System freezes on emulationstation

slimbrick

I have been running retropie for many years on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. I've had many minor issues that I've been able to resolve but I have a recent problem I am not sure how to resolve. The system freezes while running EmulationStation and the only way I can resolve it is to pull the power.

This issue occurs only when the system is sitting around for a long while, say overnight. I try to wake the system by pushing a button on the controller, nothing happens. I connect a keyboard and hit F4, nothing happens. I attempt to ssh into the pi, and I get "ssh: connect to host retropie.local.lan port 22: Operation timed out" from the host computer. I'm left to yank the power.

I do system updates through retropie_setup.sh every few weeks so although I am not positive I am assuming it is all updated to retropie 4.7.1.

Any advice? Before I re-install the system and set everything up again the way I like it, I am open to reading any thoughts of how to diagnose and trouble-shoot this problem.

Thanks.

dankcushions

@slimbrick ~~you may be able to find some clues in dmesg (input at command line - look for errors within the timespan you think it crashed)~~
edit: You can look at the system messages in /var/log/messages, where the system log is saved.

mitu

Do you have any screensaver running with video/images ? Any overclocking configured ?

slimbrick

@mitu
I do not have a screensaver configured nor do I have it overclocked. I don't push retropie too hard... I'm basically only interested in playing games that were made prior to 1985.

@dankcushions
I'll check dmesg after the next power-off/power-on when it hands and search for clues as you recommend.

mitu

@slimbrick said in System freezes on emulationstation:

I'll check dmesg after the next power-off/power-on when it hands and search for clues as you recommend.

dmesg will only show the system log since boot, so it won't help if the Pi locks up and you need to restart it. You can look at the system messages in /var/log/messages, where the system log is saved.

mahoneyt944

@mitu may be related to my issue. Downgrading to 4.6 fixed it. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28597/emulation-station-freezing?lang=en-GB

mitu

@mahoneyt944 Yes, I thought about it, but in this case the whole system freezes, i.e. no networking available.

slimbrick

@mitu
@mahoneyt944
Oh, the whole system does freeze and no networking is available. As I wrote in my original post I cannot ssh into the Pi when this occurs. So perhaps the issue I have is the same as @mahoneyt944 and I should downgrade to 4.6?

EDIT: Maybe I misunderstood. In @mahoneyt944 's case networking is available, whereas in my case it is not. So the cases are not similar.

mitu

@slimbrick Try to get the system log from /var/log/messages from the time of the crash. Try to leave the system overnight without EmulationStation started and see if the crash happens.

slimbrick

@mitu
At the risk of you guys either laughing or scoffing at me a bit, the issue I was having is gone. I had the system freeze problem for about a month before I finally called for help on the forum, and it literally stopped happening basically as of yesterday. I will definitely look at the system log should it happen again.