I am helping a friend get a KnoppMyth Box up and going.

Here are the specs:
Athlon64 3000+
Asus A8N-VM CSM
512MB Corsair Value memory
Seagate 250GB SATA
Antec 350 Watt PSU
Removed: Homemade LIRC serial receiver
Homemade Hauppauge IR Receiver
Hauppauge WinTV
Hauppauge PVR-250

The box was put together and tested for a couple of days on a work bench. I was having trouble with LIRC and the stock SMP kernel. I ended up recompiling the kernel (using the same config and source as stock KnoppMyth) except removing SMP support. I then had to recompile LIRC using the latest version (0.8). I also downloaded and compiled the newest version of linux-wlan-ng to support usb. At this point I had a fully working system. I was able to use a VCR and a product display device from work (composite and audio output) as inputs to the WinTV. "Live" TV and recording was working well.

My friend then decided he wanted to be able to watch one show while recording a second. He ordered a PVR-250. Once the new card came in I downloaded the ivtv drivers (ver 0.7.0) and compiled them. After installing the PVR-250 everything worked on the test bench so I powered down the system and my friend took it home.

After setting the system up at home he is now experiencing random system crashes. Sometimes just the frontend crashes and he is able to restart the computer with a mouse. Other times the entire system hard locks and he has to hit the power button.

Most of the time when this happens there is nothing in the log file. One time there was what appeared to be a kernel oops. Here is the log from that:



Does anyone have any idea what may be the problem here? I have tried to Google for the function names above, but have not yet found anything useful.

Thanks,
James

What KM version and kernel? The ivtv 0.7.0 is specifically tagged as only being for use with kernel 2.6.17. It should already be in place for R5D1, and be incompatible with the kernel in R5C7.

Have you run a memtest for an extended period (24 to 72 hours)?

Have you checked to make sure you don't have one of the Via chipsets which have a DMA problem? http://www.hauppauge.com/html/lockups.htm#MOMLIST

Thanks for the reply!

KnoppMyth is R5D1
Kernel is 2.6.17-chw8 same as stock R5D1 just recompiled with SMP off
Chipset is nVidia 430/6150 (I have the same MB working fine with a PVR-500)

I have not run a memtest, but the system ran fine for days on the workbench before being put in place by the TV.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
James

Well, one of the big lessons from my travelling joe days is that anytime you physically ship/transport/move a machine, it pays to pop the cover, check all the connections, and run some tests.

Next lesson is that it always pays to double check the site power and require a UPS.

Yeah, I'm probably telling you things you already know, but it never hurts to triple check.

Thanks for the reply tjc!

The system is powered by a UPS (APC 1100 VA or some such, plenty of power for the myth box).

I am about to have the system back on a workbench, but I don't know what may be the most helpful in regard to troubleshooting.

I am thinking of switching back to the stock kernel (SMP) because that is what I run on my box. I will however loose the linux-wlan-ng drivers and need to recompile them. Of course I can't imagine why a SMP kernel would be more stabel than a non-smp kernel. I used the same source and same config except for the SMP change.

It seems the box crashes more frequently running the frontend (watching something) than just recording shows with the backend.

I will post again once I can test with the stock KnoppMyth kernel.

Thanks,
James

There are some drivers (especially for wifi) which are not SMP safe.

try turning off APIC and APM in your lilo boot options.

I was having random unexplained front end crahses and tracked it down to certain themes. When I switched to Titivillus my crashes stopped. Unfortunately, I can't remember which thems I had problems with...

Well, I now have the problem box on the workbench at my office. Today I wiped the HD and did a clean install of R5D1.

I have a DVD player connected to a WinTV card (Composite1) as the first input card and a VCR connected to a PVR-250 (Tuner1) as the second input card.

After the clean install I had a crash almost immediately. The last thing in the log file was something about bttv0 (WinTV) card.

I have swapped out the WinTV card for another and am currently recording on both cards.

Tomorrow I will see if it crashed and what the log file shows.

Thanks,
James

Well, after swapping out the WinTV card I am still having crashes.

I ran memtest86 for a couple of hours and it reported no errors. I had an extra stick of RAM handy so I swapped it out. Crashes still happening.

I thought maybe the PVR-250 card is to blame. I removed the 250 card and had only the WinTV card still in the system. Crashes still.

The last thing I did today was remove the WinTV card and re-install the PVR-250. I left the system playing a DVD (from standalone player on continous loop). Tomorrow I will see if Ihave a crash again.

Thanks,
James

This morning when I got to work the front end had crashed. The rest of the system was up and running. Just the frontend had crashed. Here is the error:


It had some numbers after it that I had taken off screen before posting this, but it looked like a memory address (hex value).

At this point I have disabled XvMC and am currently watching TV.

CPUusage is around 15-25% outputting at 1024x768. In the final install this system will be outputting through S-Video so CPU usage should go lower.

I'll report again once I get a crash or several hours of successful LiveTV.

Thanks,
James

Just grasping at straws I disabled XvMC (by commenting out the only line in /etc/X11/XvMCConfig).

At this point I had just the PVR-250 card installed and XvMC disabled.

I started watching LiveTV and let it run for most of the day. ~8 hrs.

Since everything appeared to be working well I re-installed the WinTV card along with the PVR-250. Within a couple of minutes I had a system crash.

Does anyone have R5D1 working with a WinTV (bttv driver) and a PVR-250 (ivtv driver)?

Thanks,
James

Another update in my ongoing saga.

I remembered that I originally had this system up and running with R5C7 before adding the PVR-250 card. As a test I re-installed R5C7 and set it up. I had a few issues with the initrd (sata_nv module missing) and the sound (snd-hda-intel with a high pitch whine) I got it up and running.

Shortly after getting R5C7 up I had another crash.

My next thought was to try a different video driver. I first tried the open source nv driver in R5C7. It was unable to recognize the NVidia card (6150) on the motherboard.

I thought maybe the nv driver in R5D1 is newer and so I re-installed R5D1. Its nv driver is also too lold to be used by with a DeForce 6150 card.

As a last resort I tried the vesa driver. So far the system has been running stabley for ~30 minutes recording on both cards and watching video. I plan to leave it running all weekend to see what happens.

Next question: How do I update just the X server in KnoppMyth or should I try an older version of the NVidia binary driver?

Thanks,
James

This morning I walked in to see the Myth box running. It had finished the the recording I started on Friday afternoon and was asking to delete it or save.

I went back to watching live tv and hit record. I then went back to watch live tv and hit record again. I left the system watching one of the live tv streams. Within a few minutes I had a crash.

As with all the other crashes this is a hard lock.

After a restart the system is recording on both cards while sitting at the select a recroding to watch screen.

My current theory is that the northbridge may be overheating. Teh northbridge is passively cooled and the heatsink is very warm. The CPU cooler is cool to the touch.

Just because I could I removed the northbridge heatsink and cleaned the chip and heatsink. After applying a generous amount of Artic Silver the heatsink was attached to the MB.

The system recorded on both cards while watching one recording for about 20 minutes before a hard lock.