4G Grayscale IPod - Freeze on Playback

[IMSargon]

I've been using Rockbox since December 06. From then to present, I get random lockups - The iPod just stops responding, requiring a 'select + Menu' reboot.

The songs in question are normal oggs or mp3s. There aren't any paticular songs that lock up the machine. Sometimes they play normally, and sometimes they freeze.

It's not a time-based thing, either. Sometimes it freezes after only about 10 minutes, or sometimes it can play for a couple hours before freezing.

It doesn't seem to have been affected by any updates since then - I update frequently. I currently have 070226 on there, but there seems to be no difference in the freezes from previous versions.

I'm not using any crazy settings - All the settings are at their defaults, though I may occasionally turn 'shuffle' on, though that seems to have no effect.

This is really annoying, but I don't like Apple software, and I really want ogg playback. Does anyone have any ideas, or can anyone help me trace this bug? It seems so independant of anything I do that I'm shocked I don't hear more about it. I'll completely wipe out the iPod using iTunes restore, then reinstall from scratch for a clean copy of rockbox, but there's no change.

Also, booting to apple firmware by having the 'hold' switch switched during boot results in a boot loop. Is this relevant? Is this common?

Thanks,
Sargon

[pondlife]

This is a known issue - look at http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5264 for example.

If you can make a build with frequency scaling disable (or manually boost CPU each time you boot up) that will probably fix the lockups, although result in lower battery runtime.

[IMSargon]

Thanks for the link, pondlife. I had been looking for such a bug for some time, but never found it.

I will try the CPU boost for a while and see how that works out. If that solves the issue, I'll patch a build.

From the comments in the bug, and the thread linked there, is the cause of this crash still unknown? Is there some sort of iPod emulator that would make it possible to trace this bug, so that there may be a solution, rather than just a workaround?

Should I stop posting on this thread, and post here: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=6357.0   instead?

Thanks,
-Sargon

[wesderby]

I was having similar problems with my 5th Gen iPod Video 30GB.  I say used to because now, the problem has actually gotten worse.  It used to be that I could reboot by holding down Menu and Select.  Now, ever since the March 5, 2007 update (I'm running March 7 now), it will freeze, the buttons will not respond, and even menu+select doesn't do anything.  So, it just keeps playing until the battery dies, and I can't change tracks, change volume, stop playback...Nothing.  Over all, I like Rockbox a lot, but this is REALLY irritating...I might consider going back to an older version so that, when this happens, I can at least reboot.

[Llorean]

Rockbox can't prevent Menu+Select from working.

If you're having problems getting it to work, first turn on the hold switch, then turn off the hold switch, then hold them down.

If it doesn't work, toggle hold on/off again and try again.

But as there are no known freeze bugs on the 5G iPod at this time, it may be that your iPod is suffering other problems, especially if you're having a hard time getting the hardware reset to work. It would be nice, though, to know what conditions your freezes are occurring under.

[wesderby]

Let me ammend my previous pot...Holding down Menu+select DOES work; turns out I just have to hold it longer than I used to.  It seems to happen randomly, sometimes after playing a couple minutes of a file, sometimes after half an hour, sometimes not at all.  Scary part is, it's a pretty new iPod...I bought it February 16, and installed Rockbox the next morning.  It seems like it's happening more in the last couple builds; at first I never noticed it being an issue, but the last week or so, it's happened almost every time I use the unit, usually after only a couple minutes of playing a song.  They're all MP3's, usually around 128KBPS stereo...Now that I've figured out holding down the menu/select combo a bit longer than before works, it's easier to deal with.

Thanks for the information.