[mythtv-users] Tuning a MythTV Installation, Check me Please

Douglas Wagner douglasw0 at gmail.com
Sat Sep 30 08:28:22 UTC 2006


Hey all, i'm trying to put some finishing tuning on a mythTV installation
i've got.  I've gone through a few threads here and the tuning section of
the Wiki but want to get another couple pairs of eyes on this and see what
i'm missing.

Two questions I have with the stuff below is: Am I mounting NFS correctly
for good performance without being too agressive with the settings?, and is
my PCI Latency ok for my card vs. my network, vs. my drives?

System Information follows from here down.

--Douglas Wagner
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System: Shared Frontend/Backend/Database (all on one server) Fedora Core 5
Storage: NAS Box (100 base T networked), 250g pata and 320g sata and part of
an 80g pata.  The 80 and 250 are on the built in controller, the SATA is on
a Promice SATA 300 TX card, and there is one other card in there providing a
raid 1 mirror to the rest of the house which isn't used by my PVR at all.
The /video directory has video1 and video2 under it, all of these are NFS
mounted from my NAS.
MythTV: 0.20
Kernel: 2.6.17-1.2139
CPU: 2.8ghz HT Processor
Memory: 1G
Video Type: ATSC (HDTV) OTA.

So, first things first i'm running the database optimization script nightly
through cron.

ALL video storage areas are NFS mounted from my NAS which is running across
a 100bt line to a 100bt switch.  NFS options are:

snip from /etc/exports from the NAS System:
/mnt/varchive                  192.168.100.0/24(rw,async,no_root_squash)
/mnt/video1                    192.168.100.0/24(rw,async,no_root_squash)
/mnt/video2                    192.168.100.0/24(rw,async,no_root_squash)

snip from /etc/fstab from the mythtv box:
nas:/mnt/varchive      /video                  nfs
rsize=8192,wsize=8192,hard,intr,nfsvers=3,actimeo=0,bg,tcp              0 0
nas:/mnt/video1         /video/video1           nfs
rsize=8192,wsize=8192,hard,intr,nfsvers=3,actimeo=0,bg,tcp              0 0
nas:/mnt/video2         /video/video2           nfs
rsize=8192,wsize=8192,hard,intr,nfsvers=3,actimeo=0,bg,tcp              0 0

On PVR the Directory structure is:
     /video (mounted nas:/mnt/varchive)
          --> /video1 (Mount nas:/mnt/video1)
          --> /video2 (Mount nas:/mnt/video2)

IFConfig on the PVR shows me:
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:76:AC:81:CF
          inet addr:192.168.100.25  Bcast:192.168.100.255  Mask:
255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:76ff:feac:81cf/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:11410318 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10763819 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
          RX bytes:2650825943 (2.4 GiB)  TX bytes:2026306859 (1.8 GiB)
          Base address:0xbc00 Memory:f3de0000-f3e00000

[root@<pvr box> ~]# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 100Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 0
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: umbg
        Wake-on: g
        Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
        Link detected: yes

And on the NAS:
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:03:47:16:F8:DD
          inet addr:192.168.100.6  Bcast:192.168.100.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::203:47ff:fe16:f8dd/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:11036558 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:11690472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2253743222 (2.0 GiB)  TX bytes:2863372217 (2.6 GiB)

[root@<nas box> ~]# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 100Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 1
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: g
        Wake-on: g
        Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
        Link detected: yes

The only other thing listed for tuning (which might need some work) is the
PCI Latency.  As i'm not sure if any of this will trigger something i'm
including the majority of it here.

On the PVR Box:

00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Processor to PCI to CSA
Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff
        Memory behind bridge: f3d00000-f3dfffff

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2) (prog-if 00
[Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
        Memory behind bridge: f3e00000-f7efffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface
Bridge (rev 02)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE
Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MSI 875P
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at fc00 [size=16]
        Memory at 50000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller
(rev 02)
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Unknown device 7580
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
        I/O ports at 0c00 [size=32]

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet
Controller (LOM)
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Unknown device 758c
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
        Memory at f3de0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at bc00 [size=32]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

03:05.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and
Audio Decoder (rev 05)
        Subsystem: pcHDTV pcHDTV HD3000 HDTV
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 185
        Memory at f5000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Capabilities: [44] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2

03:05.2 Multimedia controller: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio
Decoder [MPEG Port] (rev 05)
        Subsystem: pcHDTV pcHDTV HD3000 HDTV
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 185
        Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2

And on the NAS:

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801AA PCI Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if
00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
        Memory behind bridge: ff400000-ff8fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f6a00000-f6afffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801AA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801AA IDE (rev 02) (prog-if 80
[Master])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82801AA IDE
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
        I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801AA SMBus (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82801AA SMBus
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
        I/O ports at efa0 [size=16]

01:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100]
(rev 08)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82559 Fast Ethernet LAN on Motherboard
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
        Memory at ff8fe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at df00 [size=64]
        Memory at ff700000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at f6a00000 [disabled] [size=1M]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

01:08.0 RAID bus controller: Triones Technologies, Inc. HPT374 (rev 07)
        Subsystem: Triones Technologies, Inc. Unknown device 0001
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at dfa0 [size=8]
        I/O ports at df9c [size=4]
        I/O ports at df90 [size=8]
        I/O ports at df98 [size=4]
        I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
        Expansion ROM at ff400000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

01:08.1 RAID bus controller: Triones Technologies, Inc. HPT374 (rev 07)
        Subsystem: Triones Technologies, Inc. Unknown device 0001
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at dff0 [size=8]
        I/O ports at dfe4 [size=4]
        I/O ports at dfa8 [size=8]
        I/O ports at dfe0 [size=4]
        I/O ports at d400 [size=256]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

01:0a.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20718 (SATA 300
TX4) (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20718 (SATA 300 TX4)
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 72, IRQ 9
        I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
        I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
        Memory at ff8ff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Memory at ff8c0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Expansion ROM at ff420000 [disabled] [size=32K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

Note: I am getting syncronization problems playing both live TV and played
back live TV.  For many of the evening prime time shows (at least on ABC)
the audio and video are massively (2s +) out of sync.  This doesn't happen
on other Digital (but not HD) channels.  I mention this so that people
understand that there COULD be problems, i'm not just tuning it with a
perfectly working system.

--Douglas Wagner
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