Mailing List Archive

Various Problems using MythTV
A couple of weeks ago I got MythTV running on a slow machine and was
impressed. I decided to bring home a faster machine from work and see what
it could really do. I loaded Debian stable and got everything loaded and
configured without much problem. Along the way I kept a log so if I ever
get over this final hurdle I'll send it for others to use.

Problem 1) Watching live TV. It sometimes takes 3-4 tries before I can
get the live stream to show on the screen. Once I get the first channel
up I can pause, ff, rw, etc. Sound is perfect. Program guide information
shows correctly. However as soon as I change channels the system will
lock hard requiring a cold reboot. Occasionally I can change channels
once, but on the second change hard lock. In order to look at the program
output I have tried running from a ssh session and I got the following
output:

read audio: Interrupted system call
VIDIOSYNC0: Interrupted system call

Problem 2) I decided to try recording a show to see what happens. I used
the program guide to select a program, changed the time to 1 minute before
the recording and let it run. It appears to have recorded correctly.
When I go to the playback screen the preview window correctly shows the
program, however when I hit enter on the program I get a segfault with
the following:

Probed: /dev/video - Television
Probed: /dev/video - Composite1
Changed from None to WatchingPreRecorded
Using XV port 55
slice end not reached but screenspace end (8292468 left741331)
concealing errors
Changing from WatchPreRecorded to None
Segmentation fault


I have searched the web for information and tried many different
configurations (new network driver, disable network card, put into
different computer, various kernels (2.2.? 2.4.?), bttv versions). I am
currently running:

MYTH CVS from October 15, however I have tried release .5 and .6
Kernel 2.4.18
bttv 0.7.100
alsa 0.9.0rc5
XFree 4.2.1


I have the following hardware:

3com network (3c59x)
Onboard audio (intel8x0)
ATI TV-Wonder VE
ATI Radeon VE

I am a programmer and would like to contribute to this project but without
a working test system I am pretty much stuck.


John
Re: Various Problems using MythTV [ In reply to ]
Originally I installed everything from the stable distribution (Xfree,
Kernel 2.2.*). When I ran into bttv problem, I upgraded the kernel and
bttv started working. XFree was upgraded last night in a last ditch
effort to see if that was the problem. I was incorrect on my CVS version.
It was more recent (around the first of November). I am trying again
today with the most recent CVS and the 0.6 release.

I agree Myth should not be able to lock the machine, but I just can't seem
to find out what is. I moved the drive to another computer with different
componets, reconfigured the kernel, xfree, bttv and alsa and got the same
results.

> On Tue, Nov 05, 2002 at 02:52:32PM -0500, John wrote:
>
>> slice end not reached but screenspace end (8292468 left741331)
>> concealing errors
>> Changing from WatchPreRecorded to None
>> Segmentation fault
>> [...]
>> MYTH CVS from October 15, however I have tried release .5 and .6
>
> If you are going to run pre-release CVS stuff, you should get the latest
> available. The crash above sounds a bit like a bug which has been fixed
> in recent CVS.
>
>> Kernel 2.4.18
>> bttv 0.7.100
>> alsa 0.9.0rc5
>> XFree 4.2.1
>
> Did you install these from source, or are you backporting the Debian
> packages from testing/unstable?
>
> MythTV should definitely not be able to crash your machine; you are
> likely running into a problem either with X or your kernel.
>
> --
> - mdz
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev@snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev


John
Re: Various Problems using MythTV [ In reply to ]
On Tue, Nov 05, 2002 at 02:52:32PM -0500, John wrote:

> slice end not reached but screenspace end (8292468 left741331)
> concealing errors
> Changing from WatchPreRecorded to None
> Segmentation fault
> [...]
> MYTH CVS from October 15, however I have tried release .5 and .6

If you are going to run pre-release CVS stuff, you should get the latest
available. The crash above sounds a bit like a bug which has been fixed in
recent CVS.

> Kernel 2.4.18
> bttv 0.7.100
> alsa 0.9.0rc5
> XFree 4.2.1

Did you install these from source, or are you backporting the Debian
packages from testing/unstable?

MythTV should definitely not be able to crash your machine; you are likely
running into a problem either with X or your kernel.

--
- mdz
Re: Various Problems using MythTV [ In reply to ]
As expected a newer version cleaned up the playing a recoded show.
However I am still trying to track down the cause of my system lockup on
changing channels.

An suggestions, kernel version, kernel configuration options, bttv
version, etc.