[SOLVED] MythTV, anyone?

[CharlesWGreenJr]

I'm in 'any day now' mode for the arrival of my SheevaPlug, and I was wondering if anyone else is planning to install Myth (DVR software) on this, or already has.

My plan is to get a USB tuner (we have analog service from our cable provider) which supports MPEG-2 hardware compression (to reduce bandwidth), and a USB hard drive (necessitating a USB hub) in addition to the Ethernet interface, to use this as a MythTV backend.

Thanks for any pointers / suggestions!

-Charles Green

[moshiach]

Give it a try, but remember that there is no floating point processor so just about anything media related requiring transcoding is probably going to bring it to it's knees.  Let us know how it works out though.  It would be a nifty use.

[CharlesWGreenJr]

Yeah, this will simply be the backend (possibly slave) which just copies the streams onto disk, and so needs to be left on 24/7 - my current MythTV box (which will then be able to be powered off when not actively being used) can handle any commercial cutting, conversion to and writing of DVDs, etc.

Hopefully when it massages the data that was captured by the SheevaPlug (retrieved via Ethernet) the result doesn't need to go back into the same directory on the 'plug; I have a bit of MythTV research to do since for the several years I've used it I've only ever had one backend machine.

My wife was notified yesterday that the SheevaPlug has shipped, so it shouldn't be long now!

(As an aside, I wish scaled fixed-point were more common; it can often do the jobs floating-point is used for, and sometimes more accurately.  But then I still have a couple of Atari 800XL computers...)

-Charles

[CharlesWGreenJr]

'Any day' for me turned out to be the day after Earth Day; I plugged it in, pinged the local subnet to find the Ethernet address it had gotten from DHCP, and set to work: 'apt-get update', 'apt-get upgrade', etc. to get the initial stable system.

Since it appears an ARM version of mythtv-backend isn't available in the repositories yet, I followed http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1082489&page=7 and added deb-src, repeated 'apt-get update' and did 'apt-get install build-essential' to get the compilers and such.

After 'apt-get source mythtv-backend' I ran the 'configure' script and discovered I needed FreeType ('apt-get install libfreetype6-dev' appeared to satisfy that), then was told I needed 'a Threaded version of QT'.  I'm guessing that 'apt-get install qt4-dev-tools' will satisfy that requirement.

However, the number of prerequisite packages for that would take up more space than I had left in flash, so at this point I initialized a 4 GB SDHC flash card per http://openplug.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=22.0 and, after copying my /usr filesystem onto it, mounted it as /usr and (after updating /etc/fstab appropriately) rebooted - all seemed well.

Back to 'apt-get install qt4-dev-tools', it currently goes chugging along up to the following point (this is from a rerun after a reboot):

Code:

root@debian:/var/log# apt-get install qt4-dev-tools
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
qt4-dev-tools is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up hal (0.5.12~rc1+git20090403-0ubuntu1) ...
 * Reloading system message bus config...                                [ OK ]
 * Starting Hardware abstraction layer hald

<<<<<< here there is a 4-1/2 minute pause >>>>>>

invoke-rc.d: initscript hal, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing hal (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 hal
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I poked around and found the following in /var/log/messages, from approximately the beginning of the four-plus-minute wait:

Code:

Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Internal error: Oops: 5 [#3]
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Modules linked in:
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: CPU: 0    Not tainted  (2.6.22.18 #1)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: PC is at strnlen+0x20/0x34
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: LR is at vsnprintf+0x314/0x5b4
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: pc : [<c0240228>]    lr : [<c02414f8>]    psr: a0000013
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: sp : d92a3dc0  ip : d92a3dd0  fp : d92a3dcc
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: r10: ffffffff  r9 : ffffffff  r8 : 00000000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: r7 : ffffffff  r6 : d9023054  r5 : 000280d0  r4 : d92a3e40
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: r3 : c00c8994  r2 : 000280d0  r1 : fffffffe  r0 : 000280d0
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Flags: NzCv  IRQs on  FIQs on  Mode SVC_32  Segment user
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Control: 0005317f  Table: 190b4000  DAC: 00000015
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Process udevadm (pid: 1487, stack limit = 0xd92a2268)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Stack: (0xd92a3dc0 to 0xd92a4000)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3dc0: d92a3e1c d92a3dd0 c02414f8 c0240218 0000001b 00000002 00000000 00000fce
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3de0: d92a3e5c 26fdcfab d9023054 c00d321a d92a3e44 0000001c 00000054 d9020000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3e00: d9023000 dfccf0c8 00000000 c03fc7a4 d92a3e38 d92a3e20 c0241864 c02411f4
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3e20: dfccf070 d92a3e40 d9023000 d92a3eec d92a3e48 c026ef10 c024184c c00d3219
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3e40: 000280d0 000280d0 d9020000 00001000 d9020000 d902000e d902001d d9020032
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3e60: d902003e 00000044 000280d0 c03f1574 00000000 00000000 ffffff9c c03f1574
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3e80: dfd7a4e8 000080d0 c03f1570 c08a6040 00000000 00000000 d92a3eec d92a3ea8
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3ea0: c01472ec c0146724 000280d0 00000010 c074d460 d92a2000 40022000 40021000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3ec0: 00100073 de267220 dfd7a4e8 dfccf070 de267220 dfd7a4e8 dfccf070 de267240
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3ee0: d92a3efc d92a3ef0 c026e810 c026ee28 d92a3f44 d92a3f00 c019ca14 c026e7fc
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3f00: d92a3f74 d92a3f10 c0153c60 d92a3f70 00001000 40021000 00000000 d9026460
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3f20: 40021000 d92a3f70 00001000 40021000 d92a2000 00000000 d92a3f6c d92a3f48
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3f40: c01625e8 c019c964 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 d9026460 00001000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3f60: d92a3fa4 d92a3f70 c01629fc c0162540 00000000 00000000 00000022 00000000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3f80: ffffffff 2a024bf8 2a024bf8 000007ff 00000003 c0027628 00000000 d92a3fa8
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3fa0: c0027480 c01629c8 2a024bf8 2a024bf8 00000007 40021000 00001000 00000000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3fc0: 2a024bf8 2a024bf8 000007ff 00000003 be974f2c 0000000a 4001e710 be974f2c
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: 3fe0: 40178000 be974e88 400b2b04 401063fc 60000010 00000007 001e5194 0042caa8
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Backtrace:
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c0240208>] (strnlen+0x0/0x34) from [<c02414f8>] (vsnprintf+0x314/0x5b4)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c02411e4>] (vsnprintf+0x0/0x5b4) from [<c0241864>] (sprintf+0x2c/0x34)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c0241838>] (sprintf+0x0/0x34) from [<c026ef10>] (show_uevent+0xf8/0x140)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel:  r3:000280d0 r2:000280d0 r1:c00d3219
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c026ee18>] (show_uevent+0x0/0x140) from [<c026e810>] (dev_attr_show+0x24/0x28)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel:  r7:de267240 r6:dfccf070 r5:dfd7a4e8 r4:de267220
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c026e7ec>] (dev_attr_show+0x0/0x28) from [<c019ca14>] (sysfs_read_file+0xc0/0x130)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c019c954>] (sysfs_read_file+0x0/0x130) from [<c01625e8>] (vfs_read+0xb8/0x148)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c0162530>] (vfs_read+0x0/0x148) from [<c01629fc>] (sys_read+0x44/0x70)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel:  r7:00001000 r6:d9026460 r5:00000000 r4:00000000
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: [<c01629b8>] (sys_read+0x0/0x70) from [<c0027480>] (ret_fast_syscall+0x0/0x2c)
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel:  r8:c0027628 r7:00000003 r6:000007ff r5:2a024bf8 r4:2a024bf8
Apr 25 19:44:20 debian kernel: Code: ea000000 e2800001 e2511001 3a000002 (e5d03000)

If anyone recognizes this issue and can suggest a fix, alternate kernel, or whatever, please let me know.

Thanks,

Charles

[solstice]

Try to neutralize the hal script by changing it to something harmless. Hald is really not a necessity. I would basically install everything by download the raw source myself and compile it on Sheeva plug.

Oh, I noticed ion the default kernel config file provided by Sheeva plug computer, the floating point emulation modules was not installed. So I added that in. I am not sure if that was intentional or not. In any case, it is worth to check it out.

I also had problem with key generator in bind for that timed out forever. I suppose there might not be good enough random number generator built into the plug for certain tool to work. So watch out for those problems.

[Rabeeh Khoury]

Which kernel that would be?

2.6.22.18 or mainline 2.6.30-rc2?

[hammerinhank]

I found that when I did a standard net install of the current Ubuntu that I had to disable hal to get these errors to stop.
 
'update-rc.d  -f hal remove'  if I remember correctly

[CharlesWGreenJr]

OK; I got a little time this weekend to push this forward.   I finally hooked up the JTAG console interface, figured out how to boot from USB stick and installed a newer kernel (2.6.30-rc4) and now 'hald' is happy.  I then proceeded to find an appropriate Qt, etc. as prerequisite for mythtv-backend's "configure" script, and finally launched the 'make'.

Things proceed happily for a while, then I hit the following.  Apparently the 'dsputil_arm_s.S' assembly language file is using an instruction which the compiler doesn't think is supported?  This is being built on the plug itself, using what was retrieved via

apt-get install build-essential

I figure this means either that some option needs to be set so the assembler knows what the hardware platform is capable of, or (hopefully not) that the CPU really doesn't have this instruction available.

As always, pointers / suggestions are appreciated; otherwise when I get a chance (maybe next weekend) I'll continue to scratch around for answers.

Thanks,

Charles

Code:

gcc -c -pipe -g -fomit-frame-pointer -O3 -pthread -Wall -Wno-switch -Wdisabled-optimization -Wpointer-arith -Wredundant-decls -Wno-pointer-sign -w -D_REENTRANT -DPIC -fPIC  -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -DHAVE_AV_CONFIG_H -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_THREAD_SUPPORT -DQT_SHARED -DQT_TABLET_SUPPORT -I/usr/share/qt3/mkspecs/default -I. -I. -I.. -I../.. -I../libavutil -I../libswscale -I/usr/include/qt3 -o dsputil_arm_s.o armv4l/dsputil_arm_s.S
armv4l/dsputil_arm_s.S: Assembler messages:
armv4l/dsputil_arm_s.S:79: Error: selected processor does not support `pld [r1]'

[CharlesWGreenJr]

I did eventually get everything straightened out, as did another member 'pushbx' who posted an excellent 'howto' accessible via the 'Success Stories' board.

Thanks!

-Charles Green