Can anyone help me with setting up mgcamd on openatv ?

Did you add ignore.list, priority.list and replace.list files to the folder?
The following mg_cfg file works for me in my solo2 with all images.

##########################
###LINUXSAT-SUPPORT.COM###
##########################

# EMM messages
# 00 don't show any EMMs (default)
# 01 show only valid EMMs
# 02 show valid and bad EMMs with complete data display
M: { 01 }

# ECM messages
# 00 don't show anything about ecm
# 01 normal mode, show pids processed, decoded ecm and cw
# 02 verbose mode, show valid and bad ECMs with data
C: { 02 }

# AU
# 00 disable, no emm pids processed
# 01 enable, emm pids always processed for soft-au and shared cards
# 02 auto, emm started only if channel cant be decoded
# 03 process emm pids for network cards update only
A: { 01 }

# key update (sum 01 or 02 with 04)
# 01 update only new keys, default setting
# 02 update all keys (used for valid PMK checking)
# 04 enable TPS au
# + tps SID, which pmt pid contains au pid
U: { 01 } 0x12c0

# config files folder (softcam, autoroll, ignore/priority)
# 00 files in /var/keys
# 01 files in /tmp
T: { 00 }

# network mode, use summ for several clients
# 00 no network (default)
# 01 newcamd netclient
# 02 radegast netclient
# 04 camd3 netclient
# 08 gbox netclient
# 32 cccamd netclient, card list saved as /tmp/cccamd.info
# (ECM only, supported server version up to 2.1.1, later not work)
G: { 01 }

# network retry, use summ for several options
# 00 disable
# 01 retry every new ecm
# 02 try to connect to offline shares every Q: seconds
# 04 try to detect and fast reconnect to lost (and not used atm) server
# + XX messages number and YY seconds to reconnect
# mg will reconnect to server, if no answer to last XX ecm/keepalive or
# if no answer for last ecm or keepalive sent for YY seconds
# set to 0 to disable
N: { 07 } 5 30

# network ecm timeout in seconds
K: { 05 }

# newcamd dead routes connect retry, sec
Q: { 600 }

# network shares priority
# 00 gbox, newcamd, cccamd, radegast, camd3 (default)
# 01 camd3, radegast, cccamd, gbox, newcamd
# 02 cccamd, newcamd, camd3, gbox, radegast
P: { 00 }

# on screen display type
# 00 No OSD (default)
# 01 neutrino
# 02 enigma
# 03 relook
# + user password for http auth
O: { 00 } username password

# on screen display Options, summ of:
# 01 show emu ecm
# 02 show network shares messages
# 04 show decoding failed / fta
# 08 show emm keys update
# + web port to use for osd
S: { 03 } 80

# Log option, summ of:
# 00 off
# 01 network udp log
# 02 log to console
# 04 file, appended ! delete it by yourself, before it eat all your hdd
# + IP udp-port log-file-name
L: { 00 } 172.16.1.1 28007 /tmp/mgcamd.log

# keep ecm cache, seconds
# every cache entry takes 28 bytes, so 24h cache will take *only* 240-400kb of memory,
# for openbox/elanvision users with remote shares make sense to set it higher than default value,
# to not hammer cards while timeshifting or playing crypted recordings.
E: { 15 }

# cache option, summ of:
# 00 Off (default)
# 01 Ecm pids cache, store pids used to decode in /tmp/ca_cache.list at exit, load at startup, same syntax as restore.list
# 02 Ecm data cache, remember CW for (E:) time
# 04 Emm cache for network cards, do not resend the same emm twice, cache not cleared until restart
H: { 07 }

# reread files, summ of:
# 00 No (default)
# 01 reread config file on channel change (including priority and ignore, but not replace/cache)
# 02 reread SoftCam.Key on channel change
# 04 reread SoftCam.Key if file changed
R: { 04 }

# debug, summ of
# 00 off (default)
# 01 debug ecm
# 02 debug emm
# 04 debug network ecm
# 08 debug network emm
# 16 debug network login
# 32 show mem/cpu stats every 1 min
# 64 add timestamp to log messages
D: { 00 }

# box type
# 00 autodetect, change only if you think wrong type detected.
# 01 dbox2
# 02 dreambox
# 03 triple-dragon
# 04 relook
# 05 openbox
# 06 dreambox/mips
# 08 stapi/kathrein
# 09 stapi/ipbox
# 11 stapi/openbox
B: { 06 }

# map all 180x nagra caids to 1801
# default is 01
F: { 00 }

You can change the option B: according to your device.

Ah but we dont know what actually worked, was it the first suggestion or the second or both??

Either way it needed the .cfg file I think