’s at this point that I find the wretched thing on the wifi, not the Ethernet. It’s connected to the switch, WTF?
(poke) (poke) Damn, the patch cable’s dead…

So, the June update was a complete red herring, 'twas the simplest of notwork errors/assumptions, and for that I’m sorry to have wasted your time,

many thanks,

Chris M

[Tom_Doyle]

Hi,

@ChrisM

RPi and it’s at this point that I find the wretched thing on the wifi, not the Ethernet. It’s connected to the switch, WTF?
(poke) (poke) Damn, the patch cable’s dead…

Sorry should have spotted that from the log, anyway I’ve marked the topic as solved.

Thanks Tom.