Opened 12 years ago

Closed 11 years ago

Last modified 11 years ago

#10277 closed Patch - Feature (Won't Fix)

Firewire Recording Endless Errors Warning: No Input in xxx msec

Reported by: Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…> Owned by: danielk
Priority: minor Milestone: unknown
Component: MythTV - Recording Version: 0.24-fixes
Severity: medium Keywords:
Cc: Ticket locked: no

Description

I am using Comcast in Massachusetts. I have had this problem with two set top boxes: first a Cisco RNG-150, then I exchanged it for a Scientific Atlanta 3250 and the problem continued. The firewire card in the computer is " BYTECC Firewire 1394A 3+1 Ports PCI Card - VIA Chipset Model BT-FW310V"

Sometimes during a recording the recording stops and messages appear in the log as follows (see below). These messages continue until the end of the recording time, filling many megabytes of log, and no further video is recorded. I have tried with the reset bus option selected or unselected. That makes no difference. I elected finally to leave reset bus unselected, because the reset bus was disabling the plugctl setting "oPCR[0].n_p2p_connections=1".

The problem most often occurs within one minute of the start of a recording, but sometimes it happens during a recording. It happens some days with every recording, and some days it does not happen at all.

My workaround is to restart the backend as soon as this happens. I have a script that scans the log and once these warnings get to 300 msec, the script restarts the backend. This works and after the backend is restarted, recording resumes in a new file and the program is recorded successfully. This has some disadvantages: the recording is split into two files and any other recordings on other tuners at the same time are also split into two files.

I would like to suggest that the firewire recorder be changed so that if these messages occur, once it gets to 300 msec, it closes the firewire and reopens it (performing similar operations as killing the backend, but without interrupting other recordings and without starting a new recording file).

2011-08-27 14:25:42.175 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 50 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.299 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 100 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.374 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 150 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.450 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 200 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.525 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 250 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.600 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 300 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.675 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 350 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.750 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 400 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.825 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 450 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.900 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 500 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:42.975 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 550 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.050 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 600 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.126 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 650 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.201 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 700 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.276 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 750 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.409 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 800 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.485 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 850 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.560 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 900 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.635 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 950 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.710 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 1000 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.793 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 1050 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:43.827 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000): ResetBus() -- begin
2011-08-27 14:25:43.852 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000): ResetBus() -- end
2011-08-27 14:25:43.936 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 50 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.019 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 100 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.102 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 150 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.186 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 200 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.269 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 250 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.353 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 300 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.436 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 350 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.520 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 400 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.603 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 450 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.687 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 500 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.770 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 550 msec...
2011-08-27 14:25:44.854 LFireDev(F45FD447BBFC0000), Warning: No Input in 600 msec...
ad infinitum ...

Attachments (4)

backend-version.txt (713 bytes) - added by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…> 12 years ago.
Backend Version
monitor.sh (1.7 KB) - added by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…> 12 years ago.
monitor script
firewire_noinput_fix_final.patch (12.4 KB) - added by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…> 12 years ago.
patch to fix this problem
firewire_noinput_fix_V0_25_final.patch (15.1 KB) - added by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…> 12 years ago.
Patch for mythtv version 0.25

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (19)

Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

Attachment: backend-version.txt added

Backend Version

Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

Attachment: monitor.sh added

monitor script

comment:1 Changed 12 years ago by danielk

Resolution: Won't Fix
Status: newclosed

Peter, this isn't the greatest behaviour for the recorder but there are so few firewire recorder users that I don't see us spending any time on this. If you provide a patch we'll review it. Until then I'm marking this as a won't fix.

comment:2 Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

I am working on a fix. I will provide a patch when it is ready.

Peter

Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

patch to fix this problem

comment:3 Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

My patch for the fix is attached. I have tested it for about 10 days and it has recovered from all errors during this time. The error happened between 5 and 10 times and it recovered each time.

The patch only addresses linux firewire. I have not touched darwin firewire, and the changes should not affect darwin, but I am not able to test darwin firewire.

I have only tested on my own firewire setup, as described above, using P2P mode. I am not able to test broadcast mode.

Please let me know if there are any problems with the patch or if there is anything else I can do.

comment:4 Changed 12 years ago by sphery

Resolution: Won't Fix
Status: closednew
Type: Bug Report - GeneralPatch - Feature

comment:5 in reply to:  4 ; Changed 12 years ago by jmfont@…

I'm using firewire with Comcast on a Motorola DCT-6200 and I'm having the same problem with identical symptoms. I would love to have this patch, for what that's worth.

Jim Font

comment:6 in reply to:  5 ; Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

Replying to jmfont@…:

The patch is attached to the bug report. You can download it and apply it. Let me know if you need assistance.

My firewire is now almost 100% reliable with this patch.

Peter (pgbennett at comcast.net)

comment:7 in reply to:  6 ; Changed 12 years ago by jmfont@…

Replying to Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>:

Replying to jmfont@…:

The patch is attached to the bug report. You can download it and apply it. Let me know if you need assistance.

My firewire is now almost 100% reliable with this patch.

Peter (pgbennett at comcast.net)

Peter,

I do need some assistance, if you wouldn't mind. I get MythTV from Mythbuntu, and I'm not accustomed to applying patches and recompiling. I do have a technical background working on mainframes, so I'm sure I can do it, but I have trouble locating the modules in Linux to apply the changes. I'm running Myth 24.2 on an Ubuntu 11.10 machine. Can you give me a few pointers to get me started in the right direction?

Thanks, Jim

comment:8 in reply to:  7 Changed 12 years ago by Kenni Lund [kenni a kelu dot dk]

Replying to jmfont@…:

I do need some assistance, if you wouldn't mind.

Jim, please contact Peter by mail or through the users mailing list, not through our bugtracker. He has already provided his e-mail address in his comment above.

comment:9 Changed 12 years ago by pgbennett@…

The patch I posted here fails on mythtv 0.25.

Hunk #2 FAILED at 66, Hunk #1 FAILED at 28, Hunk #2 FAILED at 55, etc.

I think there may have been other conflicting changes to the firewire source files. I shall investigate this and post a new patch suitable for 0.25.

Peter

comment:10 Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

I have fixed the patch so that it compiles on mythtv 0.25. I have not yet tested it on 0.25. I will post it here once I have tested it on 0.25. That will be sometime in May 2012.

Peter

Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

Patch for mythtv version 0.25

comment:11 Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

I have attached the patch with the fix that works on Mythtv version 0.25. Let me know if there are any questions or problems.

Peter

comment:12 Changed 12 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

I think Comcast have fixed something that was causing the issue. For months before August 27, 2011, I had flawless operation with firewire. Starting August 27 every recording failed. I exchanged the set top box, that made no difference. I developed the fix and installed it on Feb 6th 2012. It worked well, it caught and fixed 12 failures until Feb 18th 2012. Then the failures stopped and not a single failure has occurred since. I upgraded the code and the fix to 0.25 and still no failures. The fix now seems unnecessary. Historically I have seen people have had the issue but not lately. So all that work and it was only needed for 12 days, after I suffered for 6 months with the problem.

comment:13 Changed 11 years ago by danielk

Resolution: Won't Fix
Status: newclosed

Peter, thanks for reporting back. Hopefully if some other person experiences this they will find your patch here. I'm glad Comcast fixed the problem on their end eventually.

comment:14 Changed 11 years ago by andy@…

The VIA chipset wasn't mentioned as a possible cause of the problem in this ticket, but I think it might have been related. The following kernel change, slated for release in 3.10, may help:

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=be8dcab942e1c0ec2aa13eb2af2a79ab51b46293

comment:15 Changed 11 years ago by Peter Bennett <pgbennett@…>

I think you are correct about the VIA chipset. I couple of months ago I had a recurrence of the problem, it started happening about once a week. I tried my patch but could not get it working with 0.26. So I ordered a new firewire card with NEC chipset (SYBA PCI to Firewire 1394a 3+1 ports controller card Model SD-NEC-4F). Since installing the new firewire card I have not had a recurrence of the problem.

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