RetroPie randomly freezing/crashing while browsing through game lists.

pjft · 6 Aug 2017, 21:52

@beastmode thanks. As I said, no urgency - make sure to have fun with it and play for a while as well :)

If in a few days you haven't experienced any further crashes, I'll put together a build with logging on the video playing but, hoping it will shed some more light.

Thanks! Have a good evening.

beastmode · 6 Aug 2017, 22:01

@pjft Thanks, dude.

beastmode · 8 Jun 2017, 23:12

@tmntturtlguy @pjft perhaps you can help me with something else that is unrelated. are you familiar with lr-nestopia, overscan and overlays? I have another thread open on the topic, I will tag you there if so.

pjft · 6 Aug 2017, 22:15

@beastmode you may try, sure. I'm not sure about nestopia, but I've used overlays in the past. Feel free to tag me and if I feel I can help I'll let you know there!

TMNTturtlguy · 6 Aug 2017, 22:36

@beastmode I don't have to much experience with overlays, but tag me in the thread and I will have a look. Looks like @pjft has done a good job of covering the current gamelist questions in this thread. The only thing I would still like to know is if you experience crashes in video view using carbon as a theme. I would finish testing detailed view and if you don't experience any issues in this view, switch to carbon in video view and see if you get the freezes. Thanks

beastmode · 6 Aug 2017, 22:40

@tmntturtlguy I'll test with carbon for a few hours this evening and report back to you in the morning as well.

BigMan1982 · 7 Aug 2017, 23:38

@pjft , @beastmode here's my status on:

VRAM setting = 90
ES version = v2.4.1RP
Controller you're using (in particular, bluetooth or wired) = wired Rapoo V600
OMX Player or not = yes

My problem is consistent, every time I scroll into the titles that begin with "mu" in the "ALL GAMES" menu only. I can jump past and make it through the whole list after the 2nd title with the beginning "mu".

beastmode · 8 Aug 2017, 02:37

@pjft said in RetroPie randomly freezing/crashing while browsing through game lists.:

@beastmode thanks. As I said, no urgency - make sure to have fun with it and play for a while as well :)

If in a few days you haven't experienced any further crashes, I'll put together a build with logging on the video playing but, hoping it will shed some more light.

Thanks! Have a good evening.

@tmntturtlguy @pjft It's been 24 hours since we last spoke and I have not experienced a single crash while browsing the game list menu in both the Comic Book and Carbon themes. Turning omx player off and changing gamelist view style to detailed seemed to solve the problem.

pjft · 8 Aug 2017, 13:26

@bigman1982 thanks.

I'm struggling to understand why or how exactly can you replicate it so consistently. It might be a different problem, but let's explore that as well.

Could you try out the two steps described earlier then and report back?

disable OMX player, see how it goes.
set the view to Detailed only, see how it goes.

In your case though I'm intrigued as to whether it's a problem with that exact set of games, or is it that the number of (something - page refreshes, videos loaded, images loaded) when you get there that causes the problem.

What happens if you use R1 to get there and then navigate to those games?

Also, can you login via SSH, install htop or top and run it, and then lead it to a freeze and see what htop or top report, and send it over here?

Thank you!

pjft · 8 Aug 2017, 13:27

@beastmode thanks. For better or for worse, then, we can attribute it somehow to at least the video rendering having a role in it.

I may create a debug build for the two of you if it helps, that would log a lot more information. Would that be something you'd be available to use?

Thanks.

beastmode · 8 Aug 2017, 16:03

@pjft That would be great. I'm glad to help in any way.

BigMan1982 · 9 Aug 2017, 00:04

@pjft said in RetroPie randomly freezing/crashing while browsing through game lists.:

@bigman1982 thanks.

I'm struggling to understand why or how exactly can you replicate it so consistently. It might be a different problem, but let's explore that as well.

Could you try out the two steps described earlier then and report back?

disable OMX player, see how it goes.

set the view to Detailed only, see how it goes.

In your case though I'm intrigued as to whether it's a problem with that exact set of games, or is it that the number of (something - page refreshes, videos loaded, images loaded) when you get there that causes the problem.

What happens if you use R1 to get there and then navigate to those games?

Also, can you login via SSH, install htop or top and run it, and then lead it to a freeze and see what htop or top report, and send it over here?

Thank you!

@pjft it still freezes with OMX player off, but works fine with detailed view only (and OMX on)!

I can R1 right past the games and keep scrolling fine after that through the complete rest of the list and back to the top.

@beastmode reported that the freeze crashes htop and top. I am unfamiliar with that to be honest. Additionally I am not sure that I am comfortable running a debug build as I am not deeply versed.

pjft · 9 Aug 2017, 10:50

@bigman1982 Sure. I'm happy to help if you're open to trying things out.

I suppose, before we dive deeper into anything you may not be comfortable with, that I'd have some suggestions for you.

If your problems seem to effectively be related to those MU games, may I suggest - either in the gamelist, or in the actual video folder - to rename the videos (so that EmulationStation can't find the videos) for those problem games (all the MU ones), and then set the view back to "Automatic", so you have videos again, and try to go through the list the way it used to crash.

If that works fine, I will be inclined to believe that there is a problem with those videos - either their encoding, or it could be that the storage media (SD card or USB drive) where you have the videos is corrupted in the sectors which some or all of those videos are stored, hence the crash.

Let me know the outcome of it, and we can then go from there.

Do you have a computer at home, and have you ever connected to your Pi via SSH?

Best.

beastmode · 9 Aug 2017, 21:08

@tmntturtlguy @pjft I was doing a bit more testing earlier today. I loaded the Carbon theme (Automatic view style) and enabled the omx player, and haven't experienced any crashes so far. Browsing the game list seems very fluid. I've noticed the system seems to crash when the browsing is less fluid (slight delay in browsing individual game titles)

TMNTturtlguy · 9 Aug 2017, 21:19

@beastmode based on this I still suspect the file sizes of your scraped images, marquees and videos are to large and ES struggles when trying to load all of them in a single view. This is why you experience crashes in themes that show 2 or 3 of these at the same time and have no issues when in detailed views or with themes that only display one of these items, like carbon.

pjft · 9 Aug 2017, 21:33

@TMNTturtlguy 's hypothesis might have some merit to it, though we would hopefully be better able to handle it.

I'd recommend sticking with carbon for a bit and seeing if no crashes take place.

I will see if I can provide a debug build perhaps next week, if not earlier.

Thanks.

BigMan1982 · 11 Aug 2017, 20:24

@pjft I do like your suggestion and will try it this weekend. Also I have 1 additional SD card so I can try the image on it to see if the problem persists.

I have connected via SSH using WinSCP for all kinds of things.

pjft · 11 Aug 2017, 20:27

Great!

So, if you have, just run "top" in the terminal before getting it to freeze, and when it freezes see what top is reporting on. How much CPU and memory usage is taking place, and what are the top processes using it up.

It may also completely freeze, but if it doesn't maybe it could shine some light.

Thanks and sorry for the trouble.

BigMan1982 · 15 Aug 2017, 23:40

@pjft running top was pretty easy. I had to add a variable to get it to run, no big deal. I also limited the lines to 20 because when it was running, it kept over writing faster than I could catch it. Hopefully these images help. Nothing jumps out at me... Here is the "frozen" state.

...and here it is running.

I did not get around to messing with the video preview names. I just don't have the time to devote to it. The menu works with art instead of video, so it's related to video for sure. I am just going to hide the ALL GAMES menu and move on. Fact is, I was only using it as a tool to identify duplicate games across systems. I am done with that now, so I am just going to work on things that are more important to me at this time. I feel like I am abandoning ship...sorry. Thanks for all you have done and for all that you have contributed to this community. I greatly appreciate it.

beastmode · 17 Aug 2017, 16:33

@tmntturtlguy Yeah. I'm going to redo them all this weekend. Been pretty busy.