mythbuntu-bugs team mailing list archive

[Garry Leach <739983@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for these comments.

1. I ran memtest for 2 hours, with no problems.

2. When it locked-up the first time, I tried to access the Myth PC via
Mythweb on my desktop PC, which was setup quite a while ago (& usually
works well).  It could not access it.  I am not familiar with using ssh,
so I don't know whether the issue was with accessing that PC, or
accessing the Myth database.

3. Since receiving your e-mail, I have not had a lock-up.  I used <ctrl>
<alt> <D> while Myth was running normally, & it did bring up a desktop,
but I realise that this merely proves that the key-mapping is correct.

I don't know whether it is relevant, but the red LED, which shows HDD
activity by flickering on & off, was steady red when the system was
locked-up.  I suppose that this is a motherboard thing, so not exactly
meaningful info.

The failures typically happened in the later part of the evening.
Depending on what we are doing on any day, we tend to switch on the PC
around 17:00, then start watching recorded TV from around 18:00.  Most
times, the lock-ups occurred around 22:00, although one was around
21:00.

I usually watch one particular program around 22:00 that is recorded at
19:00 the same day (the news).  I don't know whether there is anything
about either time, or the program, that would be relevant...

Several evenings, I switched off the frontend around 18:30/21:00, then
restarted it, in case some "thing" was "accumulating".  As you can
probably realise, I have no idea what I am talking about.  Still, I
didn't get any lock-ups on those nights.

Actually, I haven't had any lock-ups for 1 week now.  Maybe, one of the
updates did something good for me.

Late last week, I cancelled the PPA updates, & will now wait for 11.04
to bring me back into line.

Since your suggestion #3 <ctrl> <alt> <D> is still outstanding, I will
let you know that result if & when I get a chance to try it.

Regards, Garry.

On Sun, 2011-04-03 at 15:44 +0000, MarcRandolph wrote:
> Howdy, and thank you for helping to improve Mythbuntu and mythtv by
> taking the time to open this ticket.
> 
> In general, whole-system lockups are indeed a problem not with the
> application, but with underlying window manager, OS/drivers, or
> hardware.  Not to say that there aren't exceptions, but they are
> relatively rare.  Hardware is one of the first suspects, and one very
> easy thing to check in that regard is the memory by rebooting the system
> into memtest and let that run for as many consecutive hours as you can.
> 
> The first thing to determine is if your system is truly locked up 100%,
> or if it is just the frontend, or the window manager. Can you ssh (newer
> form of telnet) to the box during these times?  If so, then you can
> mostly rule out the OS/drivers.
> 
> On the front-end, what happens when you hit <ctrl> <alt> <D>?  If that
> brings up a desktop, then you know the window manager is alive as well.
> 
> Oh, and one last thing: it can be difficult to get developers to work on
> tickets which contain more than one problem.  It is best to open
> multiple tickets, one for each problem.
>

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mythbuntu
Bug Team, which is subscribed to Mythbuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/739983

Title:
  Lock-up of Myth-frontend while playing recorded TV

Status in Mythbuntu, Ubuntu derivative focused upon MythTV:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Dedicated HTPC:
  Mythbuntu 10.10
  MythTV from PPA, version 0.24

  (My desktop PC runs Ubuntu 10.10)

  I am basically an end-user, so my way of expressing things may not be very
   technical.

   On the evenings of both 20/03/2011 & 21/03/11, the recording (different
   for each night) that I was watching stopped playing, but left the image on
   the screen (similar to pause).  The keyboard & mouse were also locked-up.
   I left it for 30 minutes, but nothing changed.  The only way to shut the
   computer down was by holding the power button for about 6 seconds (I
   expect that reset would also have worked).

   On both evenings, & prior to the failure, I had watched several recordings
   without incident.

   I don't know how to reproduce the problem, other than keep watching
   recordings until some factor causes one to lock-up.

   I recently upgraded to Mythbuntu 10.10, then used the PPA system to
   upgrade to Myth 0.24; I have downloaded all proposed updates since then.

   Up until 11/03/2011, I was using Mythbuntu 9.10.  This was quite stable
   for over 12 months usage (as were previous versions).  I had had problems
   with Ubuntu 10.04, so didn't want to go to Mythbuntu 10.04.

   However, I wanted to have the better shut-down screen (part of
   Consolekit?), & I hoped that there may be some Myth improvements.

   On 12/03/2011, I upgraded to Mythbuntu 10.04.  There were lots of problems
   with this, including that I could not delete recordings made on that day
   (apart from using file manager).  Another problem: WatchTV crashed the
   Myth forntend back to the desktop.

   So on 13/03/2011, I upgraded to 10.10.  This was not much better.

   So I researched the PPA facility & upgraded to stable Myth 0.24.  While
   doing this, I noticed (somewhere) a button to do something to the
   database, so I clicked on that.

   Whether it was the installation process for 0.24, or the database review,
   the system now worked as it should.

   However, I didn't have the logout screen that I wanted (& had seen on a
   live CD of 10.10).  On 19/03/11, a friend helped me fix the logout screen
   (ticking the Prompt on Logout field on the Session & Start-up screen).

   Since then, Myth frontend does not start automatically.  Should it be
   listed in Session & Start-up?

   I have copied an extract of the backend log file (covering the 30 minutes
   on 21/03/2011 when the screen locked-up) & attached that below.  (There
   was no frontend log file).

  I reported this bug to the MythTV team (ticket #9681), but they
  responded to say that it was not MythTV, but an OS problem.

   My hardware is 2.5 years old, with more than adequate "capacity" to handle
   Myth (both front & back-ends); the PC is dedicated to MythTV & is not used for anything else.

   Thanks in advance, Garry.