[mythtv-users] remote front end locks up playing live

[Mike Daugird]

On 19/09/05, David W Davis <davidw.davis at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just finished a fresh fc4 install utilizing Jarod's guide.  I have a
> master backend/frontend that can record, watch live tv and play
> recordings with no problem.  My remote frontend locks up on a black
> screen when attempting to watch live tv or recordings.  If I go to the
> recordings menu, I can still see the previews playing but as soon as I
> select one the screen goes black and the machine locks up.  Both
> machines are fairly similar.  They have AMD processors, the remote
> frontend has an XP 2700+ and the backend a sempron 2500+.  Both have
> Nvidia cards, the frontend a Ti4200, the backend an older Nvidia card
> (TNT2 maybe?).  The frontend has an Nforce2 chipset and the backend a
> Via chipset.  Where should I look to find out what is causing this?
> Any help/suggestions are appreciated.  Thanks.

Which window manager are you using?
I had a problem like this but my solutions may not work for you. 
when I would startx during testing I found my window manager to be
twm by default. The screen would go black as it seemed to have
focus problems. xfce4 worked much better for me.
first get sshd started and log in from a second machine. Then
you will have to chmod and chown the ring buffer directory, 
the video devices, the infrared devices and the stored video directory
so that your normal user can read/write to these devices. You will
also need to make sure your .lircrc file is in the users home directory.
Make sure you are running the front and backends that normal user 
not as root. 
IMHO, if the front and backends are running as a user it is harder
to "lock up" the machine. 
Now if you try to watch live TV you should be able to see the logs from
the ssh terminal on your second box.
that may help debug your problem
HTH