[mythtv-users] Firewire stopped working

[Obie Fayth]

     Just when I finally had everything working nicely I went and
updated my system and moved the backend and cable box to a different
room and now my firewire connection to the HD cable box has stopped
working. Foolishly I didn't reboot the backend between the time I ran
the yum upgrade and when I physically moved the machine. I've been
using firewire to capture video from a Motorola DCX-3200M cable box
for several months now and haven't had any issues until today. I
followed the guide on the MythTV Wiki (www.mythtv.org/wiki/FireWire)
when I originally set this up, but things are not going as smoothly
for me this time and I'm running out of ideas for what to check.

Linux version:      2.6.35.14-95.fc14.x86_64
MythTV Version:  v0.24.1-80-g1de0431
Motorola DCX-3200M cable box. <-- this is the only firewire device
connected to the backend
I'm using the built-in firewire port on my Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3 motherboard


Mythbackend works fine, it is just the firewire connection that is
broken. I have a second, analog capture card and the system is still
happily recording using that source.

I've checked all the wiring and connected the cable box to a tv to
verify the coax to the new backend location is good. I've also changed
the channel on the cable box to a local public access station which I
assume is not encrypted (some of the suggestions I found said not to
start with the box on an encrypted station). I've tried powering up
the backend and cable box with the firewire disconnected and waited
for them to finish booting before connecting the cable, but it doesn't
seem to make any difference.

I've copied the results I'm getting from the commands the wiki article
describes using to configure a firewire connection. I've been working
struggling with this for the last few hours and am not really sure
what to try next. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
-Obie




# lsmod | grep firewire
firewire_ohci          21426  0
firewire_core          45865  5 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t               1563  1 firewire_core


# plugreport
Host Adapter 0
==============

Node 0 GUID 0x0025f2fffe1667d5
------------------------------
oMPR n_plugs=1, data_rate=2, bcast_channel=63
oPCR[0] online=1, bcast_connection=0, n_p2p_connections=1
        channel=0, data_rate=1, overhead_id=0, payload=376
iMPR n_plugs=0, data_rate=2

Node 1 GUID 0x001a4d0000ea3b47
------------------------------
libiec61883 error: error reading oMPR
libiec61883 error: error reading iMPR


Often when I boot the two nodes are swapped.and the cable box shows up
as node 1 instead of node 0 as shown above. This happened earlier
while the firewire connection was working, but I'm pointing it out as
it seems a little odd.



I can run test-mpeg2 to try and capture some data from the cable box,
but the resulting file is always empty:
# test-mpeg2 -r 0 > /video/test.mpg
Starting to receive
(I manually cancel out of this after ~15 seconds...)

$ ll /video/test.mpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Sep  6 23:46 test.mpg


Running firewire_tester gives me these results:
# firewire_tester -p -n 0 -v
raw1394: Allocating handle, port 0.
Action: Test P2P connection 1 times, node 0, channel 0
P2P: Testing...P2P: Creating, node 0, channel 0
Failed
P2P: Disconnecting.
raw1394: Releasing handle.


I had been using p2p in the past, but tried broadcast mode too without luck:
# firewire_tester -b -n 0 -v
raw1394: Allocating handle, port 0.
Action: Test broadcast 1 times, node 0, channel 63
Broadcast: Creating, node 0, channel 63
Broadcast: Testing...Failed
Broadcast: Disconnecting.
raw1394: Releasing handle.

# dmesg | grep firewire
[    2.110119] firewire_ohci 0000:01:0e.0: PCI INT A -> Link[APC3] ->
GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[    2.161127] firewire_ohci: Added fw-ohci device 0000:01:0e.0, OHCI
v1.10, 4 IR + 8 IT contexts, quirks 0x2
[    2.161153] firewire_ohci: isochronous cycle inconsistent
[    2.662235] firewire_core: created device fw0: GUID 001a4d0000ea3b47, S400
[    2.668297] firewire_core: created device fw1: GUID 0025f2fffe1667d5, S400
[    2.668305] firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5
[ 1173.799048] firewire_core: BM lock failed, making local node (ffc0) root.
[ 1173.799060] firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc0, gap_count=5
[ 1174.449327] firewire_core: Unsolicited response (source ffc0, tlabel 23)
[ 1174.449427] firewire_core: Unsolicited response (source ffc0, tlabel 24)
[ 1174.449540] firewire_core: Unsolicited response (source ffc0, tlabel 29)
[ 1174.449654] firewire_core: Unsolicited response (source ffc0, tlabel 2a)
[ 1174.449767] firewire_core: Unsolicited response (source ffc0, tlabel 2b)
[ 1174.449882] firewire_core: Unsolicited response (source ffc0, tlabel 2c)