[mythtv-users] Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Mythfrontend freezing and VDPAU?

Tue Mar 3 14:49:21 UTC 2020

On Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 2:16 AM John <jksjdevelop at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 02/03/2020 16:39, Allen Edwards wrote:
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 7:15 AM John <jksjdevelop at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 02/03/2020 14:41, Allen Edwards wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 2:19 AM John <jksjdevelop at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 02/03/2020 01:48, Allen Edwards wrote:
>>>
>>> I continue my search for why my mythfrontend is locking up. As I have
>>> said, the real bother is that it basically requires a restart of the
>>> computer to clear up the problem as I have discussed previously.
>>>
>>> The error I am seeing in the log is this
>>> *Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers*
>>>
>>> What I have found is that several others have had this problem and have
>>> isolated it to VDPAU with an interlaced source. We had a lock up again last
>>> night and sure enough the source was 1080i and the output is 1080p.
>>>
>>> There does not seem to be a solution online that I can find.
>>>
>>> Here is one thread https://forum.mythtv.org/viewtopic.php?t=2735
>>> Here is another
>>> https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1037255/linux/mythtv-errors-lockups-with-vdpau-and-340-or-390-drivers-/
>>>
>>> My question is, am I using the right driver and video configuration?
>>> Next question, what should I use if VDPAU is unacceptable?
>>>
>>> I am running Mythbuntu
>>> Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
>>> MythTV Version : v0.28.2-6-g9031599
>>> MythTV Branch : fixes/0.28
>>> AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+
>>> 6G memory
>>> GeForce GTX 750Ti
>>> nvidia 390 driver
>>> VDPAU High Quality
>>>
>>> Allen
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing listmythtv-users at mythtv.orghttp://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-usershttp://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
>>> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>>>
>>> I have found that using High Quality software decoding to be more
>>> reliable and tolerates faults in the broadcast stream. The cpu load is only
>>> moderate - try it.
>>>
>>> By the way this issue is still present in V31 so upgrading will not help.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks so much for the confirmation of the issue. I have been wondering
>> about using software but wasn't sure my CPU could handle it. What specific
>> settings do you recommend?
>>
>> Allen
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing listmythtv-users at mythtv.orghttp://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-usershttp://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
>> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>>
>> I am on ver 31 using Opengl High Quality and cant remember the exact
>> settings for V28 but I think there was a High Quality choice in
>> Setup>Video>Playback>Current Video Playback Profile
>>
>> You should get ffmpeg decoding and if I remember correctly vdpau double
>> de-interlacer.
>>
>> That config never failed for me on a combined Intel Haswell front and
>> backend with Nvidia graphics.
>>
>> Note i still get judder with software decoding if there are background
>> tasks running so avoid that.
>>
>
> I tried "High Quality" and so far it looks good picture quality wise.
>
> I took a look at the CPU load using top and I find that strange.
> Mythfrontend with VDPAU runs about 9% and with High Quality about 29%.
> That seems fine.
> Xorg is what I find strange. With VDPAU it runs about 2% and with High
> Quality it runs all over the place. I have seen as low as 6% and as high as
> 96%
>
> I guess this is OK as long as nothing is pinned at 100% and I see that
> mythcomflag is able to get in there and it only uses left overs so I guess
> all is good.
>
> If there was just an easy way to restore operation after a lock up like
> there was when I was running Mythbuntu 8 we could live with the occasional
> lock-ups which happen about once a month. I modified several things so that
> CTRL-ALT-BS will restart X but it does not work when mythfrontend is locked
> up. Basically, only "shutdown now -r" works in that case.
>
> Thanks for the help. We will try High Quality and see how it goes.
>
> Allen
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing listmythtv-users at mythtv.orghttp://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-usershttp://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>
> killall mythfrontend
>
> repeat
>
> killall mythfrontend
>
> has always got rid of a hung Frontend for me put it in a script.
>
> Similarly
>
> If you add "/bin/systemctl restart mythbackend.service" to your visudo
> file then the backend can be reset easily without a password.
>
> If the backend does not restart quickly add
>
> TimeoutStopSec=10
>
> to the [Service] section as described in
> https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Systemd_mythbackend_Configuration
>

What happens after repeated kill -9 <pid of mythfrontend> is that Xorg is
hung and running at cpu of 100%. After repeated kill -9 of that eventually
it killed. Process took 5 minutes. Nothing killed right away. Then
mythfrontend immediately locked up again when she started the show again.
Doing a systemctl restart display-manager also just hangs up the entire
gui. I can still access the computer remotely but the gui is toast. I use
top to see that Xorg is at 100% and basically eventually do a shutdown to
clear things up.

I notice that there is some tearing with High Quality but it is slight.
Would be nice if CTL-ALT-BS would work when the system is hung like it does
when it is not locked up. I did a lot of work to make CTL-ALT-BS restart
things clean. I start mythfrontend directly and not as a service. Without
that every time I do CTL-ALT-BS I would get another instance of
mythfrontend.

I would like to use vapau as the system runs cooler and the performance is
better but the hang ups are just too hard to kill.

So is there some sub process of Xorg that needs to be killed that has to do
with vapau? Maybe that is the secret. I just don't know enough and it is
hard to troubleshoot something that happens once a month right when the
wife is in the middle of a show and just wants the system working again.

Does this happen to everyone or is it just my old hardware?

Allen
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