DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Cannot allocate memory

roslof

In testing, I found significant memory growth (leak?) in ES. Probably core to my troubles. Basically, I'm able to rapidly and reliably repro a freeze or forced exit of EmulationStation by simply navigating/watching videos in a memory-intensive theme. No game launch is required. I'm not getting the "DRM_IOCTL..." error, rather EmulationStation eventually either freezes or crashes. I would have thought others would have seen this by now, but... maybe I'm more active in ES.

SETUP:

Tested with both ES v2.10.0RP-DEV and ES v2.9.0RP
Issue occurs regardless of setting cma=384, or boosting ES RAM
Install and Set Hursty's "Magazine Madness" theme (although any theme will demonstrate memory bloating over time)
Ensure videos exist in the various systems and that they play when selecting them
Use the top command to watch memory (constantly)

SIMPLE TEST

Enter a system. When a video plays memory dramatically increases. After existing, memory isn't fully restored
Exit/enter the same system and watch any video (including the same video) and memory will incease, but after existing, won't fully be restored.
Repeat until VIRT/RES memory fills

RESULT
Eventually, EmulationStation will become unstable and either freeze or exit.

Interesting to note that the Video Screen Saver (displaying random videos) also grows memory constantly.

Running ps axeuf shows this specific command is growing, while all other commands are stable:

\_ /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation-dev/emulationstation MAIL=/var/mail/pi LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 USER=pi TTY=1 XDG_SEAT=seat0 XDG_SESSION_TYPE=tty SHLVL=3 HOME=/home/pi HUSHLOGIN=FALSE DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus LOGNAME=pi _=/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation-dev/emulationstation.sh XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user TERM=linux XDG_SESSION_ID=c1 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash XDG_VTNR=1 PWD=/home/pi LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

I hope this information is helpful. Happy to provide more information if desired.

mitu

Is this issue occuring withe the omxplayer used as video player (the HW accelerated player) or with the built in video player (VLC) ?

roslof

@mitu the setting for "Use OMX Player (HW Accelerated)" is off.
Is there any other setting I should be looking at to confirm?

mitu

@roslof said in DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Cannot allocate memory:

Is there any other setting I should be looking at to confirm?

No, that's the only one - On = using omxplayer, Off = using libvlc.

roslof

@mitu okay. Will run additional checks with OMX turned on.

roslof

That didn't take long... ES memory is completely stable with the OMX Player enabled. omxplayer.bin is releasing memory as expected. Safe to say that libvlc is leaking memory?

roslof

I'm a bit too junior to know if this is the same issue:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/LibVLCSharp/issues/252

mitu

@roslof said in DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Cannot allocate memory:

Safe to say that libvlc is leaking memory?

Hard to say, but my guess it's not libvlc, the error you're reporting comes from the DRM layer, libvlc is used just to decode the video and not to render the video.

roslof

I let my system "soak" for 5 hours and it eventually froze on a black screen. I looked into it and learned that the video screensaver has a separate option for using OMX. Since it was using libVLC, memory was maxed in ES -- thus the freeze.

I set the screensaver to use OMX for videos, then started a new soak test. I noted the screensaver videos don't render w/OMX enabled. Perhaps I'm missing something in configuration.

Not clear is this a known issue and if there is a work-around...

roslof

Ah... Looks like if OMX is set, and "Show Game Info On Screensaver" is set to anything other than Never, the videos won't render. So for now, I've disabled overlaying game info.

Re-running soak test with OMX enabled...

mitu

@roslof on the Pi4, omxplayer can't render the subtitles - it's not supported. Maybe we need that taken care of in EmulationStation.

I've set the EmulationStation screensaver since my last reply, so it's been running for about 7 hours, but there's no crash and the memory has stayed the same (from what top tells me).

I'll see if using the theme and doing the switch as you mention would make EmulationStation crash.

roslof

@mitu for me without omx, memory creeps regardless of theme. Even Carbon. Maybe there is something out of date with my setup. Can't imagine what. Will keep looking.

mitu

Can you try to reproduce the crash again, then attach the dmesg output on pastebin.com ? Just redirect to a text file, then upload the file there:

dmesg > ~/roms/dmes.txt

Preferably after a reboot, just fiddle with EmulationStation 'till crashes, then get the log.

roslof

@mitu no trouble.

Here is the output (omx off, reboot, navigating ES w/Hursty's Magazine Madness theme - no game launching)

https://pastebin.com/vNpii7wW

mitu

Yep, it's the OOM killer alright, indicative of a memory leak or an over-commit situation.
What's your allocated VRAM in EmulationStation ?

roslof

@mitu I've played with 200-250MB. Happy to ramp it further if it prolongs the crash.

Retropia.rd

Hi all, I found out that the problem occurs when the RPi4 is configured to display 4K. If you change the /boot/config.txt and force 1080p, the problem goes away.

shavecat

Hey im having the same here any ideas ?

BuZz

@shavecat you should know how the forum works by now. Replying saying same issue with no information is useless. There's even a solution above.

Start a new topic and provide something to work with.

shavecat

@BuZz
Hey so i change the
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=16
too
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16

But i still getting this error