I noticed that my player occasionally reboots itself for no apparent reason (using 2.0-b7). This was typically happening while driving and the player was in the middle of playing a song. I thought it might have been related to something in my car (vibration from engine and/or suspension causing a read error, etc, etc). It happens infrequently, usually once about every 1-2 hours of continous playback. I upgraded to 2.0-b11 and still see this.

What prompted me to post this is that I just noticed that the player does this even in standby mode on AC power. I had left the player in standby mode after syncing with my PC while I was doing some other stuff on the PC. After about an hour of sitting in standby, the player came to life, rebooted itself, and then went back into standby. Another hour or so later it did it again. Seems weird. Anyone seen anything like this? Is this a known issue, or even expected behavior, or maybe I have some type of hardware issue?

I will try make this happen again and monitor what gets reported on the serial port when it happens.... but I figured I check with you guys before going to too much trouble, incase it is a known problem.

Hmmm... maybe I just let the EMPEG sit on the case of my Windows 2000 machine too long and something bad creeped in via osmosis .

Hook it up to your pc via serial and connect w/ hyperterm. Leave the player playing until you know it has rebooted. Cut and paste the serial output here.

Sean

Anyone seen anything like this?

I think so...

Every once in a while (like maybe cpouple of weeks) my player sitting on my desk at work will spontaneously reboot in the middle of a song -- but it isn't a "full" reboot. It only takes four or five seconds instead of the usual 12--14 seconds since it skips the intial waving penguin logo and starts directly at the "empeg car version..." screen. I never noticed this behavior prior to 2.0b11 and it happens so infrequently that I was never concerned about it.

tanstaafl.

but it isn't a "full" reboot. It only takes four or five seconds instead of the usual 12--14 seconds since it skips the intial waving penguin logo

When it does that kind of reboot, what's happening is that the player binary is crashing and exiting to the shell. Then the init script restarts the player binary automatically.

This usually (but not always) indicates some kind of minor bug in the player software which isn't bad enough to have trashed the kernel. Tux doesn't wave because he's in the kernel.

Yeah, that is true in my case as well, it's only doing a quick reboot (about 4 seconds).

I just brought my player inside and put it in standby with a hyperterminal session running. If/when it happens again, I'll post the results.

Thanks.....

Okay.... here we go. It actually went about 3 hours and 15 minutes this time before this happened. I powered up the player and put it in standby mode, established a hyperterminal session, and then cycled power to the player and let it sit until it did a reboot.

Everything up to the "Vcb: 0x4054d000" was the regular startup sequence after the power was cycled. The "Vcb: 0x4054d000" was the last thing sent from the player after going into standby. About 3 hours and 15 minutes later, I got the error messages - I wasn't around to see it, but my guess was that the player had rebooted (or at least tried) at that time. When I came back and found this reported error, the player would not come out of the standby state.... which is a first.... it usually behaves seemingly normal after one of these self-induced restarts. I had to power cycle it to get it responsive to the front panel buttons again.

Notes: I am using 2.0-b11, a custom logo, and have flashed the v200.hijack.v200b11.mk2 hijack image.

Thanks.....


empeg-car bootstrap v1.00 20000601 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!
e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux...................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg50-hijack-v200 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Tue Feb 12 22:45:07 EST 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 90001020)
Command line: mem=12m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 10920k/12M available (1000k code, 20k reserved, 344k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004480).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, 19077MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
hdb: IBM-DJSA-220, 19077MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])
SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:12:03:fc
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... |/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k initempeg init 0.8
I see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Mounting second music partition
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comply...
Starting player
hijack: removed menu entry: 'Home/Work Location'
hijack: removed menu entry: 'Hard Disk Detection'
khttpd: listening on port 80
kftpd: listening on port 21
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta11 2002/02/08.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Feb 7 2002
Vcb: 0x4054d000


no room for private writable mapping
error: -12
no room for private writable mapping
error: -12
out of memory
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Player exited normally: 1
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin#

To eliminate one of the variables, I just reflashed 2.0-b11 developer without the hijack image and am retrying the same test to see if the problem still occurs......

Ok, redid this test without the hijack image... I also commented out the IR remappings from the INI file I was using with hijack.

This time it rebooted after being in standby for about 51 minutes and I saw the player go through the reboot sequence. This time, the player seems to still work normally after the reboot.

Hyperterminal output is below. Again, everything up to the line "Vcb: 0x4054d000" occurred during the regular boot sequence. The error after that occurred about 51 minutes later.

If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!
e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg50 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #7 Fri Feb 8 18:45:38 GMT 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 7, serial number 90001020)
Command line: mem=12m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 10968k/12M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 332k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004680).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, 19077MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
hdb: IBM-DJSA-220, 19077MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])
SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:12:03:fc
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... |/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k initempeg init 0.8
I see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Mounting second music partition
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To ComþStarting player
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta11 2002/02/08.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Feb 7 2002
Vcb: 0x4054d000

player(21): memory violation at pc=0x0207a170, lr=0x02072800 (bad address=0x043474b0, code 0)
pc : [<0207a170>] lr : [<02072800>]
sp : bdfffc08 ip : bdfffc18 fp : bdfffc14
r10: 00000020 r9 : 00000000 r8 : 0214abf0
r7 : 02191558 r6 : 00000000 r5 : 021664e0 r4 : bdfffc64
r3 : 021a3760 r2 : 00000000 r1 : 021a3d50 r0 : bdfffc64
Flags: nzCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode USER_32 Segment user
Control: D038117D Table: D038117D DAC: 00000015
Function entered at [<0207a158>] from [<02072800>]
Function entered at [<020727d4>] from [<0201a564>]
r4 = 02115F3C
Function entered at [<0201a0c4>] from [<02066500>]
r10 = 0214AB4C r9 = BDFFFD0C r8 = BDFFFD20 r7 = 0214ABF0
r6 = 02164F04 r5 = 00000001 r4 = 02164E60
Function entered at [<02066470>] from [<020634c4>]
r7 = BDFFFD1C r6 = 0214AA70 r5 = 0214ABF0 r4 = 0214AA70
Function entered at [<02063468>] from [<02063c4c>]
r5 = 0214AB4C r4 = 0214AA70
Function entered at [<02063c20>] from [<02063f68>]
r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [<02063d2c>] from [<02063c84>]
r10 = 020A9A14 r9 = 0214AA70 r8 = 0000340E r7 = 00000080
r6 = 0000000E r5 = 0214AA70 r4 = BDFFFD64
Function entered at [<02063c74>] from [<020a9acc>]
Function entered at [<020a9a14>] from [<020aecc8>]
r5 = 0214AA88 r4 = BDFFFE40
Function entered at [<020aec00>] from [<020e3fec>]
r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [<020e2760>] from [<020aea44>]
r8 = 0215044C r7 = 02150438 r6 = 020A9A14 r5 = 00000007
r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [<020ae994>] from [<020e3fec>]
r5 = 00000000 r4 = 00000000
Function entered at [<021a2394>] from [<00000003>]
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 0000fff4
memmap = D0380000, pgd = c0b80000
*pgd = d0392801, *pmd = d0392801, *pte = 00000000, *ppte = 00000000
Internal error: Oops: 2
CPU: 0
pc : [<c00dfba4>] lr : [<c0019670>]
sp : c0641f44 ip : c0641f00 fp : c0641f90
r10: 00000000 r9 : c0baf0e0 r8 : 0000000c
r7 : 00000000 r6 : 021a2394 r5 : 00010000 r4 : 00010000
r3 : 00004342 r2 : 001d25bb r1 : 021a1100 r0 : bffffbf8
Flags: nZCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode SVC_32 Segment user
Control: D038117D Table: D038117D DAC: 00000015
Process player (pid: 21, stackpage=c0641000)
Stack:
c0641f20: c0019670 c00dfba4 60000013
c0641f40: ffffffff c0baf0f8 c0bae2a0 c0640000 c0641fb8 043474b0 c0011948 02072800
c0641f60: 043474b0 00000000 c0641fb8 00000005 043474b0 00000000 00000000 00000000
c0641f80: 00000020 c0641fb4 c0641f94 c0011e80 c00116f8 c00fc978 021664e0 00000000
c0641fa0: 02191558 0214abf0 00000000 c0641fb8 c000a008 c0011da8 bdfffc64 021a3d50
c0641fc0: 00000000 021a3760 bdfffc64 021664e0 00000000 02191558 0214abf0 00000000
c0641fe0: 00000020 bdfffc14 bdfffc18 bdfffc08 02072800 0207a170 20000010 ffffffff
Backtrace:
Function entered at [<c00116ec>] from [<c0011e80>]
r10 = 00000020 r9 = 00000000 r8 = 00000000 r7 = 00000000
r6 = 043474B0 r5 = 00000005 r4 = C0641FB8
Function entered at [<c0011d9c>] from [<c000a008>]
r8 = 0214ABF0 r7 = 02191558 r6 = 00000000 r5 = 021664E0
r4 = C00FC978
Code: e1140007 1afffff7 (e814000f)
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Abnormal player termination
Player received signal 11
Starting player
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta11 2002/02/08.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Feb 7 2002
Vcb: 0x4054d000

It's running out of memory, either due to a leak in the player, or just bad memory management (fragmentation) by the player.

You know, continuous on-the-fly malloc()/free() calls, which eventually fragment things so badly it runs out of larger chunks.. a no-no for embedded programming, but lots of people do it anyway.

You can make it a little more robust by telling the player to not allocate as much for the music cache, in config.ini:

[Startup]

ReserveCache=8

I tried this but it didnt seem to help. I got a very similar error message (ust different addresses, etc) after 54 minutes.

Is there a way to tell if the config.ini change is being accepted? I compared the messages reported during startup before and after the change and didn't see any differences. I used Emplode to read the INI file after this test to confirm the change was indeed still there... and it was.

Thanks,

Mike

Yes, the player prints out a message on the serial port, indicating "non standard cache size" or some such thing.

-ml

Ah... it was there after all... I just overlooked it as it was near the end of the statup string of messages.

Starting player
Using non-standard cache size 76 (adjustment 8)
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta11 2002/02/08.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Feb 7 2002
Vcb: 0x404cd000

Whereas before I made the change it just said

Starting player
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta11 2002/02/08.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Feb 7 2002
Vcb: 0x4054d000

Anyway, it's already restarted itself after about an hour with this new cache setting....

Thanks for the suggestion though..... I'll keep this setting for awhile and see if it helps any during regular use (as opposed to these tests where it was just sitting in standby).

I think I will also grab my virgin spare and see if it behaves the same way with various code releases.

In reply to:

---

Tux doesn't wave because he's in the kernel.

---

No, he waves because he's happy.