Xawtv causes hard system lockups
1. Problem
Having Xawtv open and on the current workspace while the system is under heavy load (either CPU, disk I/O or CD writing) causes a very nasty hard lock of the machine.
2. Research
I definitely think it’s Xawtv’s fault. I’ve tried running it without a window manager, just X and Xawtv, and it still does this. Most importantly, I’ve tried other tuner programs and they don’t have this issue.
Somebody on a forum claimed that Xawtv doesn’t lock and protect the memory buffers for the video card properly, so that leads to all kinds of nasty consequences under certain conditions. It’s unsubstantiated so it may or it may not be true.
3. Solution
I gave up on Xawtv. I’m now using TVTime and I don’t have the problem anymore. FWIW, I can definitely recommend it as the better alternative.