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| R5E50 - Hangs and other stability problems. http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13225 |
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| Author: | acronce [ Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | R5E50 - Hangs and other stability problems. |
I've got a new install of R5E50 on a backend server, with a Mac OS X front end. So far I'm impressed with MythTV in general and KnoppMyth in particular. However I'm seeing some stability problems that are a concern. The first problem was that the backend froze the other night. I couldn't ping or ssh to the machine. I had to do a hard power down and reboot. I didn't see anything in the logs that stood out. But I'm a myth noob, so maybe I'm not looking in the right place. The second problem happened this morning. I was moving forward after pausing live tv when the backend went non-responding. I quit and relaunched the remote frontend, but was told that all the tuners were in use. There was no scheduled recording, just me trying to watch live tv. I happened to be ssh'd into the backend when this problem happened, and I got some disturbing messages in the terminal. Here they are: Code: Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ...
mythtv kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------ Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:1572! Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: PREEMPT SMP Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: CPU: 0 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: EIP is at kmem_freepages+0xaa/0xc0 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: eax: 8000082c ebx: c1517080 ecx: fffffffa edx: 00000000 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: esi: 00000001 edi: c19fc1e0 ebp: e8b84000 esp: f7e1de30 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: ds: 007b es: 007b ss: 0068 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: Process kswapd0 (pid: 181, ti=f7e1c000 task=f7e147f0 task.ti=f7e1c000) Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: Stack: c19fc1e0 00000000 e8984000 e8b84000 c01775e0 c19f0260 00000000 c19fc1e0 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: c19f5428 c0177724 00000001 0000001b 00000014 c19f53d8 0000001b c19fc1e0 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: 0000000c c01773c4 00000000 c19f53c0 c19f0284 e89aa278 c19f53c0 00000246 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: Call Trace: Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: Code: 00 00 89 e8 e8 88 87 fe ff f6 87 96 00 00 00 02 74 14 8b 8f 9c 00 00 00 b8 01 00 00 00 d3 e0 90 29 05 10 7d 6f c0 5b 5e 5f 5d c3 <0f> 0b 24 06 6b cd 57 c0 eb a5 8d b6 00 00 00 00 8d bf 00 00 00 Message from syslogd@mythtv at Mon Jan 1 08:41:26 2007 ... mythtv kernel: EIP: [<c017736a>] kmem_freepages+0xaa/0xc0 SS:ESP 0068:f7e1de30 Seems to be related to memory problems. But I'm totally unfamiliar with the myth source code, so it isn't clear to me what to do with the above info. I rebooted the machine to get back to a working state. In case it helps, here's the specs for my deployment: * Backend: - Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus MOBO - Athlon 1800+ - 1 GB RAM - 300 GB Seagate ATA hard drive * Tuner - HDHomerun (with both tuners configured) * Remote frontend: - Mac OS X MacBook Pro I really like myth, but can't use it if I have to keep kick starting the backend in the head like this. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. |
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| Author: | tjc [ Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Is the chipset on that Motherboard one of the Via ones? You may want to look into the DMA workarounds for that chipset if it is... Also look for my postings about the "C1 Disconnect" issue. |
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| Author: | acronce [ Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
tjc wrote: Is the chipset on that Motherboard one of the Via ones? You may want to look into the DMA workarounds for that chipset if it is... Also look for my postings about the "C1 Disconnect" issue.
Yes, it is a VIA chipset. Thanks for your pointers. I'll take a look. Also, I'll consider a different motherboard in the future. This machine is just one that I had laying around. Since this is my first myth installation, I'm considering this a practice run anyway. |
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| Author: | gasheets [ Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:09 am ] |
| Post subject: | HDHomerun and R5E50 |
acronce, I would love to hear a little more about your HDHomerun setup. Sounds like we have a remarkably similar setup both on the frontend and the backend. I haven't had time to really delve into R5E50 yet, but I hope to this weekend. Are you using the HDHomeRun for OTA on both tuners, or are you using QAM? I haven't investigated if the mythtv .20.1 fixes necessary for QAM with HDHomerun are in there yet. At first scan, it didn't appear that they were. Thanks, Tony |
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| Author: | acronce [ Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:10 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: HDHomerun and R5E50 |
Hi Tony, gasheets wrote: I would love to hear a little more about your HDHomerun setup.
Sounds like we have a remarkably similar setup both on the frontend and the backend. I haven't had time to really delve into R5E50 yet, but I hope to this weekend. Are you using the HDHomeRun for OTA on both tuners, or are you using QAM? I haven't investigated if the mythtv .20.1 fixes necessary for QAM with HDHomerun are in there yet. At first scan, it didn't appear that they were. I'm using both tuners for OTA. I don't have cable currently. I've been very happy with the HDHomerun. Setup was flawless using the silicondust forums instructions. And the few issues I've had with Myth have not been related to the tuners. My only issue with the HDHomerun is that when I first got the unit, it ran really hot. At rest it was 109 degrees fahrenheit on top and 126 on the bottom. But for some odd reason, the temps have dropped considerably to 99 on top and 107 on the bottom. Please let me know if you need more information. |
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| Author: | gasheets [ Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:53 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Allen, 2x OTA. Dang, I was afraid you'd say that. I've had a heck of a time trying to get QAM to work on the HDHomerun under KnoppMyth. I updated my last release via SVN (breaking a few things along the way), but was able to get QAM working. It was a small victory, as I pretty much hosed everything else that mattered to me. I play with it this weekend. I'll report back if I get QAM to work. It was really pretty neat when it worked. I get miserable reception in my area OTA, and only have basic cable. Thank you for the speedy reply. Tony |
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| Author: | acronce [ Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
After reviewing the forum, I became suspicious that my stability problems are DMA related. Especially since I have no PCI cards installed (I use the HDHomerun for my tuners). Of course another possible cause of stability problems is bad memory. So I ran memtest 86 from a boot CD. Sure enough, it found a couple of bad addresses. I've replaced the bad memory and now have a clean bill of health from memtest. Hopefully this resolves the stability problems. |
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| Author: | acronce [ Sat Feb 24, 2007 10:22 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Since replacing the bad memory, I've had uptime of over 40 days on my backend box. So memory was definitely the problem. If you're setting up a new system, or if you're seeing any stability problems, I highly recommend running a comprehensive memory diagnostic like memtest86. |
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| Author: | neutron68 [ Sat Feb 24, 2007 11:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | backend drops are a known problem |
acronce wrote: Since replacing the bad memory, I've had uptime of over 40 days on my backend box. So memory was definitely the problem.
If you're setting up a new system, or if you're seeing any stability problems, I highly recommend running a comprehensive memory diagnostic like memtest86. There is a known bug in R5E50 where the backend stops randomly. Thornsoft wrote a backend-babysitter script which he runs once a minute (as a cron job) to make sure the backend is running and stays running. See this thread for details: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13613&highlight= |
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| Author: | tjc [ Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Note that you should disable any such magic restart script during backups and restores. It's a really, really bad idea to have something restarting servers when the backup/restore process has shut them down because it needs the DB in "quiet" state. |
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| Author: | neutron68 [ Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | shutting down babysitting scripts? |
tjc wrote: Note that you should disable any such magic restart script during backups and restores. It's a really, really bad idea to have something restarting servers when the backup/restore process has shut them down because it needs the DB in "quiet" state.
How do we disable a cron job before a backup? Just comment out the line that calls the babysitter script in the /root/crontab.txt file? |
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| Author: | tjc [ Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I'm not sure cron will automatically reread it. You may need to restart it or signal it to do that. It might be simpler to temporarily rename the script or replace it with a do nothing dummy. |
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