bug: Rockbox (randomly) freezes during playback

[pabouk]

During the last week I encountered a new bug. I upgrade the firmware to the latest CVS version almost regularly several times per week.

hardware: H120
Rockbox version: 060623-1316
Firstly I observed the problem with a version which was not older than 060615. I cannot find the exact version as the bug appears randomly.
the bug: The firmware freezes during playback. From the first occurrence till today it happened for three times but I cannot replicate the problem. It seems to occur randomly. Before the problem showed I just skipped forward and back several times and used fast forward. Then after several minutes of playback the firmware froze. The disk was not spinning so it is not related to the buffer fill probably.
the files: I encountered the problem on MP3 files. In the table below you can see position in a playlist, filename, length, codec, bitrate, samplerate, filesize and channels. Last time it froze in 11:05 of the 29. file.

19. 00401488.mp3    [43:35]   MP3    64kbps    22050Hz   mono   20927741
20. 00401491.mp3    [19:40]   MP3    48kbps    44100Hz   mono   7094909
21. 00401577.mp3    [2:29]      MP3    24kbps    22050Hz   mono   447478
22. 00401932.mp3    [53:12]   MP3    64kbps    44100Hz   mono   25416933
23. 00402526.mp3    [19:03]   MP3    48kbps    44100Hz   mono   6872558
24. 00402602.mp3    [7:02]      MP3    64kbps    32000Hz   mono   3377524
25. 00402603.mp3    [17:46]   MP3    64kbps    32000Hz   mono   8529268
26. 00402608.mp3    [5:04]      MP3    64kbps    32000Hz   mono   2433172
27. 00402610.mp3    [18:32]   MP3    64kbps    32000Hz   mono   8902804
28. 00403542.mp3    [7:05]      MP3    64kbps    32000Hz   mono   3403732
29. 00403543.mp3    [18:52]   MP3    64kbps    32000Hz   mono   9056884

Did anyone encountered similar problem or do you have ideas how to hunt the bug down to be able to replicate it on demand?

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[fml2]

the bug: The firmware freezes during playback

This is a very sad fact that RockBox still has problems with playback which is the primary feature of a DAP. That's why I still use the build as old as Apr 04 2006. I cross my fingers and hope for a fix. Good luck and thanks to all the devs!

[RowaN]

I've had freezes lately too.. sometimes when skipping tracks. Best to keep a paperclip handy for reboot! I've not experienced any freezes with the latest CVS build though.... YET!

[dunno]

I get similar freezing only if I use "Follow Album" type playback, which is to let it play albums consecutively without interruption, "auto change directory" on. I dont get any freezing if I create playlists for playback.

[fatoldpig]

i've added a bug report here http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5536
no resolution yet. I only get after it changes the directory

[pabouk]

I do not use "Auto change directory" and I do not usually create playlists manually the playlist showed above is an automatic one (i.e. content of a directory). You can see my settings in the included settings06.cfg.txt.

I tried to let Rockbox play the same playlist for about 8 hours through the last night but it did not froze. Maybe the bug appears only after skipping, seeking or resume functions. I will do further investigation.

[fatoldpig]

recently i've came across another freezing bug.

play a track and stop it in the middle and then shut down the player
start the player (auto-resume is on) and while it's resuming (but before it resumes) press stop. it freezes completely and need a reset

[RowaN]

I have a CVS build from about 3 days ago, and this morning I had a freeze. I skipped to the next track, and while crossfade was happening, I went into the file tree and chose another song. It went back to the WPS but then froze - no sound, and entire screen was static (no progress bar or elapsed/remain movement). Moving the joystick still enabled the backlight. I was unable to power off in the usual way (holding stop). I had no paperclip, but luckily, after 10mins it auto powered off, as it is set to do in my options. I was then able to reboot. Very handy on my 2 hour commute!

[epithetless]

I have a CVS build from about 3 days ago, and this morning I had a freeze. I skipped to the next track, and while crossfade was happening, I went into the file tree and chose another song. It went back to the WPS but then froze - no sound, and entire screen was static (no progress bar or elapsed/remain movement). Moving the joystick still enabled the backlight. I was unable to power off in the usual way (holding stop).

I had a very similar occurrence recently. The build was from sometime in the past 2 weeks (sorry I can't pinpoint, as I update fanatically). Crossfade enabled. As my playlist was changing from one directory to another (as a result of the "insert next" playlisting function, not the auto-changing directory function), I chose a different track from the file browser and the player froze. Backlight was the only thing to respond. Required a hard reset when I got home. Just to lend some plurality to the issue...

[pabouk]

Finally I managed to duplicate the bug after circa 30 hours of testing playback. I tried it on the same playlist of MP3 files with various bitrates and sample rates. In fact I have a suspicion that the bug has something to do with various sample rates.

Now I have a bookmark (approximately 2 minutes before end of a 40 minutes file) with which I can duplicate sometimes a freeze or on demand a similar bug. The steps how to invoke the error are below:

•   Resume playback from the bookmark.
•   Rewind before the time point of bookmark.
•   Wait till the playback continues on the next track (buffer refills).
•   In my case after 5 to 100 seconds appears one of these bugs:

a)   Different track starts to play (not from the beginning) while the WPS still shows information about the track, which was supposed to play till its end. In my case it started to play a track which is fourth in succession. The WPS stays out of sync (although it somehow shows next tracks sequentially) until I skip enough to refill the buffer. Forward and backward seeking does not work normally (probably related to the different sample rate being shown and played).

b)   The firmware freezes. If I resume playback after reset it starts to play the file from the beginning and it freezes at the same point. I have saved the configuration sector for further examination.

Unfortunately I will be on a small vacation till Monday. Then I will examine the bug with a most recent firmware version and I will fill a bug report in flyspray.

[dunno]

please do file a bug report, great work on narrowing it down.

[pabouk]

The bug seems to be fixed by Miika. I cannot replicate it anymore:

31 Jul 08:12   Miika Pekkarinen
apps/playback.c 1.333
apps/playback.h 1.32
Checked the rebuffering code. Might fix buffers desyncing and a system crash.

Now it also does not rebuffer without a reason.
Thank you

[Rincewind]

I don't know if this was caused by the fix, but I get dropouts in playback recently. The music is gone for maybe a second and then continues. I had the chance to see the disc spinning one time, but I have my player in my pocket so I can't say if this has something to do with it. It happening randomly, I can't reproduce it at will.

Also, I get "codec failure" sometimes when the player should skip to the next directory after the last track.

Sorry that I can't be more specific.

This happened with a build from about 3 days ago, but there haven't been changes to playback.c, so I suppose it is still there when I upgrade later today.

[dunno]

1). do you have the latest daily build installed.

2). have you personalised the settings, if so try it with the default rockbox settings, i.e. do a reset by holding down the record button just after it has been switched on. then add your personal settings one at a time until you get the bug.

[Rincewind]

It can take a while until I get dropouts the next time, it happens only when I use the player for about 1 hour, maybe more and not everytime I use the player.

The "codec failure" is more common, though, I try to find a way to reproduce this. I don't expect anyone to be able to do something just because of my post, it's just for information, that not everything is right for me.