Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

hope i am not late but heres the bug report

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6334

now just go and vote if your device reboots!

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

ok, then try the following command:

FILE=/path/to/file
watch -n 1 'date >> $FILE ; cat /proc/loadavg >> $FILE;free -m >>$FILE; vmstat >>$FILE; ps -eo pcpu,pmem,vsz,tty,time,stat,pid,user,args --sort -pcpu,-pmem >>$FILE; sync;sync;'

or if you have a ssh session:

watch -n 1 'date ; cat /proc/loadavg;free -m; vmstat ; ps -eo pcpu,pmem,vsz,tty,time,stat,pid,user,args --sort -pcpu,-pmem '


note the sync;sync is to make sure that the log is actually written to the disk this might lower the performance as it will be call regularly.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I've got the reboot bug too :(

I've ordered my N900 from nokia.nl and I'm running FW 1.2009.42-11 on the Dutch carrier T-mobile.

it's rebooting since I took it out of the box

I've reinstalled the FW with NSU twice, no fix...

this morning my N900 became a brick and got stuck during start up. Luckily i got that fixed with flasher 3.5. however, the rebooting still occurs

it's kinda hard to enjoy my new toy when it's constantly rebooting:(

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Vote for this bug pls :)
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6334

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

No repro, italian n900, wind

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

voted :-) hope it gets fixed!

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Voted too.

But IMHO its not related to SIM or Phone settings because the first day I got it I used it without sim, only connected to WLan and it used to reboot frequently.
Then I tried with an H3G SIM and used to crash too.

Actually I'm using Wind SIM and still crashing.

The only things that changes frequency of crashes is MfE for me. But never reached complete stability as it reboots even when display is just about to light off and no apps in background.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I had a reboot yesterday night, and afther that i used ssh to monitor the logs on a pc to see what happens before the reboot.

Used a lot with 12 apps running for 2 hours but no reboot, this morning after 12h of uptime rebooted when opening the photo gallery.

I think that the problem is related to the power management of the device escpecially the stand by mode.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I'm really thinking to send it back to Nokia Shop...
Could it be a ram related problem?
I noticed that the few logs I've seen show low ram available and swap file used just for a few megs.

Is there a way to increase swap file usage?

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I don't think so, it seems a severe SW bug.
Hope it'll be solved asap.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Uhm, I'm not that sure... Why the majority of people is not reporting this bug? I'm not doing anything special with my N900...

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

yeah, and all of them are using 42.11 fw. And seeing that there are also some faulty mics in some shipped devices, I really expect this to be a hardware issue. Nokia manufacturer are obviously in a hurry atm. :(

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Unexpected reboot: Minute 9 of a call to Vodafone trying to tell their insurance division that I have changed phones.

Not impressed.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

This rebooting drives me nuts; Sometimes writing a simple sms (without any aps running) makes it reboot...

I realy hope that this is software related and that I can fix it by myself, but as re-flashing doesn't helps I'm afraid we have to wait for the next FW to find out....

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

If the FW version in all devices is the same, unfortunately at this point the HW problem becomes the leading issue :P

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

After two days of reboots, now my n900 doesen't see the sim card anymore.

At this point i think this is an hardware issue.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Same here. Not a single reboot.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

So you really want to say, that it is all about luck whether or not you get a faulty device? o_O
Oh come on Nokia, this must be a joke..
This is even worse than 360's ring of death X_X

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

If you are having this issue, please do vote for the bug. Complaining here will not fix anything. Vote.

Fortunately, no reboots for me. (Should I vote for the bug anyway to help out those who are having this issue?)

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

When the Blackberry Bold was introduced it had the identical problem (it has a completely different hardware and operating system) and it was resolved in the next Fw iteration.
I'm hoping we'll see the same here.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

User Location Network Firmware version Push
Javajix-Italy-Vodafone(128k sim)-1.2009.42-11
kende Finland Sonera 1.2009.42-11
famusc Italy H3G 1.2003.42.11 Yes(Ex/NM)
Haukka Finland Saunalahti 1.2009.42-11 No(Ex/NM)

It's been doing this right out of the box. And it happens in all kind of situations. Doesn't matter if it is connected to internet via wlan or 3G or not at all. Often it happens when I start to use it after it's been on the table without any apps running.

Today after a reboot device said that "error registering sim card" or something like that but it started working again after another reboot.

Placed a vote to ossipena's bug report.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I'm following the bug 6334 dealing with random reboots but I'm pretty worried because crash are really frequent and yesterday had also to reflash the device because one of the reboot failed and got stuck at dot loops

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

It is a pity that it's getting worse every day. Now it works ok about one hour after a pwr button reboot but when it starts happen again, device becomes pretty useless. It seems most of the reboots are happening when phone is going to sleep. Right when screen is fading to black it reboots.

Today I tried different sim card from my work phone (also different operator than my own) but it seems it doesn't help.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Its weird that its only Finland and Italy. A real bummer - sorry guys - I hope that Nokia get onto this ASAP.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Its not just Italy and Finland. I'm a UK user and have had it reboot twice on me since Wednesday. Not the end of the world, but not something I want to continue for very long.

Come on Nokia, sort it out!

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

not sounding good...
i hope when i get my n900 there will already be some updates.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I cannot reproduce reboot and it did not happen for three days now. Looks like mine is not affected :)

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

just had my 2nd random rdeboot in 7 days. Going to start keeping a log of these reboots. I wasn't doing anything interesting except browsing this website in MicroB.

T-mobile USA here. guess I should follow that bug report

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Just noticed that I have only 632,3mb space left for installable applications and all I have installed now is Bounce. Is there happening something that I don't know in background? Could this affect somehow?

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

while reading this thread, the xbox ring of death is exactly what is going through my mind.. :s how did the uk watchdog tv programme fix them again ;s?

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

it just rebooted again. 3 reboots in 7 days. just web browsing this site in MicroB when it happened. no other apps.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Interesting. Are you running a logging script?

Wouldn't be a bad idea to vmstat at say 10 second intervals out to a file on your sdcard. Perhaps a top out to a file as well.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I've done this but the file keeps getting corrupted. Maybe I need a way to netcat it to a remote server.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

So are these reboots related to some kernel level issue? would userlevel processes cause a ramdom reboot? i thought worst case the web browser would crash.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

I am wondering if we might be dealing with some bad memory chips here. Its possible I guess that when the swap/RAM reaches a certain spot in the memory whats written gets corrupted and things go pear shaped.

That might explain the random nature of the reboots.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

The reboot note says it's due to the watchdog.

Note: The following is based on generic experience with other devices. Don't have my N900 yet :)

Normally you'd hook the watchdog through the kernel to one or more userspace apps, so that if userspace locks up or a critical daemon dies, it will reboot. There's no point in the system continuing run if the kernel is fine but a critical part of userspace is gone.

However, if it's due to a userspace app dieing, or closing it's watchdog file descriptor, or failing to ping the kernel watchdog device, the kernel could log which userspace app is the reason for triggering the reboot, before rebooting.

If it's due to the kernel crashing, it could not note anything, and the reboot-reason register would simply record it as watchdog hardware reboot.

So there should be enough data to tell the difference, and if not, it could be added with a kernel patch.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Yes, it could.

It could also be PCB quality control, with all the signal timings being so tight, that a few PCBs don't meet them consistently and random faults occur. I've had this problem with other devices (I work in embedded Linux generally).

Also coming to mind as a potential culprit: the "swap to flash" feature, where there's 256MB RAM swapping onto 1GB flash. That's not a feature commonly used as far as I know. If there are timing-dependent or flash-layout-dependent bugs in that area, it could have the same effect as bad memory - i.e. random failures - but wouldn't be due to faulty hardware so much as natural variations in the flash response triggering software issues. If there's enough spare memory, this could be tested with, I presume, a "swapoff -a" command and then using the device long enough to see if the reboots have subsided.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

That's insightful... random failure really takes experience to isolate the root causes, and the last few posts may point out a few areas that Nokia can look into.

This random reboot issue is the most critical among the issues I've read about n900 because of its randomness. I can't help but thinking Eldar was unfortunately right about n900 being not stable... although the instability doesn't seem to affect every n900, Eldar did have a point as we can see now.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Yep - I guess its possible he may have gotten a bad unit. If it is bad memory its going to be a very tricky issue to nail down.

Re: N900 Unexpected reboots
 

Guys

if you read the Bug report you will see that the Nokia Engineer is asking for information. Please try and provide to help pin this down

=============from bug report==================
If the reboot happens with pre-installed or flashed 42-11, the most important
information is what this command outputs in XTerm:
cat /proc/bootreason

If the reboot reason is "sw_rst" (instead of "32wd_to"), please provide also
output from this command:
cat /var/lib/dsme/stats/*

(i.e. which crucial system service going down needed device reboot.)


(In reply to comment #3)
> Two random device reboots here so far. Bootreasons sw_rst and 32wd_to,
> both happened while browsing the web. Unable to reproduce.
>
> ~ $ cat /var/lib/dsme/stats/lifeguard_resets
> /usr/bin/Xorg -logfile /tmp/Xorg.0.log -logverbose 1 -n: 1

This Xorg related sw_rst is most likely something we know about (hairy & very
rare SGX 3D driver memory management issue) and should be fixed in the next
release.

If they continue after the next release, please provide us Xorg core-dumps with
Crash reporter (they could be useful also before that).


The 32wd_to (HW watchdog rebooting the device due to not it being updated) is
more worrying.

For 32wd_to reboots we need to know when exactly they occur:
- After device goes to sleep (screen blanks etc)?
- When device wakes / is woken up from sleep?
- When device is being used?
-> If yes, do the reboots happen also in offline mode?

If (32wd_to) reboots happen only when NOT using offline mode, we need to know
whether this happens only in some particular networking environment.

I.e. if you for example have reboots at home, do they happen somewhere else
(e.g. at work) where you use a different WLAN/phone access point (with
potentially different power management etc settings). If they happen only with
some specific access points, please file a separate bug about that and provide
the exact model of that access point and whether you've changed any of its
default settings (or device default connectivity settings).

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