Roku Developer Program

[raptor]

I have four Roku products running a custom (dev mode) app that provides integration into my home automation system for status display, control and security camera access. The app runs all the time (when the Roku isn't being used for Netflix, etc.). This app has been stable and unchanged for several years. But about 2-3 months ago my two Roku 2 XS boxes started hanging up when a user would exit the custom app and then move the cursor to the first app in the channel list. That's the key thing here: The Roku doesn't hang when exiting the app, it hangs as soon as the cursor is moved over the first channel in the list (but not even selected). The channel doesn't matter, and the box seems completely fine doing everything until I navigate into the channel list.

When this happens, the UI becomes completely unresponsive. The time display doesn't update, there's no beep when clicking the remote. At first I thought that the entire box was hung, but I discovered that I could successfully do the following:

- ping the box
- telnet to the debug console (which displayed nothing, but did connect)
- execute XML requests like http://roku2:8060/
- Load the developer page (http://roku2)

But the following would not work (times out):

http://roku2:8060/keypress/home (sent via method POST)

I googled as best I could for anything remotely like this but couldn't find anything, and that's why I am wondering if my app is somehow triggering this behavior.

I do something in the app that may be unusual: I have listening UDP sockets that allow the app to be controlled by the home automation system. The app also sends status back via UDP. Apart from that it is all pretty common stuff, except that the app does run almost all the time.

The failure occurs about 1 in 3 interactions with the box (but only around the transition from my app to another channel; once the transition is made successfully, the box behaves well). Again, this same app has worked flawlessly for several years and it wasn't until about 2-3 months ago that we began noticing this problem on the Roku2 XS boxes.

Details:
Roku 2 XS 3100X

I've observed the failure with these software builds:

V7.0 build 9037 and 9044 (not sure if it failed on builds prior to 9037 since I wasn't debugging the problem until that build as I was hoping software elves would just magically fix things but that never happened...)

What advice do you have on how to figure out what's going on?

Thanks!

Bryan

[renojim]

This probably doesn't have anything to do with your code and is just the same lockup bug introduced in fw 7.0 being discussed in the general forum: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=90961

-JT

[raptor]

Thanks for the pointer. It does seem there are many complaints about the XS freezing, and one of the posters in that thread does seem to describe my problem exactly. But other comments in the thread describe symptoms I don't have (the Roku never reboots on its own presumably because in my case it isn't really locked up, just the UI). The HDMI comments are interesting but I don't see a relationship to my problem. I'll try to change resolution to 720p to see if it changes anything since someone suggested that presumably because it helped him.

This is really a pain because my XS boxes are mounted behind wall-mounted TVs with their power connections also covered by the TV. For me a reboot means a trip to the circuit breaker box.

I am a little discouraged that people have been reporting this problem for a while and it still persists (apparently my memory about 2-3 months is faulty and it really hasn't been that long, but it perhaps seems that long because of how much my family is complaining 🙂 ).

Bryan

[renojim]

Use the crash dump remote sequence to avoid a trip to the circuit breaker: Home 5x, Up, Rew 2x, FF 2x. For some reason this sequence works even though it appears otherwise locked up.

-JT