[mythtvnz] System freezes thrashing HDD

[Aaron Whitehouse]

Thanks everybody for such helpful and quick responses!

===
John Russell wrote:
> Well I'm not a Ubuntu user, but I have in the past has issues with desktop 
> indexing/search tools like Beagle and Strigi doing similar things on Suse and 
> Mandriva.  Anything like that running?  

I don't think anything like that should be on a Mythbuntu system. It 
certainly isn't appearing in top or iotop.

> Have you checked for anything 
> interesting with dmesg or in /var/log/messages?

There isn't much of interest. In the syslog, I found a bunch of messages 
saying (see around line 3000):
"#
Apr  5 08:07:56 mythbuntu-server init: mythtv-backend main process 
(1414) terminated with status 254
#
Apr  5 08:07:56 mythbuntu-server init: mythtv-backend main process 
ended, respawning"

What does this status mean? I'm wondering if this problem is just 
coincidentally similar to my previous problem and this one is just 
because I haven't yet set up the database.

Syslog:
http://pastebin.com/QhH3eKNT

Dmesg:
http://pastebin.com/fd0m07Qq

Dmesg.0:
http://pastebin.com/eguWgCjT

/var/log/messages:
http://pastebin.com/GxhyEph2

===
Stuart Whelan wrote:
 > Can you describe your storage setup..

 > - Raid?
Nope.
 > - Number and types of Hard Drive interface (Sata/IDE/etc)?
Single Western Digital 1TB Green Power SATA drive.
 > - Any networked drives?
Nope.
 > - S.M.A.R.T. enabled on the Motherboard?
I think so, though I understood that SMART on the MoBo was only for the 
BIOS boot?
 > - What does /var/log/dmesg say about storage when it gets detected?
See link above.
 > - Any extra messages in dmesg after a long pause?
Not that I can see. Link above.

===
James Booth wrote:
 > I had problems that were kind of simlar to what you describe after I
 > went to 9.10/0.22 and moved to DVB-T. Turned out to be mythcommflag
 > when processing HD files. I could never get it to work without
 > bringing everything down so have turned mythcommflag off (sadly).
Thanks for the suggestion. I would be surprised if this was the problem, 
as I do not have any HD recordings yet. I am going to set up HD on this 
machine, but at the moment I have only installed Mythbuntu (choosing 
some MythTV-related options in the setup, but not installing anything 
else) and have not set up any of the MythTV database, cards etc. etc.
===

I have since stopped mythtv-backend and mysql processes and played the 
same video through. It worked without stalling. I then restarted mysql 
and the video played through (well, it hasn't finished yet, but no 
problems so far), so it does seem to be mythtv-backend.

I have tried Googling the error above, but can't find a clear answer on 
what it means.

Thanks again -- it makes such a difference to have your help.

Regards,

Aaron