[mythtv-users] Mythfrontend hangs - thread deadlock?

Thomas Fjellstrom tfjellstrom at shaw.ca
Sat Nov 8 20:42:00 UTC 2008


On Saturday 08 November 2008, William wrote:
> Jos Hoekstra wrote:
> > William schreef op 8-11-2008 14:14:
> >> Jeff Bevis wrote:
> >>> The problem I am currently stuck with is this:  After a long time
> >>> sitting on the recordings playback menu, the frontend process gets
> >>> hung.  Frequently (maybe always - not 100% sure) this is accompanied
> >>> by the dreaded "The connection to the backend server has gone away for
> >>> some reason.  Is it running?" message.  btw:  backend is on a
> >>> different machine, and is still running ok.
> >>>
> >>> Anyone got any suggestions on this?
> >>> -Jeff
> >>
> >> I have the same issue and have seen this question come up several times
> >> however I have yet to see a true solution. My personal solution is to
> >> not leave the frontend parked on the recordings screen. I still get an
> >> occasional hang but when they happen the entire system locks so its
> >> probably a different issue.
> >>
> >> William
> >
> > I only have this problem when the backend goes away(ie not responding to
> > connections, backend not running, disconnected) Are you sure your
> > backend is reachable from the frontend? Sometimes it helps to exit to
> > the media screen and go back in to the recordings screen.
> >
> > Regards,
>
> For me its a complete lock. Video frozen on screen. Keyboard dead, no
> ssh or vnc access, apache is dead too. No recordings either so its quite
> dead. Only exit is the reset button or power switch held for 3 seconds.
> I tried setting up monit to see if that might be able to help however it
> appears to freeze as well.

So a full hardware hang. Have you been able to test ALT+SYSRQ key presses? 
particularly "s" (sync), "u" (remount readonly), "b" (reboot immediately). I 
like to press "s" a few times, then "u", "s" some more times (to make sure 
everything is synced to disk, but its just overkill, a single u and wait for 
the HD light to stop blinking is all you _should_ need), and then "b" to 
reboot. That way the filesystems aren't corrupted. If none of them work, well 
then it really is a full hardware hang, and the culprit is usually effective 
hardware or bad drivers.

> I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 and have not had an issue with it
> yet. With my luck, writing this will cause it to lock... :)
>
> W
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-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom at shaw.ca


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