[mythtv-users] X Freezes blank on 'watch tv'

[Kevin Clayton]

I'm manually starting mythfrontend at the moment, so message are output
to the shell window, but once X pegs the CPU I can't switch to that
shell to see the output. Later I'll try to redirect to a file or something.

Here's my backend log entries when trying to watch LiveTV:

2004-10-08 08:29:41 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Playback
2004-10-08 08:29:41 adding: zion as a client (events: 0)
2004-10-08 08:29:41 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Playback
2004-10-08 08:29:41 adding: zion as a client (events: 1)
2004-10-08 08:29:41 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Playback
2004-10-08 08:29:41 adding: zion as a client (events: 0)
2004-10-08 08:29:41 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Playback
2004-10-08 08:29:41 adding: zion as a client (events: 0)
2004-10-08 08:29:41 adding: zion as a remote ringbuffer
2004-10-08 08:29:41 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
2004-10-08 08:35:45 Changing from WatchingLiveTV to None

I think the "Changing from WatchingLiveTV to None" is when I ssh'd in
and kill -9'd X


I am using a nVidia card, from lspci:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4
MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev c1)

Here's the output into /var/log/messages when I try to watch LiveTV
Oct  8 08:29:20 zion lircd 0.7.0pre7[2319]: accepted new client on /dev/lircd
Oct  8 08:29:41 zion kernel: saa7115: decoder set picture bright=127
contrast=63 saturation=63 hue=0
Oct  8 08:29:41 zion last message repeated 3 times
Oct  8 08:29:41 zion kernel: saa7115: decoder set size
Oct  8 08:29:42 zion kernel: saa7115: decoder disable output
Oct  8 08:29:42 zion kernel: saa7115: decoder enable output
Oct  8 08:29:44 zion kernel: application mythfrontend uses obsolete
OSS audio interface                                                   
                             Oct  8 08:29:45 zion kernel: nvidia:
module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Oct  8 08:29:45 zion kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] ->
GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Oct  8 08:29:45 zion kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA
Kernel Module  1.0-6111  Tue Jul 27 07:55:38 PDT 2004
Oct  8 08:29:47 zion kernel: agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant
device at 0000:00:00.0.                                               
                                Oct  8 08:29:47 zion kernel: agpgart:
Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode                    
                                                           Oct  8
08:29:47 zion kernel: agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0
into 8x mode

> > > Here's what works:
> > > - watch a DVD from the DVD drive
> > > - schedule and recording of programs
> > > - when browsing the recorded programs, I get a small window which shows
> > >   the video of the recorded program
> > > - outside of myth, xine will play the recorded program (the nuv files)
> > > - outside of myth, I can use ptune-gui.pl to change channels while
> > >    watching via 'mplayer /dev/video0'
> > >
> > > What doesn't work:
> > > - watch LiveTV -- box 'freezes' with black/blank screen, no audio
> > >    have to ssh in and kill -9 X to recover
> > > - watch a recorded program -- same freeze as LiveTV
> > > - outside of myth, mplayer will not play recorded programs (nuv files)

Add to the doesn't work list:
- mplayer tv://3

> > > Next, I may try re-installing any/all mplayer packages.
> > > After that, I don't know what to try next. Suggestions are welcome :)

I did reinstall the mplayer packages but it did not affect anything.

Currently X will go to 98+% of the CPU if I try to watch LiveTV or
a recorded program.

I'm out of ideas -- any suggestions ?