OpenATV 7.4 makes box freeze every few days

[skra72]

! Before you log an issue, have you updated to the most recent version? It's possible the issue may have already been fixed.

Describe the bug / Actual behaviour:
Running 7.4 on a Formuler F1 box makes the box freeze every 2-3 days. Needs to be power cycled then.

Most of the time the box is either just idling in standby or streaming a TV channel when freezing.

Expected behaviour:
Should not freeze.

Has this issue started to happen just recently?
Since upgrade to 7.4

If yes, roughly when did it last work fine for you?
Downgrade to 7.3

Image/Box Model (please complete the following information):

• Version: 7.4
• BoxModel: Formuler F1

Additional context
Enabling debug-logging does not show any error or crash log. Seems like no log is written at all when the box dies.

In general, 7.4 responds much slower to key inputs and API requests compared to 7.3.

Running 7.3 makes everything running stable again.

[kiddac]

Maybe try the cacheflush plugin in feeds. (extensions)
This will clear your memory when its getting full automatically and prevent your box restarting due to running out of memory.

Turning debug logs is probably not going to help if it takes 2-3days to happen. Debug logs will add to the problem as they will just get bigger and bigger with endless stuff written to it. This will happen until the logs reaches the max set in log settings and then it will clear the log folder. So no logs.

[skra72]

Thanks for the feedback!

I've enabled swap space now. That seems to stabilise everything and makes 7.4 much more responsive.

Don't know why this is not configured by default? Is there any reason why no swap space is used in OpenATV?

Cheers

[dikonov]

Swap wears out solid state drives and flash memory. It may eventually lead to permanent hardware faults. I ask to keep swap disabled and never enable it unless the box still uses an actual rotating HDD!

[kiddac]

You setup swap on a usb stick. 5 years later I am still using that same usb stick.
Nobody mentioned solid state drives or HDDs.

[skra72]

@kiddac That's exactly what I did: plugin a decent flash drive and put the swap file there. If the flash drive wears out I just replace it.

Sure this makes the system sometimes a bit clumsy when heavy swapping occurs. But in general the stability improved significantly.