[mythtv-users] Sudden massive problems

[Rod Smith]

Hi,

I put together my MythTV box a bit over a week ago, based on Ubuntu 6.10 and 
its provided MythTV 0.20 packages. I've been slowly getting things working, 
but I'm starting to have problems accessing my recordings. Certain 
recordings, when played, result in the frontend and/or backend crashing. One 
or two even cause such crashes when I put the cursor over them in the 
recordings list (presumably because of the generated static preview). I 
suspect MySQL problems, or perhaps file/filesystem corruption (I'm using XFS 
for the recordings filesystem), or maybe corrupt binaries somewhere. I've 
deleted most of the "problem" recordings, and several others that I'd been 
keeping around for testing purposes. I've also tried backing up a couple of 
recordings that still play OK to DVD, using the native archive format, but 
all I get is this error message:

: It was not possible to create the DVD. An error occured [sic] when
: running the scripts.

There are no clues in the MythArchive log files because there are no 
MythArchive log files.

I've tried running a command mentioned in the MythTV documentation to fix 
suspected MySQL problems:

mysqlcheck -r -umythtv -p<password> mythconverg

This produced a string of "OK" responses but no improvements.

After starting mythfrontend and inducing a failure, the last message to be 
displayed is often:

VideoOutputXv: SvMCTex: Init failed

A Web search suggests this is harmless. There's nothing at all suspicious in 
the /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log file; the last message after a crash is 
usually something to the effect that the frontend box (which is the same as 
the backend box) has been added as a client.

I'd previously installed a package to access MySQL via a Web browser 
(phpmyadmin). Accessing it this way usually results in a complete system 
hang. The disk activity light flickers constantly and the system is 
unresponsive. The only way out seems to be to hit the computer's reset 
button.

So, with all that out of the way, my question is: What can I do to recover my 
system? I'm willing to lose most of my custom settings, if that's necessary, 
but I do want to keep a couple of existing recordings (hence my failed 
attempt to back them up to DVD as native archives). Unfortunately, I hadn't 
yet gotten around to researching MySQL backups, although it was on my list 
for the near future. Is there some way to copy the recordings from the .nuv 
files over to the MythVideo area without losing quality? (I don't mind losing 
description data, if that's what it takes.) I'm afraid I know next to nothing 
about MySQL, or for that matter precisely what MythTV stores in MySQL.

Thanks for any help.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com