Configuring PGI Settings Using OSD Menu
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Some PGI-only settings are available in the main OSD menus "Settings" -> "PGI Settings" and "Front Panel".
EPG BACKGROUND SCANNING + EPG SCAN TIME
Controls background scanning for fresh EPG data. If this feature is enabled, certain transponders will be automatically scanned for new EPG data every 24 hours (at a specified time). If your receiver has two tuners that are able to receive the same satellites, then the scanning process is completely transparent as the second tuner will be used for EPG scanning. If your box has only one tuner or if the second tuner is not able to receive the same satellite then the scanning will be done only if the receiver is in Standby mode (i.e., partially on). ATTENTION: Do not confuse background scanning with processing usual EPG data while watching live channel. Even if background scanning is turned off, the EPG will be received and stored from the transponders which are used for watching live channels.
You can select which transponders should be scanned in the background mode by using the web interface (EPG section -> "EPG Scanning Settings"). You can check two options per each transponder: "BG Scan" and "Multi-TP EPG". The first option enables background scanning for that transponder. The second option allows to receive EPG data for ALL channels of a provider and not just for the channels on the same transponder. Some providers transmit EPG for all of their channels on one transponder so you can minimise the amount of transponders for EPG scanning if your provider supports this. Some providers may transmit the data for all channels on one transponder but the program description may be shortened for the channels from other transponders. In this case it is better to select multiple transponders and uncheck the "Multi-TP EPG" option to get better program descriptions.
If you do NOT select any TPs for BG scanning (default state) AND you enable EPG background scanning AND you have some FAV lists in your database, then the receiver will go through each and every transponder in all of your favourites (at a specified time) and will try to get EPG from all of them. Sometimes this may be overwhelming, so it is better to pick the necessary TPs in the web interface.
ZAP TO RECORD
This option is only of interest to you if you card cannot decrypt more than one channel at the same time. If you turn this option on, the receiver will not allow watching/recording/PiP for more than one encrypted channel at the same time. In addition, it will try to zap to the channel before recording in even if the live channel was on the same transponder to avoid decoding wrong channel.
POWER OFF ACTION
Sets action required to power off the receiver with the power button. The "Hold" setting means that you have to keep the power button pressed for a couple of seconds to power off the receiver. If you short press it in the "Hold" mode then the Sleep Timer menu will be called. The "Press" setting reverses the behaviour.
SHOW DEVICE BANNER
Show or hide the OSD banner which displays the connected and disconnected, CAM module and USB devices. The "Skip 1st" value will disable the banner only the first time it is called. "Always" will show the banner every time and "Never" will prevent it from ever showing up. This option is useful to get rid of the banner showing every time you start the receiver if you have CI device or USB storage device connected.
FAST SUBFEED SWITCHING
This function is only useful for those who use sub-channel feature (do not confuse with PiP!) Normally, every time you change the sub-channel the whole TP get scanned for new sub-channels. If you are sure that you already have all of the required sub-channels scanned before then you can speed up sub-channel switching process by enabling this option which will skip TP re-scanning.
INITIAL EPG LAYOUT
Allows to choose whether the single-channel or multi-channel EPG view is opened first when pressing the EPG button. The default setting is to open the multi-channel EPG view first.
EXTRA VIDEO LAYER
Allows to choose between having simultaneous video output via HDMI and SCART (CVBS mode only!) or having better image quality for PiP.
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
Sets the front panel display brightness (for those models that support this function). The higher the value the brighter is the display.
ALL CAPS FOR CHANNEL NAMES
Allows to automatically convert channel names to use capital letters only for the front panel display.
Configuring Settings Using /var/etc/pgi.conf
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The system services specific configuration is located in /var/etc/pgi.conf. All lines starting with # are treated as comments. The lines like OPTION="VALUE" set various parameters. The file can be modified either by any text editor that saves files in a plain text format. PGI image has 3 such editors already built in: vi, nano and mc-edit. All of them can be used within Telnet session. Alternatively, you can use some special Telnet commands to quickly modify single parameter.
The following commands can help modifying pgi.conf easily:
conflist (simply displays current settings)
confget <option> (displays the value of certain option only)
confset <option> <value> (sets new value for the given option)
The option names are NOT case sensitive, however, their values usually ARE, so do pay attention!
Here are some examples:
conflist
confget BACKUP_DIR
confset webtv yes
The options are read from pgi.conf only once during the boot sequence, so if you want to commit your changes, you need to reboot the receiver. Below is a detailed description of all the possible parameters that can be set in pgi.conf. Do not be put off by the large number of options! The receiver will work fine with most of them unchanged out of the box. They only need to be changed if you require some additional functionality or modified behaviour.
BACKUP_DIR
Sets the directory name for backing up and restoring all user settings (normally, on the internal HDD or on the external device). It is very convenient to backup all the settings before flashing a new image and then to restore in one quick operation. The backup and restore functions must be invoked manually using the script plugin, which is available in PGI via the WWW button on the remote (or 91HD, where this plugin can be called via the plugins menu).
Default value: "/media/pgi-backup" (for backing up to the same device which is used for channels recording)
Example: BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/usb/sda0/backup" (for using the directory called "backup" on a USB stick)
CI_INIT
Enable or disable support for CI modules. To load less drivers set to "no".
Possible values: "yes", "no"
Default value: "yes"
Example: CI_INIT="no"
CRON
Enable or disable cron service which allows certain repeating tasks (like user scripts) to be to run at a certain time, for example, every day or every hour, etc. The service uses a configuration file that can be modified using a Telnet command: "crontab -e" which uses the syntax described here:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Possible values: "yes", "no"
Default value: "no"
Example: CRON="yes"
EPG_DATA_DIR
Sets the directory name for storing persistent EPG data. By default it is set to "/media" which implies that you MUST have storage device connected and configured for PVR functions (channel recording, timeshift, etc.). If you do not want to use PVR and simply want to have EPG data stored on a USB stick, you can change this value (see example below). Be aware that if you use USB stick for EPG storage, you should NOT disconnect it before the receiver is fully shutdown to prevent data corruption.
ATTENTION: You should never use /var for EPG data storage!
Default value: "/media"
Example: EPG_DATA_DIR="/mnt/usb/sda0" (for using a USB stick on a receiver without HDD)
ETH_ADDR_LOW
If the receiver is not cleanly shut down, the MAC address of your box may change. This option tries to solve that problem. If you set option to "auto", then the current MAC address (as reported by ifconfig) will be set for the next boot. If you want a custom MAC address, you can hard code it with this option. It is only possible to choose the last three blocks of the MAC address. The first three blocks are fixed and will always be "00:13:18". If you do not want your MAC address to be touched, set this option to "none".
Possible values: "auto", "none" or user defined address
Default value: "none"
Example: ETH_ADDR_LOW="ab:cd:ef" (the final MAC will be: 00:13:18:ab:cd:ef)
MEDIA_CLEAN
Enables or disables automated cleanup of your temporary media files. The cleanup job runs every 3 hours and removes all tmp directories in the /media directory which are older than the number of MINUTES specified here. If this parameter is set to a value other than 0 or "no", then the cron daemon will be started, whether you have enabled it or not. The recommended value for MEDIA_CLEAN is several hours (240 minutes or more), but the actual value will depend on the size of your HDD, how much TV you watch and whether you want to be able to "convert" some of the older timeshift files into actual recordings (there is a web interface option for that). Do not confuse the interval between cleaning attempts (which is fixed to 3 hours) and the "age" of files to be removed (set by MEDIA_CLEAN).
Possible values: "no" or some positive numeric value (in minutes)
Default value: "no"
Example: MEDIA_CLEAN="240"
NFSD
Enables or disables NFS services on the IPBox. This is ONLY required if you want to access the files which are located on the IPBox from another device using NFS protocol. This option is NOT needed for NFS recording (see below).
Possible values: "yes", "no"
Default value: "no"
Example: NFSD="yes"
NFS_REC
Enables recording to a remote NFS share INSTEAD of a HDD. The value can be either "no" (to disable NFS share recording) or the full path to the NFS share that will be used for recording (instead of the HDD).
Default value: "no"
Example: NFS_REC="192.168.1.2:/myshare"
Attention: you do NOT need to set NFSD="yes" for NFS_REC to work!
NFS_REC_PROTO
This is only used in conjunction with the NFS_REC parameter (see above). Normally it should be set to "tcp" for a more reliable connection. If your NFS server does not support the TCP protocol, set it to "udp".
Possible values: "tcp", "udp"
Default value: "tcp"
Example: NFS_REC_PROTO="udp"
NTP_SYNC
Enables or disables time synchronisation with an NTP server. The synchronisation will be performed only ONCE during receiver power up.
Possible values: "no" or an name (or IP address) of an NTP server
Default value: "no"
Example: NTP_SYNC="ntp2.fau.de"
PPPD_PEER
Set the name for the peers file to be used by the pppd service automatically during receiver startup. This parameter is required if the USB_MODEM parameter is being used (see below) or if you are using a PPPoE connection. The peers file specified by this option must exist in /var/etc/ppp/peers directory.
For more information refer to a separate NETWORK_en.txt document
Possible values: "none" or custom name
Default value: "none"
Example: PPPD_PEER="gprs"
SAMBA
Enable or disable the Samba service. This is ONLY required if you want to access the files which are located on the IPBox from another device using Windows File Sharing (SMB) protocol.
Possible values: "yes", "no"
Default value: "no"
Example: SAMBA="yes"
SKIN
Sets an alternative skin. The value should be the FULL ABSOLUTE PATH of the directory containing the skin (often in /var/skins) directory. The name is CASE-SENSITIVE!!! You can put your skins into the /var directory or to the HDD (/media directory).
Default value: "default" (built-in skin)
Example (for a skin in /var): SKIN="/var/skins/MySkinName"
Example (for a skin on HDD): SKIN="/media/skins/MySkinName"
Example (for a skin on USB Flash): SKIN="/mnt/usb/sda0/MySkinName"
USB_MODEM
Sets the ID for the USB modem to be initialised when it is connected. You need to configure the PPPD_PEER parameter above as well for this to work. The complete procedure for USB 3G/CDMA/GPRS connections is described in a separate text document called NETWORK_en.txt
Possible values: "none" or your custom USB ID in the form of VENDOR:PRODUCT
Default value: "none"
Example (for Toshiba G450 3G modem): USB_MODEM="0930:0d46"
WEBTV
Enables or disables PERMANENT Web-TV / VLC streaming. Normally only required when you do NOT use IPBox web interface for watching Web-TV (for instance, when watching directly with VLC player). The web interface should automatically start streaming when required
Possible values: "yes", "no"
Default value: "no"
Example: WEBTV="yes"
DEBUG
Should only be used to troubleshoot problems and should never be permanently enabled. With this option set to "yes", the boot sequence logs will be written into the /var/log directory and the receiver will not automatically reboot or shutdown in case of major problem.
Possible values: "yes", "no"
Default value: "no"
Example: DEBUG="yes"
Have fun,
PGI Team
PGI v1.0 Kiryu addon2011-04-18, 22:50
