MythTV Black Screen with just a Mouse...

[stargrove]

I have seen this topic here before, but no one has ever answered this issue.  I figured I would post it again in the hope that someone would.

When I startup MythTV I get just a mouse and a black screen.  Has anyone resolved this problem yet?

James

[MasterC]

Sorry if I'm way off.  I am getting ready to install LinuxMCE tomorrow, but am a MythTV...  power user.  Often times a black screen indicates an improperly setup video capture device in MythTV.  Check that your "tuner" card works by doing something like:
cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg

And then playing back the file.mpg  If there is video (with moving pictures and not just black screen) then the problem isn't with the TV Tuner.  If you have no video, you will want to get that worked out first.  Check dmesg to see if there is any obvious info on why your drivers aren't loading or if there are errors when they try to load (maybe your card just isn't supported).

-Chad

[mikeofaustin]

This is a known issue, that probably, more than anything, needs a sticky.  All I know of is a 'hack' to get it working. 
DO a search in the users forum for "Any solutions for disappearing mythtv frontend?".  At the top of page three is a potential fix. I've not tired it. I'm back to mythtv until V. 1.1  (or perhaps they'll give it a 2.0.).

[stargrove]

I am a novice Linux user but have learned a bit over the last week.

I ran through some of the stuff on the IVTV website and the https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Install_IVTV_Edgy website.

Now the cat /dev/video0 > file.mpeg worked fine and I was able to play back the file.  So I started up LinuxMCE and then selected VIDEO from the menu.  The MythTV gui started up and I actually saw a menu and everything (never made it this far before)....for about 5 seconds, then the screen went black again with just my mouse.

Any ideas?

James

[mikeofaustin]

again, this is a known problem.  Let me be a little more detailed though... The interaction between Pluto (the linuxMCE engine) has known problem with the interaction with MythTV. THis is a Pluto problem, and due to a lack of programmers and or desired to help out for free, it doesn't look like it'll get fixed within the next weekend (if you know what I mean).  There is a potential fix/hack... read my response in the post directly above yours.   I know of no other fixs at the moment.

[stevene]

I had what sounds like the same problem, tried multiple installations with the same results. Tried again this weekend, but the only difference was that I didn't select a dedicated LinuxMCE install, I said I wanted Ubuntu and LinuxMCE. Once I did that I got past the problem.

Hope that helps

[mikeofaustin]

Interesting result... perhaps others will chime in and verify that making it a non-dedicated machine solves this...    Can you list your sys-hardware?