Troubleshooting Stella on Ubuntu (Karmic)

[molecularr]

Hello,

 

I'm having a bit of trouble with Stella on Ubuntu (9.10), and I wonder if anyone has encountered (and hopefully corrected!) the same thing. Mainly, when I go to exit a ROM by hitting "escape", the software hangs and I have to force kill it. (Force with the -9 flag.) This is rather inconvenient, especially since it also jacks up my CPU usage.

 

Now, the version in the package repository is still 2.6.2, but I went ahead downloaded the .deb for 3.0. Still got the same bug.

 

I haven't tried this yet, but would anyone happen to know if compiling it myself would make a difference?

 

Thanks in advance.

[cd-w]

Hello,

I'm having a bit of trouble with Stella on Ubuntu (9.10), and I wonder if anyone has encountered (and hopefully corrected!) the same thing. Mainly, when I go to exit a ROM by hitting "escape", the software hangs and I have to force kill it. (Force with the -9 flag.) This is rather inconvenient, especially since it also jacks up my CPU usage.

Now, the version in the package repository is still 2.6.2, but I went ahead downloaded the .deb for 3.0. Still got the same bug.

I haven't tried this yet, but would anyone happen to know if compiling it myself would make a difference?

Thanks in advance.

 

I haven't seen this problem on Ubuntu/Debian, but I compile my own from the source code.

 

Chris

[+stephena]

I'm encountering issues with OSX right now, where entering the 'Video Settings' dialog and exiting again is causing a lockup. However, it isn't really a lockup; Stella is running, and waiting for an extremely large amount of time before running again! Perhaps this is related to what you're seeing. Also, the problem in OSX doesn't happen for me in 64-bit mode, but does in 32-bit mode. This might imply an integer overflow somewhere. In any event, I'm working this very item right now, preparing for the 3.1 release. Hopefully it will take care of your issue too.

 

I forgot to add, the DEB are compiled for Ubuntu 9.04, not 9.10, although I don't see that making much difference. Another possibility is PulseAudio, which is causing many problems in the more recent Ubuntu releases. I completely disable it in Kubuntu 9.10 (the official development platform for Stella).

[RevEng]

I'm having a bit of trouble with Stella on Ubuntu (9.10), and I wonder if anyone has encountered (and hopefully corrected!) the same thing.

Encountered on the same platform, but not corrected. Building from Ubuntu sources doesn't help. [edit - nor does building from the 3.0 sourceforge sources.]

 

It seems if you hit escape right after launching, the bug isn't triggered. Also, if you wait long enough it does eventually work and go back to the menu, but I'm impatient and usually do a "killall -9 stella"

Edited April 15, 2010 by RevEng

[+stephena]

I'm having a bit of trouble with Stella on Ubuntu (9.10), and I wonder if anyone has encountered (and hopefully corrected!) the same thing.

Encountered on the same platform, but not corrected. Building from Ubuntu sources doesn't help. [edit - nor does building from the 3.0 sourceforge sources.]

 

It seems if you hit escape right after launching, the bug isn't triggered. Also, if you wait long enough it does eventually work and go back to the menu, but I'm impatient and usually do a "killall -9 stella"

I'm pretty much convinced this is the same thing I'm noticing in OSX. There's a bug in the timer logic when using 'sleep' mode, and it occurs when you switch between different modes (launcher to emulation, or vice-versa). Stella can be instructed to sleep for up to 4 million seconds, which is around 71 minutes! For now, you could try using 'busy' timing instead of 'sleep'. While it will probably take up 100% of your CPU (or an entire core on a multi-core system), at least it won't lock up (maybe). I won't be releasing 3.1 until this is fixed.

[RevEng]

Yup, the busy-wait timing method definitely appears to be a work-around.

[molecularr]

Alright, well it's nice to know I'm not alone at least!

 

For what it's worth, I did leave mine running (figuring that if it's running one of my cpu cores to 100%, it might be actually doing *something*), but when I got back to it this morning it was still hung. I had to kill -9 it.

 

I can certainly manage the inconvience for now, and since stephena's working on it, I think I'll just wait for 3.1 !

[+stephena]

OK, I just released Stella 3.1, which hopefully fixes this issue. Please give it a try and let me know. There's a new thread about 3.1 in the Emulation forum.

[RevEng]

Unfortunately not.

 

Also, when I reported that busy-wait worked, apparently I just got lucky 3 times in a row. (occasionally the delay bug doesn't happen)

[+stephena]

Unfortunately not.

 

Also, when I reported that busy-wait worked, apparently I just got lucky 3 times in a row. (occasionally the delay bug doesn't happen)

OK, I know that the fix I included took care of the OSX issue, but I was only hoping it fixed yours as well. Apparently there's something else going on.

 

OK, I need detailed information, including operating system, 32 or 64-bit, video card, sound card, etc. Basically, anything you can think of that might help me track this down. As well, a description of exactly what you do that triggers this bug.

[RevEng]

OK, I need detailed information, including operating system, 32 or 64-bit, video card, sound card, etc. Basically, anything you can think of that might help me track this down. As well, a description of exactly what you do that triggers this bug.

Platform: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Kaola), 32-bit. Running on Lenovo T61

Video: Quadro NVS 140M

Audio: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

 

Problem description: launch any game in stella, play for 60 or more seconds. Hitting "esc" will cause stella to hang 9/10 times. Sometimes if its left for hours it will eventually go to the options screen.

 

If you hit "esc" *right* after launch the game, it does go back to the options menu.

 

Worth noting that going back and forth between the debugger doesn't have the same issue.

 

Update: I just tried stella with "enable sound" unchecked. Without sound, it works without issue!

[+stephena]

OK, I need detailed information, including operating system, 32 or 64-bit, video card, sound card, etc. Basically, anything you can think of that might help me track this down. As well, a description of exactly what you do that triggers this bug.

Platform: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Kaola), 32-bit. Running on Lenovo T61

Video: Quadro NVS 140M

Audio: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

This hardware is somewhat similar to my Linux development system (Nvidia card, Intel sound), except I'm using 64-bit Kubuntu instead.

 

Problem description: launch any game in stella, play for 60 or more seconds. Hitting "esc" will cause stella to hang 9/10 times. Sometimes if its left for hours it will eventually go to the options screen.

 

If you hit "esc" *right* after launch the game, it does go back to the options menu.

 

Worth noting that going back and forth between the debugger doesn't have the same issue.

 

Update: I just tried stella with "enable sound" unchecked. Without sound, it works without issue!

Yes, that was going to be my next suggestion. Pulseaudio in Ubuntu is causing problems for some people, and not just with Stella. Just google for Pulseaudio & Ubuntu, and you'll see many complaints. Personally, I completely disable it. And it makes sense that entering the debugger isn't causing a problem, because in this case the sound device is being paused (and then resumed when you switch back). However, when you go back to the launcher, the sound device is closed (and later re-opened for a new ROM). I'll bet closing the sound card is hanging because of Pulseaudio, and when Pulseaudio eventually times out, Stella starts working again.

 

There are a few options:

 

1) Try setting the 'audiofirst' commandline argument to false. This will make the video re-initialize before the audio. It shouldn't make a difference, but sometimes strange things happen.

 

2) Try completely disabling Pulseaudio. This is more invasive, so I don't recommend it unless you're sure how to do it.

 

3) Use Stella without sound - not a nice solution, but you see that it works.

 

4) Play a ROM, and then quit Stella with Control-Q, then start it again for another ROM.

 

The last two are really workarounds, and not the best solution. Number 2 is best if you're willing to do it.

[RevEng]

I think for now I'll live with a "killall pulseaudio". While another set of pulseaudio deamons gets launched immediately, I get no more hangs for hours afterward.

 

I'm comfortable disabling pulseaudio entirely in the configs - there are lots of instructions on how to do so - but I've seen reports of OS updates killing the sound on pulseaudio-removed systems.

 

Thanks again for all of your help Stephen!