AppleTV process CPU utilization

bircoe Wrote:be careful when you restore, do a google search for Tinyumbrella or you may end up restoring 4.3

Thanks, Bircoe. I've saved my SHSH blobs!

I restored 4.2.1, redid the JB and am running the XBMC version off the repo; everything is much more responsive and the CPU utilization is not pegged like it was before.

Next step is to try Keith's daily.

Same issue, just want to add my experience in case it's part of a bigger problem. First possible clue from syslog:

Mar 19 04:48:34 Apple-TV /Applications/AppleTV.app/AppleTV[253]: PM: Set PM idle time to 15 seconds.
Mar 19 04:48:34 Apple-TV /Applications/AppleTV.app/AppleTV[253]: PM: Set PM assertion to hold off idle sleep.
Mar 19 04:48:34 Apple-TV /Applications/AppleTV.app/AppleTV[253]: PM: Failed to create idle sleep enable assertion: e00002c7
Mar 19 04:52:37 Apple-TV /Applications/AppleTV.app/AppleTV[258]: Serial Number:<removed>\n*** OS 8C154, IR 01.28, iBoot 931.71.16, SW 4.1.1 / 1553 ***\n*** OS partition size/free:786432000/251166720 ***\n*** data partition size/free:7130374144/6864257024 ***\n*** AVF main repository size:5519761408 ***\n*** AVF secondary repository size:209715200 ***\n*** Current Date:3/19/11 4:52 AM ***\n*** Time Zone:US/Pacific ***

My ATV2 is not always in this weirdo state, but when it is iostat gives load average well above 6, top gives 0% idle, and the only way to recover is to reboot which doesn't always fix the problem.

When it does happen, there is a general sluggishness in the apple UI (before launching xbmc)

The other, possibly related issue I have is that xbmc will crash after some time (an hour or two and then every couple of minutes) because I think of this:

Mar 19 04:42:42 Apple-TV configd[32]: watchdog: com.apple.frontrow not responding; forcing a crash
Mar 19 04:42:42 Apple-TV configd[32]: watchdog: can be disabled with the shell command: defaults write com.apple.mobilewatchdog WatchdogEnabled -bool no
Mar 19 04:42:42 Apple-TV ReportCrash[247]: Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/AppleTV-2011-03-19-044242.plist using uid: 0 gid: 0, synthetic_euid: 0 egid: 0

From a UI perspective, the only visible clue that this is going on is that several items are missing under the standard apple 'Movies' menu. "In Theaters" is present, but "Top Movies", "Genres" "Search" are missing. Reboot/unplug and things normally go back to normal.

So the point is - it's a long shot, but if AppleTV process is eating CPU, watchdog kills com.apple.frontrow, which takes xbmc with it. At this point, the box never recovers (frontrow keeps being killed by watchdog?), so xbmc can't be used for more than a brief amount of time before it too is killed.

Posted this because it might be a piece of a bigger puzzle (maybe not even xbmc related I don't know how all the bits fit together yet).

4.2.1 jailbroken with greenpoison, updatebegone and /etc/hosts changes made. xbmc communicating with ubuntu ushare. It also happens if xbmc is not playing media. Unwilling to attempt re-jailbreaking at this time.

Will try to narrow the cause down.. it's sporadic.

This could be why people that have blocked updates still experience crashing...

Theres a hint in this line:
Mar 19 04:42:42 Apple-TV configd[32]: watchdog: can be disabled with the shell command: defaults write com.apple.mobilewatchdog WatchdogEnabled -bool no

edit: hmmm... seems running this command achieves nothing:

Living-Room-Apple-TV:~ root# defaults write com.apple.mobilewatchdog WatchdogEnabled -bool no
-sh: defaults: command not found

Anyone know how to install the defaults application, which package is it installed with?

bircoe Wrote:This could be why people that have blocked updates still experience crashing...

Theres a hint in this line:
Mar 19 04:42:42 Apple-TV configd[32]: watchdog: can be disabled with the shell command: defaults write com.apple.mobilewatchdog WatchdogEnabled -bool no

edit: hmmm... seems running this command achieves nothing:

Living-Room-Apple-TV:~ root# defaults write com.apple.mobilewatchdog WatchdogEnabled -bool no
-sh: defaults: command not found

Anyone know how to install the defaults application, which package is it installed with?

"defaults" is missing from iOS.