[PROBLEM] System freezes after a while

[rph-r]

ok I'll try, but I can't do it right now.
By the way, the Audiophonics Sabre is listed in device configuration

[Tim Curtis]

Your device is an Audiophonics Evo.
Is there an audiophonics document that specifies which I2S driver this device requires?

[TheOldPresbyope]

@rph-r

A few other users who use the local display have reported their systems become unresponsive after a time. I have been able to reproduce this behavior with a HDMI display (see the thread), but not with the DSI 7-in touchscreen display. Another difference is they are using an I2S DAC and I was testing with a USB DAC. Some of the users reported their system would recover, as did yours, but in my case it could not. 

The issue I found is due to the chromium-browser's renderer process, after a time, consuming system memory to the point Linux crashes. We don't yet know the root cause. The syslog you provided doesn't end with messages which are consistent with this hypothesis.

On the other hand, your syslog contains dozens of error/warn/fail messages. Some but not all of the xinit ones have been seen on other systems when the local display function is enabled and I'm not sure they relate to your issue. Others I've never seen before. The tail of the syslog suggests you are running IPv6 on your LAN; dhcpd was reporting problems with it at the end. Again, I'm not sure this relates to your issue.

When you do the step-by-step reinstall, pay attention to the messages at each step to see if you can sort them out.

Regards,
Kent

[rph-r]

Ok, interesting, so maybe I'm not alone...

I did some short tests:
-I disabled sound devices (set to none): there is obviously no sound, and the problem remains the same
-I re-enabled device, disabled local display (local UI display: off): touchscreen starts to prompt, and after three hours the remote web interface and SSH still works perfectly!

What do you think?

[TheOldPresbyope]

You may not be alone but I have been unable to repro a failure using a DSI touchscreen display. 

I'm not sure I understand your second test. Are you saying moOde works fine with the local display turned off? That was never in doubt.

Last night I finally partially disassembled one of my systems [1] so I could add a HiFiBerry I2S DAC+ Pro to the mix with the touchscreen display. I did this because, while I hadn't seen the issue using a USB DAC, other user reports show they are using an I2S DAC. 

I still do not see a failure. I ran my system overnight with MPD idle and no problem [2]. I've been running it this morning with MPD in pause partway through a track and still no problem after three hours.

Sad to say, I don't see us making any progress on this issue until one of the devs can reliably repro it so we can search for a root cause or some user independently discovers a root cause.

Regards,
Kent

[1] RPi3B+, "Official" Raspberry Pi 7-in Touchscreen Display, WiFi client mode, moOde 7.1.0 booting and running from USB memory stick.  No other physical device or software additions and not configured for a NAS.

[2] I run a script which logs the output from the top command every 5 minutes. By "no problem", I mean 
 - the "mem free" and "mem used" numbers don't change appreciably over the test period. It's been shown for the HDMI-related issue, OTOH, that these numbers change dramatically. Notable, available memory drops to a level so low that critical kernel processes like the scheduler cease to function properly. We know this is due to a runaway chromium-browser renderer but we don't know why it does this.
- at the end of test period I can still access the WebUI through the local display and remotely and my SSH connection remains functional.

[rph-r]

Are you saying moOde works fine with the local display turned off? That was never in doubt.

ok, this was not obvious to me, since SSH and webinterface also ceased to work...

I checked xorg.0.log of a simple session (boot, three hours idle, verifying it's frozen, stop), and nothing after 40''.

If I can help let me know how...

[rph-r]

Hi,
I found the offender:
after a kernel failure (probably due to daily hard shut down), I reinstalled a fresh moode, last version. I reconfigured all and tried, the bug was still present. Then I thought maybe it has to do with NAS, so I removed the network drive (on another RPi), and it works, no more freeze!
Hope it helps to fix it!

[rph-r]

forgot to say: NAS is configured and mounted by moode music source config, not directly with samba...

[rph-r]

Hi!
still not working. Any news?

[TheOldPresbyope]

Hi!
still not working. Any news?

Sorry, any news about what?

I interpreted your "I found the offender" post to mean you had resolved your particular issue.

For what it's worth, I have an RPi3B+ with official Raspberry Pi 7" display running moOde 7.6.0 that's been up for 7 days without any hiccups.

I haven't looked at the HDMI-related local display issue recently. Life here at Chaos Manor East [1] has been topsy turvy since last spring, what with orchestrating a move and repairing/selling the townhouse I lived in for 40 years. I've now fired up another RPi3B+ in a test rig with HDMI local display enabled to see what's changed/remained the same in the past 6 months.

Regards,
Kent

[1] an homage to Jerry Pournelle and his long-running "Chaos Manor" column in Byte Magazine (and now the title of his musings on his Sci-Fi website).