mythtv hard locks

dpl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:54 am Post subject: mythtv hard locks

Good evening folks,

I'm setting up a mythtv box, and have had some bizarre problems.
When I try to run myth-setup, it does a hard lock. Since I can't set it up, it's quite tricky to do anything.
I've got fluxbox as the desktop, and have dri working on the video card (glxinfo says it is at least).
I've checked all the logs I can find, and nothing out of the ordinary happens when it locks up.
I had tried mythbuntu previous to this, with a very similar problem, then came back to gentoo because I thought that might solve whatever problem I was having.
If you have any idea what could be wrong, please let me know. I can check/submit any logs or config files you think I might have missed. Thanks for any help.

The configuration is like this:
Dell GX150
Intel P3 1133 processor
512 megs ram
2x250gb ide hard drives
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 AGP card
RaLink RT2561/RT61 wireless card
Currently on a dell LCD monitor.
_________________
puto risi vidi

dpl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:31 pm Post subject:

Ok, so I've tried a few more things since the last post. I downgraded the nvidia driver from 173 to 96. Same thing.
Downgraded again to 71, and this fixed the freezing, but made it look like crap (I think it was stuck in 8bit or something like that).
I've got the opensource nv driver installed now, and waiting for mplayer to finish compiling, but I'm worried the video will be choppy.
I'll post once I know if this works or not.
_________________
puto risi vidi

dpl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject:

The open source driver worked great, until I tried to get it working on the TV. So I tried another card (geforce 5500), and it has the same locking problems.
So I'm back to square one. I can't get it working on the TV with the nv driver, and the nvidia driver seems to make it lock up.
Anyone have any hints?
_________________
puto risi vidi

bunder · Bodhisattva Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 5934

are you using the stock power supply? if i remember correctly those gx150's came with a 125w psu... you might be overloading it and it only manifests itself when using the video card extensively.
_________________

dpl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the reply bunder. It is the stock power supply, but it's not locking when playing video, only when browsing through the mythfronend which I would assume is less intensive than watching a movie.
Some other notes:
This machine doesn't have a tv-tuner card in it. I wouldn't imagine that would cause mythtv to lock up, but maybe that's part of the problem.
I did find some errors in the /var/log/messages file. They are:

dpl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:24 pm Post subject:

Ok, I've tried an nvidia 5500 as well. Still same old story. I'm pretty sure it's not the video card, but maybe it has to do with the video driver.
Still lockin' up though.
_________________
puto risi vidi

dpl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject:

And one more thing I just thought of:
I have another mythtv box at home (I'm not at home right now, so I can't check the configuration) that also has a geforce 5500 in it. This makes me thing that it's not the graphics card, or specifically the driver, but another part that is conflicting with it.
I have no idea what it could be conflicting with, and why the proprietary nvidia drivers don't work but the open source nv drivers do. This seems like quite an odd problem, and I haven't seen anything quite like it online anywhere.
So I guess now the problem is to find out what the nvidia drivers conflict with on this specific desktop. If anyone has an idea, I'll try just about anything right now.
_________________
puto risi vidi