[mythtv-users] Frozen Picture

[Drew Tomlinson]

On 2/14/2006 9:49 AM Brian Wood wrote:
> On Feb 14, 2006, at 10:35 AM, Drew Tomlinson wrote:
>
>   
>> I'm running Myth 0.18-r2 built from Gentoo ebuilds on a 2.6.13-r5
>> kernel.  Everything was working fine until the machine rebooted a few
>> days ago due to a power outage.  Now video is frozen whether playing
>> back from a recording or watching LiveTV.  Sound is good.  I know the
>> files are fine as they play OK on a Windows XP box with media player.
>> Although I don't recall changing anything in particular, I did remove
>> "cruft" with eclean from the gentoolkit package sometime prior to that
>> power outage.
>>
>> I've had this symptom in the past when upgrading my kernel and not
>> rebuilding ivtv.  Thus I assume my cruft cleaning may have removed
>> something ivtv needs.  I rebuilt ivtv 0.4.0-r3 which is the same  
>> version
>> I had before and the latest unmasked version in Gentoo portage.   
>> Then I
>> rebooted and all was well.
>>
>> But then I rebooted again and the video froze.  Now it seems that I  
>> have
>> to rebuild ivtv, run 'revdep-rebuild' (a Gentoo script the checks for
>> reverse dependencies and build them if necessary - it never finds  
>> any on
>> my system), run 'update-modules' (a Gentoo script that generates
>> modprobe.conf), and reboot again.  Then it works until the next reboot
>> where I start the process over.
>>
>> Does anyone have any ideas on what I can check to figure out what the
>> problem really is?  I just don't get it and am very frustrated.  I'd
>> appreciate any assistance.
>>
>>     
> I'm using the same Gentoo ebuild, but with a 2.6.15-r1 kernel and  
> ivtv 0.4.2, and it seems to be working.
>
> You didn't mention your CPU (I'm using an amd64), or what capture  
> card, but  ivtv is known to be sensitive to kernel version and ivtv  
> version. You want to watch module versions, there are some that are  
> provided by both the kernel andivtv, and if you;re using a recent  
> kernel you want to use the kernel-supplied modules.
>   

Thanks for your reply.  My box is an AMD Athlon 2800+ with a PVR-250 and 
a pcHDTV-3000.  This combination has worked fine for at least a couple 
months prior to my power outage induced reboot.  The only change I can 
recall is cleaning cruft with eclean.  I've learned not to mess with a 
functioning Myth box.  :)  Now I've also learned that something as 
simple as housekeeping can cause problems too.  But what I'd really like 
to learn is "why" these problems happen so I can fix them when they do.  
Especially since I have a hard time keeping my hands off stuff.  :)

> You might want to upgrade both the kernel and ivtv, since you are  
> going want to do that eventually anyway. It might solve your problem  
> and even if it doesn't you will be fighting more recent stuff :-)
>   

Yes, I plan on doing this soon.  I want to have the latest kernel and 
world functioning before I move the 0.19.  That way when I get 0.19 
working, I can go "hands off" for a while.

Thanks,

Drew

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