Deinterlacing in Mplayer

SMPlayer is a better player as it remembers where you were at in each file. Best deinterlacing filter is yadif at double framerate, eats 30% of cpu but worth it. Put "yadif=1" in video filters field of advanced tab in SMPlayer preferences.

Error loading GDM theme

All I remember is that I cocked something up the night before the removalists came. Now it's been 2 months in shipping, unboxed it and it says:

There was an error loading the theme GDM-SuSE

Can't open file /opt/gnome/share/gdm/themes/GDM-SuSE/GDM-SuSE.xml

PS: Solved by reinstalling gdm and anything else that complained after that.

Gonna move across to Ubuntu on my main machine. For one thing, I've grown very friendly with ubuntu on my laptop while my main PC was away. But then reinstalling Myth could be a 'mare.

Moving photos around behind F-Spot's back

Hey, guess what, F-Spot talks my native language!

Moving photos around behind f-spot’s back

$ sqlite3 ~/.gnome2/f-spot/photos.db
sqlite> select * from photos;

Awesome!

whereis vs which

Here I was struggling to find where I'd put jungledisk, but the only two search things: whereis and beagle couldnt find it, but I could still run it! Solution: which

F-Spot loses rotation on flickr upload

F-Spot is pretty cool but flickr lost the rotation when we exported the photos. Turns out that it was flickr's fault. Bugzilla comes to the rescue once again.

On Hold

As we're leaving the country in August, there's too many things to do for the move, so I'm putting my playing around with linux on hold. It's far more important to have a stable computer that just works for internet and emails. All the rest can wait till I'm between contracts in Sydney.

/usr/share/xsessions

I was trying to find a way to add logging to the frontend.

I noticed how I got this extra "mythtv" session type on my login screen after installing mythtv, as well as gnome, kde, fvwm2, etc (I used the packman rpms) and I figured I could add logging to the command line that calls mythfrontend, if I could just find it. A kind "directhex" on #mythtv-users suggested I look in /usr/share/xsessions, and I think that'll be it!

#mythtv-users

Hanging out on IRC, got an idea from juski...

I wonder if anyone could help me with a frontend that restarts X upon playback?
harvest316: yes. disable compiz or beryl
...
I'm back with good news!
world peace?
I've won the lottery?
juski: yay! mythtv works much better without compiz. THANK YOU!
harvest316: don't thank juski, his head might just explode with the shock!
I havent had to disable or uninstall it yet, as I found there's an option for MythTV where you can select between gnome & KDE at login. That seems to work reasonably well.
...
Lets just say I've nailed my biggest bug: getting mythfrontend to play any kind of video at all.
my next challenge is a little harder to search for, coz I dont yet have the words to describe it.
simply put: how do I get mythfrontend to write to a log?
...
harvest316: you could metacity --replace&
harvest316: that will replace compiz with metacity until you logout
converting it back to old gnome until your done using mythfrontend
i use a similar command to enable compiz temp since my system doesnt allways support it
...

SGID - setgid for directory sharing

Just learned about SGID:

"SGID (set group ID) on a directory: in this special case every file created in the directory will have the same group owner as the directory itself (while normal behavior would be that new files are owned by the users who create them). This way, users don't need to worry about file ownership when sharing directories"

Sounds like just the ticket for my /mnt/video/ directory, where mythbackend writes to it while running as root, but I want to view/delete said videos from my user login.

chmod g+s video

You just replace the x with s in the normal chmod command. Time will tell if it works.

If that fails I can try setuid/SUID instead. And just to tidy things up, I've also changed the group of everything there from users to myth, which should hopefully stay that way going forward:

chgrp myth /mnt/video/*

mplayer command line in mythtv

I've discovered that SMPlayer calls mplayer (successfully) with a whole lot more options than mythtv (unsuccessfully).

SMPlayer:

mplayer -noquiet -nofs -sub-fuzziness 1 -identify -slave -vo xv -ao oss -zoom -nokeepaspect -framedrop -input conf=/usr//share/smplayer/input.conf -stop-xscreensaver -wid 65011726 -colorkey 131586 -monitoraspect 1.25 -fontconfig -font Sans Serif -subfont-autoscale 1 -subfont-text-scale 5 -subcp ISO-8859-1 -aid 6018 -subpos 100 -contrast 0 -brightness 0 -hue 0 -saturation 0 -cache 2000 -osdlevel 0 /mnt/video/1005_20070524230000.mpg

MythTV:

mplayer -fs -zoom -quiet -vo xv %s

Just tried it - no luck. Same old error. Reverting...

/etc/fstab - XFS mounted writable

Had some grief with myth not being able to write to /mnt/video solved by the new last line of my fstab, copied from the auto-generated one for /mnt/win.

harvest@dell5100:~> cat /etc/fstab
/dev/sda6            /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/sda7            /home                ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/sda2            /mnt/win             ntfs       ro,noatime,users,gid=users,umask=0002,nls=utf8 0 0
/dev/sda5            swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
/dev/sda1            /mnt/video           xfs        rw,users,gid=users,umask=0002 1 2

"mkdtemp: private socket dir: No space left on device."

Couldnt boot into X windows due to a disk space error.

Arun Prabha had some useful terminal commands, like:

df -l
du -hc –max-depth=1

I had 10G in /tmp/backup_tmp_yvH4rLRM/tmp/ ...whats going on there? Sounds like an auto-backup ran out of control. Probably tried to backup /mnt/video/ and /mnt/win/ ...yep, that was it. Should be better next time.

Permissions

I've buggered up my permissions on my /mnt/video/ directory. Done so many chmod/chgrp commands I have no idea what it was when I started. A little introduction to permissions has proven helpful. I added a umask=002 to my fstab for /mnt/video/ as the default seems to be 022, which gives you -rw-r--r-- instead of the -rw-rw-r-- I'd like to see. Not sure how to set the umask for my home directory, but this is a jolly good start.

mythfrontend --verbose playback

I get a ton of these file missing errors, (its not writing to /mnt/video/) then it moves on...

2007-05-18 07:11:54.620 Error: File '/mnt/video/1035_20070516200000.mpg' missing.
2007-05-18 07:11:55.069 Error: File '/mnt/video/1035_20070516200000.mpg' missing.
2007-05-18 07:11:55.508 Error: File '/mnt/video/1014_20070516170000.mpg' missing.
2007-05-18 07:11:55.570 Error: File '/mnt/video/1014_20070516170000.mpg' missing.
2007-05-18 07:11:56.421 TV: Attempting to change from None to WatchingPreRecorded
2007-05-18 07:11:56.423 RingBuf(/mnt/video/1030_20070515213300.mpg): OpenFile(/mnt/video/1030_20070515213300.mpg, 12)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.424 RingBuf(/mnt/video/1030_20070515213300.mpg): CalcReadAheadThresh(4000 KB)
                         -> threshhold(146 KB) min read(32 KB) blk size(64 KB)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.532 DPMS Deactivated 
0: start_time: 4648.062 duration: 143.788
1: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.778
2: start_time: 4648.157 duration: -9223372036854.775
3: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.824
stream: start_time: 51644.731 duration: 1598.044 bitrate=2744 kb/s
2007-05-18 07:11:56.677 AFD: Stream #0, has id 0x501 codec id MPEG2VIDEO, type Video, bitrate 15000000 at 0x0x81f0180
2007-05-18 07:11:56.690 detectInterlace(Detect Scan, Interlaced Scan, 25, 576) ->Interlaced Scan
2007-05-18 07:11:56.691 AFD: Looking for decoder for MPEG2VIDEO
2007-05-18 07:11:56.691 AFD: Opened codec 0x94a72e0, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.691 AFD: Stream #1, has id 0x502 codec id MP3, type Audio, bitrate 192000 at 0x0x82a0d50
2007-05-18 07:11:56.691 AFD: Looking for decoder for MP3
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Opened codec 0x94b1ba0, id(MP3) type(Audio)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Stream #2, has id 0x503 codec id DVB_SUBTITLE, type Subtitle, bitrate 0 at 0x0x94b20b0
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: subtitle codec (Subtitle)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Looking for decoder for DVB_SUBTITLE
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Opened codec 0x94f4fe0, id(DVB_SUBTITLE) type(Subtitle)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Subtitle track #1 is A/V stream #2 and is in the English language(6647399).
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Stream #3, has id 0x504 codec id MP3, type Audio, bitrate 0 at 0x0x8264f70
2007-05-18 07:11:56.713 AFD: Looking for decoder for MP3
2007-05-18 07:11:56.714 AFD: Opened codec 0x94f5330, id(MP3) type(Audio)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.714 RingBuf(/mnt/video/1030_20070515213300.mpg): CalcReadAheadThresh(15192 KB)
                         -> threshhold(556 KB) min read(32 KB) blk size(256 KB)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.716 Opening OSS audio device '/dev/dsp'.
2007-05-18 07:11:56.720 Dec: Selected track #1 in the English language(6647399)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.720 Dec: Trying to select track (w/lang)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.720 Dec: Selecting first track
2007-05-18 07:11:56.720 Dec: Selected track #1 in the Unknown language(0)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.720 Resyncing position map. posmapStarted = 0 livetv(0) watchingRec(0)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.783 Position map filled from DB to: 39924
2007-05-18 07:11:56.784 SyncPositionMap prerecorded, from DB: 2219 entries
2007-05-18 07:11:56.784 SyncPositionMap, new totframes: 39924, new length: 1596, posMap size: 2219
2007-05-18 07:11:56.784 AFD: Position map found
2007-05-18 07:11:56.784 AFD: Successfully opened decoder for file: "/mnt/video/1030_20070515213300.mpg". novideo(0)
2007-05-18 07:11:56.797 VideoOutputXv: ctor
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 Over/underscan. V: 0, H: 0, XOff: 0, YOff: 0
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 Snapping height to avoid scaling: height: 576, top: 12
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 Display Rect  left: 0, top: 12, width: 800, height: 576, aspect: 1.33333
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 Video Rect    left: 0, top: 0, width: 720, height: 576, aspect: 1.33333
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 VideoOutputXv: Pixel dimensions: Screen 800x600, window 800x600
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 VideoOutputXv: Estimated display dimensions: 378x302 mm  Aspect: 1.25166
2007-05-18 07:11:56.798 VideoOutputXv: Estimated window dimensions: 378x302 mm  Aspect: 1.25166
2007-05-18 07:11:56.799 VideoOutputXv: XvMCTex: Init failed
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: @ j=3 Looking for flag[s]: XvInputMask XvImageMask 
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: Adaptor#0: Xgl Generic Texture Video has flag[s]: XvInputMask XvImageMask 
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: Grabbed xv port 48
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: XVideo surface found on port 48
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: XVideo Adaptor Name: 'Xgl Generic Texture Video'
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: XVideo Format #0 is 'YUY2'
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: XVideo Format #1 is 'YV12'
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: XVideo Format #2 is '
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: Using XVideo Format 'YV12'
2007-05-18 07:11:56.800 VideoOutputXv: CreateShmImages(32): video_dim: 720x576
mythfrontend: Fatal IO error: client killed
Mutex destroy failure: Device or resource busy

VideoOutputXv: XvMCTex: Init failed

Maybe I should play with Preferred MPEG2 Decoder settings in mythtvsetup

Finish search

"mythfrontend: Fatal IO error: client killed"

Not at home, so here's some ideas I'll try next:

modprobe fglrx
mplayer /dev/video0
mplayer tv://3
mythfrontend --verbose playback
lower screen resolution
disable taskbar always on top

...nope, none of these work. mplayer /dev/video0 gives me:

Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
Win32 LoadLibrary failed to load: avisynth.dll, /usr/lib/codecs/avisynth.dll, /usr/lib/win32/avisynth.dll, /usr/local/lib/win32/avisynth.dll

ATI's Linux Drivers dont support XVMC - that's a bad sign. AIGLX, Beryl, Compiz, MythTV, TV TIME all unsupported. Might be time for an nVidia card.

How to determine if I have XvMC support? Doesnt seem much point, as mythtv.org confirms it.

Found the MythTV Users Mailing List Archive

Andrew Robinson has a fairly good bunch of checks I should do: Watch TV with ivtv and mplayer. Record with ivtvctl and 'cat /dev/video0'.

I should check /var/log/Xorg.0.log, dmesg and /var/log/messages after the crash. Should attempt to set up ssh so I can kill X and recover the session.

Check smart output and do a memtest

mythfrontend log

2007-05-15 22:37:39.111 Current Schema Version: 1160
2007-05-15 22:37:39.111 mythfrontend version: 0.20.20060828-3 www.mythtv.org
2007-05-15 22:37:39.111 Enabled verbose msgs:  important general
2007-05-15 22:37:40.508 Total desktop dim: 1280x1024, with 1 screen[s].
2007-05-15 22:37:40.510 Using screen 0, 1280x1024 at 0,0
2007-05-15 22:37:40.511 Switching to square mode (MythCenter)
2007-05-15 22:37:40.546 Using the Qt painter
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
mythtv: could not open config file /home/harvest/.mythtv/lircrc
mythtv: No such file or directory
Failed to read lirc config /home/harvest/.mythtv/lircrc for mythtv
2007-05-15 22:37:41.816 Joystick disabled.
2007-05-15 22:37:41.915 Loading from: /usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/base.xml
2007-05-15 22:37:42.435 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
2007-05-15 22:37:42.562 Registering MythDVD DVD Media Handler as a media handler ext()
no record for '/block/hdb/device' in database
no record for '/block/hdb/holders' in database
no record for '/block/hdb/queue' in database
no record for '/block/hdb/slaves' in database
no record for '/block/hdb/subsystem' in database
no record for '/block/sdb/device' in database
no record for '/block/sdb/holders' in database
no record for '/block/sdb/queue' in database
no record for '/block/sdb/slaves' in database
no record for '/block/sdb/subsystem' in database
no record for '/block/sdc/device' in database
no record for '/block/sdc/holders' in database
no record for '/block/sdc/queue' in database
no record for '/block/sdc/slaves' in database
no record for '/block/sdc/subsystem' in database
no record for '/block/sdd/device' in database
no record for '/block/sdd/holders' in database
no record for '/block/sdd/queue' in database
no record for '/block/sdd/slaves' in database
no record for '/block/sdd/subsystem' in database
no record for '/block/sde/device' in database
no record for '/block/sde/holders' in database
no record for '/block/sde/queue' in database
no record for '/block/sde/slaves' in database
no record for '/block/sde/subsystem' in database
2007-05-15 22:37:42.876 Registering MythDVD VCD Media Handler as a media handler ext()
2007-05-15 22:37:43.006 Registering MythGallery Media Handler 1/2 as a media handler ext()
2007-05-15 22:37:43.006 Registering MythGallery Media Handler 2/2 as a media handler ext(gif,jpg,png)
2007-05-15 22:37:43.006 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x100, gif,jpg,png)
Failed to run 'cdrecord --scanbus'
Failed to run 'cdrecord --scanbus'
adding: ATAPI:0,1,0 -- DVD+-RW DVD8701 
2007-05-15 22:37:46.658 Registering MythMusic Media Handler 1/2 as a media handler ext()
2007-05-15 22:37:46.658 Registering MythMusic Media Handler 2/2 as a media handler ext(ogg,mp3,aac,flac)
2007-05-15 22:37:46.658 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x40, ogg,mp3,aac,flac)
SIP listening on IP Address 192.168.0.100:5060 NAT address 192.168.0.100
SIP: Cannot register; proxy, username or password not set
2007-05-15 22:37:48.569 Starting media monitor.
2007-05-15 22:37:48.967 Looking for: '/media/SU1020.001/VIDEO_TS'
2007-05-15 22:37:48.977 Looking for: '/media/SU1020.001/vcd'
2007-05-15 22:37:48.977 Looking for: '/media/SU1020.001/svcd'
2007-05-15 22:37:53.983 Media status changed...  New status is: MEDIASTAT_MOUNTED old status was MEDIASTAT_NOTMOUNTED
2007-05-15 22:37:53.984 Posting MediaEvent
2007-05-15 22:37:53.984 Found a handler
2007-05-15 22:37:53.986 Executing '/bin/mount /dev/sdb'
mount: can't find /dev/sdb in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
2007-05-15 22:37:54.044 Failed to mount /dev/sdb.
2007-05-15 22:37:54.045 Media status changed...  New status is: MEDIASTAT_NOTMOUNTED old status was MEDIASTAT_UNPLUGGED
2007-05-15 22:37:54.046 Executing '/bin/mount /dev/sdc'
mount: can't find /dev/sdc in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
2007-05-15 22:37:54.068 XMLParse::LoadTheme using /usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/gallery-ui.xml
2007-05-15 22:37:54.092 Failed to mount /dev/sdc.
2007-05-15 22:37:54.152 Media status changed...  New status is: MEDIASTAT_NOTMOUNTED old status was MEDIASTAT_UNPLUGGED
2007-05-15 22:37:54.153 Executing '/bin/mount /dev/sdd'
mount: can't find /dev/sdd in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
2007-05-15 22:37:54.169 Failed to mount /dev/sdd.
2007-05-15 22:37:54.171 Media status changed...  New status is: MEDIASTAT_NOTMOUNTED old status was MEDIASTAT_UNPLUGGED
2007-05-15 22:37:54.172 Executing '/bin/mount /dev/sde'
mount: can't find /dev/sde in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
2007-05-15 22:37:54.235 Failed to mount /dev/sde.
2007-05-15 22:37:54.237 Media status changed...  New status is: MEDIASTAT_NOTMOUNTED old status was MEDIASTAT_UNPLUGGED
2007-05-15 22:39:38.493 Connecting to backend server: 127.0.0.1:6543 (try 1 of 5)
2007-05-15 22:39:38.494 Using protocol version 31
2007-05-15 22:39:47.447 XMLParse::LoadTheme using /usr/share/mythtv/themes/MythCenter/ui.xml
2007-05-15 22:39:48.822 New DB connection, total: 2
2007-05-15 22:39:48.823 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
0: start_time: 4648.062 duration: 143.788
1: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.778
2: start_time: 4648.157 duration: -9223372036854.775
3: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.824
stream: start_time: 51644.731 duration: 1598.044 bitrate=2744 kb/s
2007-05-15 22:39:48.988 AFD: Opened codec 0xb340020, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2007-05-15 22:39:49.011 AFD: Opened codec 0xb359b00, id(MP3) type(Audio)
2007-05-15 22:39:49.011 AFD: Opened codec 0xb359fb0, id(DVB_SUBTITLE) type(Subtitle)
2007-05-15 22:39:49.011 AFD: Opened codec 0xb35a460, id(MP3) type(Audio)
0: start_time: 4648.062 duration: 143.788
1: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.778
2: start_time: 4648.157 duration: -9223372036854.775
3: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.824
stream: start_time: 51644.731 duration: 1598.044 bitrate=2744 kb/s
2007-05-15 22:39:50.107 AFD: Opened codec 0x83007d0, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2007-05-15 22:39:50.107 AFD: Opened codec 0xb4108e0, id(MP3) type(Audio)
2007-05-15 22:39:50.107 AFD: Opened codec 0x830a980, id(DVB_SUBTITLE) type(Subtitle)
2007-05-15 22:39:50.107 AFD: Opened codec 0x8306db0, id(MP3) type(Audio)
[mpeg2video @ 0xb71ea568]ac-tex damaged at 15 5
[mpeg2video @ 0xb71ea568]Warning MVs not available
2007-05-15 22:39:57.538 TV: Attempting to change from None to WatchingPreRecorded
2007-05-15 22:39:57.646 DPMS Deactivated 
0: start_time: 4648.062 duration: 143.788
1: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.778
2: start_time: 4648.157 duration: -9223372036854.775
3: start_time: 4648.026 duration: 143.824
stream: start_time: 51644.731 duration: 1598.044 bitrate=2744 kb/s
2007-05-15 22:39:57.729 AFD: Opened codec 0xb519d90, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2007-05-15 22:39:57.729 AFD: Opened codec 0xb58aa60, id(MP3) type(Audio)
2007-05-15 22:39:57.729 AFD: Opened codec 0xb58af10, id(DVB_SUBTITLE) type(Subtitle)
2007-05-15 22:39:57.729 AFD: Opened codec 0xb58b3c0, id(MP3) type(Audio)
2007-05-15 22:39:57.733 Opening OSS audio device '/dev/dsp'.
2007-05-15 22:39:57.789 VideoOutputXv: XvMCTex: Init failed
2007-05-15 22:39:57.790 VideoOutputXv: XVideo Adaptor Name: 'Xgl Generic Texture Video'
mythfrontend: Fatal IO error: client killed
mythfrontend: Fatal IO error: client killed

One small step for man

Have recorded my first show. An old rerun of Friends happened to be my victim. The MPEG file is there in my recordings dir, and mythfrontend shows a soundless moving preview of it in a window, but caused a restart of X windows when I tried to play it. (Hey, at least thats better than a full PC lock!) But the best news is that I made it log using -l parameter...

Gizmo

Want to install Gizmo Project, which would like to have bonjour installed, which seems to come up as avahi in YaST. A little hesitant as this was one of the things that I installed when things broke last time. Might leave this a while till the system is otherwise stable.

freezing mythfrontend

Okay, everything else seems reasonably in order. Thank God my remote works out of the box at least (buy the best supported). Time for to try this front end!

...

Crashed my system. Full lock, had to turn it off at the switch. Now where's the logs?