[mythtv-users] System constantly locks up

[chris at cpr.homelinux.net]

On Sun, Jul 09, 2006 at 08:16:07PM +1000, Phill Edwards wrote:
> My system has been bedevilled by lock ups for many months now.
> Recently it has become an  epidemic with lock ups happening every time
> I try to use it, almost without fail.

It would help to know what video card you have and whether or not 
the lock-up happens at the same point (or in response to the same 
input) every time.

If you have been upgrading your software regularly (as you 
presumably have, since you're running 0.19) you may have painted 
yourself into a corner.  I have one system that *almost* locks up 
solid every time I try to run Myth.  By almost, I mean that the 
mouse still works and I can move the pointer around on the screen, 
but the keyboard is dead and X ignores mouse clicks.  I can ping 
the machine but not ssh into it.  I'd infer that the problem is the 
X server is getting stuck in a loop and so the only processes that 
still work are the X input manager and the kernel (hence the ping 
replies).  The problem in my case is that MythTV required an 
upgrade to a library which doesn't properly support my video card.  
It's quite sad and frustrating, because I can use mplayer to watch 
videos and xine to play DVDs, so MythTV is the only application 
that's broken.