[mythtv-users] Track down unstable hardware?

[jarpublic at gmail.com]

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 5:55 PM, <jarpublic at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 2:20 PM, <jarpublic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Jelte Veldstra <jelte.veldstra at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> If it's not related to system load then I would start testing the memory.
>>> Running memtest86 for a full day should show or rule out memory issues.
>>> Downloading the "ultimate boot disk" should give you memtest86 and a couple
>>> of other test utilities. Utilities that stress the CPU are good tools to
>>> test cooling and the powersupply.
>>>
>>>
>> Thanks for the tips. I think I ran memtest86 overnight a few months back
>> and it passed. Maybe I should run it for a longer time. Is there a good
>> linux utility for stress testing that would allow my to simultaneously
>> monitor temperatures? Also the kernel panic at boot that says it failed to
>> sync, does that give any clue about what may be failing? I tried googling
>> but did get much headway there.
>>
>
> After the most recent hang I let the system sit for a couple of hours and
> then I booted it up again. It got to the point where it was starting
> mythfrontend and then it just sat there for a minute of two with the theme
> background up but none of the actual menu options showing up yet. It
> wouldn't respond to mouse or keyboard. So I tried to ssh in, and I was
> actually able to get in this time. I ran top and it showed that mythfrontend
> was using 100% of the CPU. So I used to tail to check the mythfrontend log
> to see if I could see what was going on. It had the following:
>
> tail /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log
> 2009-02-09 17:39:58.938 Using screen 0, 640x480 at 0,0
> 2009-02-09 17:39:58.939 No theme dir: /home/jruss/.mythtv/themes/MythCenter
> 2009-02-09 17:39:58.941 Switching to square mode (MythCenter)
> 2009-02-09 17:39:59.623 Using the OpenGL painter
> 2009-02-09 17:39:59.624 JoystickMenuClient Error: Joystick disabled -
> Failed to read /home/jruss/.mythtv/joystickmenurc
> 2009-02-09 17:39:59.755 lirc init success using configuration file:
> /home/jruss/.mythtv/lircrc
> 2009-02-09 17:40:08.134 Loading from:
> /usr/share/mythtv/themes/MythCenter/base.xml
> 2009-02-09 17:40:10.036 Loading from:
> /usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/base.xml
> 2009-02-09 17:40:11.117 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> 2009-02-09 17:40:12.483 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x100, gif,jpg,png)
>
> I couldn't see anything of not there. Then after a few more seconds it
> dropped my network connection and the machine was completely frozen and
> inaccessible again. I rebooted again and I get the following kernel panic:
>
> Starting up...
> [   2.464672] Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try Passing init=
> option to kernel
>
> Any ideas? Is this a drive failure? Why would mythfrontend be maxing out
> the system for a few minutes before the crash? Why would it work again if I
> just wait long enough? Any help on trouble shooting would be appreciated.
>

At this point I am getting off topic for this list. It is certainly some
hardware failure. When it fails I can't get it to reboot. When I try to boot
from a live CD I get the same kernel panic. However, I would hate get rid of
the whole system, just because I am too ignorant to track down exactly which
pieced of hardware is failing. Does anybody know a good linux list that may
be able to help me track down which bit of hardware is going bad? It is
especially challenging because if I let the system sit for a while it will
boot up an work fine for some some indeterminate amount of time. I have used
lm-sensors to track temps and nothing seems to be hot, all of the fans are
running, and I have checked all of the drives for bad blocks. I don't know
what else to do at this point. I don't want to bother the list anymore but
does somebody know the right group to bother about troubleshooting linux
hardware?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20090211/f8b44ddd/attachment.htm>