Blank screen after game exit

sntpl

Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3
Power Supply used: Canakit Raspberry Pi power supply
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): 4.8
Built From: retropie-buster-4.8-rpi2_3_zero2w.img
USB Devices connected: i-Pac 2, keyboard
Controller used: i-Pac2
Error messages received: none
Verbose log (if relevant):
Guide used:
File:
Emulator: mame-libretro, nes
Attachment of config files:
How to replicate the problem: Use hot-key to exit any game

When using the hot-key combo to exit a game, it intermittently will just show a blank screen. Sometimes it goes back to the EmulationStation menu and sometimes it's just a blank screen. When the screen is blank, no control or keyboard input makes a difference and I have to reboot via SSH.

Retroarch is not running when the screen is blank. (verified with ps -aux)

I have found similar threads but no real resolution mentioned. How do I go about troubleshooting this?

mitu

Do you use a custom resolution when this happens ?
What kind of display do you have connected ?

sntpl

@mitu The display is a Planar PL1910M with a native resolution of 1280 x 1024 at 75Hz.

I set that resolution via raspi-config which if I understand correctly, sets the following values in /etc/config.txt:
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=36

This is in an upright cabinet where the screen is mounted in portrait or "vertical" orientation. To accommodate that, I made the following two changes;

In /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh I added two parameters to emulationstation:

emulationstation --screensize 1024 1280 --screenrotate 3

In retroarch settings I set the following:
Settings>Video>Output>Video Rotation = 90 deg
Settings>Video>Scaling>Aspect Ratio = 5:4
Settings>Video>Scaling>Integer Scale = On

When the screen goes "blank" it's still on but it is displaying sort of a light gray or soft white glow. There is nothing on the screen otherwise.

Thanks

mitu

Look with pstree when it hangs and see which command is executing at the time. If it's not the emulator (RetroArch), then something must be running since otherwise EmulationStation would pop back.
Do you have any on-start/on-end commands configured for runcommand ?

sntpl

Look with pstree

There is only one difference between when the game is running, when the blank screen appears or when the ES menu is visible.

Running:

systemd─┬
        ├─login───bash───bash───emulationstatio───emulationstatio───emulationstatio─┬─sh───bash───retroarch───7*[{retroarch}]
        │                                                                           └─5*[{emulationstatio}]

Blank screen or at the ES menu:

systemd─┬
        ├─login───bash───bash───emulationstatio───emulationstatio───emulationstatio───5*[{emulationstatio}]

Here is the full tree while a game is running:

systemd─┬─alsactl
        ├─avahi-daemon───avahi-daemon
        ├─bluetoothd
        ├─cron
        ├─dbus-daemon
        ├─dhcpcd
        ├─hciattach
        ├─login───bash───bash───emulationstatio───emulationstatio───emulationstatio─┬─sh───bash───retroarch───7*[{retroarch}]
        │                                                                           └─5*[{emulationstatio}]
        ├─nmbd
        ├─rngd───3*[{rngd}]
        ├─rsyslogd───3*[{rsyslogd}]
        ├─smbd─┬─cleanupd
        │      ├─lpqd
        │      └─smbd-notifyd
        ├─sshd───sshd───sshd───bash───sudo───bash───pstree
        ├─systemd───(sd-pam)
        ├─systemd-journal
        ├─systemd-logind
        ├─systemd-timesyn───{systemd-timesyn}
        ├─systemd-udevd
        ├─thd
        └─2*[wpa_supplicant]

Do you have any on-start/on-end commands configured for runcommand ?

No, none

sntpl

Is there any logging that I can enable to see what's happening at game exit?

I've looked at the es_log.txt but there's nothing interesting there.

Thanks

mitu

@sntpl said in Blank screen after game exit:

Is there any logging that I can enable to see what's happening at game exit?

Should be in the same place as regular logging (/dev/shm/runcommand.log).