Well.... maybe it's an Xorg thing with my hardware -

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/screen-freeze-when-back-from-ctrl-alt-f1-to-f7-413553/

Maybe I should try 10.04 while I'm still in the experimental phase.

Hey Jamo,


Just a thought... You mentioned that you replaced the Motherboard.... did you replace the ram to?

Karel

I didn't, but this is actually not a new problem (I don't think)- I think it has always existed but because my core is just that (not really a hybrid) I have never bothered because I don't really need to tinker on it... as long as it does its core stuff the video issues aren't important because it sits in the server closet. But I think I have similar things on my MDs and they may be related... one of the reasons I'm trying to get to the bottom of it now.

Next step- try the same but directly from the on-screen orbiter without launching video first.

Pretty much the same thing- only difference is that the tail of Xorg.0.log doesn't change from

select returned 1
select returned 1
select returned 0
select returned 1

when you hit ctrl-alt-f2.

When you hit ctrl-alt-f7, it shows the hung orbiter as attached before and machine seems hung - ssh session unresponsive.

So the conclusion is that ctrl-alt-f2, ctrl-alt-f7 hangs the machine. Perhaps I should search for something similar in kubuntu if it has not come up for others in LMCE.

My next step is to try to ssh in from another machine so I can look at logs, processes etc.

Ok, did that and started the video playing. Checked the tail of Xorg.0.log and it basically had a series of

select returned 1
select returned 1
select returned 0
select returned 1

Presume that's normalish?

Then, ctrl-alt-f2 to get to command prompt. Checked Xorg.0.log:

select returned 0
select returned 1
select returned 1
select returned 1
select returned 0
GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 0
GetModeLine - hdsp: 1024 hbeg: 0 hend: 0 httl: 0
              vdsp: 768 vbeg: 0 vend: 0 vttl: 0 flags: 0
GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 0
GetModeLine - hdsp: 1024 hbeg: 0 hend: 0 httl: 0
              vdsp: 768 vbeg: 0 vend: 0 vttl: 0 flags: 0
GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 0
GetModeLine - hdsp: 1024 hbeg: 0 hend: 0 httl: 0
              vdsp: 768 vbeg: 0 vend: 0 vttl: 0 flags: 0

---
Not sure what that means?

Then, pressed ctrl-alt-f7 to get back to X and the last bit of video screen showed, but frozen, my ssh session on remote machine stopped working and the core rebooted about 10s later.

Next step- try the same but directly from the on-screen orbiter without launching video first.

Still have this issue with my core- Just had the motherboard replaced so I had a screen and keyboard attached to check all was hunky dory (and reset the motherboard SATA setting to AHCI) and I tried to ctrl-alt-f2 to get to command prompt (works) but then when I ctrl-alt-f7 to get back to on-screen orbiter, it appears hung. Can't ctrl-alt-f2 or anything.

See attachment for pic of hung orbiter. Mouse pointer doesn't move and there is sort of a stripe across the top of the screen.

How do I trouble-shoot this?

It is important to be able to get to the command prompt if things go dodgy on the graphical ui, surely? In fact, the way I came across this problem was when I tried playing a video and found I couldn't stop -ie no response to keyboard or mouse and no remote control onscreen.... so I hit ctrl-alt-f2 to see if that would give command prompt... it did but ctrl-alt-f7 took me back to video with the stripe across the top and, in fact, crashed the hybrid.

Ouch.

I'd welcome suggestions for troubleshooting/debugging.

My next step is to try to ssh in from another machine so I can look at logs, processes etc.

2) If the user has pressed the doorbell in the correct morse-code sequence, the system gets disarmed.

A word of caution- make sure the morse-code sequence for disarming the system and the one for detonating the short-range nuclear device are sufficiently different. It sounds silly to mention but it catches out the most experienced users from time to time.

...I haven't tried to build a core with a video card other than an nVidia so I don't know how far through the setup you would get....

My Core has a standard on-board GPU and I had no problems setting it up as such. Obviously you *could* have issues if you don't have the nVidia card but I wouldn't let that stop you from getting a machine if it is to be a core and not a hybrid- you can try it and if there are video problems get an entry level card that will work just to do the setup side.

Obviously if it's going to be a hybrid you need to think quite a bit more about the video.

The other stuff you may want to look at is environmental issues (I don't mean save the planet specifically, but where the box will be located). Are you going to hide it away in a server closet where noise won't bother anyone or is it going to sit next to your TV in the family room? Heat and airflow are an issue too. Also, depending how far you want to expand your system, you need to think of slots for cards (Graphics, TV tuner, Video capture etc), SATA ports for additional hard drives, things like that.

Sorry to resurrect such an old topic, but I recently updated three media directors from Firefox 7.0 to 10.0.2 and installed new on an additional media director.

Not at all- I was about to research this very topic this morning since swmbo's hotmail (arrggghh) has been moaning about browser versions. When I get some time I will do the same. If It's all working it might be worth putting in the wiki somewhere...

Thanks for the post.

I fixed the kernel line and now the MD is booting successfully. If it happens again, I'll know where to look.

Thanks for the help!

I know how it happens officially but something else might cause it as well- basically when you go to the "power" screen of your MD on the orbitor, and the MD is on, there is a button on the top right that has the legend "Restart MD as XXXXX". In my case, the XXXXX is something like "Err parameter not found".

This confused me for a while until I figured out that it is probably getting XXXXX from the MD config - see webadmin for this MD where you specify what the base operating system is for this MD. For all of mine, this field is blank, and that's probably where the "Err parameter not found" message comes from. I presume, but haven't tested, if you fill this in as "Windoze 7" or whatever, then the button will make more sense.

Anyway, it turns out that this button does fubarring of your pxeboot.cfg file and it is an intentional thing- If you choose "Restart as Windoze 7" then it writes the change you saw to the file, and restarts the machine. When the machine comes up, it tries to boot the underlying O/S which doesn't work if you don't have one!

You can test this by viewing the contents of the pxeconfig boot file before and after clicking the above button from an orbiter. You can fix manually, as you did, by editing the file or you should be able to just open another orbiter, point it to the relevant MD's power page and click this button which I guess will read "Restart as LinuxMCE" when the pxeboot cfg file is fubarred.

Does that make sense?

I discovered this over the w/end and meant to document it in the wiki because it had me a wee bit flummoxed too. When I document in the wiki I'll do it from my MCE machine so I can test and be a bit more accurate in my description... this is just from memory.

I had very similar experience - see my thread:

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,12315.0.html

However, my solution ended up being to swap a smaller disk in (320Gb) and use my 2Tb disk in my desktop. Install went through a breeze thereafter.

I also thought it was solved until I got to the partitioning part and still wasn't able to create partitions or even see the drive. I knew it wasn't a hardward thing because Fedora installed without a hitch.

If you do some web searches on Kubunti 8.10 and harddrive size you will find many with similar issues- in fact, if you try installing just kubuntu 8.10 plain you'll find the same problem.

I figured I'd just pop a couple of extra 500Gb drives in if I wanted more space on my core, otherwise go for a NAS if media gets out of hand.

I have mainboard ASRock A75M-HVS . Empty new disk 1,5 TB. Installation ends after cca 3 minutes in black screen :-( Steps done:
1. The only I can do is choosing language (left English). (Enter)
2. I choose Install MCE (Enter)
3. Graphic screen with shifting runner tells "Installing UBUNTU"
4. After cca 3 minutes black text screen and : "Busybox 10......." tipe help for available commnads.."
5. Donť know what to do with command line "Busybox". I expected smooth graphic installation as I am, used from SuSE Linux 11.x or other distros.
What to do now to install Linux MCE (With other disk, Windows 7 MCE works). But I donť want run Windows  as MCE . Could you help please?

For what it's worth, I'd say your problem is that your disk is too big - 1.5Tb. I had very similar problem and that was my issue. See post here http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,12315.msg86966.html#msg86966

I could have gone further with 10.04 which, I think, didn't have the same issues but I ended up swapping out the big disk and I'm now running 8.10 happily.

I will give it a shot. I haven't the vaguest idea where to start but will have a go. Can you point me to the existing source code?

http://deb.linuxmce.org/PlutoMO_3rd.sisx

or

http://deb.linuxmce.org/PlutoMO_2nd.sis

Thanks a stack posde... just what I was looking for.

Sadly, still not having luck here. I tried both on the phone which has Symbian edition 5. The PlutoMO_2nd doesn't install at all, the PlutoMO_3rd does install with a bunch of warnings "Security warning: application untrusted....", "Application not compatible with phone", etc.

But when run, it says :"PlutoMO: Unable to execute file for security reasons."

Hmmff.

I thought the "Application not compatible with phone" might be the problem - Symbian 5th ed vs Symbian 3rd so I downloaded a neat little app called http://cdtools.net/symbiandev/home.html called SISContents which allows you to hack the SIS package and I managed to open PlutoMO_3rd.sisx and change the Symbian Edition to 5th, resign the package and upload it to phone.

That seemed to prevent the "Application not compatible with phone" warning but same issue when executing.

I even tried to see if there was a

http://deb.linuxmce.org/PlutoMO_5th.sisx    but I guess not!

So... unless anyone has further suggestions, I'll probably go with the web orbiter once my wireless access point arrives. Or the java one, what about that? Pity, though, because this phone is soon to be replaced when the contract expires and it would be nice to have it lying around the house as a semi permanent orbiter with the bluetooth proximity stuff working.

OK, so I decided to try to send the file manually to the Nokia....

Incidentally, Nokias will tell you their MAC if you dial *#2820# which is quite useful.

sshd into the MD, and ran

Code:

/usr/pluto/bin/SymbianPhoneInstall.sh 5C:57:C8:BF:D9:F7 /usr/pluto/bin/Pluto_S60.sis

But had the same result- the phone asks for a passcode. Bummer.

Not to be thwarted, I stuck a USB stick into the core, copied the /usr/pluto/bin/Pluto_S60.sis file to it, put that in another windows pc and bluetoothed the file to my Nokia. Only to find that the file is zero bytes in size 

Checked back on the /usr/pluto/bin/ folder on the MD and noticed the same. What's with that? So I searched the entire core harddrive and could not find any other copies of the file. Presume this is a problem?

Does anyone know where I can get this file?

I see the other MDs do not have it so I guess it's only added when you turn on the bluetooth in the software setup. so I guess I'll try to redo that on the MD- turn off bluetooth then turn it on again and hope it adds the file correctly this time.

Fantastico! sorted out thanks to the link posted by l3mce in the thread below

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,12175.0.html

Here's the link

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver#Problem:%20%20Need%20to%20fully%20remove%20-fglrx%20and%20reinstall%20-ati%20from%20scratch

Ran these steps on the MD after ssh ing into it and voila! Have it up and running.