kindle fire crash / reboot

avo

I noticed that an app I'm working on will completely crash and force reboot my kindle fire if I just leave it idle for 1-2 hours give or take. There doesn't seem to be any memory leaks (less than 200kb used) and it started when I was mostly just loading a bunch of images and not doing much else.

As a test I ran the GameTemplate from AppCodingEasy and the same thing happened, but non gideros apps don't seem to do it. It doesn't seem to happen with the examples so far but it takes a while to test obviously. If anyone else has a Fire would be great to know if you see the same thing or maybe I just have a busted device somehow.

Anyway does anyone know if there's a crash log to look at for when this happens somewhere on the device maybe? The logcat in Eclipse clears out once the device actually crashes so nothing is reported there, but I don't really know my way around Eclipse.

atilim

Hi,

We have a Kindle Fire as a test device. I added this issue as a bug report and will look at it.

I'm usually using tombstones when LogCat doesn't help: http://crazydaks.com/debugging-in-android-with-tombstones.html On the other hand, debugging through them is not very easy.

Thank you.

avo

Thanks atilim.

I was hoping it would be my error somehow but I'm not sure.

I have been testing this a lot but I can't really get anywhere since I'm not good with log files like I said.

If anyone has a kindle fire and they can load @ar2rsawseen's plain GameTemplate and click a few buttons to start the level and then just let the device sleep for 1-2 hours and see if it happens to you too. Sometimes I will bring it out of sleep and touch a few things then let it go back. Sometimes it happens within 30 minutes and other times it takes hours.

I have also tried several of the stock Examples and can't get it to happen.

ar2rsawseen

Tried with Android mobile device (2.2) and can't get anything like that. Unfortunately I don't have kindle Fire.
Does kindle run somekind of specific Android version?

If your device is connected to your PC when installing app through Eclipse, then it's possible to get log, there's a button on the top right corner called DDMS. Then you could simply pastebin log file and post for us to view.

By logic, if it seems to happen with Gideros apps only, then it's probably not your device fault.

If it does not happen with all Gideros apps (I'd suggest trying some more heavy ones as GidHelix or Runner template, not just plain examples), then there must be some problem with specific function or design pattern causing memory leaks.

It would make sense to try similar things with other type devices (even better if this devices would be with same OS).

Another thing, you said you ran your own project, when it first happened, and then tried GameTemplate. Well it might be hard, but possible to crossreference what you do in your project and what is done in GameTemplate. to find what potentially can cause this.

Some example points you can cross reference:
loading graphics
loading sounds
playing sounds
using physics
drawing shapes
using touch or mouse events

I know this kind of testing is very time consuming, but for now, you are our only lead to this, stay strong

Tip: log file probably would be most fastest solution to resolving this.

avo

Oh I'm not giving up on testing don't worry

I have been checking out DDMS but I'm not sure what info I can get from it besides the same logcat that I was already looking at.

The problem is there is no crash info put out to the logcat apparently. The last line will be the FPS or some other generic thing and then the device seizes and restarts. Removing itself from the device list and readding itself after it reboots.

Anyway I will keep trying different things after I upgrade to 2.2 later today.

Is it common for an app to crash the whole device? I'd think it would just force exit? I'm still wondering if I have a bad kindle.

gorkem

@avo under Linux, an app can crash the whole system due to kernel bugs, but this is not common.

atilim

@avo I was able to crash my Kindle Fire Now I'll test it in a detail.

avo

oh my I'm not crazy! :O

I'm not sure how yours crashed but I've had the most "success" in crashing with apps that load a good amount of images/buttons and then use them for a bit and then let the device sleep with the app in the foreground.

just last night I tested using application:keepAwake on and it did not crash overnight with an app that would crash within an hour if it slept on its own.

oh another thing too, I noticed that if you open a gideros app, then click Home and open a different app, gideros or otherwise, sometimes but not often, going back to the first app will only load a black screen and you can't do anything but hit the back button to exit the app, and when you do hit the back button, you see the app for about 1-2 seconds before it exits.

I have not seen the above yet since I upgraded to 2012.2.2 but I haven't tested it much. Just wanted to mention it while your poking around with a kindle as well to see if maybe its related.

I also noticed that the fps reported in logcat when the "lockscreen" is on after resuming from sleep on the kindle is 300fps. This really doesn't matter of course, just one of the things you notice after staring at logcat screens for 10 hours )

anyway thank you very much for looking into it

atilim

Oh thank you for all these detailed info. >- It will help me a lot while tracking the problem.

atilim

Hi @avo,

I've found the bug. It's a critical one and currently we're planning to release a version that only fixes this bug.

Thank you again for reporting and providing detailed information about it

avo

That's great news atilim.

Did you happen to run into the black screen issue I mentioned as well or was it related?

I'm happy I was able to help in some way. Thank you for looking into it and working on a fix so quickly! =D>

gorkem

Atilim - what's the problem exactly?

OZApps

So this bug was in the 2012.2.2 version right? I found tha the screen goes black on the Kindle Fire and White on Android 4 (HP Touchpad running Android, shows up as Galaxy Nexus) would wait for that fix.

gorkem

This affects all versions. Atilim - can you please post an explanation when you have some time?

atilim

It's about losing the OpenGL context on Android. There is an explanation here: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/12629/workaround-to-losing-the-opengl-context-when-android-pauses

The problem is that my workaround while trying to not to lose OpenGL context has a bug.

atilim

The next release will only about increasing the stability of Android port.

avo

Did that problem cause the black screen after resume thing I mentioned as well? Or have you seen that in your testing?

thanks for the update atilim

atilim

@avo yes, it's the same damn bug

avo

Well I'd take that as good news as long as it's not giving you too much trouble to fix