random resets when using Messenger

Fizz

@lduboeuf
I can say that when i was running ~~Focal~~ Xenial on my earlier phone, the Nexus 5, this issue never occurred.

-Fizz

Fizz

@kugiigi
It's the Messaging app that comes preinstalled with UT, so i don't know if that counts as "desktop" or not.
And yes- for me the crash always occurs when i'm typing. And it's so intermittant. Most of the time there is no issue, but every now and then, i get a crash as i try to type something.

-Fizz

kugiigi

@Fizz Oh okay, I thought Facebook Messenger
Anyway, do you have predictive text enabled? And can you replicate it consistently? There's a known issue but that only crashes the keyboard.

lduboeuf

@Fizz Which keyboard layout do you use ?
I would try first to disable all of them, and see by changing layout if its still occurs.

And also try with Focal if it's still a thing. Xenial on Pixel3a is not supported anymore.

Fizz

@Fizz
Irk- did i inadvertently get my code names mixed up? I think i did. I blame my idiocy on the flu bug i've had for the last week.

So to clarify:

I am running UT 20.04 OTA-3 on my Pixel 3a.
My previous phone ran UT 16.04 on my older Nexus 5.

I did not ever see the issue on the Nexus 5. It has only occurred on the Pixel 3a which has always run 20.04.

I wish i could go back and fix my initial post. (Can any admin do so for me?)

-Fizz

Fizz

@lduboeuf
I just clarified that i am running Focal on the Pixel 3a- sorry for that confusion.

I am using whatever standard keyboard layout that came with the OS. Looks like i have English and Emoji layouts at the moment. Or is there some other keyboard layout you mean?

-Fizz

Fizz

@kugiigi
No predictive text is being used. And i've not been able to replicate it. Most of the time it's fine- i've not had it crash for the last week. But every now and then, i start to type and it takes down the whole OS. <shrug>

-Fizz

lduboeuf

@Fizz

@Fizz said in random resets when using Messenger:

@lduboeuf
I just clarified that i am running Focal on the Pixel 3a- sorry for that confusion.

I am using whatever standard keyboard layout that came with the OS. Looks like i have English and Emoji layouts at the moment. Or is there some other keyboard layout you mean?

-Fizz

Arf then i have no idea, would be interesting to monitor memory at least. Have you installed something with apt or did anything custom ?
Does it happen on a fresh install too ?

Fizz

@lduboeuf
I've been using it for a few months now, so it's a relatively new install at least. It's hard to say when the issue started since it's so intermittant. The phone is certainly usable- i'm quite happy overall. It's just the occassional inconvenience every now and then.

I've not intalled anything extra via apt. Any new apps i've added have been through the OpenStore.

How can i monitor my memory usage? Is there a specific app for that, or just through the terminal? What do you recommend?

-Fizz

lduboeuf

@Fizz said in random resets when using Messenger:

@lduboeuf
I've been using it for a few months now, so it's a relatively new install at least. It's hard to say when the issue started since it's so intermittant. The phone is certainly usable- i'm quite happy overall. It's just the occassional inconvenience every now and then.

I've not intalled anything extra via apt. Any new apps i've added have been through the OpenStore.

How can i monitor my memory usage? Is there a specific app for that, or just through the terminal? What do you recommend?

If you are not comfortable with command line, and access to your device via adb or ssh. You can first check the logs of messaging-app and maliit-server with the LogViewer app. But i doubt they will be shown after a crash.

Otherwise, yes via e.g adb ( https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/advanceduse/adb.html ), just type top and see if you see something unusual. But as it is random, will not be easy to spot

-Fizz

Fizz

Well, it has been awhile, but i finally saw the crash again. I was having a conversation with a friend, and mid-sentence the screen went black, then the UT loading screen, black, UT loading screen, etc. And i had to do a hard reset to get it out of the mode. After the reset and my resuming the conversation, it happened a second time.

Unfortunately, i don't have any memory info to report. There is never any indication that a crash is about to occur. Maybe next time in a longer conversation i'll have to check memory regularly.

Is there any chance it could be related to my cell provider? I'm on Freedom Mobile here in Canada (previously i was on Virgin).

-Fizz

lduboeuf

@Fizz Wow that is very unfortunate and strange behavior.
I really have no idea what is going on, and especially the fact that your device is in clean state iirc ( not upgraded from 16.04 and without heavy sms history ). But your RAM hardware can be faulty or whatever hardware part otherwise others would have faced the same issue.

Znd no, i doubt your provider is doing nasty things. Because when you open messaging app to read a sms, the sms has been already processed

Fizz

@lduboeuf
When i first boot up, running top it tells me MiB Mem is 3593.7 total, 1521.1 free. Assuming MiB means mebibyte, that converts to 3.77 GB. And after accounting for memory allocation to hardware etc, this seems like it is all being recognized. (The Pixel 3a has 4 GB memory.)

Is there a way to test whether memory is faulty? I don't think the memory is bad, because as you say everything else is working fine, but i don't know what else to check. These blips seem to occur in groups. Last night's caused the reset, so i should have a "clean slate" upon reboot, but it happened again quickly after the reboot.

But it's been fine since that second reboot. I lasted the last two weeks nearly without a crash, and i've certainly been texting all that time. So... yeah i am baffled too.

-Fizz

multiprefi

How can i check memory usage? I too would be surprised if that were the issue, as i have no other apps running, and the Pixel3a should have plenty.

AppLee

Hi @multiprefi

You can use top ideally run in a terminal from a SSH connection to monitor your device while not in use as well as with the screen on, apps running, etc.

irnbru

My Pixel 3a has always done this. On Xenial, the screen would go off/black then back on showing whatever app was open until a hard reboot. On Focal it is exactly as the OP described with the ubuntu loading screen. This can happen any time, not just when using the messaging app, it even happens when the phone is sitting on my desk not being used. I always assumed this was some specific issue with my device. I ran 'top' after this mornings crash but i have no idea what I'm looking for.

kugiigi

My guess is that something crashes when this happens and probably not really related to out of memory issues. Perhaps Mir, Qtmir, or whatever

Sadly it seems to be really hard to replicate and investigate. I've observed similar issue on my FP4 and Xperia X.

Fizz

I have had it happen a few more times since my last post. It seems random. One time it crashed shortly after i had just opened Messaging, so it's not like "excessive use" of Messaging caused it.

It does seem to happen in waves... It was fine for almost a month, then i a couple instances inside of 4 days.

Once when i wasn't even using Messaging, or perhaps i had just closed it. So as though solving it wasn't hard enough already. Lol.

-Fizz

arubislander

@Fizz Do you haven to have a large amount of messages? Maybe the app is having trouble with that?

kugiigi

I also recently experienced this. I was typing then my FP4 just died and rebooted. After rebooting though, the OSK keeps on crashing similar to a known weird issues in the keyboard. So maybe sometimes when the OSK crashes, something else panics and crashes and causes a reboot.