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bigmrt123
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 Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:11 am |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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Hey all
Well, I have been working with mythtv a lot and almost have everything working the way i want and I love it thus far. But I have one major issue that I can't seem to get anywhere with. Please let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions, anything is very appreciated.
The problem is that basically only about 1 out of 10 restarts does live TV and or recording a live program actually work. I can watch recordings fine after every startup.
The backend appears to freeze when i try to watch liveTV or an automatic recording starts. There aren't any errors in the backend error logs. Here are the last few lines:
Code: 2007-03-20 23:17:21.617 JobQueue: Currently set at 1 job(s) max and to run new jobs from 00:00 to 23:59
2007-03-20 23:17:21.618 MSqlQuery: SELECT j.id, j.chanid, j.starttime, j.inserttime, j.type, j.cmds, j.flags, j.status, j.statustime, j.hostname, j.args, j.comment, r.endtime FROM jobqueue j, recorded r WHERE j.chanid = r.chanid AND j.starttime = r.starttime ORDER BY j.inserttime, j.chanid, j.id;
2007-03-20 23:17:21.618 JobQueue: GetJobsInQueue: findJobs search bitmask 4, found 1 total jobs
2007-03-20 23:17:21.618 JobQueue: GetJobsInQueue: Ignore 'Flag Commercials' Job for 1034 @ 20070318220000 in Finished state.
The front end log (verbose mode - all) shows this: Code: 2007-03-20 23:15:04.533 write -> 21 24 RESCHEDULE_RECORDINGS 25
2007-03-20 23:15:04.534 read <- 21 1 1
2007-03-20 23:15:04.536 write -> 21 19 QUERY_GETALLPENDING
2007-03-20 23:15:34.540 MythSocket(833a088:21): readStringList: Error, timeout.
2007-03-20 23:15:34.540 MythSocket(833a088:21): state change Connected -> Idle
2007-03-20 23:15:34.540 Connection to backend server lost
2007-03-20 23:15:34.540 MythSocket(833a088:-1): DownRef: -1
2007-03-20 23:15:34.540 MythSocket(833a088:-1): delete socket
I have also seen a lot of errors like this : readStringList: Error, timeout (quick) This seems to be at the start of the problems. Obviously there is a lot more included in the logs but this is what i could find. When I try to watch live tv the screen goes blank (black) for about ten seconds and then comes back to the menu. Also, after it crashes i have to run fsck to the /myth mount to "recover the journal". I am running knoppmyth R5E50 without making many changes. Then if i am very lucky (like 1 out of 10 times) everything works great. Then I leave everything running for as long as possible and am as happy as can be. Please help, I am not sure where to look. Does this mean my capture card isn't responding? Is it that my filesystem or cache aren't working properly. What should I do next? Again, thanks for any input you can provide. -BigMrT123 P.S. The other nagging issue I am having is driving me crazy. Maybe someone has some input. When I soft reboot my mythtv box (shutdown -r), my network card stops working on reboot, it is not detected by the file system. I have to unplug my box for like 20 seconds and then restart it for the nic to be detected again. I thought this might be a power saving option in the bios or maybe a wake on lan problem in the bios so i disabled those and the problem still happens. Any suggestions? Thanks again.[/code]
Last edited by bigmrt123 on Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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slowtolearn
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:02 am |
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Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:55 pm
Posts: 1381
Location:
Farmington, MI USA
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Perhaps you could share with us the hardware specs of your system? Motherboard, CPU, RAM, tuner card(s), NIC (make/model of each) Tough to throw ideas out there when we don't know these things 
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bigmrt123
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:16 pm |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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slowtolearn wrote: Perhaps you could share with us the hardware specs of your system? Motherboard, CPU, RAM, tuner card(s), NIC (make/model of each) Tough to throw ideas out there when we don't know these things Hey slowtolearn
Thanks and my apologies for not including this the first time:
CPU: AMD Athlon 3800+
MOBO: ecs K8M890M
Ram: Kingston ddr2 pc4200 - 1 GB
HD: SATA 150 GB
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 7300 GT
Capture Card: pcHDTC 5500
Case: SilverSTone LC10M
Power Supply : Antec True Power 430W
NIC: Integrated with MOBO.
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bigmrt123
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:27 pm |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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Some additional information...
Every time mythbackend crashes I can't kill the process, it goes into <defunct> state and i haven't found anything i can do to clean up that process. So everytime it crashes i have to restart the box. Everytime I restart the box i have to power off the box because of my NIC... as you can imagine it sucks.
Is there a quick way to just test to make sure my capture card is functioning without having myth running?
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slowtolearn
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:06 pm |
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Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:55 pm
Posts: 1381
Location:
Farmington, MI USA
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Ugh, VIA chipset eh? I don't know jack about them, except stuff I've read here on these forums (typically trouble). Do you have a PCI NIC you could try? As you only indicate 1 tuner your troubles may all boil down to the NIC.
You might try thornsoft's backend babysit script http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13613 and see if that improves things, but if it is the NIC it won't help much...
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bigmrt123
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:18 pm |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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Hey slowtolearn
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I kind of chinced on the MOBO/CPU to keep costs down but i am kind of regretting that now. I will disable the NIC and try a PCI or maybe a USB NIC in its place. Do you recommend any mid level MOBO that will support DDR2 RAM, my proc and has PCI express that has a lot of success in myth? Thanks again.
-BigMrT123
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slowtolearn
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:34 pm |
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Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:55 pm
Posts: 1381
Location:
Farmington, MI USA
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I don't know what the K8M890M goes for, but I have been very pleased with my Asus M2NPV-VMs (I have 2, 1 is not yet in full-time commission). That motherboard along with your current processor/RAM should handle HDTV without trouble, I'm using a 3200+ with 1Gb RAM.
Poke around the Tier 1 and 2 forums to get ideas of what other folks are using successfully.
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tjc
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:06 pm |
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:00 am
Posts: 9551
Location:
Arlington, MA
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A process that's stuck in a <defunct> state usually indicates one of two things.
1) Its parent hasn't gotten around to accepting it's exit status. Since the mythbackend daemon should be a child of the init process (i.e. PPID == 1) this is unlikely.
2) It's stuck waiting for some uncompleted I/O operation, either to the network or a device. This is most likely the cause of your problem. Check your backend logs for errors about devices, fifoes/pipes, or sockets...
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bigmrt123
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:32 pm |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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Hey tjc
Thanks for the tips. I do think number 2 is whats going on. At this point I am not getting any consistency with my system and I am probably going to go get a new motherboard. I tried disabling my network card and using a usb network card and it doesn't seem to work consistently either.
I have a couple quick questions for someone reading this...
1. Is it valid to simply do a: mplayer /dev/video0 to test the capture card?
2. In the event that I do replace my motherboard with a new one, is it possible to not have to reinstall knoppmyth and reconfigure everything. It feels like so many hours that it took my to get everything somewhat working. I will have identical components obviously outside of everything on the mobo, or is it just the nature of the beast of linux that with a new fundamental component such as the mother board, reinstalling is required?
Thanks to all that have helped, it is greatly appreciated.
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slowtolearn
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:34 pm |
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Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:55 pm
Posts: 1381
Location:
Farmington, MI USA
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bigmrt123 wrote: 1. Is it valid to simply do a: mplayer /dev/video0 to test the capture card? I don't know about directly accessing your capture card from mplayer or xine, but you should be able to do Code: cat /dev/video0 >/tmp/test.mpg Let that run for about 30 - 60 seconds, Ctrl-C out of it, and then try playing the test.mpg file with mplayer or xine. bigmrt123 wrote: 2. In the event that I do replace my motherboard with a new one, is it possible to not have to reinstall knoppmyth and reconfigure everything. It feels like so many hours that it took my to get everything somewhat working. I will have identical components obviously outside of everything on the mobo, or is it just the nature of the beast of linux that with a new fundamental component such as the mother board, reinstalling is required? Well, yes and no is about the best I can give you here. You should be able to get the system up and running (be sure to remove/recreate your capture cards in mythtv-setup), but there will probably be some small configuration issues. Particularly, I would think sound and network. Before you attempt this, BE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP! Use tjc's script (See phase 0, #1 in http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13108) This way, if you do have to revert back to a fresh install you will at least have your DB to restore...
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bigmrt123
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:43 am |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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Hey all
First, thanks so much for the support thus far. It has helped greatly and pointed my in the right direction many times.
slowtolearn, thanks for the tips. I just made a backup to hang on to before I mess with things anymore.
Well, I am making some progress. Before swapping my motherboard I decided to upgrade/flash the bios on my old board and this seemed to help a bit. It got rid of my disappearing network card issue after a soft reboot thank god. That is one less thing for me to worry about and saves me all kinds of time.
I also disabled acpi on the hunch that there may be some irq conflicts or pci problems that are affecting my capture card. I added the following to lilo.conf append variable : acpi=off pci=noacpi.
I am not sure if that helped but it seemed to decrease the amout of failure bootup to good bootups from 10-1 to about 5-1.
In doing some investigation I capture the dmesg output for a good bootup and compared it to the dmesg output for a bad bootup. The results are interesting. Below is the diff:
FYI:
Good <
Bad >
Code: 30c30
< Detected 2394.242 MHz processor.
---
> Detected 2394.049 MHz processor.
46c46
< Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 4791.59 BogoMIPS (lpj=2395797)
---
> Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 4791.52 BogoMIPS (lpj=2395760)
60c60
< Total of 1 processors activated (4791.59 BogoMIPS).
---
> Total of 1 processors activated (4791.52 BogoMIPS).
129c129
< audit(1174719343.439:1): initialized
---
> audit(1174719716.439:1): initialized
217c217
< raid6: int32x1 1023 MB/s
---
> raid6: int32x1 1019 MB/s
257,258c257,258
< (fs/jbd/recovery.c, 255): journal_recover: JBD: recovery, exit status 0, recovered transactions 637293 to 637483
< (fs/jbd/recovery.c, 257): journal_recover: JBD: Replayed 1945 and revoked 2/5 blocks
---
> (fs/jbd/recovery.c, 255): journal_recover: JBD: recovery, exit status 0, recovered transactions 637485 to 637607
> (fs/jbd/recovery.c, 257): journal_recover: JBD: Replayed 1812 and revoked 2/13 blocks
276,279c276,279
< tuner 1-0043: chip found @ 0x86 (cx88[0])
< tda9887 1-0043: tda988[5/6/7] found @ 0x43 (tuner)
< tuner 1-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx88[0])
< tuner 1-0061: type set to 64 (LG TDVS-H06xF)
---
> tuner 0-0043: chip found @ 0x86 (cx88[0])
> tda9887 0-0043: tda988[5/6/7] found @ 0x43 (tuner)
> tuner 0-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx88[0])
> tuner 0-0061: type set to 64 (LG TDVS-H06xF)
326d325
< usb 1-2: can't set config #1, error -71
331d329
< PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:11.5 to 64
334c332
< f8e7870b
---
> f9dc570b
338c336
< Modules linked in: tuner cx88_dvb cx8802 cx88_alsa cx8800 cx88xx ir_common cx88_vp3054_i2c compat_ioctl32 tveeprom videodev v4l1_compat v4l2_common i2c_algo_bit mt352 dvb_pll or51132 video_buf_dvb dvb_core snd_via82xx gameport snd_ac97_codec snd_ac97_bus nxt200x firmware_class snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_timer snd_page_alloc snd_mpu401_uart snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device irtty_sir sir_dev snd isl6421 zl10353 cx24123 lgdt330x cx22702 i2c_viapro parport_pc parport 8250_pnp 8250 serial_core irda serio_raw soundcore ehci_hcd i2c_core video_buf btcx_risc uhci_hcd usbcore shpchp pci_hotplug evdev
---
> Modules linked in: shpchp pci_hotplug parport_pc parport 8250_pnp 8250 serial_core irtty_sir sir_dev irda serio_raw snd_via82xx gameport snd_ac97_codec snd_ac97_bus snd_mpu401_uart snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device i2c_viapro tuner cx88_alsa snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_timer cx88_dvb cx8802 cx88_vp3054_i2c mt352 dvb_pll or51132 video_buf_dvb dvb_core nxt200x uhci_hcd firmware_class usbcore snd isl6421 zl10353 cx24123 lgdt330x soundcore cx22702 snd_page_alloc cx8800 cx88xx ir_common i2c_algo_bit tveeprom i2c_core video_buf compat_ioctl32 btcx_risc videodev v4l1_compat v4l2_common evdev
340c338
< EIP: 0060:[<f8e7870b>] Not tainted VLI
---
> EIP: 0060:[<f9dc570b>] Not tainted VLI
343,344c341,342
< eax: 00000000 ebx: f6a46e40 ecx: 00000001 edx: f6a6c800
< esi: 00000000 edi: f6a6c840 ebp: 00000000 esp: f6f4bda4
---
> eax: 00000000 ebx: f69098c0 ecx: 00000001 edx: f6830400
> esi: 00000000 edi: f6830440 ebp: 00000000 esp: f6eafda4
346,349c344,347
< Process amixer (pid: 2062, ti=f6f4a000 task=f7fe36b0 task.ti=f6f4a000)
< Stack: f8da374f f6a46e40 f6a6c800 22222222 f6a44d4c 00000000 f6a44dbc f6a6c800
< f6a44c00 f8da4f83 f6a44c00 f6a6c800 f6f4bdf4 f6a51e40 00000000 f8cd9000
< 00000000 f6a46ea8 f6a44d4c f6a44d4c 00000001 00000002 00000000 00000000
---
> Process amixer (pid: 2008, ti=f6eae000 task=f7e02070 task.ti=f6eae000)
> Stack: f8d5474f f69098c0 f6830400 22222222 f6df7d4c 00000000 f6df7dbc f6830400
> f6df7c00 f8d55f83 f6df7c00 f6830400 f6eafdf4 f6eefb40 00000000 f9dbc000
> 00000000 f6909928 f6df7d4c f6df7d4c 00000001 00000002 00000000 00000000
351,352c349,350
< [<f8da374f>] snd_ctl_elem_read+0xbf/0xd0 [snd]
< [<f8da4f83>] snd_ctl_ioctl+0x863/0xb10 [snd]
---
> [<f8d5474f>] snd_ctl_elem_read+0xbf/0xd0 [snd]
> [<f8d55f83>] snd_ctl_ioctl+0x863/0xb10 [snd]
364,367c362,364
< Code: e1 05 0f bc c2 75 05 b8 ff ff ff ff 01 c8 e9 81 fe ff ff 0f 0b 9c 01 70 8e e7 f8 e9 aa fe ff ff 8b 44 24 04 8b 54 24 08 8b 40 5c <8b> 00 8b 40 38 8b 80 94 05 32 00 83 f0 ff 83 e0 3f 89 42 44 31
< EIP: [<f8e7870b>] snd_cx88_capture_volume_get+0xb/0x30 [cx88_alsa] SS:ESP 0068:f6f4bda4
< <6>usb 1-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
< DVB: registering new adapter (cx88[0]).
---
> Code: e1 05 0f bc c2 75 05 b8 ff ff ff ff 01 c8 e9 81 fe ff ff 0f 0b 9c 01 70 5e dc f9 e9 aa fe ff ff 8b 44 24 04 8b 54 24 08 8b 40 5c <8b> 00 8b 40 38 8b 80 94 05 32 00 83 f0 ff 83 e0 3f 89 42 44 31
> EIP: [<f9dc570b>] snd_cx88_capture_volume_get+0xb/0x30 [cx88_alsa] SS:ESP 0068:f6eafda4
> DVB: registering new adapter (cx88[0]).
368a366,367
> ALSA /usr/src/modules/alsa-driver/acore/init.c:133: cannot find the slot for index 0 (range 0-0)
> VIA 82xx Audio: probe of 0000:00:11.5 failed with error -12
371a371
> usb 1-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Most of the differences don't look noteworthy with a few funky usb type errors. Also, the only module that wasn't linked at bootup for the bad bootup was ehci_hcd which appears to be for high speed usb connections and I am not too worried about that. The biggest thing I noticed is that on the bad boot the tuner comes up as tuner 1 : Code: < tuner 1-0043: chip found @ 0x86 (cx88[0])
< tda9887 1-0043: tda988[5/6/7] found @ 0x43 (tuner)
< tuner 1-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx88[0])
< tuner 1-0061: type set to 64 (LG TDVS-H06xF)
And in the good boot the tuner comes up as tuner 0: Code: > tuner 0-0043: chip found @ 0x86 (cx88[0])
> tda9887 0-0043: tda988[5/6/7] found @ 0x43 (tuner)
> tuner 0-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx88[0])
> tuner 0-0061: type set to 64 (LG TDVS-H06xF)
I assume that myth is looking for tuner 0 and when its not there thats when watching livetv or recording live tv has a problem. Also, I assume that this problem with the bad boot: Code: > ALSA /usr/src/modules/alsa-driver/acore/init.c:133: cannot find the slot for index 0 (range 0-0)
> VIA 82xx Audio: probe of 0000:00:11.5 failed with error -12
is maybe caused by the system looking for something on tuner 0 which isn't there on the bad boot.
Please let me know what you think. Does this look like a hardware problem with my tuner? A configuration problem? I am glad to be moving in the right direction and i owe it all to the help from this board. Thanks again for everything.
-BigMrT123
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tjc
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:21 am |
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:00 am
Posts: 9551
Location:
Arlington, MA
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Possibly the udev order swapping problem... Searching for "udev" and "order" should turn up a couple threads with details on how to pin this down. Look for the posts by bruce_s01 who was one of the first folks to work through this..
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bigmrt123
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:08 am |
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:59 am
Posts: 11
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Hey all
Thanks for all the help. tjc, thanks for pointing me toward the udev stuff. It was some good reading although i don't think it applied to me in my case since i only have one capture card. I am going to add another soon so i am glad i read up on the subject.
Here is a quick update. The good news is that I think I have figured out what was wrong with my unreliable startup and it had to do with my sound card not starting up correctly some of the time. Whenever I got this message in dmesg:
Code: VIA 82xx Audio: probe of 0000:00:11.5 failed with error -12 Mythbackend would not work with livetv or recording a program. I did some searching and found this post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=433011So i modified the file /etc/modprobe.d/sound and changed it so its contents are as follows: Code: # ALSA portion
options snd cards_limit=2
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias snd-card-1 cx88-alsa
options snd-via82xx index=0
options cx88-alsa index=1
# OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx
alias sound-slot-1 cx88-alsa
Now everything is working great. I am sure I will stumble accross some other problem soon  . Thanks again for everything.
-BigMrT123
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