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General => Installation issues => Topic started by: colinjones on January 26, 2008, 09:12:36 pm

Title: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones on January 26, 2008, 09:12:36 pm
I am trying to get together a picture of who (if anyone) is having stability issues with beta3. I have had a lot of issues, and rebuilt many times with many different combinations of settings, but am still having these issues. The question is being asked, is this just my hardware, or a more general issue with beta3, or a combination of both. If you have had any stability issues during using beta3, can you post here, please, and answer the following questions?

Stability: TV works initially, but then stops receiving TV and comes up No Signal; you get video through TV, but no audio; after using TV, video for DVDs, video files, etc doesn't work but sound does; after a while for no obvious reason video stops working; screensaver stops working; other stability issues.

If you have had any of these types of stability issues (rather than just installation issues around getting your monitor/TV to work), please can you post here and briefly explain which you have had, and also provide the details below:

Motherboard make/model
Chipset (eg nVidia xxx onboard/ATI card/nVidia 7300GT card)
CPU model and clockspeed
TV Tuner card
Chose VDR or MythTV
64bit or 32bit
CD install or DVD
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: wbs on January 31, 2008, 05:55:04 am
0710Beta2

MythTV works for about 20 seconds, then the screen freezes.  Same for composite or TV input.  Sound has a hum to it.

Motherboard make/model:                                                           ASUS M2N32-SLI
Chipset (eg nVidia xxx onboard/ATI card/nVidia 7300GT card)            nVidia GE Force 8500
CPU model and clockspeed                                                          AMD Athlon 64 X2
TV Tuner card                                                                          Happauge DVR 950
Chose VDR or MythTV                                                                MythTV
64bit or 32bit                                                                           32bit
CD install or DVD                                                                       DVD
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: geoffrey on February 04, 2008, 08:39:22 am
I am experiencing stability issues although not neccessarily connected to the TV function.  My set up is listed in my signature.  I use Myth TV and installed with the DVD.

My system seems to simply hang/freeze every so often.  It has happened several times while using the "Computing" feature (watching Youtube videos) and several times while the system was simply idle.  This morning the Flickr screensaver was running but my network was not functioning (other non-mce rlated machines on the network had no internet access) and the LinuxMCE box was unresponsive.

A reboot seems to get everything going again.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: royw on February 04, 2008, 09:28:36 pm
I'm experiencing the occasional lockup problem.  I've spent hours searching thru logs hoping for a hint without success.  My original hypothesis was a thermal problem.  So installed lmsensors and added noisy fans.  The other day I hit a repeatable scenario that will lock the system.  Just start copying a lot of media (dvd) files to an nfs server.  Observed about 30% CPU load with highest reported MD temp of 52C (CPU highest 40C).  Using IR thermometer, highest observed temp was 92F.  Upgraded BIOS the other day and have had one lockup since.  Ran memtest 2 hours, no problems.  Currently thinking it might be my linksys PCI ethernet card.  Plans are to replace card and if that don't work replace MB.  And if that don't work, then it's got to be LMCE...

Motherboard make/model                 Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H (don't recommend, ATI graphics)
Chipset                                          nvidia 7600 GS (replaced fan with silent cooler)
CPU model and clockspeed                AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+
TV Tuner card                                 none
Chose VDR or MythTV                       MythTV
64bit or 32bit                                  64
CD install or DVD                             dvd, new install, hybrid

Other hardware:
Zalman HD135 case (don't recommend, bad airflow)
Zalman ZM600-HP power supply (very quiet)
2GB RAM TWIN2X2048-6400C4
WDC WD5000AAKS
WDC WD10EACS
Linksys gigabit ethernet pci adapter

Problems Solved
It was a combination of thermal and a bad router.  The system has been stable past few weeks.  One issue remains where dvd playback will go to low frame rate (motion in video stutters).  This typically happens after ripping a few dozen movies and watching a few movies over a few days.  Rebooting the core/hybrid restores frame rate to normal.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on February 28, 2008, 06:45:22 pm
I am also experiencing some issues.

1. MythTV sometimes will work for about 20 seconds then freeze, sometimes 5 mins and freeze.  Sometimes 5 hours and freeze.  Very random.

Also

2. My system will lock up at least once a day, causing me to reboot it once a day.  I will come home from work, and it's locked up.

Very annoying.  I am going to try and install 7.04 tonite.  I started off using 710 Beta 3, and have had to re-install 20 plus times before collecting all the proper hardware and equipment.  I finally have everything lmce wants, and a setup i'm happy with, so I install one last time (or so I thought), and ended up with this.


Nforce6M-A Motherboard
AMD X2 3800+
4 GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
80GB SATA HD
PVR-150 MCE Tuner
Nvidia 6800 PCI-E Video Card
On board NIC
Intel 1GB NIC
Generic DVD-RW
Using MythTV
Installed 710B3 AMD64

Has anyone an update on this?

Did anyone solve their problem? How?
Did reverting back to 704 solve the problem for any of you guys?
Does the am64 version only one affected?
I also suspected overheating initially, but again after some investigation, my system is running well below tolerance limits.

Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: seth on February 29, 2008, 05:19:38 pm
I solved my mythtv issues by disabling sync to vblank and wiki'd the process
 http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Nvidia_Card_Tweaks_For_Better_MythTV_and_UI_Performance

This resolved all of my issues. It also helps to run mythfrontend as root in a kde desktop konsole session, and change the Bit Rate, to a lower variable under transcoders default and LiveTV settings.

I have mine set for 4000 and max set to 4500.

This may also help.

Best of Luck  :)
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on February 29, 2008, 06:12:34 pm
I had followed your wiki instructions on a previous installation, not for stability issues but just because it claimed better performance.  Normally i'd say that would explain why I didn't have this problem on my previouis install, thanx for pointing that out.

I tried this on this installation and it does not help.  Myth freezes within 1 to 20 seconds like clockwork.  I just can't believe i've put all this effot research and money into building a nice settop box for lmce, and when I get all my hardware collected and finally builld the final box, this is what happens.  It must have something to do with my hardware.

Previously I ran a old ass socket 754 motherboard.
AMD Sempron 3800
AGP Nvidia 6200
1GB RAM
PVR 150MCE
(never locked up, never froze)
Piece of shit right?  So I put together a

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

I'm begining to suspect video hardware.  I've ran a comprehensive test of memory, video, hard drive with no errors.  Also I can run mythtv from kde as root and it NEVER freezes.  So it's clearly an issue with lmce.  It's starting to look alot like hell.

I'll be building another AGP based system tonite.  a socket 939 AMD X2 3800 with an ATI 1950, and if the ati doesn't work I have a nVidia 6200 AGP to fall back on.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 02, 2008, 07:43:11 am
After alot of useless troubleshooting I finally came up with this...

Well, the only thing I knew for sure was if I run mythfrontend from kde, it never freezes.  So what is the difference I ask myself... so I took a look at what kind of command line options lmce uses to fire up mythtv with "ps -ax | grep mythfrontend" and found in my case it uses
Code: [Select]
/usr/bin/mythfrontend -v all -w mythfrontend -geometry 1280x720

so I ran mythfrontend using the same command line options, but inside kde and try to watch tv, it freezes.
if I run mythfrontend with no command line options it doesn't freeze...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones on March 02, 2008, 09:23:48 pm
Time to progressively remove each of the options (there's only 3 so it won't take long!) Until it stops freezing again in KDE. Then re-add all but the last one and confirm it was only that option. Then maybe tinker with it to see if there is a stable setting for it. Either way, log a mantis about it as it sounds like an easy thing to fix...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 02, 2008, 09:50:26 pm
I played around with my tuner cards buffers settings.  Didn't seem to help any, but this is what I used and placed in /etc/modprobe.d/options
Code: [Select]
options ivtv enc_yuv_buffers=32 enc_mpg_buffers=16 enc_vbi_buffers=16 enc_pcm_buffers=16
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones on March 02, 2008, 09:55:00 pm
Sorry, I meant the command line options you discovered that LMCE uses but you don't.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 02, 2008, 10:22:53 pm
Quote
Time to progressively remove each of the options (there's only 3 so it won't take long!) Until it stops freezing again in KDE. Then re-add all but the last one and confirm it was only that option. Then maybe tinker with it to see if there is a stable setting for it. Either way, log a mantis about it as it sounds like an easy thing to fix...

I would if I could get the activation email from them.  I've been trying to create an account on mantis for a month, i have probably 30 or so fake aliases, tried different email addresses too. So I gave up a long time ago.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones on March 02, 2008, 10:31:32 pm
That was just a function of a more general email issue that the LMCE sites were having at the time (including these forums) - try again now - the email issue was fixed a week or so ago.

If it still doesn't work, after you have all the details on what you tried, you can send me them and I will log the ticket for you.

Colin
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 02, 2008, 11:53:12 pm
Quote
That was just a function of a more general email issue that the LMCE sites were having at the time (including these forums) - try again now - the email issue was fixed a week or so ago.

If it still doesn't work, after you have all the details on what you tried, you can send me them and I will log the ticket for you.
Yes I actually tried one more time before making that last post about it, I still recieved no e-mail.
Quote
Time to progressively remove each of the options (there's only 3 so it won't take long!) Until it stops freezing again in KDE. Then re-add all but the last one and confirm it was only that option. Then maybe tinker with it to see if there is a stable setting for it. Either way, log a mantis about it as it sounds like an easy thing to fix...
I did narrow down the command line option causing mythtv to freeze.

Out of the command:

Code: [Select]
/bin/sh /usr/bin/mythfrontend -v all -w mythfrontend -geometry 1280x720
(might want to be sitting)the parameter "-v all" is the culprit.  How does logging level cause that?  Well I was so skeptical, I ran myth with and without that single option probably 20 times.... it never froze when I ran it without "-v all"... but when I use "-v all" it freezes withint 1 - 20 seconds like clockwork.

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?
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones on March 03, 2008, 12:03:04 am
no idea where it is called from... you could do a "find"!

Have logged the issue - http://mantis.linuxmce.org/view.php?id=4014
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: RichardP 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.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: Zaerc 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

Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune 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...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones 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?
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: RichardP 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.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune 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...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: darrenmason 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
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: RichardP 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.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune 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.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune 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 (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.

Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: andymck 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.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune 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.

Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune 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.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: andymck 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 :)
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: darrenmason 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...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 05, 2008, 12:40:19 am
Ok, I will keep you guys well informed of my progress then.

So far, it's looking like the best route to take, 2 others have reported the identical behavior.

I still, for the life of me, can't understand how logging is causing mythtv to freeze, lol.. I mean out of all things, I seriously suspected it to be the windowed mode option "-w mythfrontend"(which was scary because without windowed mode i'm guessing you don't get the lmce interface overlay) if anything... but sure enough... it was the logging level.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: RichardP on March 05, 2008, 01:26:32 am
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.


Oops. But I see why I missed it. Can you email me the file name and location? I'd like to change the code so the parameters can be specified using an external file, or maybe entered in the Admin site. It would be useful to be able to adjust for different hardware, I had a lot of grief in B3 with it, and I don't think it will change in B4.

Best Regards,
Richard.

Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 05, 2008, 01:43:15 am
Once you download the source from svn, it's: trunk/src/MythTV_Player/MythTV_Player.cpp line 715
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 05, 2008, 03:47:32 am
[SOLVED]

I recompiled the MythTV_Player plugin from source, but having it call mythfrontend without the "-v all" option for max log level... I replaced the binaries, rebooted, and have been watching stable MythTV through the linuxmce interface for 2 hours before making this post.  I know after only 60 seconds, the longest I got previously was 20.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: fearingsept on March 05, 2008, 02:45:01 pm
Quote
I recompiled the MythTV_Player plugin from source, but having it call mythfrontend without the "-v all" option for max log level... I replaced the binaries, rebooted, and have been watching stable MythTV through the linuxmce interface for 2 hours before making this post.  I know after only 60 seconds, the longest I got previously was 20

I don’t know if this is possible since I am still somewhat new to Linux but is there any way I can get a copy of the updated binary files with some step by step instructions on how to install them? I would be very very thankful.

-Dustin
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: d3cadent on March 05, 2008, 04:52:09 pm
Although this issue should possibly be corrected in the release image in the first place, posting your binary somewhere could be a quick remedy for some people experiencing this problem. I'm one of them too, shouldn't you've guessed.

I understand orionsune doesn't possibly want to build a release 4 different versions for the main supported CPU platforms, but at least you could post the one you already have built.

Or, if you're really willing to do it, I'd need the IA32 version  :)

Cheers,

d3ca
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 05, 2008, 10:13:45 pm
I have no problem sharing my binary, but i'd rather not post it public, I don't want to violate any license agreements or anything I may have agreed to without reading like 99.9% of the population.
There is one thing to keep in mind.  I compiled this binary on an amd64 installation of lmce and platform.  I don't know if it'll work on i386, it might it might not.

If you'd like, compiling the source was very straight forward and error-free for me.  All I did was download the source and followed the instruction listed here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Building_From_Source (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Building_From_Source).

You will need to install svn for starters...
Code: [Select]
apt-get install subversionOnce you've downloaded the source using svn
Code: [Select]
svn co http://svn.charonmedia.org/svn/trunk
Then navigate to the (use your respective directories)
Code: [Select]
cd /usr/src/lmce/trunk/src/MythTV_Player/directory and vi or nano the file MythTV_Player.cpp.
Code: [Select]
nano MythTV_Player.cpp
Go down around line 900 - 1000 and search for something that is near those lines like the word "geometry", and you'll see something like this:
Code: [Select]
                DCE::CMD_Spawn_Application CMD_Spawn_Application(m_dwPK_Device,pDevice_App_Server->m_dwPK_Device,
                        "/usr/bin/mythfrontend", "mythfrontend", "-w\t" MYTH_WINDOW_NAME "\t-geometry\t" + sWidth + "x" + sHeight,
                        sMessage + "1",sMessage + "0",false,false,true,false);
                if( SendCommand(CMD_Spawn_Application) )

This is what mine looks like after I made the change... the change was to thie line
Code: [Select]
"/usr/bin/mythfrontend", "mythfrontend", "-w\t" MYTH_WINDOW_NAME "\t-geometry\t" + sWidth + "x" + sHeight,it used to look like this
Code: [Select]
"/usr/bin/mythfrontend", "mythfrontend", "-v\tall\t-w\t" MYTH_WINDOW_NAME "\t-geometry\t" + sWidth + "x" + sHeight,remove the "-v\tall\t" or just copy paste my previously modified line over top your line.

Once you save that file, just continue following the instructions from the url I listed and everything SHOULD compile fine.  During the compile process you may be stopped and asked to continue because some package failed to compile.  Just make note of which package failed to compile, and as long as it's NOT the MythTV_Player package, then just answer yes and continue compiling.

Once compilation is complete, simple make a backup copy of your existing MythTV_Player binary
Code: [Select]
cp /usr/src/pluto/bin/MythTV_Player /usr/src/pluto/bin/MythTV_Player.origthen copy your newly compiled binary in it's appropiate place.
Code: [Select]
cp /usr/src/lmce/trunk/src/bin/MythTV_Player /usr/pluto/bin/
Then reboot...

NOTE: Keep in mind the build instruction mention doing all this as a normal user not root, they are correct, I accidentally ran the build as root and got nothing but errors.  It worked fine as a normal user.

If you'd like to try my binary first, just send me an e-mail.


E-Mail me at orionsune@sunetech.net
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: colinjones on March 06, 2008, 12:50:24 am
orionsune - a while back I took the plunge and downloaded the source, then started following those instructions you linked to. No idea what I was doing! Something part way through compilation spooked me, so I ctrl-c'd and chickened out! Was doing this on my production machine and I think I thought maybe it was doing something to the working LMCE that might break it... and wasn't prepared to take the risk given that I had no idea what I was doing!

Am I right to take from this that compiling the source on a working LMCE box is completely contained within the folders you create for src/lmce and it will do nothing to the working components of LMCE running in the background? I am not using MythTV (VDR) but I would like to take some tentative steps into looking at source code and re-compiling, etc...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 06, 2008, 01:06:53 am
collinjones, I think I know where you got spooked.  I was very spooked out by something I saw during compilation, it was something about shutting down my sql server, then it backed up the databse, then it deleted the database, then it ...... well you get the idea, I was so spooked I went and checked with phpmyadmin, and my database was in tact and everything, so I don't understand what it was doing, but it didn't hurt my production stuff.

I was watching MythTV the entire time it was compiling (the second time after i fixed the freezing) and it didn't lag at all. This is on a AMD X2 4200 with 4gb of ram though.

All I know, is the instruction claim the compilation has to be done on a linuxmce installed machine.  So I took the risk, i've recompiled twice now with no problems.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: danielk on March 06, 2008, 09:43:12 pm
colin, orion: I've fixed the "-v all" in the source. This wasn't causing problems for me, but my lowliest computer running LMCE is an AMD64 dual core 4200+. "-v all" produces debugging for every audio buffer drained, every network event, every db change, everything! It's a crazy option to use in a production build. Good catch.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 06, 2008, 10:30:35 pm
Man thats strange, because i'm running amd64 with the exact cpu a 4200... and it froze on me... i'm willing to be it's chipset or memory related... anyways, thanx daniel!
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: khonshu on March 07, 2008, 07:49:48 am
Just wanted to chime in with the same issue.

However, the issue doesn't lead me to believe it chipset related.  I'm running a socket 775 P4, 2gb DDR2 533 ram, NVidia 8600, PVR150...  a very different configuration, with little in common with your AMD setups.  And have had this exact lockup using MythTV issue as well.  Maybe memory related.  Both with 7.10 beta 3 and beta 4.  MythTV runs fine for me as it does others of you, so long as it's without the -v all option.

I did see that it's been changed in the latest subversion.  And will be testing this on my configuration in the next couple days.  It has kept me from running lmce on my production TV, but I'll again replace MythBuntu with lmce and try it.

And thanks all for the solution!  :)
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: kir on March 07, 2008, 12:06:37 pm
The corresponding Mantis was resolved recently: http://mantis.linuxmce.org/view.php?id=4014
And please check the update here (you can get the latest binary with fix): http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/KnownIssues_0710_Beta4
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: Rukus on March 08, 2008, 12:15:19 am
Awesome!!!! ;D

I've been searching all over for a fix for this issue.  Finally, I can watch LiveTV without it freezing on me after 2 seconds.  Thanks orionsune for bringing this up in the forum and coming up with your own fix before this new fix.  LCME rocks and so do the folks on this forum.  Thanks everyone.

Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: orionsune on March 08, 2008, 01:59:28 am
that new fix is not new at all, that fix is my fix that someone else (with write access to the svn repositories) applied to the source, recompiled and made available...
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: Rukus on March 08, 2008, 03:16:28 am
Oh, my mistake.  Well great work on your part.
Title: Re: Stability Issues with 0710Beta3? Please post here....
Post by: kir on March 08, 2008, 10:27:22 am
that new fix is not new at all, that fix is my fix that someone else (with write access to the svn repositories) applied to the source, recompiled and made available...

Orionsune, exactly - this was commit done by DanielK, but the contents of fix were the ones you have found - many thanks for this :)  We've just made it available immediately so people with b4 can upgrade.