Keeping the equipment going during a shutdown

[Carsten Kurz]

The shelf life on those cells were originally quoted at 10 years. We have found them dead (in JNIORs) in just over 6 years. The JNIOR relies on the battery only when it was was powered off. A unit that was always powered should have seen the maximum life out of the cell.

I just opened my 'spare' 312, probably late 2012 manufacturing date (we received it in spring 2013). It never was in daily operation, being my toy, so, it wasn't powered up over longer periods of time. The cell still measures 2.3 volts between cell terminals. I guess that would still keep the clock running? I noticed it won't be too complicated to clip and wiggle the leads off and replace it.

- Carsten

[Steve Kraus]

I have a DSS100/DSP100 which I bought several years ago as a backup to my DSS200. It ran successfully in tests including with homemade encrypted content. One day the DSS100 would not start and in the end it was a failed coin battery on the MB. Though I blanked all the drives including the SSD and tested all components including the optical drive I failed to get the system to reload. Something is wacked wth the BIOS settings, I believe. I finally gave up and put it aside. It was the subject of a thread on FT and I should probably should start a new thread to finally resolve this. Not my intent to rehash it here.

Anyway, the point of bringing this up here that the DSP100 has not been powered up in a long time. So I powered it recently to see what would happen. It started okay and got to the expected point where it is searching for the DSS100 (not connected nor powered).

My specific question is whether that is a good sign that the media block has not lost its certificate? If it had would the error come up before the "searching for DSS100" message or is there no way to be sure until I get the DSS running? Has anyone experienced one with a lost cert and recalled where the error appears? Perhaps it only comes up when one tries to play encrypted content.

[Leo Enticknap]

My guess is that the symptom of a DSP with a bad certificate would be "Error securing connection between show player and projector" in the transport tab. Can't remember if there is a certificate good entry in the DSP100's tab in Show Manager > System Devices, or visible in one of the menus in the DSP100's built-in display. There is in Show Manager for the 862 and 745.

[Bruce Cloutier]

I just opened my 'spare' 312, probably late 2012 manufacturing date (we received it in spring 2013). It never was in daily operation, being my toy, so, it wasn't powered up over longer periods of time. The cell still measures 2.3 volts between cell terminals. I guess that would still keep the clock running? I noticed it won't be too complicated to clip and wiggle the leads off and replace it.

All of your configuration is stored in Flash both internal to the processor and external. The battery would maintain the clock which after that long of a period of time should be way off anyway (especially JNIOR3). The battery would also maintain the log files. Losing those through power removal isn't a big deal. Um, in JNIOR3 if you've changed the user credentials they are likely reset with a low battery. 2.3 volts isn't dead but close to minimum. Hardly anyone alters the credentials.

[Carsten Kurz]

Bildschirmfoto 2020-03-31 um 01.33.19.png

[Bruce Cloutier]

A little off eh? It is possible that this clock was never actually set. They weren't set in production.

By the way, that unit was manufactured in June of 2012 and the last JNIOR3 in 2014. The serial number is date coded. Not all of our stuff follows the same serial number structure. Also, the older OS versions kept the www folder in battery backed SRAM. So if the battery is dead and you remove power, you would lose the web pages (applet). The All-In-One update to the latest (v4.8) actually removes the applets. The issue is that the Java applets that the JNIOR3 uses are no longer supported by browsers. You can't open them. If you open the web pages through a right-click in the support tool, a local copy of the applets should open.

The JNIOR4 clocks were originally set in production but only to the local PCs used in programming. Those did not have Internet access. Since we have been building them in-house the new JNIORs hit an NTP server. Those clocks drift some though. Most rely on NTP once installed. Your clock should fix itself if you give the unit access to the Internet or define a local NTP server. You can also set the clock to match your PC using the Support Tool. It is really only used in default for logging. Of course if you use a scheduler then you had best insure that the clock is synchronized with NTP.

The JNIOR 4 uses dynamic HTML for the web pages and they are so much more capable. The JNIOR4 can serve an entire website directly out of a ZIP library. The site doesn't have to be in a ZIP but it is an awesome way to not have to install the web pages (expand them into folders) or worry about getting file versions out of sync. Just put the ZIP there. The site is in the /flash/www.zip file which is just a ZIP you can download and access the content.

JARs and ZIPs are the same by the way. All of the site code is in that "www.zip" library and none of it is obfuscated. It is not bloated with comments though. You can build any site you want. You move the configuration pages to a subfolder very easily. Rename "www.zip" to "config.zip" for example. Move it to the /flash/www folder and you then would use the URL [IPAddress]/config to open those pages. The ZIP name creates a virtual subfolder. Then you can put your own index.html or index.php in the /flash/www folder to create your own site. You can also create public pages not requiring a login. The JNIOR at honeypot.integpg.com for example does something different. It lives successfully on the open Internet.

The JNIOR4 is so much more fun but I would update your JNIOR3 before working with it (dead battery or otherwise).

[Mike Renlund]

For the DSP100...if you have the Dolby Media Block application and can connect to the unit via USB, the top left corner of the app shows the public certificate hash. If that information is there, the internal security is still good.

Another way to look at this is in the front panel user interface. IF I remember right, you start at the searching for showstore screen, then navigate to the right until the cursor disappears. Then click the middle "enter" button. This should put you in the debug menu. You should be able to navigate down the list to see the same public certificate hash.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Steve Kraus]

Thank you but there's no getting the cursor (highlighting) off the right end on the user interface.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Steve,

Call Mike Renlund in Dolby Tech Support for help getting it running again. It is likely a Bios setting that needs to be set correctly in order for the OS to load on to the raid. You may also have to create a new virtual drive on the RAID before the Bios sees it as a virtual drive and can load the OS. 1-415-558-0200 If it can run again after sitting so long, he is the guy that can help you get it there.

[Mike Renlund]

Thanks Mark,

FYI, the best number to contact us is 1-415-645-4900 (option 3 for cinema)

I'm trying to remember (and don't have any equipment near me as I'm working from home). I thought that you just arrow off to the right, the cursor disappears, and you press enter.

another option is to look in Show Manager. Click on SYSTEM, then THEATRE DEVICES. Scroll down to the DSP100, and you should see a line called:

debug (certificate_present) <yes/no>

I don't have any 100 series servers online that I can access remotely, so I am not sure if this line is there (it is on CAT862).

[Greg Routenburg]

another option is to look in Show Manager. Click on SYSTEM, then THEATRE DEVICES. Scroll down to the DSP100, and you should see a line called:

debug (certificate_present) <yes/no>

When I look at my DSP100s running software version 4.0.10.38 I have the following line items...

IP Address
status
hardware (publickeyhash)
hardware (serial number)
version (hardware version)
version (software version)

Is it safe to assume that the presence of a long string of random characters beside the publickeyhash line is an indication that the certificate is valid?

[Mike Renlund]

Hi Greg and everyone,

I think we can simplify this a little bit with a bit of an announcement.

Dolby understands that this is a difficult time where keys for previously played content have expired, and no keys for future content is available until the cinema is about to reopen. But there is a large desire to test encrypted playback during this shutdown...and before reopening (so there is time to repair/upgrade/replace components).

To help with this, we've just published an encrypted trailer along with keys for all Dolby Media Blocks so you can test whenever you want. The name of this clip is the Dolby Encrypted Content Tester. Information for this is found in the latest version of our Power Maintenance document (version 1.4) found here: https://dolby.box.com/v/Dolby-Products-During-Shutdown

Steve, you can now test encrypted playback to know for sure if the DSP100 is good.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mike at Dolby

[Leo Enticknap]

It is likely a Bios setting that needs to be set correctly in order for the OS to load on to the raid. You may also have to create a new virtual drive on the RAID before the Bios sees it as a virtual drive and can load the OS

I don't think this was the problem that Steve was having, but the DSS100 is picky about the BIOS settings under some circumstances. As coincidence would have it, we had one in the shop last week that its owner sent to us for repair. This was a spare machine that they wanted available for use in case their main one failed, so they sent it to us to look over and repair if necessary.

We found two problems - the BIOS battery had gone flat, and two of the RAID drives were bad. After replacing the battery and drives, and trying to boot the 4.7.8.7 clean install CD, it booted, but stalled just before installing the OS - it couldn't see the RAID controller card to partition it.

After trial and error, we established that if the BIOS battery goes flat and you lose the settings, and you want to run a clean install or upgrade CD after replacing it, you have to configure the boot settings in the BIOS such that the optical drive is first in the boot sequence, the Transcend 500 MB flash drive is second, and all other devices in the boot order are totally disabled. Not just shunted down the boot order, but completely disabled. If either of the 3Ware cards (the RAID controller and the card that the CRU reader is connected to) are present in the boot order, the operating system, once booted from something else, won't see them.

The other gotcha is that after losing the BIOS settings, you need to set the BIOS clock to UTC, not local time. Presumably if there is a DSP100 connected, the DSS will pull the time from its secure clock and use that; but if there isn't, it'll display the wrong time in Show Manager (assuming that the time zone has been set correctly in Show Manager).

[Peter Foyster]

Co-incidentally, I also recently unearthed a DSS100 and a DSP100 that had been sitting in my bio box for 5 years and, prior to being given to me, who knows how long was left unused.

The DSS100 MB battery was not actually flat but two of the drives were useless. I managed to dig up two random drives. Just to be sure, I replaced the battery, and booted the DSS100 to the BIOS settings where I set the correct time (using UTC time as Leo stated).

I was able to rebuild the array. I then set about installing the latest OS.

The server booted up OK and the software update was successful. The array state indicated 1143 reallocated sectors in drive 3 and 1 in drive 4. (Drive 3 caused a degraded array a few days ago and I have located a good drive that I will replace it with next time I am at the cinema).

I changed the auditorium number to 2 and connected the servers through the Theatre network via a switch that also was lying around unused.
The addressing seems to be correct. I set the main server as the NTP server for AUD 2 and whether by coincidence or not, both DSS100s now show the exact same Theatre time, albeit 30 seconds out from the actual time.

Server 1 shows the NTP configured server as 192.168.1.2, however I have no idea what device this refers to. Its Auditorium time previously displayed the time to the exact second and ‘secure time’ was enabled. This is now greyed out and no time is displayed. I’m not sure what my meddling has done but hopefully it can be rectified before the outdoor screening season starts in November. (Yes, I am in the southern hemisphere!)

Whilst it appears that server 1 and server 2 can see each other, I have been unable to view content between the two. Unless, and until, I can sort this out I will have to be content with swapping content via removable hard drive between the servers.

Although the DSP100 software seems to have been updated it keeps searching for the Show Store without success. That is not a major problem as I have no real need of it other than a source of replacement PSUs.

I had been hoping to move all the content (including DCPs that I had ingested prior to being shut down by the Govt. in March due to COVID-19 restrictions and which I plan to reschedule later in the year) from my main server to server 2. Although I have all 1TB drives in server 1 the array is only recognised as around 1TB as I had replaced the original 500GB drives one at a time previously so as not to lose content. The idea is to rebuild the array to get, hopefully, the maximum storage capacity and then copy the content back. This may entail re-installing the OS.
If nothing else, I have learned a lot more about these units than I did, in no small way thanks to assistance from Leo.

[Leo Enticknap]

I'm guessing that 192.168.1.2 refers to a switch, gateway or router, or a PC that has been configured to act as an NTP server. Someone will have done that, and for a reason: the server won't have been that way out of the factory. The factory default setting is 192.168.241.2, which is the factory default address of the TMS on the theater network, if there is one (which in your case there isn't, which could explain why this got changed).

However, by factory default, the address of a DSS100 on the auditorium network that is configured as Screen 1 is 192.168.1.129, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.128. That "half a subnet" means that it can't see any device with an address of 192.168.1.XXX, where XXX is below 129. If there really is a device at 192.168.1.2 that can give the server an NTP sync, the server's subnet mask on the auditorium LAN should be changed to 255.255.255.0, if it hasn't been already.

With everything on their factory defaults, the two theater network NICs hooked directly to each other (either using a straight shot crossover cable or through a switch - I don't know if those NICs are modern enough to be able to deal with a straight shot patch cable), both servers running the same version of Show Manager, and the theater network designated as the management network on both servers, they should be able to see each other and transfer DCPs between each other. However, if one of them does have 192.168.1.2 set up as the NTP server, then someone has been changing settings from their factory defaults in the past; so all of the above needs checking out.