Tanix TX6-A hangs when idle

    When idle for too long, the device hangs. It is unable to take input from the IR remote nor am I able to SSH into it. Here is the pastekodi output that I ran after disconnecting and reconnecting the power cable (the only way I am able to get the device running again). The issue happens at seemingly random time intervals. I am able to watch Movies, YouTube etc. in full HD perfectly fine with no crashes. The issue (so far) has only occurred while the device was idle.

    I'm at a loss here, any assistance is appreciated.

    blueribb thanks for pointing that out! Didn't even know that was still there.

    I've enabled debug logging and persistent logs to try to catch the error. I will remove that pesky repo and update with new logs soon.

    Quote from vaughng

    Ran pastekodi immediately after rebooting once I found the device unresponsive.

    After reboot, /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.old.log contains the important messages from last session.

    You can upload kodi.old.log manually to PasteBin. Make sure the log is uploaded completely.

    Unfortunately not, that is the entire log...

    Code
    # wc -l /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.old.log
937 /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.old.log

    The device was on for about 3 minutes before it became unresponsive for that log specifically. It usually takes much longer.

    Edited once, last by vaughng: Merged a post created by vaughng into this post. (June 9, 2023 at 9:38 PM).

    If there is some kind of kernel side issue, then the only way to get any kind of usable log is to solder UART pins and connect serial adapter to it. With that, you can monitor kernel complaints real time and with hard crashes, this is often the only way to get report. Are you able to do that?

    I thought as much. Couldn't find anything wrong myself and thought I was going mad. Will start with a fresh install and if that doesn't work I'll move on to solder UART pins. jernej could you point me towards any resources that could guide me regarding where to solder etc.? I've never used UART before but am willing to learn.

    Side note - we have regular power outages where I am from and I have LE installed on a micro SD. Could this cause the issue? I'm thinking corruption of some sort. I was trying to avoid installing to the EMMC until I know it's stable for use on this device but I think I may have found a copy of the original firmware. Should I try installing to EMMC?

    It seems to have either been the piracy addon or the power outages. I suspect it may have been the power outages as since I've re-imaged the boot device I have been shutting down the machine before the outage hits and haven't had any issues yet.

    Don't mark as resolved just yet, I will update here after a week or so to let you guys know if the issue starts again (I have not completely set up the device as it was prior due to my media server having gone in for motherboard repairs, fingers crossed it's not a configuration causing the crash) but so far so good! I appreciate the assistance <3

    I spoke too soon, it crashed :( will have to get familiar with UART...

    EDIT: Waiting on delivery of the USB UART adapter, will update as soon as I get logs. Also it seems that the TX6 is not the only device affected by this, see here.

    Edited once, last by vaughng (June 13, 2023 at 6:52 PM).

    Quote from jernej

    is to solder UART pins and connect serial adapter to it. With that, you can monitor kernel complaints real time

    Not sure about tanix, but on my OrangePI3 (same allwinner H6 SOC) LE seems to nerf the UART port. You see a few lines of text during the u-boot process, you get to the "Starting kernel ..." message and then thats the last thing you see come out the serial port.

    I assume something in the kernel params disables the UART? Any way around that?

    Thanks, after doing "mount -o remount,rw /flash" and then removing "quiet" from extlinux.conf the uart does stay active after the kernel starts, but only for about 2 seconds.

    The last it displays is [ 2.303742] Run /init as init process and then the uart stops updating.

    The TV screen does however to continue to show the kernel messages, but only until the Kodi graphic pops up (and of course you can't save a log from the text on the tv screen...)

    I also had to change ttysl to ttys0.

    Thanks again!

    Edited once, last by gadget_guy (June 16, 2023 at 8:32 PM).