LE11 - PI4 - few questions

Hello,

So, i finally took some time to switch to LE11 nightly (from 10 Stable) for PI4 r1.5 (EDIT: 4GB). I do realise x11/gbm with new drivers -though much better debugging cap.- is quite the change.

I managed to install and configure (fresh though I have old backup) quite the few things but I am somewhat well not totally but kinda stuck on the following parts:

- note: I still would like to use my case/features - https://joy-it.net/en/products/RB-MultimediaCase01

1.) That implies my first question - hyperion - would it be better to still use an x11 build or go current ver and hope https://github.com/hyperion-project/hyperion.ng/pull/1422 or whatever will reach finals for full usecase? For now I guess I could work with the current state, generally more a nice to have than anything major but yeah ...

2.) Whats the best way to get supported EDID info on the TV? I couldnt get useable data with modetest so ... tvservice? How and which mode can i use to switch temporary to check? Or connect HDMI to my Win machine using which tool?

3.) config.txt - couldnt find much info here on LE11, any changes/recommendations and/or thoughts on the following (good/bad/missing):

boot_delay=3
disable_splash=1

gpu_mem=1024
disable_audio_dither=1
[pi4]
max_framebuffers=2

[all]
max_usb_current=1
#for case
dtoverlay=pi3-miniuart-bt
enable_uart=1

#unsure?
dtparam=spi=on #yperion
dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus

#It seems the following things are not needed (anymore as default)!?
#dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
#hdmi_enable_4k=1

4.) I still have some troubles with few 4k testfiles but could be due to above problems, will check that after. Though a problem I had in specific cases with CEC seems to be resolved since the update.

Thanks for the answers.

So 1.) I guess i'll go GBM, test hyperion with that pull when I got time ... if it works for the known situations, fine, and maybe it even gets better or another solution pop up, else yeah .... not prio.

2.) EDID - I am actually yet still using it without the case, just checking if everything else works at the core before you know using additional harware/features. The question was how to get TV supported modes. Sry if that was unclear. I actually got 2 cables for even higher quali though 1 has golden contacts ... meh ... hate that ... we all know yeah, gold better ... if both contacts use it (like f.e. you see with PCIe), else it gets worse (performance and most important duribility due to metal migration). EDIT: and I cant use tvservice because not supported in vc4 mode.

3.) Config.txt ... fi. I did yet not change, just checking old config+infos+what i could find for today which wasnt much. I read a bit again into the gpu_mem, so its cam and h264 only, then ok, may a bit higher, I dont use cam, h264 prob. rel. often. I can also try without the dither option and see how it currently works out, did not test . Buffer i even saw now included in the options so may not needed too.

But what about the other options? do note that I prob. do need the max usb for my external usb drive (though that only needed on startup) and the other 2 options below all for the other options of the case I def. do want/need (rgb is nice but the rest meaning Shutdown/powerup/remote/fan def. wanted). The link above does have an expertguide (manual config - explaining this). About the usure ones - dunno if the dtparam=spi is needed with the patch/pr, thats to look into. dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus was needed for linux 4/5. Dunno how it is now on LE11/linux6.

I think I already made it clear that its not important? Like after everything else is working fine try to see if I can get it running, else drop it pretty much states the low prio, not? And no, I didnt pick it up because not interested in extra grabber just for for that. I'm already sry for mentioning it like there is more important stuff than that.

So 2.) is solved too, did connect to win, 3.) i'll have to test few things further but left at default for now. Which brings us to 4.) So I still have playback problems with few 4k files. I did test with quite few files, only some are problematic. F.e. and good as free samples are #20 (+15/16/ all of 23 -the tearing- except the 2*mp4, these force kodi restart/ 25/ 26#1/ 28 audio but no video) and old this. Log: http://ix.io/4kvV . It plays but its like the bottom half full of heavy tearing.

Sry, I did use few test examples I did download quite some time ago (+recent files but out of those with problems all share same tearing-like symptom) and I did check if the saved links still exist, not if dl works . New link to same file (also fixed above). Also did test more of the kodi 4k examples and all of those tested would have the tearing(-like) problem, dunno if it actually is. This affects btw. video and any overlay in the bottom half, and the "height" when the "tearing" starts depends, not sure yet on what, as even same file can be different. Meaning sometimes sooner/above half, but mostly somewhere below.

Whats of interest: #23 both mp4 files - would .... crash kodi? and #28 would play audio but not display video. Probably new logs on that behavior wanted? Any specific testscenario to use? EDIT: Well, for those crashes: http://ix.io/4kyh

LibreELEC:~ # bcmstat.sh
  Config: v0.5.5, args "", priority lowest (+19)
   Board: 4 x  cores available, ondemand governor (Pi4 Model B rev 1.5, BCM2838 SoC with 4GB RAM by Sony UK)
  Memory: 1024MB (split 948MB ARM, 76MB GPU)
HW Block: |   ARM   |  Core  |  H264  |    SDRAM    |
Min Freq: |  600MHz | 250MHz |   0MHz |   3180MHz   |
Max Freq: | 1800MHz | 500MHz | 500MHz |   3180MHz   |
Voltages: |         0, 0.9360V        | +0, 1.2000V |
   Other: temp_limit=85
Firmware: Dec 12 2022 11:57:50, version ed6f6b8fcdc6476410b9cf75d141633461d34bdd (clean) (release) (start_x)
  Codecs: H264 MJPG PCM
  Booted: Sat Jan  7 11:54:42 2023

Time         ARM    Core    H264 Core Temp (Max)  IRQ/s      RX B/s      TX B/s
======== ======= ======= ======= =============== ====== =========== ===========
12:19:15 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.15C (50.63C)  9,675       4,329      28,571
12:19:17 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.61C (51.61C)  2,271          29         130
12:19:19  800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.63C (51.61C)  2,675          59         149
12:19:21  900Mhz  267Mhz    0Mhz 49.66C (51.61C)  2,743          29         129
12:19:23 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 49.66C (51.61C)  2,638          29         122
12:19:25 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.61C (51.61C)  2,806          29         122
12:19:27  900Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.63C (51.61C)  2,978          29         129
12:19:29 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.12C (51.61C)  2,439          29         129
12:19:31 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.63C (51.61C)  2,834          29         129
12:19:33 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.12C (51.61C)  3,026          29         130
12:19:35 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.12C (51.61C)  2,682          29         129
12:19:37 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 52.09C (52.09C)  2,791          29         129
12:19:39 1200Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.12C (52.09C)  2,612          29         129
12:19:41  800Mhz  267Mhz    0Mhz 49.66C (52.09C)  2,664          29         129
12:19:43 1000Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 49.66C (52.09C)  2,449          29         121
12:19:45 1000Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.15C (52.09C)  2,544         135         171
12:19:47  800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.63C (52.09C)  2,462          29         129
12:19:49  900Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.12C (52.09C)  2,064          29         187
12:19:51  800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 51.12C (52.09C)  1,779          29         129
12:19:53  900Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 49.17C (52.09C)  1,804          29         129
12:19:55 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.15C (52.09C)  1,358          59         143
12:19:57 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.15C (52.09C)    577          29         130
12:19:59  700Mhz  225Mhz    0Mhz 49.17C (52.09C)    608          29         129
12:20:01  700Mhz  225Mhz    0Mhz 48.69C (52.09C)    780          29         113
12:20:03 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 49.66C (52.09C)    915          29         114
12:20:05 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.15C (52.09C)  1,056          29         122
12:20:07 1800Mhz  500Mhz    0Mhz 50.63C (52.09C)  1,631          29         130
12:20:09  700Mhz  225Mhz    0Mhz 49.66C (52.09C)  1,640          29         129
12:20:11  700Mhz  225Mhz    0Mhz 49.17C (52.09C)    688          29         113
12:20:13  700Mhz  250Mhz    0Mhz 48.20C (52.09C)    640          29         113

Ah okay, mixed video encodes on the testing so #28 f.e. its clear why. And #23 crashes because of chewitt said - ok.

I do have 2 cables, one the official RPI4 one for up to 4k60Hz and one 48gbps 8k rdy. Both without any change. Also note the tearing looks quite biased, may 40° shifted down/left and constantly back/forth from the line it starts to break. I'll try to make a vid (had some problem with cam i'll look into now).

I also did test copying the files onto the SD card (64GB Samsung Evo Plus U3) instad via usb drive. Again I do yet not use the case, placed it in a way it's floating free air, and did disable few tested addons all to be near vanilla like except few settings, and problem did exist from beginning. I do remember having those sort of problems in LE10 already but rarely and a restart would fix it, now I cant avoid it at all.

So, what now? Anything else to test or could it be my PI is broken for 4kHEVC (though some of those play fine but most do not, everything else 1080p & such is fine too)? Bought last year so still in warranty.

EDIT: Video showcase

EDIT2: OK it might not be the PI actually but the TV. Cause I did test again and have similar problems now on desktop with the 23,9Hz fequency. But it somewhat depends, it doesnt happen all the time. But it leads me to another question how to allow 4k60. Or rather is it still "hdmi_enable_4kp60=1" and is that alrdy working with gbm for LE11 (PI per se it is?)? So I could simply go with the 3:2 Pulldown, dunno if was the prev. solution or rather I think it did work without (mostly, with a restart fixing it if needed).

At least setting that and restart I cant choose higher frequency. I think I read somewhere yesterday about missing GUI support, but cant find it atm. Will look further, else any info might be nice. And there is the question of supported subsampling modes in 4k60, which I sadly cant test on desctop currently.

Working state

Couldnt get 4k60 to work, i remember the TV can handle it somewhat but there might be an edid hack needed. If you could enlighten me how to do that would be great - out of curiosity / for testing purposes. Other than that I think I found the culprit - a setting in the TV I recently did change, which seems to enhance in some cases but bad when playing with some 4k23 content. Its a weird combination, I put a note to remember in my pi and tv files. So it works with 4kHEVC content now. Is there any way to force unsupported codecs to 1080p playback?

Ok so besides the 4k60 testcase (no advancement here), I did enounter (a few times as forced power-off on testings) something else:

Dirty bit in an ntfs drive (yes, needed). There should be fsck but doesnt ntfs check the drive (but as ext2, see below). fsck.ntfs (or ntfsfix) could not be found, has that been removed/not added yet for LE11? Do note:

• It would be ok for me to leave a "repair" if it ever would be needed to windows, I'd just like to have it checked if ok and if remove dirty bit, cause it's disturbing to have to switch.
• I read that previously it at least would mount as ro, that is not the case but doesnt mount at all.

fsck /dev/sda
fsck from util-linux 2.38.1
e2fsck 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block

Jan 09 15:30:39 LibreELEC udevil[1067]: mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /media/ExternData failed: Invalid argument
Jan 09 15:30:39 LibreELEC kernel: ntfs3: sda1: volume is dirty and "force" flag is not set!
Jan 09 15:30:39 LibreELEC udevil[1062]: mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /media/ExternData failed: No such device
Jan 09 15:30:39 LibreELEC systemd[1]: Finished [email protected].

There was no choice when you cant ssh into/no reaction (pretty much my fault) and my case not yet used/configured. Then again there was at least no known action running (and leds inactive), just no further boot involved. And the drive does have at least some power loss safety features. But yeah, I also just learned about reisub. So if it's preventable ... I'll do.

I've read a bit further, in what ntfsfix does as well as many other options, imo what could be done:

• use nfsfix to disable dirty bit (bad as on kernel base I only see it addable with some other docker img and the result/effort is less desired)
• use forced mounts - and leave checking when encounting problems or when switching system. How could forced mounts be done automatically (at best - changing the defaults, or f.e. a script to check on failed mounts, probably only on sda1)?
• use probably a win PE image to be able to run chkdsk. Few questions come mind: Since there is W10 Arm - even for RPi4, I could not find a ARM PE Version of it - does anyone know of s.t. (EDIT1: may this)? Of course if that even supports chkdsk/ntfs or only x64 version (EDIT2: tried to boot ARM using QEMU in Win to test, well this did work, chkdsk/ntfs is supported there, but only on full ARM, not PE)? Did anyone succeed in booting incl. drive-access (EDIT3: here many infos)? As docker, img or on a bootable stick? I mean it doesnt need to perform well, cli for chkdsk is enough. EDIT4: So I think the only way would be to use a default WinPE or even RE is enough and run it in a qemu docker. EDIT5: Or of course orig, or qus or binfmt. Btw. jfyi the LE Docker readme seems outdated (buildx).
• Simply beeing as carefull as can be, detaching unneeded stuff on tests (which is problematic by itself if you want to keep as low on physical connecting as possible), asking before any command and such ..... yeah possible to some extent, still I dont want to resort only to that.
• Any other ideas?

So far managed to install the first qemu docker and will test once i'v buildt prob. winre, which I need a restart and new env. first, may tomorrow.