Groovyarcade: Attract mode freezes

[Banane]

Hi everyone,

this is unfortunatley my first post, i came here cause I think itīs f**king great that there is a Groovymame Distro based on arch Linux.
I pray this projekt is still getting better 

I do this thread here to say Hi and also for better visibility.

In Thread " GroovyArcade live-CD New Release 2019 " mmandrea in february had two issues:

a) attract mode hangs / freezes
b) he couldnīt get the onyxarcade themes for attract mode to work ( e.g http://www.onyxarcade.com/flat_blue.html)

Does anyone have an helping update for these topics? For a) I set the attract mode debug level to the highest value, I search in kernel message and /var/log/* and journalctl => just nothing.
Any Idea how to debug this at least ?  .

Greetings from Hamburg / Germany,
Christian

[Doozer]

Wrt to the freezes. Can you check the behavior using ffmpeg? Try to play a video (few minutes) in X with ffplay. It the counters+video stop and the sound plays for few sec, then it is not related to attract but another layer in the OS.

[Banane]

thanks for your reply. I must say the problem is not related to ffmpeg...

I just ordered a new hardware setup and will see if it will return on that one as well...

[Banane]

okay, i bought a brand new ASRock A320M-HDV with a Ryzen 2400G just installed GroovyArcade of the newest ISO file
=> attract mode freezes 

I found this thread here in ukvac-forum, from october 2018, same problem:

http://www.ukvac.com/forum/attractmode-hangs-on-grooveyarcade_topic366595.html

The solution was to switch to Windows 

[Doozer]

okay, i bought a brand new ASRock A320M-HDV with a Ryzen 2400G just installed GroovyArcade of the newest ISO file
=> attract mode freezes 

I made the same assumption and even created a ticket long time ago in attract git. But with some additional investigation I was able to confirm (using ffplay) that the problem is not linked to attractmode.

Kernel regression <4.8 make the phenomena appearing less frequently. I have no real idea about what is going on but I can confirm that the video freezes due to some ticks not happening anymore somewhere.

@Substring, this is a good use case for deeper investigation, what's your opinion?

[Substring]

I have an up-to-date attract arch package (yeah, I read it's not related to attract). One could install it and see if the problem is solved, as well as update ffmpeg and eventually kernel. I may also suggest to give a try to the groovyarcade version I'm working on which is much more uptodate than the official one (almost cutting edge kernel available, updated almost everyday if any groovy specific package is updated). Still very beta though

Direct link for attract mode : https://github.com/substring/packages/releases/download/stable/attract-2.5.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

Dunno if oomek or any other attract contributer has investigated this issue

[Banane]

thanks for keeping this up . I must say on my tests itīs not related to ffmpeg, thereīs no process of it in the back. It mostly even happens when I browse through the attract config menus.

first of all I'll test the new attract mode package. although I use arch on a daily basis and I could update the kernel... donīt I lose the 15Khz  output functionality? How does this work ?

@substring: do you have an iso-file of the version youīre working on ? It doesnīt have to be stable at all, als long I could test the attract menu. I'm really looking forward to your (final) version. I'd love to have arch's bleeding edge  background on my arcade machine as well.

this issue doesnīt have to be fixed tomorrow, as long as I donīt have to go back to stupid windows 
 

[Substring]

Yup I do ! Monthly releases for the iso : https://github.com/substring/os/releases

[Doozer]

I use fully up to date Arch (not GA based) and latest 5.3.1 kernel, the video playback issue is still here.

It is not related to the radeon driver, vesafb shows the same behavior.

I did some experiment to trace where the system get stuck. Unfortunately, I have not discovered the root cause of this.

In AM, freezes are always happening during video playback. Reason why I did separate tests with ffmpeg.

I am open to suggestions.

[Substring]

Rewrite the video backend to use GStreamer ?

...


*Running far away*

Except going the strace/gdb way, i really know nothing about ffmpeg or all the libav stuff.

[Banane]

@Doozer: Is it your whole system which gets stuck, or the frontend ? I still kill the process via ssh or from another runlevel, itīs just attract.
it does not freeze when you donīt have any videos in your snap folders ?

newbie tests I made after your replies:

• use of 2018 GA Version - same problem
• update of attract in 2019 GA version - same problem
• system updates or Substring's images: 15Khz/video driver/something trouble Iīm not into yet (is there a tutorial somehow? Iīd also like to test from an up to date version)

p.s. iīve to focus on distinguishing between mode with videos and mode without

[Substring]

I'm interested in feedback, it uses the gasetup from the good old groovyarcade (with a few hacks to have it working with my kernel). Otherwise, there is nothing much different

[Doozer]

@Doozer: Is it your whole system which gets stuck, or the frontend ? I still kill the process via ssh or from another runlevel, itīs just attract.
it does not freeze when you donīt have any videos in your snap folders ?

Thanks for testing and contributing.

Only the process displaying video stream is affected. My tests show that there is no relationship to the resolution used.
Playback starts fine after relaunching, it means no state corruption.

My assumptions would be more in favor of a library or backend issue.

[Banane]

Just for my personal understanding, ffmpeg is always involved in attract mode. Am I right ?

Now I was able to test with Substrings newest version as well ( @Substring: the fixes for the problem with the nvme SSD and the 15khz output after the first restart I sent you via PM, this is not related to this topic here   )

=> newer kernel , newer attract mode => no own games or snaps inserted => attract mode freezes after a while.
So if the answer to my question is yes, yep, than it could be an ffmpeg problem 

[Doozer]

Video playback inside AM is build upon ffmeg library.

Standalone ffmpeg player exhibits the same 'freezing' behavior.

The issue is limited to the process being unresponsive and a simple kill is sufficient to get rid of it. The OS layer is not impacted and state is nominal. Something is getting stuck and not ticking anymore somewhere in ffmpeg code. Long time ago I did some testing with other media player,  and only ffmpeg was showing this oddity.

[Substring]

@Doozer is the problem only happening in arch linux ? Or did you have the chance to test on other linux distros ?

[Doozer]

@Doozer is the problem only happening in arch linux ? Or did you have the chance to test on other linux distros ?

I must admit that I was too lazy to boot into another distro to check.

[Substring]

if you have a way to reproduce it, I can test on ubuntu + intel or nvidia GPU

[Banane]

Video playback inside AM is build upon ffmeg library.

Okay, I do understand this . But still, if you donīt  play any videos (like game snaps), just the pure menu, then ffmpeg is not used, right? (sorry, could be the language barrier).
My attract mode gets stuck EVEN when there is NO video playing .

Thatīs why I asked: Is attract mode always "combined" to ffmpeg? Is the pacman movement animation also done by ffmpeg?
If not, then there is still a 2nd problem going on.

[Doozer]

Video playback inside AM is build upon ffmeg library.

Okay, I do understand this . But still, if you donīt  play any videos (like game snaps), just the pure menu, then ffmpeg is not used, right? (sorry, could be the language barrier).
My attract mode gets stuck EVEN when there is NO video playing .

Thatīs why I asked: Is attract mode always "combined" to ffmpeg? Is the pacman movement animation also done by ffmpeg?
If not, then there is still a 2nd problem going on.

Indeed, if you experience freezes outside of video playback (screensaver, attract movie, ...) it is related to something else.

Have you already tried to trace the AM execution to see if a call or event can be identified?

[Doozer]

if you have a way to reproduce it, I can test on ubuntu + intel or nvidia GPU

Could you point me to the latest GA build considered stable? I will install it and check if I can produced it. I will also do a test with ubuntu on one machine.

At the moment the easiest way I found to reproduce it is to launch a video playback with ffplay and wait until the counter get stuck. The video freezes with the sound still playing few tens of second.

One point to mention, all my Radeon cards have their bios patched with Calamity's atom tool.

[Banane]

Have you already tried to trace the AM execution to see if a call or event can be identified?

This how this thread started  . Now weīre going for maybe two issues in the same one (a) freezes without ffmpeg, b) freezes due to ffmpeg)

For more than one hour now Iīm trying to find any further information. No dmesg, no "attract --loglevel debug", no "journalctl -f" ... any recommendations how to "trace" oder "debug" this ? 

I updated anything so far but the kernel, even reinstalled the sfml library

[Substring]

if you have a way to reproduce it, I can test on ubuntu + intel or nvidia GPU

Could you point me to the latest GA build considered stable? I will install it and check if I can produced it. I will also do a test with ubuntu on one machine.

Offical GA repo : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0NB2HYUHHktUFZXTWJfbHpzUlE

[Doozer]

For more than one hour now Iīm trying to find any further information. No dmesg, no "attract --loglevel debug", no "journalctl -f" ... any recommendations how to "trace" oder "debug" this ? 

Hi Banane,

I am sorry, I did not explain well what I meant by trace. I was thinking of the 'strace' command. This will show you the system calls and might give some clue on what is happening before the freeze occurs. Another option is to use the 'debug' command if the symbols are present in the binary. Otherwise AM needs to be recompiled for debug. Good how-to exist on the Net explaining how to attach, break and step during the execution.

Tonight I will do more tests wrt the video playback freezes. I think I have an idea about what is participating to the issue.

@Substring Thank you, I will do tests with your distro as well.

[Banane]

I was thinking of the 'strace' command.

Oh , sorry,  . I wasnīt thinking of this. Thanks, good idea

I attached the logfile of the strace right before it locks up. While in the idle main screen (no keyboard inputs made) itīs somehow polling something all the time but not receiving itīs wanted answer.

Could you image what this could be ?

18:50:00 [00007f572f46595d] recvmsg(4, {msg_name=NULL, msg_namelen=0, msg_iov=[{iov_base="\1\0\36\242\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., iov_len=4096}], msg_iovlen=1, msg_controllen=0, msg_flags=0}, 0) = 40
18:50:00 [00007f572f46595d] recvmsg(4, {msg_namelen=0}, 0) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)

Beside that there is nothing special but the following.

What is this ? Could the lock up be related to some radeon driver issues ? (FYI - Iīm also using a HD6450 patched with a atom 15 bios, but the Ryzon 2400G also has a GPU integrated which is not attached to some monitor)

18:50:00 [00007f572cf1f0bb] getpid()    = 1064
18:50:00 [00007f572cf1f0bb] getpid()    = 1064
18:50:00 [00007f572cf4821b] ioctl(7, DRM_IOCTL_RADEON_GEM_BUSY, 0x7ffeb3ec3fc0) = 0
18:50:00 [00007f572f4619fd] futex(0x55e1dd26772c, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
18:50:00 [00007f572f46485a] futex(0x55e1dd2676d8, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 1
18:50:00 [00007f572cf4be3d] futex(0x55e1dda1f9f0, FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET, 2, NULL, FUTEX_BITSET_MATCH_ANY) = 0
18:50:00 [00007f572cf4821b] ioctl(7, DRM_IOCTL_RADEON_GEM_WAIT_IDLE, 0x7ffeb3ec41a0) = 0
18:50:00 [00007f572cf4821b] ioctl(7, DRM_IOCTL_RADEON_GEM_WAIT_IDLE, 0x7ffeb3ec41d0) = 0

Thanks 


p.s. okay, for the first try it seems to be related to the video card. I mean I had the same problem on my other mainboard/cpu and now I have it on the new hardware too (just the same video card).
I just ran it for half an hour with the internal GPU in vga mode and had no freezes so far.

I donīt really understand the other threads, if the internal vega APU is supported or not.

For testing purposes, can I get it to output 15 Khz ? or is there a decent card model you recommend ?

[Substring]

For the APU, check Calamity's A300 deskmini topic, he gave a few hints there.

[Doozer]

@substring, @banane

I have still some tests to performed to come to a conclusion. Take the following description as assumptions until fully confirmed.

I have tested the following cards so far, on a combination of different machines:
Radeon HD 5450
Radeon HD 2400 XT
Radeon HD 3650
Radeon HD 3450
Radeon HD 7450
Radeon HD 8990
Radeon HD 6450

I discovered something which is indeed related to the video portion. It is present in the stock kernel but related to 15kHz video modes. As said before, I need to do some more test to narrow down the issue. It could be the radeon driver, the 15kHz modelines, some acceleration functions (X)...

@banane, the strace output confirms that your freeze and the playback freeze are IDENTICAL issue.

@all: Can someone confirms that the freeze also happen when ATI card is used without ATOM BIOS patch?

@all: I was only able to spot the issue on ATI HW, if someone has issue with NVIDIA, INTEL, please provide your inputs. thank you.

What is known so far:
- not related to 15kHz patch
- not related to SDL2
- not related to ffmpeg (yes, I was wrong)
- issue can be triggered with EDID on stock kernel
- quite sure that ATOM PATCH is not the cause of this, I have issues on stock bios as well (more tests needed here)
- issue is not present when using the vesa driver

[Calamity]

Does this happen with all modes? Or is it specific to interlaced or progressive modes?

[Doozer]

Does this happen with all modes? Or is it specific to interlaced or progressive modes?

This is exactly what I have to confirm. All tests have been performed using interlaced resolutions up to now. 640x400i, 720x576i.... I was using the default resolution provided by EDID / 15kHz and suddenly I have spotted no issue when booting 31kHz when I hooked a standard LCD screen. I had to stop at that time but I will resume tests before coming to a conclusion.

[Doozer]

I can confirm that the issue is caused by X being used with an interlaced resolution.

Using progressive resolutions does not hang AM and video keep playing without freezes.

@Banane, this might also solve your issue. Let me know.

Now, it can be either Xorg, Radeon driver or DRM.

@All, can someone test NVIDIA with GA and interlaced resolution? If no issue here, it is definitely Radeon driver related

[Doozer]

The following progressive modelines are large enough for the frontend and display fine on CRT.

Code: [Select]

        modeline "640x240" 13.22 640 672 736 832 240 243 246 265 -hsync -vsync
        modeline "640x288" 13.10 640 672 736 832 288 289 292 309 -hsync -vsync


[Substring]

I'll try to test on Nvidia with GA (though I have absolutely no snap, will test on xterm + ffplay)

I had hoped amdgpu could work, but probably not with HD5xxx or HD6xxx

[Calamity]

I can confirm that the issue is caused by X being used with an interlaced resolution.

Using progressive resolutions does not hang AM and video keep playing without freezes.

@Banane, this might also solve your issue. Let me know.

Now, it can be either Xorg, Radeon driver or DRM.

@All, can someone test NVIDIA with GA and interlaced resolution? If no issue here, it is definitely Radeon driver related

Nice finding.

From Banane's log it looks like it hangs right after DRM_RADEON_GEM_WAIT_IDLE.

That call points here: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v4.20/source/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon_gem.c#L476

Code: [Select]

ret = reservation_object_wait_timeout_rcu(robj->tbo.resv, true, true, 30 * HZ);
This is a random idea but the fact that interlaced modes are usually below 30 Hz might have something to do.

[Doozer]

Hi Calamity,

I have already patched this, but it is not the only place where reservation_object_wait_timeout_rcu is used. Nouveau and amdgpu should also be affected.

ATM, issue is still present with 10Hz 

[Calamity]

What if you just ret and ignore the wait?

EDIT: forget that, that'll probably break the whole driver.

[Banane]

Uuhh, I wasnīt here for half a day and now this movement  .Once again, thank you very much for digging into this, especially Doozer.

one by one:

Substring:
For the APU, check Calamity's A300 deskmini topic, he gave a few hints there.

Thanks, I did. For others maybe following the topic here, itīs this thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,159988.0.html.
I came to the conclusion that I will take care about the new Ryzen APUs later on. Right now there are other problems to solve. Instead I bought new used hardware for testing (1x Radeon R5 230 + 1x Radeon HD6870),  unfortunately no Intel or Nvidia.

Doozer:
@banane, the strace output confirms that your freeze and the playback freeze are IDENTICAL issue.
@all: Can someone confirms that the freeze also happen when ATI card is used without ATOM BIOS patch?

Great, makes it easier to follow and debug both problems if itīs actually just one.
I can confirm that the freezes also happen without the ATOM BIOS.  I both reflashed my HD6450 and tested the R5 230.

Doozer:
Using progressive resolutions does not hang AM and video keep playing without freezes.
@Banane, this might also solve your issue. Let me know.

How do I force AM to only output in progressive resolution ? edit: Okay, by a string search I found out itīs in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Current modeLine: ModeLine          "648x480x60.00" 13.129200 648 672 736 840 480 482 488 521 -HSync -VSync interlace

I put in your recommended modelines for testing if AM freezes.  Sorry, Iīm not into all that stuff like  "resolution", "modelines" etc. I need to read and understand first. 640x480 progressive is not a 15Khz resolution anymore, right ? Thatīs why you did e.g 640x240  ?
Donīt know if this is a useful information, but i Have a dualSync Weiya Chassis (15Khz/24Khz). edit: 640x480 is VGA, 31Khz... okay, okay ... Can attract mode set to a low res fullscreen resolution or would it look  like crap ?
 
Also did you find a way to force the crash? Sometimes during my tests AM runs fine for more than about 10 minutes.
I know I could force it with video playback, as you said, but did you maybe figure out another way just for the menu issue ? 

[Doozer]

648x480 and 640x240 are 15kHz resolution. Progressive is the opposite of interlaced. 648x480 is an interlaced resolution, 2 fields (2 times half the picture organized in odd and even lines) to draw a full picture. 640x240 is a progressive resolution which is draw entirely in one pass.

If you check the 640x480 modeline definition, you will see the keyword "interlace" at the end of the line. Replace this line with a progressive mode like 640x480 and you issue with the freezes will be gone.

t is a temporary workaround until a proper solution is found. The drawback is half of the vertical resolution for the moment.

[Banane]

Thanks for explanation and forget about what I wrote - I now understand by myself AM needs a higher resolution to display all the information. If itīs in low res, than it's  640x480 interlaced - makes sense.

A even better workaround would be a trisync monitor 

I can confirm the actual problem is found. I have  it running in progressive mode for more than one hour now without any freezes 

[tym]

@All, can someone test NVIDIA with GA and interlaced resolution? If no issue here, it is definitely Radeon driver related

I haven’t tried with GA (yet) but RetroArch hasn’t frozen running an interlaced MAME game with an Nvidia card. It was having the same problem with a Radeon card.

[pocketpal]

So I guess this temporary workaround is still the best thing going?  I just got GroovyArcade going in my cabinet last night, and ran into this problem.

[Substring]

Games have no problems, only videos do. This happens only in interlace mode

[Doozer]

So I guess this temporary workaround is still the best thing going?  I just got GroovyArcade going in my cabinet last night, and ran into this problem.

Unfortunately yes, the kernel 5.5.1 is still suffering from this unwanted behavior.

The hunt has taken me crazy exploring the DRM, GEM and ATI memory management codes. I give it a break to focus on other projects and will come back later with fresh ideas I hope.

I have released the new Linux 15kHz patch for kernel 5.5 with the refactoring done by Substring.

[pocketpal]

I certainly appreciate your efforts.  Using the progressive resolution isn't so bad in Attract Mode, but it sure makes LXDE hard to use.

[Substring]

Younmay add a resolution with xrandr and switch to it in LXDE only. Need some help to do that ?

[pocketpal]

Thanks, I suppose I could use some help doing that.

[Banane]

just by reading this again, no one has tested it with a nvdia card so far as asked by doozer, right ? 

With this on top I see several "workarounds"

• just not use any video snaps
• use progressive but strange resolution
• use a mutisync monitor == use progressive but nice resolution
• use a nvidia card (edit: valid, see comment from dozer right in the next answer)

[Doozer]

Hi Banane,

Nvidia card has been tested and it is not impacted by the issue.

The four mentioned workarounds are all valid. But the ideal solution would be to figure out the root cause of the problem. 

[Banane]

Hi Dozer,

true  - a solution is  better than workarounds :-D.

I just had the idea to at least encircle the problem a bit more.

I'm trying to find an older test set-up system where the involved parties ( ATI-Card, driver,  Xorg, ffmpeg, attract mode, video snaps) didnīt cause the problem.
Then we could compare the release notes  .

Or did this problem "always" exist and just no one reported it ?Edit by myself:  I was just about to note the version from an early 2018 ves release cause I had no freezes for about two houres => Then out of the sudden it freezed too :-(

[Doozer]

The issue is here for a long date. It is present in kernel 4.x but materialize  after a longer period of time.

What is driving me crazy is the fact that I cannot find the root cause of this. The last hope was to find a memory management issue in the  DRM_IOCTL_RADEON_GEM_WAIT_IDLE which was the last call to the driver. Even by forcing all conditions to pass, the freeze was still happening.

At the moment I have put on-hold the investigation but I will focus again on this when some parallel projects are done. Will keep you in touch.

[tyson171]

So i'm pretty new to Linux/GroovyAracde, where do you change the resolution so Attractmode doesn't freeze?  I'm getting the same freezing in menus that the OP was getting.

[Doozer]

So i'm pretty new to Linux/GroovyAracde, where do you change the resolution so Attractmode doesn't freeze?  I'm getting the same freezing in menus that the OP was getting.

Hi,

If you are using the GA distro from Substring, you can set the resolution during the installation or later from a console (textual terminal) with gasetup.

[Substring]

The best universal way is to edit /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

Depending on the groovyarcade version you're using (the original one or mine), things are a little different. I can help

[DreyMIX]

Hello,
Hi, I am using this ISO: "GroovyArcade-Arch2019.03.10-x86_64.iso"
I had to disable the theme with the active background video. Now it freezes less, although many of the times when it happens, to unlock the situation, I do this: I enter the console -> return to attract-mode -> I enter the console again -> finally again to attract-mode and return to normal. I don't know why.

[tyson171]

So i broke it. lol.  I changed the resolution in the syslinux.cfg file, and 640x240 didn't really seem to change attract mode, just the gasetup was noticeably larger, so i didn't think attract mode took the changes.  Then i changed it to 640x248, and then my monitor went crazy and wouldn't sync again.  I'm using a wells 25k7191. 

I tried changing the resolution in gasetup, but when i entered a manual resolution into xorg/desktop (i'm assuming this is where its done) as (640 240 60) it wouldn't take the changes.

So, looks like i'm going to reinstall, i'm using the 2019 Stable release, should i use a different build?  Any advice for the front end looking like it didn't take the resolution changes, but the OS did?  Wouldn't this make it still freeze.  I thought attract mode is what is actually freezing, not the OS image.

(PS - I have winscp, but never enabled root in ssh, so it won't let me overwrite the syslinux.cfg now).

*Update* i was able to pull the video card, and change the resolutions back, so that part is fixed, and I allowed root to login, so that part is also fixed.

*Confirmed changing syslinux.cfg doesn't modify attract mode resolution, just the gasetup console, and to add this might not work for me anyways, 640x288 wouldn't sync at all, and 640x240 still has a slight scroll on my monitor.  I might not have changed the resolution properly though, this was my syslinux.cfg file

default arch
timeout 0
prompt 0
#UI vesamenu.c32
menu title Groovy Arcade Linux
menu background GA.png
label arch
menu label GroovyArcade
linux ../vmlinuz-linux
append root=/dev/disk/by-label/GA  rw quiet rd.udev.log-priority=3 splash vga=0x311 video=VGA-1:640x240ec
initrd ../initramfs-linux.img

[mmd2]

I'm having trouble with the  Linux distro (4.20.5-arch1-1-ARCH) with attract mode freezing when I'm in the config screen (TAB) for it. I can barely tab around a few times and the video locks up, sound does not. Killing the attract pid puts it back into gasetup. I have not updated anything yet as I reinstalled to start fresh. The problem was still happening with everything updated thru gasetup.
This is running with an ultimarc arcadevga card thru a jpac to a Sharp Image 27" crt in the cab set at 15hz on the chassis. Read about changing modeline to non interlaced to bypass the error... can someone give me a few tips on what and where to edit the config?

I set the config during install to the 15hz Arcade monitor. Screen isn't horrible but I've had nothing but trouble with this monitor. I recapped it and put a new flyback on, but the horizontal width is a bit too wide and can't be adjusted very much. Could a modeline also help with this? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan
West Fargo, ND

[Substring]

So i broke it. lol.  I changed the resolution in the syslinux.cfg file, and 640x240 didn't really seem to change attract mode, just the gasetup was noticeably larger, so i didn't think attract mode took the changes.  Then i changed it to 640x248, and then my monitor went crazy and wouldn't sync again.  I'm using a wells 25k7191. 

I tried changing the resolution in gasetup, but when i entered a manual resolution into xorg/desktop (i'm assuming this is where its done) as (640 240 60) it wouldn't take the changes.

So, looks like i'm going to reinstall, i'm using the 2019 Stable release, should i use a different build?  Any advice for the front end looking like it didn't take the resolution changes, but the OS did?  Wouldn't this make it still freeze.  I thought attract mode is what is actually freezing, not the OS image.

(PS - I have winscp, but never enabled root in ssh, so it won't let me overwrite the syslinux.cfg now).

*Update* i was able to pull the video card, and change the resolutions back, so that part is fixed, and I allowed root to login, so that part is also fixed.

*Confirmed changing syslinux.cfg doesn't modify attract mode resolution, just the gasetup console, and to add this might not work for me anyways, 640x288 wouldn't sync at all, and 640x240 still has a slight scroll on my monitor.  I might not have changed the resolution properly though, this was my syslinux.cfg file

default arch
timeout 0
prompt 0
#UI vesamenu.c32
menu title Groovy Arcade Linux
menu background GA.png
label arch
menu label GroovyArcade
linux ../vmlinuz-linux
append root=/dev/disk/by-label/GA  rw quiet rd.udev.log-priority=3 splash vga=0x311 video=VGA-1:640x240ec
initrd ../initramfs-linux.img

OK so you're using VeS' GA (not mine). Resolutions are fixed, only a few exist, there is no 15k resolution generator in the kernel That's why 640x248 failed. If you want a stable AM, you have no other choice than using 320x240 on ATI cards as of today, or 640x240

[Substring]

I'm having trouble with the  Linux distro (4.20.5-arch1-1-ARCH) with attract mode freezing when I'm in the config screen (TAB) for it. I can barely tab around a few times and the video locks up, sound does not. Killing the attract pid puts it back into gasetup. I have not updated anything yet as I reinstalled to start fresh. The problem was still happening with everything updated thru gasetup.
This is running with an ultimarc arcadevga card thru a jpac to a Sharp Image 27" crt in the cab set at 15hz on the chassis. Read about changing modeline to non interlaced to bypass the error... can someone give me a few tips on what and where to edit the config?

I set the config during install to the 15hz Arcade monitor. Screen isn't horrible but I've had nothing but trouble with this monitor. I recapped it and put a new flyback on, but the horizontal width is a bit too wide and can't be adjusted very much. Could a modeline also help with this? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan
West Fargo, ND

Same advice as to tyson171, read my post just above

[tyson171]

Substring -  if i download your release, think i would have better luck with those resolutions with my current setup? What build do you recommend - GroovyArcade 2020.03?

Are there any negatives to using a nvidia card?  I could also try that also.  Side note, these games look beautiful when running, thanks for everyone's work and help on this!

[Substring]

For nvidia, read that other topic where I explain about Nvidia.

GroovyArcade is also thought as a livecd. You can try without installing. If you want to tweak the boot resolution, that is still possible by pressing tab on the setting you want to change and edit the good option. It's probably easier to do that part with a LCD then swap right before pressing enter to validate the mode.

[tyson171]

So i broke it. lol.  I changed the resolution in the syslinux.cfg file, and 640x240 didn't really seem to change attract mode, just the gasetup was noticeably larger, so i didn't think attract mode took the changes.  Then i changed it to 640x248, and then my monitor went crazy and wouldn't sync again.  I'm using a wells 25k7191. 

I tried changing the resolution in gasetup, but when i entered a manual resolution into xorg/desktop (i'm assuming this is where its done) as (640 240 60) it wouldn't take the changes.

So, looks like i'm going to reinstall, i'm using the 2019 Stable release, should i use a different build?  Any advice for the front end looking like it didn't take the resolution changes, but the OS did?  Wouldn't this make it still freeze.  I thought attract mode is what is actually freezing, not the OS image.

(PS - I have winscp, but never enabled root in ssh, so it won't let me overwrite the syslinux.cfg now).

*Update* i was able to pull the video card, and change the resolutions back, so that part is fixed, and I allowed root to login, so that part is also fixed.

*Confirmed changing syslinux.cfg doesn't modify attract mode resolution, just the gasetup console, and to add this might not work for me anyways, 640x288 wouldn't sync at all, and 640x240 still has a slight scroll on my monitor.  I might not have changed the resolution properly though, this was my syslinux.cfg file

default arch
timeout 0
prompt 0
#UI vesamenu.c32
menu title Groovy Arcade Linux
menu background GA.png
label arch
menu label GroovyArcade
linux ../vmlinuz-linux
append root=/dev/disk/by-label/GA  rw quiet rd.udev.log-priority=3 splash vga=0x311 video=VGA-1:640x240ec
initrd ../initramfs-linux.img

OK so you're using VeS' GA (not mine). Resolutions are fixed, only a few exist, there is no 15k resolution generator in the kernel That's why 640x248 failed. If you want a stable AM, you have no other choice than using 320x240 on ATI cards as of today, or 640x240

Ok, so i'm properly confused.

I went back to my amd card, and was going to try your latest build, but with AMD card (Radeon 4550 atom-15 flashed) this time and tried to use the 640x240 resolution.  I searched for the xorg.conf in the beta build, but it wasn't in the etc folder.  So then i tried to change the resolution in the syslinux.cfg and it will won't synce to 640x240, just crazy lines. Same with 640x240ec.  320x240 works, but the screen is so blown up it looks terrible.

Here is the build i was using from 4-3 -

groovyarcade-2020.04-x86_64.iso

And here is my config -

default arch
timeout 0
prompt 0
#UI vesamenu.c32
menu title Groovy Arcade Linux
menu background GA.png
label arch
menu label GroovyArcade
linux ../vmlinuz-linux-15khz
append root=/dev/disk/by-label/GA rw quiet rd.udev.log-priority=3 splash mitigations=off audit=0 monitor=arcade_15 video=VGA-1:640x240Se
initrd ../initramfs-linux-15khz.img

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Substring]

You need kernel 5.6 for 640x240. You can normally update with "pacman -Sy linux-15khz"

The name of the iso doesn't help, because a dev version or a stable version are named the same way, plus the current beta is rebuild almost every day, and i didn't expect that many people to download the current beta

[tyson171]

You need kernel 5.6 for 640x240. You can normally update with "pacman -Sy linux-15khz"

The name of the iso doesn't help, because a dev version or a stable version are named the same way, plus the current beta is rebuild almost every day, and i didn't expect that many people to download the current beta

Perfect that worked for 640x240!  640x248 doesn't work for some reason still, my guess is that my card can't display that (or I need to search for that xorg.conf, maybe its there now). 

Either way i'll build on this one a little further now!  Just need to find a theme now!

[Substring]

Check the main groovyarcade topic. One of my last answers explains why resolutions are fixed. In other words: there is no switchres in the kernel, you must pick an existing switchres resolution

[jimmyj1979]

Chiming into this thread,

Spent this morning setting up GA2020 on my cab to find this error happening with attract mode. CBF looking for an answer, will get another hard disk and set 2020 up on that and see if i can get it working, back to 2017 for me.

[Substring]

Depends which GA version you're using : VeS' or mine. Mine is patched to fix freezing

[Jimbo]

I'm using yours Substring, the latest one.  I'm still getting freezes.  Am going to try without videos, or with some of emumovies videos instead of the stock ones in GA.

[Substring]

Or use a progressive resolution ?

[Jimbo]

I've tried 640x240 progressive too, same issue.

At one point I thought I'd got a stable AM after restarting it from gasetup, but nope, must have just been luck that one time that it stayed running for ages without crashing.

Basically it seems random, the thing just freezes whether in interlaced or progressive usually after a very short amount of time.  I'll try with no videos, and also with some other emumovies videos to see if that helps.  I have a Ryzen 3600, not overclocked, with HD 6450 connected via VGA with a JPAC connected via USB.

[Substring]

Now that's weird, could be a different problem than what we've thinked of so far

[jimmyj1979]

Is there a way we could give this some focus? Id really like to start using GA2020 with Attract Mode

[Substring]

Hard to solve something we can't reproduce, nor have enough info to know which direction to go

[Jimbo]

I have a feeling it is something to do with the videos still.  A lot of the stock ones for me don't seem to loop, but some do - should that be the case?  Shouldn't they all loop?  I haven't gotten around to it yet, but very soon I'll do some tests with some other videos to see if I can narrow it down.

[jimmyj1979]

I think i have fixed it


I usually use Cools theme on my cabs on groovyarcade 2017 (works well, using Attract mode 2.4 config i believe)

I took a backup of my .attract folder and restored it into the .attract folder of my groovy2020 machine and no freezes under attract mode at all. Groovy 2020 uses Attract mode 2.5 or similar.

Its all working as it should. My working attract.cfg is below in a dropbox link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/722n77xunxywzcx/attract.cfg?dl=0

I also copied the attract mode plugins folder across
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4t7gip45z19tkju/Vert%20Attract.rar?dl=0

Suspect broken CFG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/81ibau044pjyksx/attract%202020%20broken.cfg?dl=0


So far so good, its been on over an hour now playing videos from the attract mode home screen and no freezes. I'd call this fixed.

So its either the CFG for attract mode, the basic theme (not cools theme which is working OK) or plugins. Your mileage may vary.

[strontium]

I've got this too, tried changing the res to progressive no dice,

I'm going to try no videos like mentioned.

what a shame this is, attract mode is a great FE.

I've tried to troubleshoot but so far nothing. Very quick light troubleshooting mind.

I'll follow this but I would say this has to be a priority bug. in the mean time what are the alternatives downgrade to 2018 GA would that be before this bug was introduced?

[Substring]

Switch to retrofe once i'm done making its setup easy

[strontium]

I think i have fixed it


I usually use Cools theme on my cabs on groovyarcade 2017 (works well, using Attract mode 2.4 config i believe)

I took a backup of my .attract folder and restored it into the .attract folder of my groovy2020 machine and no freezes under attract mode at all. Groovy 2020 uses Attract mode 2.5 or similar.

Its all working as it should. My working attract.cfg is below in a dropbox link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/722n77xunxywzcx/attract.cfg?dl=0

I also copied the attract mode plugins folder across
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4t7gip45z19tkju/Vert%20Attract.rar?dl=0

Suspect broken CFG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/81ibau044pjyksx/attract%202020%20broken.cfg?dl=0


So far so good, its been on over an hour now playing videos from the attract mode home screen and no freezes. I'd call this fixed.

So its either the CFG for attract mode, the basic theme (not cools theme which is working OK) or plugins. Your mileage may vary.

Is this still the case as I tried a new config from scrath and still saw the hangs

I've tried 2018, 2019 and 2020 GA releases too plus updating all the packages on each and ignorepgk linux linux-headers to keep the 15khz patch. Bad news is I'm still seeing the hangs, sound sill running sometimes and I can access other tty so not a system hang.

I tried running in 320x240 progressive and sill see the hangs sorry to say.

I'm out of my depth now in terms of what else to try and reading this whole thread again it appears some of the main devs / contributers are struggling to nail this one down too ( massive thanks for your efforts though lads  ) Todays job is trying the 2017 release and building the lastest attractmode from source or the aur. I'll update here later.

I really hope we can find a way out of this 

[Substring]

Doozer always said the problem is within ATI drivers. Although oomek made a patch that helped a number of users (including me), seems it's not enough for some people.

[strontium]

Doozer always said the problem is within ATI drivers. Although oomek made a patch that helped a number of users (including me), seems it's not enough for some people.

Could you link to the patch and I'll give it a go. Thanks

[Substring]

It's up to AMD to solve the problem. There is no driver level fix for now.

[Beerbarian]

I had this freeze problem with most attractmode themes in GroovyArcade up to 2019, but I found one theme called Unicade that, for whatever reason, does not freeze for me and loops the video snaps just fine.

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=481.msg3968#msg3968

I think it might have to do with the window size I set for the video clip.
I remember making modifications to theme layout to make it more suited to a low res display (changed video clip window size, changed game name/title text).
I could attach a zip file of my theme contents or just layout file from /home/arcade/.attract/layouts/uni_cade if someone wanted to try it out?

I wiped and installed the most recent GroovyArcade 2020 release and restored roms and themes to see if the latest release fixed this freeze issue.
It did not. Other themes still have freeze issues trying to loop video snaps, however this Unicade one still seems to be a good workaround for me.

Edit: I should mention I am on AMD Radeon 4550 for my CRT.

[strontium]

I just wrote a response to another thread and wanted to update this one too. Just to frame this, I was having lots of issues with a cabinet I have not fired up for two years and  ended up rolling back to a 2017 version of GA as I was getting AM freezes in all other versions. But the other problem I had with my solution was an old kernel and I had to turn autosync off in order to not see terrible emulation. I couldn't find a solution to these issues and so turned to trying the substing iso which I have to say works amazing. here is the quote from my update to the slow sound thread I started

I want to be clear turning off autosync is not the solution. Like Calamity has clearly said this makes groovymame pointless.

So to update on my situation which I have been working on I have had some success. Long story short turning off auto sync never sat well with me so I downloaded the iso that substring has worked so hard on. And bingo perfect emulation, auto sync is on and working.

I opened another thread about lock ups in attract mode, these were also gone as well as some things I was seeing like black screens when closing a game ( Original Atari StarWars ) for example.

All in all my cabinet was not happy and now thanks to this community it's working on a very recent kernel ( added bonus my wireless card works out the box ) with all the lovely things groovymame gives me.

So to sum up, don't give up, don't turn off auto sync and definitely give @substring excellent iso release a go. 

So yeah attract mode is working and I have no issues any longer so massive thanks to all the guys working on the @substring ISO.

I don't have much time right now to get involved but I may try and get more involved in the substring project iso when I do, I really do think that it's a great way to move forward and collaborate.

[Jimbo]

I replaced the GA stock videos with those from the mame SQ emumovies pack, and I no longer have ANY crashing with attractmode.

So I can only assume AM doesn't like something with how those videos are encoded.

I looked at the video/audio codecs and they seem the same, except the emumovies have the bitrate set when looking at the properties, whereas the stock GA ones don't seem to.  I don't understand enough about video codecs to know if that would be an issue, but swapping them for the emumovies videos for sure solves AM crashing.

[Substring]

Thank you for this very useful tip. So technically speaking, a variable bit rate would be an issue for some people ...

[Jimbo]

No worries, I guess so though!    Thanks again for your work on this GA - it's brilliant.