Switching from Ubuntu to another distro IMPROVED SageTV

[bcjenkins]

Anyone who know me as a SageTV user, knows I am constantly tinkering with my setup. A month or two ago I decided to try out the SageTV Debian packages by loading Ubuntu 9.10 and replacing whatever distro I was on.

Immediately, I began having issues with blocking in the HD feeds and whenever I started an extender other extenders would stutter for up to a minute while it started.

Needless to say, WAF went down (especially on the recordings). Because I don't get in to kernel hacking, etc., I decided to switch to another distro. Upon doing so, recordings are great, and firing up an extender has no impact on currently running units.

The moral? If you're experiencing any of the above symptoms, it could very well be your distro and not your hardware.

HIH

B

[cenwesi]

My SageTV on Ubuntu 9.10 has been solid since day one (even with older version of Ubuntu). I rarely mess with sage once i got it installed and configured. I recall you even helping me set up the drivers for the HVR-1800. Anyway i don't see my self switching to any other distro anytime soon

[stuckless]

B, I've run sagetv on gentoo and all ubuntu version since 6.04. My old setup was ubuntu 9.04 and a p4, which was rock solid... then I upgraded my hardward to an AMD quad-core and it's been a little dissapointing... My p4 went for over a year without a reboot... my AMD only gets about 2 months I don't have any of the playback issues that you noted, but about every 2 months my server locks up solid (I hope there's no windows users reading this ). While it annoys me, my bell stb also requires a reboot every few months

Of course 10.04 will be out by the end of april... so it'll be time for an upgrade

[bcjenkins]

I should have added - I don't intend for this to be a distro flame war, merely a stated observance of my usage.

FTR -

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R
4GB RAM
OS Drive 250GB - ST3250310NS
TV Recorded to: 1 ST31000340AS and 1 ST31500341AS
All other media is played from a MD Raid5 built on 4 ST31500341AS
TV Recordings on 3 HVR-1600s and 1 HDPVR (not in service atm)

It is also important to note that the drives are formatted in EXT4.

B

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by stuckless

(I hope there's no windows users reading this ).

--- sic0048 whistles quietly to himself while trying to go unnoticed in the corner of the room ---

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

I should have added - I don't intend for this to be a distro flame war, merely a stated observance of my usage.

I didn't take it as such... just relaying my experiences as well. FWIW, I also have a raid setup, but it's only a raid1 (mirrored it think) + ext4. But to be honest, I've really stressed my system that much...

Originally Posted by sic0048

--- sic0048 whistles quietly to himself while trying to go unnoticed in the corner of the room ---

[drewg]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

A month or two ago I decided to try out the SageTV Debian packages by loading Ubuntu 9.10 and replacing whatever distro I was on.

Immediately, I began having issues with blocking in the HD feeds and whenever I started an extender other extenders would stutter for up to a minute while it started.

Hmm.. I wonder if this is my problem. I'm on 8.04, and unless I use the IBM JRE, and start Sage using -XX:+UseAdaptiveSizePolicy rather than -Xgcpolicyptavgpause, I have problems like this. When I was looking into this, I noticed that there was this IBM article regarding how the Completely Fair Scheduler broke Java in 2.6.23 (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docvie...id=swg21372909). Apparently recent IBM JRE's work around this..

Drew

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I don't have any of the playback issues that you noted, but about every 2 months my server locks up solid (I hope there's no windows users reading this ).

Ha!
Gotcha!

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by drewg

Hmm.. I wonder if this is my problem. I'm on 8.04, and unless I use the IBM JRE, and start Sage using -XX:+UseAdaptiveSizePolicy rather than -Xgcpolicyptavgpause, I have problems like this. When I was looking into this, I noticed that there was this IBM article regarding how the Completely Fair Scheduler broke Java in 2.6.23 (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docvie...id=swg21372909). Apparently recent IBM JRE's work around this..

Drew

Interesting. I guess I didn't spill my JVM version but it was Sun's JRE 1.6.19. The kernel in 9.10 is 2.6.31

B

[drewg]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Interesting. I guess I didn't spill my JVM version but it was Sun's JRE 1.6.19. The kernel in 9.10 is 2.6.31

B

What's your working distro?

Drew

[bcjenkins]

I am using Arch Linux 64-bit. I like it for simplicity and minimalist approach. I wrote a howto a while back which is in need of updating for installing wine.

Current kernel is 2.6.32 and java version:

java -version
java version "1.6.0_18"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_18-b07)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 16.0-b13, mixed mode)

I'll update the howto soon.

B

PS - One of the reasons I like to keep the kernel fresh is that the drivers for card, while stable, are improved upon frequently. Arch tends to update kernels faster than Ubuntu or Fedora. The box is used solely for SageTV, Samba, and mt-daapd (iTunes sharing)

PPS - How is the 1800 running? I am thinking about going to an all PCI-E system and need analog recording.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

I am using Arch Linux 64-bit. I like it for simplicity and minimalist approach.
<...>
PPS - How is the 1800 running? I am thinking about going to an all PCI-E system and need analog recording.

Ah, I tried arch on a dev box (I do linux drivers) and they're a bit too bleeding edge for me. My sagetv box is also my main workstation since I work from home, and I seldom update it (current uptime is ~5 months). I like to have 10 desktops, with 20 windows each spread across 2 monitors that live for months at a time.. I just build the linux-dvb tree from source to keep up with DVB drivers. There are also ppas when I need bleeding edge versions of things like firefox, virtualbox, and openoffice.

As to the 1800 ... not sure if you're talking to me, but I don't have one. My latest tuner is an HDHR, and boy does it suck for OTA. Having used LG based tuners for years, I never realized how bad the mutipath and A/C interference was in my attic until I tried using an HDHR. Once I get the antennas moved out of the attic, and the HDHR is stable, I'll probably move to FreeBSD (and ZFS) for my SageTV server.

Drew

[RocKKer]

I have had a couple issues with a dedicated Ubuntu (9.04 desktop now 9.10 server):

When a recording is started I sometimes get a bit of pixelation within a few seconds in the recording after that the recordings are perfect. This occurs randomly and only on some recordings.

I still get a double press often on my HD200's (press a button once and the default action on the next screen also occurs), I initially traced it to a faulty NIC on the M-board (dropping tons of packets), replaced it but still having the issues. This only seems to happen when I first start using the HD200, as it is used the double press disappears.

9.10 server (and new NIC) has minimized both problems but they are still there, I may try Arch sometime soon I like the minimalist approach and I don't need a desktop on a server (except to install wine for comskip).

java -version
java version "1.6.0_15"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_15-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 14.1-b02, mixed mode)

kernel 2.6.31-20

[drewg]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

java -version
java version "1.6.0_15"

Try the IBM Java 6 (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ja.../download.html). It is worth the hassle of registering with IBM to be able to download it. It sped up the menus on my HD100 by about a factor of 2 over the Sun Java, and its optavgpause garbage collector has eliminated my pixelization problems..

Drew

sagetv@thunder:~$ java -version
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build pxi3260sr7-20091215_02(SR7))
IBM J9 VM (build 2.4, JRE 1.6.0 IBM J9 2.4 Linux x86-32 jvmxi3260sr7-20091214_49398 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
J9VM - 20091214_049398
JIT  - r9_20091123_13891
GC   - 20091111_AA)
JCL  - 20091202_01

sagetv@thunder:~$ diff  server/startsage server/startsage.ibm
47c47
<    java -Dsage.paths.tools=/opt/sagetv/server -Djava.awt.headless=true -DUSERKEY=$userkey -Xmx512m -XX:+UseAdaptiveSizePolicy -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=25 -XX:GCTimeRatio=24 -cp Sage.jar:.:/:$(echo JARs/*.jar | sed 's/ **/:/g') SecuredLoader 0 0 x "sagetv Sage.properties" <&- &
---
>    java -Dsage.paths.tools=/opt/sagetv/server -Djava.awt.headless=true -DUSERKEY=$userkey -Xmx512m -Xgcpolicy:optavgpause -XX:+UseAdaptiveSizePolicy -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=25 -XX:GCTimeRatio=24 -cp Sage.jar:.:/:$(echo JARs/*.jar | sed 's/ **/:/g') SecuredLoader 0 0 x "sagetv Sage.properties" <&- &