> > You can confirm that you are linking against the correct ROOT by running cmake with VERBOSE=1
> > and examine the linker command line to see what library link path is specified for ROOT.
> 
> $ make VERBOSE=1
> to see the command lines.
>

Most likely, they forgot to rerun "cmake" after installing a new ROOT. The joys of a two-step build (cmake; make).

K.O.

We installed recent mhttpd on a ubuntu machine and discovered a number of problems
with the default mhttpd settings.

We did follow the normal instructions to install and configure an apache https proxy
with a certbot certificate and password protection, this part worked ok. Big thanks
to Lars M. for providing the Ubuntu instructions for apache.

Then we started seeing errors from mhttpd about access to URLs like "manager/html" 
(google "manager/html exploit") that did not go through the proxy.

It turns out that unlike CentOS-7, Ubuntu LTS 18.04 does not run a restrictive firewall
and access to mhttpd ports 8080 and 8443 is not blocked. Then, it turns out that by 
default, the mhttpd access controls are also disabled, and it accepts http requests from 
anywhere/everywhere. Also by default, the mhttpd password is also disabled.

As result, anybody from anywhere can access mhttpd without a password.

One fix for this is to activate the mhttpd access control list by setting ODB 
/Experiment/Security/allowed hosts[0] to "localhost".

K.O.

> It turns out that unlike CentOS-7, Ubuntu LTS 18.04 does not run a restrictive firewall
> and access to mhttpd ports 8080 and 8443 is not blocked
>
> As result, anybody from anywhere can access mhttpd without a password.
> 

elogd can suffer from the same problem, but not as badly, one can connect to elogd and attempt to run 
exploits, but one cannot access elog entries without a password:

a) default configuration is to ask for a password
b) elogd almost immediately redirects to the https URL specified in the URL entry of the config file, which 
normally points to the https proxy, which also immediately asks for a password.

In the absence of firewall protection (as on Ubuntu), 
add "Interface = 127.0.0.1" to the elog config file or run elogd with "-n localhost",
per instructions at https://elog.psi.ch/elog/config.html 

K.O.

> Ubuntu LTS 18.04 does not run a restrictive firewall and access to mhttpd ports 8080 and 8443 is not 
blocked.

Clearly, the present defaults settings of mhttpd are out of date.

The best I remember our internal discussions, we have converged on the following new default settings:

- mhttpd only listens on the localhost interface
- only accepts http (not https)
- password protection is off

These settings allow one to easily test midas on a laptop or on a single-user computer.

They also happen to be the correct settings when using an https proxy (i.e. apache httpd).

If the https proxy cannot be on the same computer, (i.e. ALPHA at CERN):

- one would enable mhttpd to listen on the external network interface
- this will enable the mhttpd access controls (ODB /expt/security/mhttpd hosts/allowed hosts)
- one would allow the https proxy machine access to mhttpd by adding it's hostname to "allowed hosts".

In the case where a separate https proxy cannot be used:

- one would enable https on the external network interface
- one would have to obtain an https certificate (there is possibility of adding certbot integration to mhttpd, 
if there is demand for this)
- this will activate the mhttpd password protection, so one would have to define a username and password 
in the .htdigest file (this is done by the mongoose web server library).

I was planning to implement these changes when I update the mongoose web server library to the latest 
version (fixes a memory leak and improves/simplifies multithreading).

But maybe I should implement them sooner.

I am also thinking of adding a proxy function to mhttps (same as "ProxyPass" in apache httpd), set ODB 
/Proxy/webcam to "http://webcam_on_private_network/magic_webcam_url", and access to 
https://midas/webcam will return the data from the webcam without having to set this up in apache httpd 
(requires root access, etc).

K.O.

> - this will activate the mhttpd password protection, so one would have to define a username and password 
> in the .htdigest file (this is done by the mongoose web server library).

Actually I'm thinking since a while to have user-level access to mhttpd, similarly to elog. Each user has to log in with a unique username/password. After some time of inactivity, you're logged out. This would have 
the advantage that one knows who is active where, like when using the chat functionality in mhttpd. Or who started/stopped a run etc. This might not be necessary for simple local installations, but if you have 20 
people controlling an experiment from three different continents simultaneously, this could be beneficial. Using the elog authentication libraries, one could even forward the login process to LDAP or KERBEROS, 
so you could log in with out institutional account, and don't have to remember an additional password.

Just some food for thought.

Stefan

> > - this will activate the mhttpd password protection, so one would have to define a username and password 
> > in the .htdigest file (this is done by the mongoose web server library).
> 
> Actually I'm thinking since a while to have user-level access to mhttpd, similarly to elog.
>

With per-user login, we have the possibility to add better permissions/access controls. In past
discussions we talked about 3 levels of user access:

- read-only user: can look, but cannot affect anything
- operator: same as read-only user, but can start/stop runs, can clear alarms, can push buttons on custom pages, can cause predefined scripts to run, etc.
- root user: can do everything

Technically, this is easy to implement in the mjsonrpc library: each username will be mapped to a privilege level,
and each rpc request handler will specify minimum required privilege: odb write rpc would require root level,
run start would require operator level, odb read permitted for everybody. This will be enforced inside mhttpd.

>
> Each user has to log in with a unique username/password. After some time of inactivity, you're logged out.
>

For now, we use the password protection built into the apache httpd web server.

It is known to be secure, but it does not have the "advanced" user management functions
that we take for granted with the elog, with wiki pages, with github, etc. Missing are self-registration
with approval, password reset and recovery and so forth.

On the other hand, apache httpd is supposed to be easy to integrate with "enterprise" user management
systems, like the CERN single-sign-on system. (We did not look yet at the integration with the TRIUMF
single-sign-on system, based on Microsoft AD).

(I see the nginx web server is gaining in popularity, but I do not know what features it has
for user and password management).

The elog software does have very good user and password management, and we could bring it into midas,
if we figure out how to ensure that it is actually secure. I know a professional security audit was done
for the elog software and I know that mhttpd will not pass such an audit.

But with some extra work it is possible.

>
> This would have the advantage that one knows who is active where, like when using the chat functionality in mhttpd. Or who started/stopped a run etc. This might not be necessary for simple local installations, but if you have 20 
> people controlling an experiment from three different continents simultaneously, this could be beneficial. Using the elog authentication libraries, one could even forward the login process to LDAP or KERBEROS, 
> so you could log in with out institutional account, and don't have to remember an additional password.
> 
> Just some food for thought.
> 

Some of this food looks very good, indeed.

K.O.

Message from John M O'Donnell <odonnell@lanl.gov>

Folks,

The following might be related, if so great, if not sorry for the spam.

We had problems with MIDAS/CAEN_A3818 until two things happened:

1) CAEN found the root cause of a problem, as the A3818 and MIDAS both
used unix alarm signals, resulting in clashes.  CAEN modified the
A3818 driver to have a "no alarm" option.

2) after downloading the modified driver, edit src/a3818.c to #define
USE_MIDAS 1 somewhere near the top.

Hope this helps,

John.

> Message from John M O'Donnell <odonnell@lanl.gov>
>
> the A3818 and MIDAS both used unix alarm signals, resulting in clashes.
>

FWIW, current midas no longer uses alarm signals. See forum messages and git commits about 
removal of cm_watchdog().

K.O.

Hi,

We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
the variable as expected in SLOW.

When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.

What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?

> Hi,
> 
> We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
> the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
> plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
> status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
> the variable as expected in SLOW.
> 
> When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
> unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
> created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.
> 
> What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?

Is the logger running? (this application is handling the history data).
If yes: Did you change the variable names? If yes: restart the logger.

=================================================================
[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ fetest
Frontend name          :     fetest
Event buffer size      :     10485760
User max event size    :     4194304
User max frag. size    :     4194304
# of events per buffer :     2

Connect to experiment sampleexpt...
OK
Init hardware...frontend_init!
Event size set to 10240 bytes
Ring buffer wait sleep 1 ms
OK
time 1564044856, data 74.314484
time 1564044857, data 77.714600
time 1564044858, data 80.901703
time 1564044859, data 83.867058
time 1564044860, data 86.602539
time 1564044861, data 89.100655
time 1564044862, data 91.354546
time 1564044863, data 93.358040
time 1564044864, data 95.105652
time 1564044865, data 96.592583
Warning: bank RND4 has zero size
time 1564044866, data 97.814758
time 1564044867, data 98.768837
time 1564044868, data 99.452187
time 1564044869, data 99.862953
time 1564044870, data 100.000000
time 1564044872, data 99.452187
time 1564044873, data 98.768837
Warning: bank RND6 has zero size
time 1564044874, data 97.814758
Received break. Aborting...
frontend_exit!
Frontend shut down.
[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ 
===========================================================================



10:00:56.999 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost stopped

10:00:32.483 2019/07/25 [mhttpd,INFO] Run #29 stopped

09:59:10.666 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost started

09:59:07.731 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost stopped

09:58:13.700 2019/07/25 [Logger,INFO] Program Logger on host localhost started

09:58:12.707 2019/07/25 [Logger,INFO] Program Logger on host localhost stopped

09:57:19.136 2019/07/25 [mhttpd,INFO] Run #29 started

09:57:18.954 2019/07/25 [Logger,ERROR] [mlogger.cxx:3801:log_create_writer,ERROR] channel  requested GZIP/ZLIB compression, but ZLIB is not available

09:57:15.305 2019/07/25 [mhttpd,INFO] Run #28 stopped

09:55:30.694 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost started

09:54:34.519 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost stopped

09:54:16.852 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost started

09:53:59.554 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost stopped

09:47:25.932 2019/07/25 [mhttpd,INFO] Program mhttpd on host localhost started

09:47:19.863 2019/07/25 [Logger,INFO] Program Logger on host localhost started

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,ERROR] [midas.cxx:6690:cm_shutdown,ERROR] Killing and Deleting client 'fetest' pid 1921

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,ERROR] [midas.cxx:6687:cm_shutdown,ERROR] Cannot connect to client 'fetest' on host 'localhost', port 38595

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,ERROR] [midas.cxx:10497:rpc_client_connect,ERROR] cannot connect to host "localhost", port 38595: connect() returned -1, errno 111 (Connection refused)

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Program fetest on host localhost started

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/1613' for client 'mhttpd' because it is not connected to ODB

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Corrected 9 ODB entries

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/random/Statistics"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/random/Statistics"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/random/Common"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/random/Common"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/slow/Statistics"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/slow/Statistics"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/slow/Common"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/slow/Common"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/test/Statistics"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/test/Statistics"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/test/Common"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/test/Common"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Sequencer/State"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Sequencer/State"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed hosts"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed hosts"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"

09:47:04.116 2019/07/25 [fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"

09:47:04.115 2019/07/25 [fetest,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'fetest', index 2 because process pid 1921 does not exists

09:47:04.115 2019/07/25 [fetest,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'mhttpd', index 0 because process pid 1613 does not exists
===========================================================================















> > Hi,
> > 
> > We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
> > the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
> > plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
> > status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
> > the variable as expected in SLOW.
> > 
> > When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
> > unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
> > created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.
> > 
> > What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?
> 
> Is the logger running? (this application is handling the history data).
> If yes: Did you change the variable names? If yes: restart the logger.

Hi,
I have a bank of floats with slow control values that I store to the history and
ODB. When reading the history, both in the webbrowser and with mhist, the floats
get read with the wrong endianness; under /equipment/variables in the ODB they
however display correctly. System is a an intel OpenSuse linux box. Any ideas?

Thanks

Nik

===================================================================================
[lm17773@it038146 ~]$ cd /opt/midas_software/midas/bin/
[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ fetest
Frontend name          :     fetest
Event buffer size      :     10485760
User max event size    :     4194304
User max frag. size    :     4194304
# of events per buffer :     2

Connect to experiment sampleexpt...
[fetest,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'Logger', index 1 because process pid 22659 does not exists
[fetest,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'mhttpd', index 2 because process pid 20257 does not exists
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed hosts"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed hosts"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Logger/Channels/0/Settings"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Logger/Channels/0/Settings"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Logger/Channels/0/Statistics"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Logger/Channels/0/Statistics"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Logger/History"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Logger/History"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Sequencer/State"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Sequencer/State"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events per sec."
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events per sec."
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes per sec."
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes per sec."
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
[fetest,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
[fetest,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
[fetest,INFO] Corrected 12 ODB entries
[fetest,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20257' for client 'mhttpd' because it is not connected to ODB
OK
Init hardware...frontend_init!
Event size set to 10240 bytes
Ring buffer wait sleep 1 ms
OK
time 1564130782, data 91.354546
time 1564130783, data 93.358040
time 1564130784, data 95.105652
time 1564130785, data 96.592583
time 1564130786, data 97.814758
time 1564130787, data 98.768837
time 1564130788, data 99.452187
time 1564130789, data 99.862953
time 1564130790, data 100.000000
time 1564130791, data 99.862953
Warning: bank RND4 has zero size
time 1564130792, data 99.452187
time 1564130793, data 98.768837
time 1564130794, data 97.814758
time 1564130795, data 96.592583
Received break. Aborting...
frontend_exit!
Frontend shut down.
[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ 
=================================================================================



> > Hi,
> > 
> > We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
> > the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
> > plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
> > status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
> > the variable as expected in SLOW.
> > 
> > When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
> > unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
> > created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.
> > 
> > What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?
> 
> Is the logger running? (this application is handling the history data).
> If yes: Did you change the variable names? If yes: restart the logger.

Hi, our logger was running. I have tried restarting mlogger (even though we haven't
changed variable names). We ran the following commands one after another and still no
luck with history plot. Is there anything else that could be causing these problems?

Kind regards,
Hassan 

==================================================================================

[lm17773@it038146 ~]$ cd /opt/midas_software/midas/bin/
[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ mhttpd
[mhttpd,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'mhttpd',
index 0 because process pid 20094 does not exists
[mhttpd,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'Logger',
index 1 because process pid 20214 does not exists
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/RPC
hosts/Allowed hosts"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed
hosts"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd
hosts/Allowed hosts"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Logger/History"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Logger/History"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Sequencer/State"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Sequencer/State"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events per
sec."
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events
per sec."
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes per
sec."
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes
per sec."
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
[mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
[mhttpd,INFO] Corrected 10 ODB entries
[mhttpd,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20094' for client 'mhttpd' because it is
not connected to ODB
Mongoose web server will use SSL certificate file "/home/lm17773/online/ssl_cert.pem"
Mongoose web server will use authentication realm "sampleexpt", password file
"/home/lm17773/online/htpasswd.txt"
mongoose web server is redirecting HTTP port 8080 to
https://it038146.users.bris.ac.uk:8443
mongoose web server is listening on the HTTP port 8080
mongoose web server is listening on the HTTPS port 8443
====================================================================================

[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ mlogger
[Logger,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20214' for client 'Logger' because it is
not connected to ODB
Log     directory is /home/lm17773/online/
Data    directory is same as Log unless specified in /Logger/channels/
History directory is same as Log unless specified in /Logger/history/
ELog    directory is same as Log
SQL     database is localhost/sampleexpt/Runlog
MIDAS logger started. Stop with "!"
====================================================================================
[lm17773@it038146 bin]$ fetest
Frontend name          :     fetest
Event buffer size      :     10485760
User max event size    :     4194304
User max frag. size    :     4194304
# of events per buffer :     2

Connect to experiment sampleexpt...
OK
Init hardware...frontend_init!
Event size set to 10240 bytes
Ring buffer wait sleep 1 ms
OK
time 1564131394, data 97.814758
time 1564131395, data 96.592583
time 1564131396, data 95.105652
time 1564131397, data 93.358040
time 1564131398, data 91.354546
time 1564131399, data 89.100655
time 1564131400, data 86.602539
time 1564131401, data 83.867058
time 1564131402, data 80.901703
time 1564131403, data 77.714592
Warning: bank RND4 has zero size
time 1564131404, data 74.314484
time 1564131405, data 70.710678
time 1564131406, data 66.913063
time 1564131407, data 62.932041
====================================================================================






> > Hi,
> > 
> > We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
> > the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
> > plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
> > status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
> > the variable as expected in SLOW.
> > 
> > When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
> > unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
> > created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.
> > 
> > What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?
> 
> Is the logger running? (this application is handling the history data).
> If yes: Did you change the variable names? If yes: restart the logger.

Hi,

I posted on the ROOTANA elog but there seems to be little activity there...

Could someone confirm if this is a bug?
https://midas.triumf.ca/elog/Rootana/14

Another user replied that they are encountering the same issue, so I think it is unlikely it is just our installation.

While ROOTANA is unusable for us, I tried to use the example Frontend and Analyzer (under the Experiment source folder). The analyzer does not seem to do much though. A root file is produced but nothing is placed into it. Is that normal?

Any help would be welcome.

Hi Paolo,

Sorry for the slow response.  We were discussing this with Konstantin yesterday.  He is aware of the problem now and will be working on a solution soon.

In the short term I found that it works if you just comment out the offending line:

indnerlt:rootana lindner$ git diff libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
diff --git a/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx b/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
index 92eb3e9..67da613 100644
--- a/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
+++ b/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ bool TMidasOnline::sleep(int mdelay)
   #ifdef CH_IPC
   ss_suspend_set_dispatch(CH_IPC, 0, NULL);
   #else
-  ss_suspend_set_dispatch_ipc(NULL);
+  //  ss_suspend_set_dispatch_ipc(NULL);
   #endif
  int status = ss_suspend(mdelay, 0);
   if (status == SS_SUCCESS)

This compiles and at least runs for me; so maybe that is helpful for you.  But Konstantin will provide a longer term solution.



> Hi,
> 
> I posted on the ROOTANA elog but there seems to be little activity there...
> 
> Could someone confirm if this is a bug?
> https://midas.triumf.ca/elog/Rootana/14
> 
> Another user replied that they are encountering the same issue, so I think it is unlikely it is just our installation.
> 
> While ROOTANA is unusable for us, I tried to use the example Frontend and Analyzer (under the Experiment source folder). The analyzer does not seem to do much though. A root file is produced but nothing is placed into it. Is that normal?
> 
> Any help would be welcome.

Hi,

Thank you, commenting out the line worked and we can now compile the code. However, when we try to run ana.exe or anaDisplay.exe, we get the following errors:

Error in <TCling::RegisterModule>: cannot find dictionary module TMainDisplayWindowDict_rdict.pcm
Error in <TCling::RegisterModule>: cannot find dictionary module TRootanaDisplayDict_rdict.pcm
Error in <TCling::RegisterModule>: cannot find dictionary module TFancyHistogramCanvasDict_rdict.pcm
 

We see that the files are in /rootana/obj but we cannot find a way to point the compiler to them.

Could you please advise how to proceed,

Many thanks

> Hi Paolo,
> 
> Sorry for the slow response.  We were discussing this with Konstantin yesterday.  He is aware of the problem now and will be working on a solution soon.
> 
> In the short term I found that it works if you just comment out the offending line:
> 
> indnerlt:rootana lindner$ git diff libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> diff --git a/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx b/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> index 92eb3e9..67da613 100644
> --- a/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> +++ b/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> @@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ bool TMidasOnline::sleep(int mdelay)
>    #ifdef CH_IPC
>    ss_suspend_set_dispatch(CH_IPC, 0, NULL);
>    #else
> -  ss_suspend_set_dispatch_ipc(NULL);
> +  //  ss_suspend_set_dispatch_ipc(NULL);
>    #endif
>   int status = ss_suspend(mdelay, 0);
>    if (status == SS_SUCCESS)
> 
> This compiles and at least runs for me; so maybe that is helpful for you.  But Konstantin will provide a longer term solution.
> 
> 
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I posted on the ROOTANA elog but there seems to be little activity there...
> > 
> > Could someone confirm if this is a bug?
> > https://midas.triumf.ca/elog/Rootana/14
> > 
> > Another user replied that they are encountering the same issue, so I think it is unlikely it is just our installation.
> > 
> > While ROOTANA is unusable for us, I tried to use the example Frontend and Analyzer (under the Experiment source folder). The analyzer does not seem to do much though. A root file is produced but nothing is placed into it. Is that normal?
> > 
> > Any help would be welcome.

> indnerlt:rootana lindner$ git diff libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> diff --git a/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx b/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> index 92eb3e9..67da613 100644
> --- a/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> +++ b/libMidasInterface/TMidasOnline.cxx
> @@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ bool TMidasOnline::sleep(int mdelay)
>    #ifdef CH_IPC
>    ss_suspend_set_dispatch(CH_IPC, 0, NULL);
>    #else
> -  ss_suspend_set_dispatch_ipc(NULL);
> +  //  ss_suspend_set_dispatch_ipc(NULL);
>    #endif
>   int status = ss_suspend(mdelay, 0);
>    if (status == SS_SUCCESS)
> 
> This compiles and at least runs for me; so maybe that is helpful for you.  But Konstantin will provide a longer term solution.


This is a problem with the latest development version of MIDAS. ss_suspend overrides have been removed from system.cxx
and there is no way for rootana to avoid the problem of recursive call to the event handler.

I recommend that instead of using the latest development version of MIDAS you use one of the recent released versions (use "git tag -l", midas-2019-06-b is the latest release).

All the released versions of midas have the ss_suspend overrides implemented and rootana will work correctly. For the next release of midas
I will restore the ss_suspend override and update the rootana code.


K.O.

> Hi, our logger was running.


One more thing is to check that the history files are actually being written to. Be default
the history files are written into the same directory where you have ODB, etc and
the file names are "*.hst".

Second thing, you can run "mlogger -v" and it will report that it is writing history events
into the history.

If all these things are happening,

Third, you can run "mhist" to see the data directly from the data files.

If all of these work, but you still get nothing in mhttpd, that would be very strange. If I remember
right, to see the sine wave, the history variable to plot is equipment "slow", variable "slow".


K.O.



> I have tried restarting mlogger (even though we haven't
> changed variable names). We ran the following commands one after another and still no
> luck with history plot. Is there anything else that could be causing these problems?
> 
> Kind regards,
> Hassan 
> 
> ==================================================================================
> 
> [lm17773@it038146 ~]$ cd /opt/midas_software/midas/bin/
> [lm17773@it038146 bin]$ mhttpd
> [mhttpd,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'mhttpd',
> index 0 because process pid 20094 does not exists
> [mhttpd,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'Logger',
> index 1 because process pid 20214 does not exists
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/RPC
> hosts/Allowed hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed
> hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd
> hosts/Allowed hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Logger/History"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Logger/History"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Sequencer/State"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Sequencer/State"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events per
> sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events
> per sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes per
> sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes
> per sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Corrected 10 ODB entries
> [mhttpd,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20094' for client 'mhttpd' because it is
> not connected to ODB
> Mongoose web server will use SSL certificate file "/home/lm17773/online/ssl_cert.pem"
> Mongoose web server will use authentication realm "sampleexpt", password file
> "/home/lm17773/online/htpasswd.txt"
> mongoose web server is redirecting HTTP port 8080 to
> https://it038146.users.bris.ac.uk:8443
> mongoose web server is listening on the HTTP port 8080
> mongoose web server is listening on the HTTPS port 8443
> 
====================================================================================
> 
> [lm17773@it038146 bin]$ mlogger
> [Logger,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20214' for client 'Logger' because it is
> not connected to ODB
> Log     directory is /home/lm17773/online/
> Data    directory is same as Log unless specified in /Logger/channels/
> History directory is same as Log unless specified in /Logger/history/
> ELog    directory is same as Log
> SQL     database is localhost/sampleexpt/Runlog
> MIDAS logger started. Stop with "!"
> 
====================================================================================
> [lm17773@it038146 bin]$ fetest
> Frontend name          :     fetest
> Event buffer size      :     10485760
> User max event size    :     4194304
> User max frag. size    :     4194304
> # of events per buffer :     2
> 
> Connect to experiment sampleexpt...
> OK
> Init hardware...frontend_init!
> Event size set to 10240 bytes
> Ring buffer wait sleep 1 ms
> OK
> time 1564131394, data 97.814758
> time 1564131395, data 96.592583
> time 1564131396, data 95.105652
> time 1564131397, data 93.358040
> time 1564131398, data 91.354546
> time 1564131399, data 89.100655
> time 1564131400, data 86.602539
> time 1564131401, data 83.867058
> time 1564131402, data 80.901703
> time 1564131403, data 77.714592
> Warning: bank RND4 has zero size
> time 1564131404, data 74.314484
> time 1564131405, data 70.710678
> time 1564131406, data 66.913063
> time 1564131407, data 62.932041
> 
====================================================================================
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
> > > the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
> > > plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
> > > status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
> > > the variable as expected in SLOW.
> > > 
> > > When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
> > > unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
> > > created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.
> > > 
> > > What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?
> > 
> > Is the logger running? (this application is handling the history data).
> > If yes: Did you change the variable names? If yes: restart the logger.

> Hi, our logger was running.

Please do these simple tests:

- run "mlogger -v", it should report that it is writing slow/slow data into the history with rate 1 Hz (fetest 
should be running at this point, yes?)
- normally the history files are written into the experiment directory (where ODB is, etc) and have file names 
"*.hst". Observe that the files are growing. Use "ls -ltr". (mlogger and fetest should be running at this point, 
yes?)
- if all if this is happening, you can try to run "mhist" to see the history data

If all of the above works, but you still get nothing from the history plots in mhttpd, then we probably have a 
bug in midas and we would like very much to fix it. For this we will need some more information from you. I 
hope you have some time available to help us with this.

Hmm... the fetest history plots are not defined automatically, you have to create the history plot manually,
maybe this is where the problem happens. One thing to check here, the correct variable to plot
is "slow/slow", if I remember right.


K.O.


> I have tried restarting mlogger (even though we haven't
> changed variable names). We ran the following commands one after another and still no
> luck with history plot. Is there anything else that could be causing these problems?
> 
> Kind regards,
> Hassan 
> 
> 
================================================================================
==
> 
> [lm17773@it038146 ~]$ cd /opt/midas_software/midas/bin/
> [lm17773@it038146 bin]$ mhttpd
> [mhttpd,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'mhttpd',
> index 0 because process pid 20094 does not exists
> [mhttpd,ERROR] [odb.cxx:1646:db_open_database,ERROR] Removed ODB client 'Logger',
> index 1 because process pid 20214 does not exists
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/RPC hosts/Allowed hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/RPC
> hosts/Allowed hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd hosts/Allowed
> hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Experiment/Security/mhttpd
> hosts/Allowed hosts"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Logger/History"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Logger/History"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Sequencer/State"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Sequencer/State"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/History/LoggerHistoryChannel"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/slow/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events per
> sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/Events
> per sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes per
> sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Trigger/Statistics/kBytes
> per sec."
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Periodic/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed open record flag from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Removed exclusive access mode from "/Equipment/Scaler/Variables"
> [mhttpd,INFO] Corrected 10 ODB entries
> [mhttpd,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20094' for client 'mhttpd' because it is
> not connected to ODB
> Mongoose web server will use SSL certificate file "/home/lm17773/online/ssl_cert.pem"
> Mongoose web server will use authentication realm "sampleexpt", password file
> "/home/lm17773/online/htpasswd.txt"
> mongoose web server is redirecting HTTP port 8080 to
> https://it038146.users.bris.ac.uk:8443
> mongoose web server is listening on the HTTP port 8080
> mongoose web server is listening on the HTTPS port 8443
> 
================================================================================
====
> 
> [lm17773@it038146 bin]$ mlogger
> [Logger,INFO] Deleted entry '/System/Clients/20214' for client 'Logger' because it is
> not connected to ODB
> Log     directory is /home/lm17773/online/
> Data    directory is same as Log unless specified in /Logger/channels/
> History directory is same as Log unless specified in /Logger/history/
> ELog    directory is same as Log
> SQL     database is localhost/sampleexpt/Runlog
> MIDAS logger started. Stop with "!"
> 
================================================================================
====
> [lm17773@it038146 bin]$ fetest
> Frontend name          :     fetest
> Event buffer size      :     10485760
> User max event size    :     4194304
> User max frag. size    :     4194304
> # of events per buffer :     2
> 
> Connect to experiment sampleexpt...
> OK
> Init hardware...frontend_init!
> Event size set to 10240 bytes
> Ring buffer wait sleep 1 ms
> OK
> time 1564131394, data 97.814758
> time 1564131395, data 96.592583
> time 1564131396, data 95.105652
> time 1564131397, data 93.358040
> time 1564131398, data 91.354546
> time 1564131399, data 89.100655
> time 1564131400, data 86.602539
> time 1564131401, data 83.867058
> time 1564131402, data 80.901703
> time 1564131403, data 77.714592
> Warning: bank RND4 has zero size
> time 1564131404, data 74.314484
> time 1564131405, data 70.710678
> time 1564131406, data 66.913063
> time 1564131407, data 62.932041
> 
================================================================================
====
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > We've been trying to run Fetest in the attempt of plotting the sine wave data on
> > > the history page on the web server. However each time we've tried running a new
> > > plot we have come across the error of 'no data' from the variables. In the
> > > status page we are clearly obtaining data from the frontend and it is updating
> > > the variable as expected in SLOW.
> > > 
> > > When setting up MIDAS we managed to produce a history plot from Fetest but are
> > > unable to do so any longer. We did have a go at modifying the Fetest code but
> > > created a backup before doing so and are now running the original backup.
> > > 
> > > What could be causing the Fetest data not to be showing in the history plot?
> > 
> > Is the logger running? (this application is handling the history data).
> > If yes: Did you change the variable names? If yes: restart the logger.