Kodi Community Forum

Hi!

I have annoying but little funny problem with xbmc or more possible with general configuration. My HTPC is also NAS running 24x7. My configuration is little bit problematic: Debian 7 and AMD Fusion APU (running fglrx) combined with Samsung TV connected using HDMI (video+audio).
Original concept was to run XBMC 24x7 but due to high cpu usage (~40% of each core, even with dirtyregions) I decided to leave xserver running and run XBMC using irxevent (+irxexec). Everything is fine if I run xserver (using standard startx command) when TV is turned on. If I try to run xserver when tv is off or try to quit and reopen xbmc in current xserver session (even not restarting TV) there is no sound. No errors, no logs ... just silient in TV speakers, event spekaers-test works fine but play nothing.
Only way to restore sound is to quit xserver (kill or just ctrl+c in terminal) and reopen it on running TV.

I also tried to kill xserver with XBMC but this scenario failed - irxevent need to be runned inside X-session, so if I quit xorg irxevent also dies and only way to run it again is to use ssh
Also restarting alsa (/etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart) does nothing.

Is anyone have any suggestions? I also tried installing pulseaudio - no lucky, still the same symptoms. I don't know how xserver can have any effects on sound actually....

Edit:
I wrote ~60 lines script which replace irxevent and doesn't require xserver session to run and configure it to restart whole xserver. Dirty workaround but works which ofc doesn't mean that I don't won't to resolve whole problem.

Please block or cut pin 19 of HDMI cable from pc to TV. Disconnect it. Tape is an ok test. That was a hard fix to find. Please see post 460 in the xvba thread page 48 or so. I explained it all there. Fglrx Driver 12.6 and 12.8 are supposed to fix it. But i see lockup freezing complaints. I am on 12.4 stable no freezing and with sound all the time. I will only update fglrx if ati/amd adds mpeg 2/4 GPU decoding or better deinterlacing like vector adaptive from the very good windows driver. :-)

Disconnecting pin 19- the hot swap pin, has had no I'll effects so far. It just killed this bug- since fglrx cannot see the TV to see if it is missing, so it just works.

G

fglrx/catalyst 12.6+ fixes it. the freezing can be caused by multithreaded GLSL, but that bug exists in earlier fglrx versions too.

I also tried 12.6 first but I can't get it to work with my APU - I've that E-350 is no longer supported from 12.6. Is it true?

not true, its a bug in fglrx 12.6. go for 12.8, where this bug is fixed.

@wsnipex thanks for the freezing clarification. My a4 3400 is super reliable on eden stable xvba/xubuntu 12.4 32bit full desktop with the hardware mod. It can sit turned on overnight and it works perfect when i come back/turn the set on/off,etc - it won't die. I may look at fglrx 12.8 some time. But then i read it chokes? on no cabc h.264. Ug. I have some vids like that for my wife's gen1 iPad and kids phones. Every reencode hurts pq. I don't mind the potential fuss if AMD adds the extra mpeg2/4 decoding and HQ deint to Linux. Not that you can control that. I really think the xvba branch is really great, a lot of credit due to your excellent support. Right now the whole family can use it easily, reliably and it plays everything judder free with sound all the time. It does make AMD an excellent option for htpc on Linux. I hope AMD continues driver development.
G

@gfisher:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1138272 (you have to save and restore /etc/ati/control) that is the most important step in the howto.

You don't have to install libc6-i386 as you are already on 32 bit.

Don't follow the legacy instructions.

Thanks Fritsch. I followed the legacy how-to last install some time back. I think that gave me an error but installed fine. I will use that next time.

@gfisher:

_don't follow the legacy howto_