[mythtv-users] Help debugging XvMC freezes

[Kevin Kuphal]

On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 5:03 PM, Misty P <mistyp at thekorn.net> wrote:

> I have a fully working mythtv frontend/backend combination running on an
> nvidia 7300LE.  Running myth version 16838 .  Viewing content using xv,
> it's
> solid as a ROCK!  No, *really*, so far (2 months in) it's never failed.
>
> Since I had a decent GPU, I decided to try playing with XvMC.  I installed
> envy, had it upgrade my nvidia drivers, and all was well.  I added another
> playback config with XvMC, and it worked!  The OSD was in black and white,
> but that was an acceptable trade off to me.
>
>
> EXCEPT that now the front end will randomly freeze while playing back
> content.  It doesn't matter if I'm watching Live TV or something recorded.
> I'll be watching something, and the screen will just freeze on that frame.
> Sometimes I'll be watching for twenty minutes, sometimes it'll be for two.
> There's no rhyme or reason as to when the freezes happen.
>
> Once frozen, the front end is *completely* dead.  If I SSH into the
> machine,
> I can kill the front end and restart it OK.  If I then go and view the
> same
> recording at the same point, it will NOT crash again.  (i.e. this isn't a
> "bad content" issue.)
>
> What's throwing me is that there is absolutely NOTHING interesting in the
> log files.  Just the standard "switching from none to live TV" and "using
> XvMC" type messages that you normally see.  No warnings, no errors,
> nothing
> "interesting".  I've also checked the nvidia core temperature via nvclock,
> and when the frontend freezes the GPU is sitting around 55C.  (It's
> *always*
> at that temperature, whether using xv or XvMC.)  So I don't think it's a
> GPU
> overheating issue, either.
>
>
>
> Where/how do I begin debugging this?
>
> (Note that if I switch the playback profile back to the xv profile, the
> system goes back to being stable as a rock.  So I have a work around, but
> I'd like to use XvMC if I can get it working reliably.)


It is likely a hardware driver issue.  Myth can't cause your machine to lock
like that, only something at a very low level like a driver.  I'd back down
the nvidia version to something less recent and see if that helps (or even
your previous version)

Kevin
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