[mythtv-users] How do I debug a complete system lockup? (0.20, frontend only)

[Jon Whitear]

Hello list,

I'm having a couple of problems with my frontend that cause complete lockups:

(1) Sometimes when I exit LiveTV (to return to the Main Menu) the screen
goes black and the system locks up.

(2) Sometimes when I change channel in the EPG, the video preview goes
blue, and the system locks up.

My first question is: what's the best way to debug these? I'm using an SVN
checkout from around the time of 0.20. It's a frontend only box, running
x86_64 Gentoo on an Athlon64 3500+. Tha backend is also Gentoo, with two
DVB-T cards.

Presumably, it won't help if I run a debug under gdb, if it's going to
lock the whole machine up anyway. However, if gdb _will_ catch that, my
second question is: how do I automaticlly start a debug enabled frontend?
This is a box that sits under the TV, without keyboard or mouse - I have a
script that starts X and Mythfrontend, so it boots right into Mythtv. Is
there a way to start gdb, and then start mythfrontend in that?

Cheers,

Jon