[mythtv-users] Dying Backend

Risto Treksler risto at elkhornbanff.ca
Tue May 17 20:04:27 UTC 2005


> since I use binary packages is there a way I can
> up the verbosity of these logs to see if anything weird is going on?

you can edit /etc/init.d/mythbackend
go to the "start)" section
find the line that calls mythbackend
add " -v all "

or just run mythbackend manually in a shell

log in remotely or switch to a virtual terminal locally with <ctrl><alt><f1>
(you can go back with <ctrl><alt><f7> usually)

comment out the cron job for now
this way, if the backend dies, you can switch to that vt to see tha last log 
messages printed

just type
"mythbackend -v all"

or loop it with
"while : ; do mythbackend -v all ; sleep 5 ; done"

> Another time the backend dies is if I've been using Mythweb, that seems to
> cause more crashes than it's sometimes worth (though I do prefer using
> Mythweb to locate shows that I want to record).

does mythweb make the backend die for you
only on the recorded_programs screen or on other screens as well?

> Currently I'd say I lose backend about twice per day on average at the
> moment. Version 0.18.0 (not had time to do 0.18.1, but doesn't seem like it
> fixes any backend or commflag bugs).

try current cvs with debugging turned on
and send a backtrace to the mythtv-dev list

every now and then this seems to be happen to someone,
but since none of the devs can seem to reproduce it,
it's hard to fix.

best to follow these instructions
http://mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-21.html#ss21.2

who knows, the crashes could be caused by your binary packages themselves
so, does it still happen with CVS with debugging turned on?

also,
look up the "ulimit" command
you can set it so that core files are written to disk when a program crashes
"ulimit -c unlimited"

that way you can run "mythbackend -v all" and do a 
"gdb mythbackend core"
or similar when it dies to make a backtrace even though you weren't using gdb 
to run mythbackend


-- 
Risto Treksler
Elkhorn Lodge
Banff, Alberta, Canada


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