Mailing List Archive

From what you write, it is unclear whether this is a MythTV problem or not.

The output you see when starting mythbackend is normal for a low-end AverTV
board (or at least it is what I see on my working system).

Assuming you start mythfrontend from an xterm, you need to devise some way
to look at its STDERR output. Since the system hard freezes, by your
account, the usual approaches will not work. Try starting mythfrontend with
output redirection, something like this:

mythfrontend >/tmp/mythtv.txt 2>&1

Then after a crash and reboot, you can (probably ... filesystem sync'ing
remains an issue) see what mythfrontend was reporting to STDOUT and STDERR
by checking that file. That might tell you where your problem is.

(BTW, I notice that mythbackend and mythfilldatabase both create log files
by default, but mythfrontend does not. Is there some design reason for this
difference, or is it just one of those "need to get around to it" omissions?).

Three final thoughts ...

First, what X server are you running? (What video card, that is ... not
what version of X.) A Cel 1.1 is plenty fast for a system that supports
xvideo, but it will fail miserably if the X server requires xShm.

Second, the lack of ALSA support is likely to prove to be a problem, (just
barely) possibly enough of one to cause the failure you are seeing (what
sound modules *are* you using? do you know that they work with your
hardware?). FOr this to cause "live" TV watching to fail would not surprise
me, but for it to go so far as to cause a hard crash does.

Third, how much (real, not swap) RAM does the system have? If you have a
way to watch this (say an ssh session), what is "top" showing just before
the hard crash in the way of CPU and RAM use?

At 08:35 AM 5/7/2003 -0700, Vince Busam wrote:
>I'm new to MythTV. Just installed it from RPMs on RedHat 9. CPU is 1.1 GHz
>Celeron, no-name system. Capture card is AverTV. Did not install ALSA.
>
>Installation seemed to go OK. When I start mythbackend from command prompt, I
>sometimes see a lot of output, such as:
>
>i2c-core.o: i2c core module
>i2c-algo-bit.o: i2c bit algorithm module
>i2c-core-o: adapter bt848 #0 registered as adapter 0.
>bttv0: using tuner=2
>i2c-core-o: driver generic i2c audio driver registered.
>i2c-core-o: driver i2c TV tuner driver registered.
>tuner: probing bt848 #0 i2c adapter [id=0x10005]
>tuner: chip found @ 0xc2
>bttv0: ic2 attach [client=Philips MTSC (F1236 and compati,ok]
>ic2-core-o: client [Philips MTSC (F11236 and compati] registered to adapter
>[bt848 #0](pos. 0).
>bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 ... ok
>bttv0: PLL: switching off
>
>I always see this output:
>
>Starting up as the master server.
>Probed: /dev/video0 - Television
>Probed: /dev/video0 - Composite1
>Probed: /dev/video0 - S-Video
>
>I also sometimes see:
>
>audio volume set to '32768'
>
>or a message that the client connected (after I start mythfront end):
>
>adding: c11g as a player 1
>
>When I type "space" at "Watch TV" my system freezes, e.g. ctrl-alt-F1 doesn't
>work. I have to push the reset button to recover.
>
>I'm not sure how to find the bttv driver files, but do have files bt819.0,
>bt856.0, and bttv.o in directory
>/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/media/video.
>
>The output from lsmod includes tuner, tvaudio, bttv, ic2-algo-bit, ic2-core,
>videodev, soundcore (all autoclean), and others.
>
>I put the card in a Windows 2000 system and it works there with AverMedia's
>software.
>
>I realize this probably isn't a MythTV code problem, but I sure can use some
>advice on what I can try to get MythTV working. All suggestions will be
>greatly
>appreciated.

See my comments prefixed by "---":

...

Then after a crash and reboot, you can (probably ... filesystem sync'ing
remains an issue) see what mythfrontend was reporting to STDOUT and STDERR
by checking that file. That might tell you where your problem is.

--- The file has only one line in it "Connecting to backend server ..."

...

Three final thoughts ...

First, what X server are you running? (What video card, that is ... not
what version of X.) A Cel 1.1 is plenty fast for a system that supports
xvideo, but it will fail miserably if the X server requires xShm.

--- My video is on the motherboard - "onboard 64-bit 2D/3D graphic engine and
Video Accelerator". XWindows in using the Trident driver, 8MB, unknown card.
BTW, I'm using KDE as suggested. There is a VT133 chip on the motherboard, so
I'm sure it is VIA video.

Second, the lack of ALSA support is likely to prove to be a problem, (just
barely) possibly enough of one to cause the failure you are seeing (what
sound modules *are* you using? do you know that they work with your
hardware?). FOr this to cause "live" TV watching to fail would not surprise
me, but for it to go so far as to cause a hard crash does.

--- I'll try adding ALSA if I can't make progress in another day or two.

Third, how much (real, not swap) RAM does the system have? If you have a
way to watch this (say an ssh session), what is "top" showing just before
the hard crash in the way of CPU and RAM use?

--- Real memory is 256MB. Can't switch to see "top" because of system freeze.
--- With ssh I get "connection to c11g closed by remote host" when I select
"Watch TV".
--- MythTV was running almost 5% of CPU during startup.

--- My current guess is I have a video problem. Is there some other (easy to
install) program I can use to test the video?


...
>
> I'm new to MythTV. Just installed it from RPMs on RedHat 9. CPU is
> 1.1 GHz Celeron, no-name system. Capture card is AverTV. Did not
> install ALSA.
>
...
>
> When I type "space" at "Watch TV" my system freezes, e.g. ctrl-alt-F1
> doesn't work. I have to push the reset button to recover.
>
> I'm not sure how to find the bttv driver files, but do have files
> bt819.0, bt856.0, and bttv.o in directory
> /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/media/video.
>
> The output from lsmod includes tuner, tvaudio, bttv, ic2-algo-bit,
> ic2-core, videodev, soundcore (all autoclean), and others.
>
...
>
> Vince
>

Hello Vince,

Wednesday, May 7, 2003, 11:35:07 AM, you wrote:

VB> I'm new to MythTV. Just installed it from RPMs on RedHat 9. CPU is 1.1 GHz
VB> Celeron, no-name system. Capture card is AverTV. Did not install ALSA.

VB> Installation seemed to go OK. When I start mythbackend from command prompt, I
VB> sometimes see a lot of output, such as:

VB> i2c-core.o: i2c core module
VB> i2c-algo-bit.o: i2c bit algorithm module
VB> i2c-core-o: adapter bt848 #0 registered as adapter 0.
VB> bttv0: using tuner=2
VB> i2c-core-o: driver generic i2c audio driver registered.
VB> i2c-core-o: driver i2c TV tuner driver registered.
VB> tuner: probing bt848 #0 i2c adapter [id=0x10005]
VB> tuner: chip found @ 0xc2
VB> bttv0: ic2 attach [client=Philips MTSC (F1236 and compati,ok]
VB> ic2-core-o: client [Philips MTSC (F11236 and compati] registered to adapter
VB> [bt848 #0](pos. 0).
VB> bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 ... ok
VB> bttv0: PLL: switching off

VB> I always see this output:

VB> Starting up as the master server.
VB> Probed: /dev/video0 - Television
VB> Probed: /dev/video0 - Composite1
VB> Probed: /dev/video0 - S-Video

VB> I also sometimes see:

VB> audio volume set to '32768'

VB> or a message that the client connected (after I start mythfront end):

VB> adding: c11g as a player 1

VB> When I type "space" at "Watch TV" my system freezes, e.g. ctrl-alt-F1 doesn't
VB> work. I have to push the reset button to recover.

VB> I'm not sure how to find the bttv driver files, but do have files bt819.0,
VB> bt856.0, and bttv.o in directory
VB> /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/media/video.

VB> The output from lsmod includes tuner, tvaudio, bttv, ic2-algo-bit, ic2-core,
VB> videodev, soundcore (all autoclean), and others.

VB> I put the card in a Windows 2000 system and it works there with AverMedia's
VB> software.

VB> I realize this probably isn't a MythTV code problem, but I sure can use some
VB> advice on what I can try to get MythTV working. All suggestions will be greatly
VB> appreciated.

VB> Vince

VB> _______________________________________________
VB> mythtv-users mailing list
VB> mythtv-users@snowman.net
VB> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I bet sound is burning you. Audio not set up right and it will hang.
Think about installing the Alsa drivers. Also do a 'ps -eadf|grep
aplay' If you see aplay running, kill it. Not sure myself what it
is(havn't taken two seconds to look either ;-))
but I have a problem some times with it on my Mandrake 9.0 box. Make
sure that it is not running and then try to start tv again. Might have
to restart the frontend also.

--
Best regards,
Mark mailto:mark@voxpopzine.com

Mark was right, the audio was causing the freeze. I finally got Alsa to
install. Now I have slow jerky video and no sound. But this is progress! I'll
try the suggestions I've seen posted and if I can't resolve my problems, I'll
start another thread.

Thanks for all the help.

Vince

...
>
> VB> When I type "space" at "Watch TV" my system freezes, e.g.
> ctrl-alt-F1 doesn't
> VB> work. I have to push the reset button to recover.
>
...
>
> I bet sound is burning you. Audio not set up right and it will hang.
> Think about installing the Alsa drivers. Also do a 'ps -eadf|grep
> aplay' If you see aplay running, kill it. Not sure myself what it
> is(havn't taken two seconds to look either ;-))
> but I have a problem some times with it on my Mandrake 9.0 box. Make
> sure that it is not running and then try to start tv again. Might have
> to restart the frontend also.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Mark

Hello Vince,

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 10:56:49 PM, you wrote:

VB> Mark was right, the audio was causing the freeze. I finally got Alsa to
VB> install. Now I have slow jerky video and no sound. But this is progress! I'll
VB> try the suggestions I've seen posted and if I can't resolve my problems, I'll
VB> start another thread.

VB> Thanks for all the help.

VB> Vince

VB> ...
>>
>> VB> When I type "space" at "Watch TV" my system freezes, e.g.
>> ctrl-alt-F1 doesn't
>> VB> work. I have to push the reset button to recover.
>>
VB> ...
>>
>> I bet sound is burning you. Audio not set up right and it will hang.
>> Think about installing the Alsa drivers. Also do a 'ps -eadf|grep
>> aplay' If you see aplay running, kill it. Not sure myself what it
>> is(havn't taken two seconds to look either ;-))
>> but I have a problem some times with it on my Mandrake 9.0 box. Make
>> sure that it is not running and then try to start tv again. Might have
>> to restart the frontend also.
>>
>> --
>> Best regards,
>> Mark

VB> _______________________________________________
VB> mythtv-users mailing list
VB> mythtv-users@snowman.net
VB> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Great. From what I remember you box is plenty fast and the video
should not be jerky. Look at hdparm. I had to alter some harddrive
params to get mine to run right. The defaults gave me very poor hard
drive performance and my video was jerky at first also. Now it's very
smooth.

The sound has to be there. Play with the mixer.

--
Best regards,
Mark mailto:mark@voxpopzine.com