Red Hat Linux message on my screen?

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tzr916

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Red Hat Linux message on my screen?

#1

Post by tzr916 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:56 pm

This has happened a few times and I don't know if it is a message from my cable head end or the Ceton Tuner? I leave WMC running 24/7 on my HTPC. When I come back some time later, like overnight, the picture looks like an old DOS prompt with about 10 lines of writing that starts with Red Hat Linux, gives a bunch of technical information. I can't change channels but I can go to the guide and choose another channel. I don't know what time it happens but none of my recording history seems to be affected and there's nothing in the windows logs/ceton logs/etc. Next time it happens I will try to take a picture of the screen...

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#2

Post by erkotz » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:18 pm

What channel are you watching? My first thought is it sounds like Guru Meditation from an Amiga running a Weather Star or similar. The InfiniTV does not run Red Hat Linux and has no way to generate video in any way that looks like what you have described.
Quality Assurance Manager, Ceton Corporation

tzr916

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#3

Post by tzr916 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:24 pm

This last time it happened I left it on our local FOX affiliate KTXL. Don't know about the other time it happened. Looks something like a cable card pairing screen to me.

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#4

Post by tzr916 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 2:24 pm

Woke up this morning to black screen with the message. Seems like a message from Comcast. Google found a few others with comcast box that got it-
Red Hat Linux Version 9 (shrike)
Kernal 2.4.24 on an 1606

Stockton Login:


Pressed INFO on remote, said "no info availble" with no channel info.
Pressed CH up/down, did not move.
Pressed guide, went to guide, selected highlighted channel, got audio/video.

tzr916

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#5

Post by tzr916 » Wed Aug 07, 2013 1:41 pm

Turns out this is EAS fault. My GF was watching downstairs when the EAS came through. After it finished the Red Hat screen came on. This also cancelled a recording that was in progress but recordings that began less than an hour after the alert went fine.

The log for the failed recording says did not record because tuner was needed by another device.

I have the Ceton setting to disable EAS checked, so that setting doesn't work on my ETH6.

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#6

Post by barnabas1969 » Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:29 pm

I don't have a Ceton tuner... I use CableCARD tuners from Silicondust... so this is really just a question from the Peanut Gallery... but do you have a Linux partition on your PC? Possibly the PC is rebooting and you're seeing the Linux partition booting?

Are you seeing this on the TV that is connected to the PC, or on the extender?

Can you navigate around in Media Center after you see this message?

Just curious.

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#7

Post by tzr916 » Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:16 pm

It's definitely coming from within WMC. WMC was still running. The PC did not reboot. No linux on this machine. Only Win7 64bit.

According to my GF- the EAS alert came on, then when it finished it went to black screen with only the Red Hat prompt. She couldn't change channels and didn't know what else to do, so she just turned off the Tv.

Next morning I found it there-
Pressed INFO on remote, said "no info available" with no channel number.
Pressed CH up/down, did not move or change.
Pressed guide, went to guide, selected first highlighted channel, got audio/video.

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#8

Post by barnabas1969 » Thu Aug 08, 2013 4:46 am

Sounds like another good reason to buy two Silicondust HD HomeRun PRIME tuners and ship the ETH back to where it came from.

EDIT: I don't work for Silicondust. I'm just a jaded ex-Ceton customer.

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#9

Post by tzr916 » Thu Aug 08, 2013 1:40 pm

After first few days of getting to know the ETH6 (and some HTPC ugrades), I have had excellent results and am very happy with WMC & extenders. So happy that my Tivo is on eBay as I type this.

Do you have any first hand experience with your SD & EAS?
Have you ever gotten an EAS on your SD?
How does it react?
Does it continue recordings in progress or kill them?
What happens after the EAS is finished?

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#10

Post by barnabas1969 » Thu Aug 08, 2013 1:46 pm

Yes, I've had EAS messages. I live in Florida. We get big storms, and EAS warnings for them.

The EAS warnings don't affect recordings at all. The EAS message doesn't get recorded into your show, but it will display if you are watching a previously-recorded show when an EAS message is broadcast.

Sometimes, the only way to get an EAS message to go away is to close Media Center. This is not the fault of the tuner. It's a bug in Media Center.

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#11

Post by Bryan » Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:37 pm

I'll bite - since the Ceton stuff doesn't use anything remotely like Red Hat, and tzr916 says Google indicated at least a few others with Comcast boxes had a similar issue, why are you thinking the ETH6 has anything to do with it?

I do agree Media Center doesn't do EAS very well, I've had to reboot in the past to clear it.

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#12

Post by tzr916 » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:51 pm

IT happened again last night. Woke up this morning to Mr. Red Hat :thumbdown: Luckily there were no recordings in progress when "it" happened. This time I don't know what time "it" happened or if "it" was even an EAS.

Wondering if pressing STOP in WMC before I going to bed would help? Maybe pressing STOP would at least protect recordings in progress from the "manually stopped for use by another device" tuner error?

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#13

Post by STC » Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:42 pm

^ it's just good housekeeping to stop play when turning off TV. Especially for live TV.

My wife sometimes forgets so to be foolproof I have a stop command sent to MC when the TV power toggle is received via IR.
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#14

Post by tzr916 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 4:14 am

What if I don't need or want to practice your good house keeping? After resolving my hdmi handshake issue using Dr HDMI, I don't have any reason to press STOP in WMC. I don't sleep or shut off my HTPC ever, and only reboot it for critical updates. So the question is:

Will pressing STOP in WMC protect recordings in progress from the "manually stopped for use by another device" tuner error when an EAS comes in?

Does EAS come through all channels and all tuners at the same time?

In my experience- I was recording channel 713 on tuner 3, had live Tv channel 732 on tuner 2 when an EAS come on the Tv screen, followed by Mr Red Hat. So why was channel 713 on tuner 3 "manually stopped" at that same moment?

If it comes through all tuners/all channels then how would pressing STOP do any good? All that pressing STOP does is quits live Tv.
Last edited by tzr916 on Thu Aug 15, 2013 4:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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#15

Post by barnabas1969 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 4:22 am

When something is playing live in Media Center from your tuner, one of your tuners is in use. Pressing STOP, stops Media Center from using that tuner. So, if you are running out of tuners when you try to record something... then pressing STOP will help... because it will make an extra tuner available for recording. EDIT: Also, when a live stream is playing, your hard drive is buffering the live TV. This causes more wear for your HDD. This is a minor consideration, but pressing STOP prevents this extra wear on your HDD.

Yes, EAS comes through no matter what channel you are tuned to. That's the way it is designed. Imagine if EAS messages didn't come through when you are watching certain channels. Do you really think that people who are watching <insert_channel_here> should not be alerted when there is a hurricane/tornado coming?

I don't think your Red Hat problem is related to your tuners. It is certainly not related to Media Center. Are you sure you don't have a cable box (from the cable company) connected to your PC (via an Hauppauge HD-PVR or Colossus)?

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#16

Post by tzr916 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 4:28 am

barnabas1969 wrote:... Are you sure you don't have a cable box (from the cable company) connected to your PC (via an Hauppauge HD-PVR or Colossus)?
:wtf:

Not worried about a 6th tuner from 11pm to 7am. Two needed at most. Not worried about buffer HD wear & tear. Ran Tivo 24/7 with 4 tuners/4 simultaneous buffers for years with no HD problems. Don't keep archives, so failure is really just an upgrade.

I am worried about recordings in progress being stopped by EAS.

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#17

Post by barnabas1969 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 5:08 pm

EAS messages should not affect recordings. They don't affect mine and never have. I have two HD HomeRun Prime tuners (total of 6) and two Hauppauge 2250's. I used to have a Ceton InfiniTV4-PCIe. It worked fine with EAS messages too. I don't know about the new 6-tuner ETH version though.

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#18

Post by tzr916 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 5:31 pm

It's a mystery for sure... EAS should not kill the live Tv channel that was playing and replace it with a black screen Red Hat Linux login prompt either. If/when it happens again, I will take a look at any recording(s) that got killed...

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#19

Post by Sammy2 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:16 pm

Not only does pressing "STOP" clear a tuner it keeps you from wearing out your Recorded TV drive as it writes, reads and deletes the Recorded TV buffer. This same thing happens on a CableCo STB but you don't have any control over it. In WMC you do. Choose to follow, or in your case not follow, good housekeeping rules at your own demise.

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#20

Post by barnabas1969 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:54 pm

tzr916 wrote:It's a mystery for sure... EAS should not kill the live Tv channel that was playing and replace it with a black screen Red Hat Linux login prompt either. If/when it happens again, I will take a look at any recording(s) that got killed...
One thing that I'm not clear on, is whether this Red Had Linux screen is inside Media Center, or if your PC has dual-booted. Next time it happens, can you attempt to set the WMC screen so that it is NOT full-screen, and take a screen shot (by pressing ALT+PrintScreen)? You can then open the MS Paint program and paste it into a new image. Save it as a JPEG and attach it to your post here (by using the full editor and clicking the "Upload attachment" link at the bottom of the editor window).

The "Upload attachment" link is hard to see, because it has a font color that doesn't contrast very well with the light-green background on that part of the page.

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