[mythtv-users] Sudden massive problems

[Steven Adeff]

On 2/3/07, Rod Smith <mythtv at rodsbooks.com> wrote:
> 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.

first you should get some logging going. use "-v all -l
<directory/filename.log>" for your backend and frontend.


> I've tried running a command mentioned in the MythTV documentation to fix
> suspected MySQL problems:
>
> mysqlcheck -r -umythtv -p<password> mythconverg

in the contrib folder if you compiled from SVN, or it should  be
included in a package, is a handy perl script, optimize_mythdb.pl
which will do the above for you as well. Something that all users
should run on their backend once a day.

> 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

as above, the -v all will increase verbosity to list *everything* myth does...

> 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.

sounds like you've got a problem with your MySQL install. Depending on
what you see in the Myth logs it may be worth checking the mysql logs
(and perhaps increasing their verbosity).

> 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.

you can always just copy the recording files and insert them later
into your new database. you'll loose the program information and have
to type it in manually, but it is possible.


-- 
Steve
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