network is unstable

[reindje]

Hi,

I have problems with my diskless interface. Sometimes the system is hanging for a couple of seconds. The music for example is also stuttering sometimes.

My config:

- Media director with 1 nic and DHCP
- One diskeless interface (Packard Bell Imax Mini) with diskless start up
(I had to "Blacklist ath_pci" in the image, otherwhise the startup hangs on it.)

Where do I start debugging?

Thanks in Advance!

[fearingsept]

- Media director with 1 nic and DHCP

Is this your core?
If so, then you may want to provide more detailed specs.
I know that LMCE was designed for having 2 NICs, this may or may not have something to do with your unstable network depending on how you have your network set up. If LMCE is acting like a gateway to your network then this would be a problem with only one NIC.

I have found most of my lockup or network issues stem back to faulty or non supported hardware.
I had a MD booting with a bad drive that caused my whole network to stall until I figured out that the hard drive inside the unit was failing. After removing it everything worked as intended.

[Thingie]

I have the same problems. I don't use my Core for media playback, this is done on my MD's. All my movies are located on a nas server. When the movie hangs for a few seconds I noticed that the network output on my Nas also stops for the same amount of time. First I thought this was a problem from the NAS server but when I play movies on a windows machine the problem never occurs. My Core and MD's are more then capable of playing hd movies. I'm no expert but I really think this a problem of LinuxMCE.

[krys]

During my time with LMCE (over a year now) I have seen issues such as this pop up and most of the time they seem to be caused by:
1. the filesystem of the media drive
2. bad hard drive
3. bad network hardware cables, connections, routers etc

I don't recall one single instance where LMCE software was actually the cause of the problem.
FWIW,
Krys

[Thingie]

During my time with LinuxMCE (over a year now) I have seen issues such as this pop up and most of the time they seem to be caused by:
1. the filesystem of the media drive
2. bad hard drive
3. bad network hardware cables, connections, routers etc

I don't recall one single instance where LinuxMCE software was actually the cause of the problem.
FWIW,
Krys

I don't argue the fact most of the problems are related to the facts above. But for my job I daily work on networks and I'm pretty sure all my hardware is fine. I have 9 hard drives on my NAS server (Freenas) and no matter from which drive a play a media file it has the same result. The whole network is gigabit and copying files or playing them on a windows machine or previous versions of LinuxMCE gives no problems. I looked at all the factors I know well and can't find any problems there.

[krys]

what filesystem do you use on your FreeNas drives?

[Thingie]

what filesystem do you use on your FreeNas drives?

All disks use the UFS file system

[colinjones]

you should at least try sharing out a folder on another system (eg a Windows box), letting LMCE add that as another media source, then dropping one of the media files you have had problems with onto that share. Now you can play the same media, with the same MD using the same GB switch, but completely eliminating the NAS (NIC, file system, drives, samba implementation, etc). This is a quick way of eliminating the problem, as if you have the same problem again, you can say with authority it isn't the NAS. Then you can turn your attention to the MD and networking (MD NIC and switch)....

[Thingie]

you should at least try sharing out a folder on another system (eg a Windows box), letting LinuxMCE add that as another media source, then dropping one of the media files you have had problems with onto that share. Now you can play the same media, with the same MD using the same GB switch, but completely eliminating the NAS (NIC, file system, drives, samba implementation, etc). This is a quick way of eliminating the problem, as if you have the same problem again, you can say with authority it isn't the NAS. Then you can turn your attention to the MD and networking (MD NIC and switch)....

Very good tip. Thx a lot.
I'll try it as soon as I get back home.
For the moment I wish you all a very good and prosperous 2010.