Recuring problems while lauchin or quitting Kodi

[Jean-Marc B]

Hi folks,

Here's the situation :

I've got this old laptop under LL 7, connected to my TV. I use it to watch videos with Kodi latest version. Been doing that for a while without any problem.

Recently, I've been having some troubles :

- from time to time Kodi failed to launch after boot (I had automated it) and I got black screen and the computer is all frozen up. Only solution, to shutdown and reboot

- got rid of the automated launching and did it manually... Once again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

- moreover, once Kodi's been launched, it either works flawlessy or just quit without notice

- can also freeze the whole computer, with black screen, after quitting. Only solution, to shutdown and reboot, yet again.

I've no idea what's causing this and even less how to fix it. I've been using Kodi for years now, on several Linux distros, on Mac OS and Win, must admit I've never seen it behave so erratically...

Any suggestions ?

[stevef]

Investigating lock up is difficult, especially if it is inconsistent.

When you say

Only solution, to shutdown and reboot

Does this mean you can do a controlled shutdown and reboot or do you mean forced power off and reboot ?

Are you aware of anything that changed just before the lock ups began ?
Check any updates which occurred around that time to see exactly what changed.
Do you have any timeshift snapshots from the time when it worked as expected ?

You could try reviewing the logs after a lock up on starting kodi.
Power up normally, allow the laptop to fully boot and ensure any scheduled updates/upgrades are completed.
Once you are sure everything is settled, note the time (as hh:mm) and then initiate kodi.
If it works, stop kodi and shutdown.
Repeat (noting the time each time) until you get a lock up on starting kodi.

Then restart the machine but don't start kodi.

Review the logs from the previous boot.
As you know the date and time of a failed kodi launch, this command will show everything the machine could log.
Replace hh:mm with your value

Code:

journalctl --since hh:mm

[Jean-Marc B]

Thanks a lot. Will give it a try.