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

Tue Mar 3 15:17:04 UTC 2020

On Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 8:51 AM Allen Edwards <allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> 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 cannot comment on why X misbehaves - over the years, especially with
nVidia drivers and Xorg mesa version combos, it just happens.  It would be
a good time to start using lirc and the irexec app.  It allows you to
assign a script to kill anything you want to a remote control button.

I have not used it in quite some time, so I do not have my config any
longer, but I used it for this exact purpose a couple years back (and 8+
years prior).  I am fairly certain I have posted the config to this list in
the past though if you search the archives.  There should be a script to
kill the frontend (and restart X if needed) and restart the frontend along
with the lirc configuration.

> 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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>
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