[mythtv-users] Hard Lock

[Malcolm]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Brieck Jr." <myth at brieck.com>
To: <davidc-mythtv at connect4less.com>; "'Discussion about mythtv'"
<mythtv-users at mythtv.org>

> > I'm using ivtv-0.1.9 + myth-0.13.  Running TV-Out on my FX5200 with a
> > PVR350 doing the encoding (but it wasn't doing anything at the time.)
> > The MB is an ABIT BL7 w/Intel 1.9GHz + 512MB ram, Mandrake 9.2 +
> > kernel-2.4.22-21mm.1mdk
> >
> >
>
> I've been preaching over on the ivtv list that something is amiss with
> the Mandrake kernels, however I've never seen anyone report the problem
> who was using an Intel system. My opinion is that there is a patch in
> their kernels that is exposing a bug in ivtv or creating a bug in ivtv.
>
> How long have you been running Myth and IVTV? I would suggest posting
> this also on the ivtv mailing list.

I've tried running mythtv (both backend/frontend combos as wells as just a
front end) on two test boxes at home.

Box 1 = PIII 500 256 megs ram
Box 2 = Athlon 1G 256 megs ram

Both boxes:
Mandrake 9.2
ivtv 0.1.9
mythtv 0.13
PVR-250

Both boxes would lockup complete rock solid on the default mandrake kernel.
I downloaded 2.4.24 from kernel.org and compiled my own kernel and was able
to leave it running over night as apposed to about 2 hours.

While a fresh kernel from kernel.org did fix that problem it's not perfect.
After running for about 12 + hours the box really starts to drag like it's
out of memory and usually the frontend will crash.  No more hard locks
though.  I'm now in the process of giving gentoo a shot to see if that helps
any.

I might also mention both boxes where doing software decoding and had their
CPUs pegged at 100% non stop.  I don't think that helps any.

Thanks
Malcolm