TroubleShooting Pointers and links

Troubleshooting hardware and software in MythTV can be confusing because the two are deeply intertwined. Many issues that appear to be software-oriented my actually be caused by hardware. A case in point is a known problem with some VIA chip sets that render them unable to run their bus at full speed for a length of time - say recording a program and watching another. Linux will make your hardware work hard, but MythTV will make it work even harder.

Newbie tip for troubleshooting:

If you are getting an error when trying to do something, copy the message you're getting and paste it into Google or search for it on the KnoppMyth forum. It's very possible that others have had the same error and that the fix will be described. For extra credit, you can document the error message (or symptom) and solution here (see below for topic areas)

Also, if you post on the forums for help, provide the full hardware and setup details, along with whatever diagnostic information you've been able to gather, especially from log files. Try to be precise and get the details right or you're likely to get advice which is off target at best.

Finally, if you're unfamiliar with Linux please see the LinuxTips page for some Unix/Linux basics. Remember to be especially careful about case and punctuation, as Unix/Linux is case sensitive and a single punctuation or whitespace character can often be the critical difference between something working and not. If the directions say; type "tv" do not type "TV".

General Diagnostics

• CheckingLogFiles - How to find the vital diagnostic information needed to troubleshoot your problem.

Installation and Setup Commands:

Sometimes the best answer is to reinstall following the directions...

• InstallationFromCD - These are somewhat out of date and need love. If you want to give back it's a great place to start!

These are mostly commands which are run automatically during an install or upgrade as part of the Phase 2 setup process. If you guess wrong or flub an input this is how to get back to them after the fact:

• RedoingTimezoneConfig - How to run KnoppMyth-tz
• RedoingNetworkSetup - How to run netcardconfig
• GettingBackIntoMytTVsetup - How to run mythtv-setup
• SettingUpAnIRRemote - How to run lirc-reconfig.sh
• SettingUpAnIRBlaster - How to run irblaster.sh
• SettingUpBootSplash - How to run config_bootsplash.sh
• SettingUpRRD - How to run rrd_Configure.sh
• SettingUpRomDB - How to run load_romdb.sh
• SetupApcUpsD - How to run setup_apcupsd.sh

Also see this page of UsefulScripts.

Basic system issues:

The following are basic system wide problems you may encounter during installation and setup:

• WillNotBootAfterInstall - Fresh install hangs during boot process
• WillNotBoot - MythTV will not start after using for some time
• BlackScreenAfterInstall - Fresh install boots to a blank black screen
• VideoCardDrivers - Setting up "unusual" video card drivers
• EpiaMotherboards - Special instructions for these low power motherboards
• NVidiaDriversR5F27 - Reverting to older drivers for MX4 family cards and some others.
• MythBackendNotRunning - MythTV frontend complains about backend not running
• Nforce2TimeDrift - System clock runs fast on an Nforce2 motherboard
• BiosTuning - Minimizing interrupt collisions and other tweaks
• RemoteControls - Links to directions for various types of remotes
• RepairingMythConvergDB - Fixing DB corruption caused by a disk space problem or dirty shutdown.

Recording and watching TV - Video issues:

• BlackScreenWatchingTV - Also for "nothing but snow", "grey fuzz", "quits immediately" and general configuration walk through
• TVCaptureCards - More issues related to capture card configuration
• PictureQualityIssues - Things to improve your capture and playback quality
• ProgramGuideIsOff - Typically by the same number of hours you are from UTC
• ChannelLineupIsOff - Attempts to watch 59 shows you 58, or 62 shows you 60, or ...
• BlueBarsWhilePlayingVideo - Overscan issue resulting in blue bars on the left/top of screen
• PerformanceOptimizeHowTo - Ways to reduce latency issues which cause recording glitches
• HardDrives - hard/optical drive tuning to ensure smooth playback

Audio issues:

• AumixSettingsNotSaved
• DigitalAudioHowTo
• Indonesia Java International Destination
• Paper Writing

External hardware forums:

Remember, if the hardware isn't Linux compatible then it isn't going to magically work under KnoppMyth which depends on the Linux kernel driver and utility support. Also be ready to look for real physical/electrical/firmware problems with the system hardware. Write them down into the file.