Hi List,
I think I just found a bug/segfault in vdr's timer handling. Could someone please verify that:
1. start with empty timers list 2. schedule some timers (at least 2) 3. Go to the timers menu and "deactivate" all but the last. 4. deactivate the last timer -> CRASH
Also happens when selecting all timers in vdradmin's timer menu and pressing "inactivate".
To fix the resulting Crash-loop, remove the timers.conf file.
Is this happening only to me or can someone reproduce it?
So long,
I haven't tried this yet but I will see if I can verify it although I'm using 1.5.2 here.
Another problem with crashing occurs when you are watching something with the mplayer plugin and a timer is triggered. Results in a crash every time here. I don't understand why it happens though because playing something like a .avi doesn't (or shouldn't) require the tuner to be in use... You're playing a file, not something from the dvb stream!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 12:37:35 AM, VDR wrote:
Another problem with crashing occurs when you are watching something with the mplayer plugin and a timer is triggered. Results in a crash every time here. I don't understand why it happens though because playing something like a .avi doesn't (or shouldn't) require the tuner to be in use... You're playing a file, not something from the dvb stream!
I noticed kind of the same problem in 1.4.x. As far as I can remember VDR crashed not just when a timer started but also when the timer was about to be completed. Anyway, I'm not exactly sure how I got rid off it since I've changed a lot of settings since then, but I think it has something to do with the DVB setting "Update channels" - even though I couldn't find any correlation when I checked the sources. Try setting "Update channels" to "no" and see if VDR still crashes while using mplayer when a timer starts.
Ok, I've done some testing now with vdr-1.5.2 and the results are:
I could not reproduce the crash problems from the original post.
I could not reproduce the vdradmin crash problems.
Turning off "Update channels" did not have any affect on the crash problem when a timer is triggered during while the mplayer plugin is in use. VDR still crashed.
Chris wrote:
I noticed kind of the same problem in 1.4.x. As far as I can remember VDR crashed not just when a timer started but also when the timer was about to be completed. Anyway, I'm not exactly sure how I got rid off it since I've changed a lot of settings since then, but I think it has something to do with the DVB setting "Update channels" - even though I couldn't find any correlation when I checked the sources. Try setting "Update channels" to "no" and see if VDR still crashes while using mplayer when a timer starts.
I guess you missed the correct "setting" which fixes that bug: You bought a second DVB card.
_VDR_ crashes when starting a timer while mplayer-Plugin is running. That's because vdr had to close the device to let mplayer open it. When the recording starts, vdr tries to open the device but fails: -> emergency restart -> close mplayer-Plugin -> quit mplayer.
I always thought of rewriting the plugin to write the video data directly to the device instead of letting mplayer do it. I already had parts of the code in the recoder-tools. Now I bought a second card and the problem is gone, so is my ambition to write this code. :-(
So long,
On 5/15/07, Patrick Cernko errror@errror.org wrote:
_VDR_ crashes when starting a timer while mplayer-Plugin is running. That's because vdr had to close the device to let mplayer open it. When the recording starts, vdr tries to open the device but fails: -> emergency restart -> close mplayer-Plugin -> quit mplayer.
I always thought of rewriting the plugin to write the video data directly to the device instead of letting mplayer do it. I already had parts of the code in the recoder-tools. Now I bought a second card and the problem is gone, so is my ambition to write this code. :-(
It's too bad you never finished rewriting that plugin cuz there's a ton of people who would be using it right now if you did. Multi-card setups definitely don't seem to be the majority.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 8:03:03 AM, Patrick wrote:
I guess you missed the correct "setting" which fixes that bug: You bought a second DVB card. _VDR_ crashes when starting a timer while mplayer-Plugin is running. That's because vdr had to close the device to let mplayer open it. When the recording starts, vdr tries to open the device but fails: -> emergency restart -> close mplayer-Plugin -> quit mplayer.
Well, maybe a second DVB card fixes the problem, but this surely wasn't what helped me. When I started with VDR half a year ago with one FF card, I had this trouble with timers/mplayer but then I changed some stuff during the time (settings, DVB drivers, newer mplayer version etc.) the problem was gone for good for months now. And I bought a second DVB card just two weeks ago. :)
Hmm I really thought it had something to do with anything I changed within VDR's DVB settings.
-- Chris
Chris wrote:
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 8:03:03 AM, Patrick wrote:
I guess you missed the correct "setting" which fixes that bug: You bought a second DVB card. _VDR_ crashes when starting a timer while mplayer-Plugin is running. That's because vdr had to close the device to let mplayer open it. When the recording starts, vdr tries to open the device but fails: -> emergency restart -> close mplayer-Plugin -> quit mplayer.
Well, maybe a second DVB card fixes the problem, but this surely wasn't what helped me. When I started with VDR half a year ago with one FF card, I had this trouble with timers/mplayer but then I changed some stuff during the time (settings, DVB drivers, newer mplayer version etc.) the problem was gone for good for months now. And I bought a second DVB card just two weeks ago. :)
Hmm I really thought it had something to do with anything I changed within VDR's DVB settings.
Maybe, I missed something it the (complex) code, which might help too. Perhaps you can check that. It might help lots of people.
So long,
On 5/16/07, Chris vdr@p-lost.franken.de wrote:
Well, maybe a second DVB card fixes the problem, but this surely wasn't what helped me. When I started with VDR half a year ago with one FF card, I had this trouble with timers/mplayer but then I changed some stuff during the time (settings, DVB drivers, newer mplayer version etc.) the problem was gone for good for months now. And I bought a second DVB card just two weeks ago. :)
Very, very strange. The problem certainly exists using vdr-1.5.2, mplayer-nogui 1:1.0-rc1svn20070501-0.1, mp3/mplayer plugin version 0.9.15, and mplayer.sh version 0.8.7.. The problem has always existed here and I've used every version of all those starting nearly 4 years ago. Patrick's explanation makes sense to me and I don't see how the problem could be resolved otherwise...?
Very, very strange. The problem certainly exists using vdr-1.5.2, mplayer-nogui 1:1.0-rc1svn20070501-0.1, mp3/mplayer plugin version 0.9.15, and mplayer.sh version 0.8.7.. The problem has always existed here and I've used every version of all those starting nearly 4 years ago. Patrick's explanation makes sense to me and I don't see how the problem could be resolved otherwise...?
I also have a single FF card setup and know about the problem you speak of with mplayer causing VDR to crash when a timers goes off while mplayer is in use. Could you try building current svn of mplayer with current HG dvb drivers and let us know if you still have the problem? This problem seems to have disappeared for me after updating mplayer a few weeks ago. It is not reproducable for me every time.. only sometimes.
Regards.
On 5/16/07, Stone syphyr@gmail.com wrote:
I also have a single FF card setup and know about the problem you speak of with mplayer causing VDR to crash when a timers goes off while mplayer is in use. Could you try building current svn of mplayer with current HG dvb drivers and let us know if you still have the problem? This problem seems to have disappeared for me after updating mplayer a few weeks ago. It is not reproducable for me every time.. only sometimes.
Ok, I've grabbed, compiled & installed both the mplayer svn and v4l drivers from today. So far I've only tested it once but this time VDR did not crash. The mplayer plugin appeared to abort and the recording seems to have started. There was no audio or video on the tv though until I changed the channel. I'll do more testing a little later today.
My main questions are, is it absolutely necessary that the mplayer plugin abort for a timer to start recording? Is it absolutely necessary that the mplayer plugin open the tuner card, taking it away from VDR? From previous posts it sounds like this problem can be eliminated with a code rewrite.
Thanks guys!
*Note: This is in reference to a single card system using a FF card.
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Chris -
Patrick Cernko -
Stone -
VDR User