[mythtv-users] Frozen Picture

[Brian Wood]

On Feb 14, 2006, at 11:31 AM, Drew Tomlinson wrote:

> 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.  :)

Boy I agree about not fixing something that ain't broke !! But I do  
it all the time, just can't keep my mitts off the thing :-)

What if any options did you use when you ran eclean? Without any  
options it "shouldn't" remove anything that "may still be useful".

The  --destructive option is well-named, but it still shouldn't  
bother any package that is actually installed, only versions that are  
in the portage tree but are not installed, but portage can have  
problems with dependencies.

Also, if you have installed anything from outside the portage system  
(like the nVidia drivers), things might get screwed up.

If you did an emerge --update you may have newer versions of things  
installed, which could mess you up as well, but I am certainly no  
portage expert.

I keep a hard copy of my lsmod output, and it's usually the first  
thing I check if an update causes trouble. Also, did your eclean  
result in your having to run etc-update? That would be a sure sign  
that something operational changed.

Wish I could be of more help.

>
>> 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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