[mythtv-users] Backend crashing/locking up

[Poobah]

Mike,
	I had a very similar problem, but my kernel log had an error in
the ivtv driver with "giving up pending DMA clear."  It also died within
5-10 seconds.  Turned out to be a IRQ conflict between one of the
PVR-250 capture cards and one of the 2 netcards I had in the backend
(the one that the frontend streamed off of).   I switched my alias eth0
and alias eth1 in /etc/modules.conf and the Ethernet cables - it works
great now.  I found the conflict through lspci -v.

	The other thing I found in searching for it is that the ivtv
driver is not SMP friendly, but that wasn't a factor in my case.

Hope you find it!

Mark Hanson


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Drons [mailto:mdrons at ins.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 21:35
To: 'Discussion about mythtv'
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Backend crashing/locking up

That makes sense then (since I don't have /dev/fb1).  The correct
modules
are loading...  What version of IVTV should I use?  The 1.9 or the
latest
from CVS?  

Should I upgrade to CVS of Mythtv?  Is this a bug in Mythtv?

Michael Drons
INS
mdrons at ins.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Snead [mailto:PSnead at infosysnetworks.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 3:55 PM
To: mdrons at ins.com; Discussion about mythtv
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Backend crashing/locking up


Hi Mike, 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Drons [mailto:mdrons at ins.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 12:29 PM
> To: 'Carl'; 'Discussion about mythtv'
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Backend crashing/locking up
> 
> 
> I don't have a /dev/fb1 device?  I am I missing something in 
> my kernel or is
> it someplace else since I am running devfs as part of gentoo?
> 

You won't have any /dev/fb (i.e. frame buffer devices) because you are
using
a PVR-250. The PVR-350 (with on-board hardware encoding AND decoding)
uses
the additional ivtv modules that load the frame buffer. With the
PVR-250,
you should not be loading modules saa7127 and ivtv-fb.


- Patrick Snead
psnead at infosysnetworks.com



> Mike
> 

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl [mailto:mythtv at carldunham.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 1:21 AM
> To: mdrons at ins.com; Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Backend crashing/locking up
> 
> So 'cat /dev/video0 > /tmp/t.mpg' runs the "encoder", and 'dd 
> if=/tmp/t.mpg 
> of=/dev/video16 bs=65536' runs the "decoder" (in quotes 
> because supposedly 
> it's the other way around, but I can't grok that). Sometimes 
> ivtv chokes 
> doing these things, but by far the biggest source of trouble is the 
> framebuffer interactions that produce the on-screen display, 
> program guide, 
> etc. This can be touched by doing 'ivtvfbctl /dev/fb1 
> -senddma', among other
> 
> things.
> 
> Anyway, there is a lot of work going on to resolve this, 
> check out the IVTV 
> archives....
> 
> 
> On Tuesday March 9 2004 00:41, Mike Drons wrote:
> > I have just upgraded to a PVR250 card and my backend is 
> crashing when
> > watching live tv after about 2 minutes.
> >
> > I have an AMD 2400 with a nvidia gforce2 card running gentoo.
> >
> > I have mythtv .14 from an ebuild.
> >
> > This is the only error I get on the backend.
> > 2004-03-07 23:51:50 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
> > Couldn't read data from the capture card in 15 seconds.  
> Game over, man.
> >
> > Doing a cat /dev/video0 > /tmp/t.mpg  will capture for over 
> an hour, so I
> > don't think it is the ivtv driver.  I saw some discussion 
> on this issue,
> > but no one every says what solved the issue.
> >
> > I have made sure that the pvr250 has a dedicated IRQ (IRQ 
> 7).  I am using
> > IVTV 1.9 drivers for the card.
> >
> > Michael Drons
> > INS
> > mdrons at ins.com
> 
> -- 
> Howard Dean for America
> http://www.DeanForAmerica.com
> 
>