Author Topic: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....  (Read 23888 times)

RichardP

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #15 on: March 03, 2008, 01:11:10 pm »

ECS NCFORCE6-MA
AMD X2 4800
4GB RAM
PCI-E Nvidia 6800
(freezes withint 1 - 20 seconds)



Just as an experiment, you might try dropping the memory to 2 gigs if you can with your current set of memory/slot combinations. 4gig systems must overlay some of the memory over bios sections and map it out, and if there are bugs in your bios, it may be causing issues as the system runs. It might also explain why you have the problem from LMCE but not from KDE - LMCE does other things while the media is being played back - things that KDE/Myth are not doing.

If this does improve the situation, the bright side is that 4gig systems SHOULD work, and the issues can be fixed with a bios upgrade.

Best Regards,
Richard.
Best Regards,
Richard

Zaerc

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #16 on: March 03, 2008, 03:16:50 pm »
Looks like it's started by the "App_Server":
ps auxf | m
...
root      9880  0.0  0.0  23668  1068 ?        Ss   14:55   0:00 /usr/bin/SCREEN -d -m -S App_Server-20 /usr/pluto/bin/Spawn_Device.sh 20 dcerouter App_Server
root      9882  0.0  0.0   9316  1632 pts/2    Ss+  14:55   0:00  \_ /bin/bash /usr/pluto/bin/Spawn_Device.sh 20 dcerouter App_Server
root     10142  0.0  0.2  71964  4128 pts/2    Sl+  14:55   0:00      \_ /usr/pluto/bin/App_Server -d 20 -r dcerouter -l /var/log/pluto/20_App_Server.log
root     20219  8.8  3.1 359576 65072 pts/2    SLl  15:06   0:02          \_ /usr/bin/mythfrontend.real -v all -w mythfrontend -geometry 1024x768

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orionsune

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #17 on: March 04, 2008, 12:37:08 am »
Shit... look like App_Server is a binary not a script.  Thats great.. meaning I probably won't be able to change the command line switches from the binary lol, not without grabbing the source and recompiling... ick

Thanks Z for pointing me in the right direction, i'll play with this some more tonite when I get home.  If you think of another method let me know. 

Previously while I was waiting for some general guidance, I checked all the DCE entries from the web admin panel, I found the DCE where MythTv_Player is  being called, but it's a plugin so there are no command line switches to change.  I assumed mythfrontend was being called from the MythTv_Player plugin, which is also an executable not a script, so i'm shit out of luck yet again either way. And I will never go poking around in there again, I don't remember changing anything, but when I was done and tried to click on TV from lmce interface it gave me an error about the device no longer existing or something like that, so immediately I grabbed my WELL WORN lmce cd and re-installed, then marked # 57th install on the side of the case.  lmce breaks very easily, especially in the hands of a total moron/assclown/douche pickle, whatever you want to call me is fine.



Quote
Just as an experiment, you might try dropping the memory to 2 gigs if you can with your current set of memory/slot combinations. 4gig systems must overlay some of the memory over bios sections and map it out, and if there are bugs in your bios, it may be causing issues as the system runs. It might also explain why you have the problem from LMCE but not from KDE - LMCE does other things while the media is being played back - things that KDE/Myth are not doing.

I am going to give Richard's suggestion a shot in the dark.  But i've tried this on 3 seperate systems, only 1 of them worked properly.  The other two that freeze are PCI-E boards, the one that doesn't freeze is an AGP board. Don't know if that means anything, but eh.

Regardless of what kind of obscure hardware compatibility problem it could be, the fact remains, if I run mythfrontend without the "-v all" then it never ever ever ever never freezes, now if I could just get lmce interface to run mythfrontend WITHOUT the "-v all"... hmm...

Well I have somewhere to look now, but like I said, first glance, it's an executable that calls mythfrontend so i'm pretty sure i'm !FUCKED!


So, a re-cap for those who maybe having the same problem.

MythTV would freeze when launched from lmce.  When ran from KDE it never froze.  So initially I tried another install on a different system, same problem.  Then I played with the buffer settings of the ivtv module.  Then I played with mythtv internal settings, trying different codecs, opengl vs qt painter, opengl v-sync on/off, all sorts of combinations.  Only one combination would break MythTV from KDE, that was the VIA or Standard XV codec would freezey freeze real fast.  Have no idea why Standard XV is default if it freezes like that.  Anyways moving on, so after trying hardware setting, software settings, re-install, another computer, I finally asked myself the important question.  That was "what does launching it from lmce do different than me just typing "mythfrontend" from a terminal?" So I look at a "ps -ax | grep mythfrontend" while mythtv is running from lmce and find 3 command line parameters it uses to launch mythtv.  So naturally, I launch mythtv from KDE (where it never froze) using the command parameters lmce uses, and VIOLA IT FROZE!!!!  So now I had something go on, I systematically remove a single parameter and ran mythfrontend until it stopped freezing.  The parameter that was causing the freezing? "-v all" which from what I understand turns logging level all the way up.  Well who cares, I want it to go away so I can watch TV through my tuner.  So that leaves me where I am now, looking for a way to modify the command parameters lmce uses to launch mythfrontend.  Any one out there than can help, please I could use some guidance.  I am taking Zearc's suggestion very seriously, but at first glance, it looks like a binary file calling mythfrontend, and I don't see how i'll modify that without the source code, and i'm no programming guru so I wouldn't know where to begin modifying the source code.  The most I can do is debug for basic typo's and compile stuff.  But from what I understand, this distro of ubunutu doesn't even have includes, libraries, and such i'd need to even compile a simple program.  So I still feel stuck, but we'll see what I get home tonite to play with some of this, SOME MORE...

Oh, forgot to mention, I get this behavior with 7.04 or 7.10... both do the same thing...
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colinjones

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #18 on: March 04, 2008, 01:09:16 am »
orionsune - shot in the dark.... but even if it is a binary calling the mythfrontend binary, couldn't you rename mythfrontend to something like mythfrontendold and create mythfrontend as a script that calls mythfrontendold but with the -v all switch stripped?

RichardP

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #19 on: March 04, 2008, 01:58:32 am »

I am going to give Richard's suggestion a shot in the dark.  But i've tried this on 3 seperate systems, only 1 of them worked properly.  The other two that freeze are PCI-E boards, the one that doesn't freeze is an AGP board. Don't know if that means anything, but eh.

Regardless of what kind of obscure hardware compatibility problem it could be, the fact remains, if I run mythfrontend without the "-v all" then it never ever ever ever never freezes, now if I could just get lmce interface to run mythfrontend WITHOUT the "-v all"... hmm...

Well I have somewhere to look now, but like I said, first glance, it's an executable that calls mythfrontend so i'm pretty sure i'm !FUCKED!


Things may not be so bad. Just from the point of view of good programming practice, options like that are usually read from configuration files. I think I've seen something related in previous messages regarding screen resolution. I'll see if I can find one. If I can't, I'll have a look at the code - although if it comes to that it will take me a few days.

Best Regards,
RichardP.
Best Regards,
Richard

orionsune

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #20 on: March 04, 2008, 04:50:26 am »
Yes I agree Richard, best  practices does denote optional command switches and parameters be feed from an external source such as a configuration file or database.  This was the first thing I though of, so I did a grep of the entire filesystem looking for just one of the command switches with no luck... I also used phpmyadmin to search the database for a relevant string, no luck.

I did however determine mythfrontend appears to be called from the plugin MythTV_Player which is a binary, but later Zaerc pointed out it's being called from App_Server wich is still a binary and still puts me shit out of luck.

If you do find something, that would be freaking awesome.  By the way I tried taking some mem out, no luck.

Back to troubleshooting...
« Last Edit: March 04, 2008, 05:07:08 am by orionsune »
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darrenmason

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #21 on: March 04, 2008, 06:57:26 am »
mmm...so much for best practices the eh :(

line 176 of MythTV_Player

Code: [Select]
176                     DCE::CMD_Spawn_Application CMD_Spawn_Application(m_dwPK_Device,pDevice_App_Server->m_dwPK_Device,
177                         "/usr/bin/mythfrontend", "mythfrontend", "-v\tall\t-w\t" MYTH_WINDOW_NAME "\t-geometry\t" + sWidth + "x" + sHeight,
178                         sMessage + "1",sMessage + "0",false,false,true,false);

So if the 'v' flag is indeed a source of problems then we need to do a code change.

If someone has an environment where this can be tested easily then that would be appreciated.

( I would offer but MythTV doesn't freeze up for me - although I am still on 7.04 )

regards
Darren

RichardP

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #22 on: March 04, 2008, 02:51:37 pm »
So my next question, can someone tell me or point me to what and where the command is being called from so I can remove that parameter?

I've taken a look at the code for appserver, and it definately does not call myth or mythfrontend. That's what I DO know, but where it's being called from is something I DON'T know. I would guess that it's buried in the mass of scripts that make up the system, and a simple find won't find it because it is probably being called as a parameterised call (something like /bin/sh %1 %2) or something along those lines. I didn't spend all that much time because I was busy downloading beta4 and burning disks. Once I install and have a working system, I'll do my best to find it. In the meantime, have you had any luck with the suggestion from Colin - passing it through another layer of script to strip off the -v parameter?

Best Regards,
RichardP.
Best Regards,
Richard

orionsune

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #23 on: March 04, 2008, 07:45:24 pm »
RichardP, darrenmason beat you to the punch.  He illustrated where it's being called from in the source here
Quote
176                     DCE::CMD_Spawn_Application CMD_Spawn_Application(m_dwPK_Device,pDevice_App_Server->m_dwPK_Device,
177                         "/usr/bin/mythfrontend", "mythfrontend", "-v\tall\t-w\t" MYTH_WINDOW_NAME "\t-geometry\t" + sWidth + "x" + sHeight,
178                         sMessage + "1",sMessage + "0",false,false,true,false);

I have already downloaded the full linuxmce source code and am recompiling as I post this message.  I removed the -v all option from the source code.  I also enhanced the firewall interface and capabilities because I got tired of having to specify my iptables rules at the command line in a startup script.  That was driving me nuts.

darrenmason, Thank you for pointing me in the proper direction, I don't believe this needs a GLOBAL code change for everyone.  I just needed the tools to make the change for myself.  I don't think everyone is having the same issue with Myth freezing, but i'm not too sure.  I would love to get some feedback on some of my posts I made, requesting that those with freezing MythTV issues test my particular fix.  I just don't think many people are left with that issue, I have a feeling everyone that previously had freezing MythTV's probably got frustrated and moved on to something else that works for them.  Like Windows.  I hope a few people can confirm, we'll see...  Also darren, my other motherboard/cpu/mem/vid setup freezes too, I will re-build it in a cheapo case and verify that it still freezes with "-v all" and that it doesn't without "-v all".  After that, if you are still interested in testing this "issue" I would consider sending the proper person this machine for testing.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2008, 07:51:38 pm by orionsune »
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orionsune

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #24 on: March 04, 2008, 07:58:30 pm »
I just read replies in another thread I am involved in regarding MythTV freezing on people.  So far i've had one other confirmation that he also has the identical problem as me, and he also reports no freezing when running mythfrontend without the "-v all" option.

Quote
orionsune, Myth behaves well when omitting the -v all option

Looks like you are definetly onto something.

The thread is: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3994.0

Please, can some more people experiencing mythtv freezing try this out and post the result?  Maybe testing a freezing machine is not needed, instead just remove the extra logging, or build into the code the ability to specify turning logging on/off and it's level of logging.

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andymck

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #25 on: March 04, 2008, 09:53:53 pm »
With the - v all option omitted, i have MythTV running for about 5-6 hours

Prior to that i tested a couple of times with each run lasting about 20mins before I terminated and restart myth.

With the -v all included the longest I got was about 5 mins.

orionsune

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #26 on: March 04, 2008, 10:12:36 pm »
Thats 3 people (including myself)  Thank you for the feedback.  I'm hoping to have this solved for myself.  I ended up downloading the entire linuxmce source, modified the code that calls mythfrontend with the "-v all" option and am re-compiling it as we speak.  If this is successful for me, I would very gladly share my pre-compiled MythTV_Player binary (amd64) to you guys if it'll work, if not i'll provide the changes I made and some basic instructions on how to re-compile it for those who may not know how already.

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orionsune

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2008, 10:59:42 pm »
UPDATE:

Linuxmce completed compilation with only 3 packages it could compile. None of those packages I care about, something about zwave, another about simphone.. whatever... the important thing is MythTV_Player binary compiled with my modification in it.  Now I am just waiting to get off work so I can go home and try it out.
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andymck

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #28 on: March 04, 2008, 11:27:49 pm »
Excellent orionsune!
Let us know how it goes...
In fact if you are impatient ( i.e. i am... ) and would like someone to test now, you could always email it to me and i will give it a go :)

darrenmason

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Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
« Reply #29 on: March 05, 2008, 12:32:50 am »
Good to see that it has progressed. Interesting to see the results.

At the very least this should be moved to a config parameter for the MythTV_Player device.

I am about to setup a DEV environment for 7.10 beta 4 - but won't be in a position to work on it for a couple of days. If the parameter is proving to be the problem and noone else beats me to it then I will attempt to move this to a config parameter.

Danielk might be in better position to do this quicker though...