Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Hey guys, I hope you're doing well. I have this Nokia N900 since a month, and I'm really enjoying it. I try not to see it as a cellphone, since as a cellphone is pretty unconfortable, I see it like it is, a NIT first, and then a cellphone as a bonus. As a *nix admin, it's cool to have one little xterm in my hand everywhere. The only con is 3g that is not working with the mhz freqs in my country :(.
But even as a NIT it has several bugs and problems. I could try to list all bugs that happen to me, but it's not the meaning of this post.

The bug that I have here is this. I have this desktop:
http://i.imgur.com/F6pvE.png

As you can see it isn't modded a lot, I'm not interested in that. Default themes are alright for me. I like to use one screen (even if I have 3 screens activated) for doing my things. Rest of the screens are blank. Well, after some time using it (it's really random), the shortcuts inside the desktop don't respond. Programs won't open. Even if I want to enter the Desktop Menu to make modifications and load more widgets, this will not work, and it'll only let me click in "ready/ok" button to get outta the desktop customisation menu.
Only things that work are the button for accessing the menu and the bar @ the right of the time clock. In other words, only the frames of Hildon. I can switch desktops normally but nothing more.
Only way to open an app is to go to the menu, search the app and click it inside the menu.

Important note: I have last CSSU update // power user kernel

What app/config could make this happen?

I hope you can help me.


Regards and thanks a lot by advance,

Martín.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

i have the same problem, usually after a few days of use.

i have found that starting xterm from the menu and doing kilall hildon-home seems to help restore functionality.

or rebooting :p

i also have powerkernel (46) and cssu

edit+ recently i read that hildon-home controls the widgets, and i had the mediaplayer and facebook widgets on my desktop. i removed them yesterday but not enough time has passed to see if one of them was the cause

i still have personal ip address widget enabled

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Yeah I had Facebook widget loaded always but I deactivated it since I suspect it was the problem. But I can confirm you it's not.
I don't care of having to unload that widget because it's pretty bad, you cannot customise the refresh ratio, it not even redirect to the profile you click on, it only opens your facebook's "home".

Well, if you like it don't deactivate it because it seems that's not the problem.

Your command is working, but I don't wanna activate each widget again everytime I have to run that command.

Pretty helpful info anyways pal!

Does someone know something more about this annoying little bug?

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

remove slide2answer that hang up the desktop :D

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

I haven't had a single hang-up on the desktop with slide2answer. The thing that hangs sometimes with slide2answer is hildon-status-menu (the menu that comes up when clicking on the clock or the battery icon). And if I understand the OP correct, it's the icons on the desktop that isn't working for him.

/oxpo

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

sr00t, to find out what causing this issue remove one by one widget for a few days. I had the same problem and after I removed maxcpu widget it disappeared. I'm not saying that maxcpu is the one which is responsible for problem, maybe it's some other widget which is in conflict with maxcpu. Because maxcpu is not essential for me, I decided to permanently remove it and to stop checking other widgets. Based on my experience, I recommend you to start with maxcpu. Remove it and then reboot the phone and use it for a few days. If the problem occurs again, try to remove another widget and so on, until you don't find the right trouble maker.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Guys, I don't have slide2answer installed, so it can't be that. Thanks a lot anyways.

kolos, I'll try that. But if its happening all because that widget, I think I'll have to report it as a bug to devs because that widget is really important to me, and very popular so it would be a common problem for everyone who uses it.


Thanks a lot, and if someone more had this bug and solved it let me know

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

the same problems to me

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Lets hope someone can help us clarify the problem

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Just for info, yesterday we got new release of maxcpu, version 0.1.8-6, where is solved conflict with bluezwitch.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

sr00t, did you figure out what was causing freezing?
I tried the latest maxcpu and for me the issue is still present. If I remove maxcpu widget and reboot the phone, problem disappears.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Try to find the main thread where maxcpu is discussed using Power Search. Read the thread and report the problem there.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

geneven, people already reported about this issue to maxcpu developer, but he claims that it's not connected with maxcpu. So, I would like to hear sr00t what are his findings, after that I will make post also in maxcpu thread.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

it looks like to be the problem with Custom Desktop Command Execution Widget.

For me this is by far the best candidate for this problem.

I had allot of hang ups when launching wrong codes from this widget, and my guess is every now and then it crashes and makes the whole hildon home lock up.

Kill all hildon home is not a very good solution, because 90% of all the widgets get removed..

Also i mentioned that removed widgets of the command execution widgets are still being saved. and after adding a new one it still puts the old removed one back on its place. this can be one of the problems wich causes these crashes. Maybe old removed widgets still get loaded from time to time causing it

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

sygys, maybe you are right. I have installed Desktop Command Execution Widget, but I don't have its widgets on my desktops. I had one 2-3 month ago, but I removed it because I replaced it with Queen BeeCon widget.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

kolos, I still have the problem. Last time was this morning.
I'll tell you what happened because it's curious: I have an alarm set to wake me up everyday. Well, if I put the alarm to snooze while in Silence profile, the second time I snooze it (yeah, I take a while to get outta bed :D), this bug appears. I'm not able to stop the alarm, and I'm not able to click in any shortcut.
This bug replicates if I take out the USB charger while the alarm sounds.
Also, I have updated to last maxcpu and it'll not let me OC at all. Not even with qcpufreq. Frequencies selection is stuck @ 600mhz.

I'll deactivate Desktop Command Execution so I can see if that's the problem.

This problem is getting REALLY irritating. I don't like rebooting my cellphone everyday.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

sr00t, to exclude what is causing the issue I'm proposing to keep maxcpu widget on desktop, despite you can't OC, аnd uninstall DCE widget for a few days.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

I just did that. I'll report you in this thread.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Right now I considering to update my phone to pali's kernel v47. Maybe then I could also remove (and purge) DCEW and place maxcpu widget to the desktop to see what will happen.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Hello kolos, I've updated to pali's power kernel v47 too so I'll test if this bug replicates with this kernel version.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Annoying problem and no solution, yet.
Even sometimes there is no response at all and no notification about new SMS or missed calls, until I kill hildon-home.

About widgets removed from desktop, this is easy to handle:
just make a save copy of Your widgets
cp /home/user/.config/hildon-desktop/home.plugins /home/user/.config/hildon-desktop/home.plugins.save
in time. And when this problem occurs, just
sudo killall hildon-home
and after some seconds
cp /home/user/.config/hildon-desktop/home.plugins.save /home/user/.config/hildon-desktop/home.plugins
I've put those commands into some executable scripts, just open xterm and type
sh scriptname.

This way You get, at least, Your widgets back ;)

--edit
Please see here
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...4&postcount=34
for more details.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

My desktop shortcuts just get frozen again. Now I think that I can definitely exclude DCEW which was removed before I upgrade phone to kernel47.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Mine too. Seconded. What an ugly bug we have here.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Well, problems incremented since Desktop Execution Commands reinstall. It's freezing all days, one time minimum. It's really f*cking annoying.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

You all are probably already aware of this thread, though it offers no solution that I'm aware of. Perhaps someone could merge 'em?

widgets disappearing
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=43144

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

I have the bug too and reported it: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12009
I suspected CSSU because it appeared after an update of CSSU and so far I could also exclude power kernel as the source of the error.

Do your contact shortcuts still work? Because mine do even when nothing else does.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

If I remember correctly, the contact shortcuts kept working. it's been a while since I've gotten that far, as now it always crashes on desktop editing while doing anything with DCE widgets. I deleted .desktop_cmd_exec, then restored it, and now everything seems to work. I'll see if I get it to crash again.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Any ideas on how to stop the desktop from freezing?

a workaround until this is fixed: write a script that gets run every hour and checks if hildon-desktop is still running ok. If the desktop is frozen it could be restarted using peterleinchens idea above.

All that is needed is to find a way for the script to determine if the desktop is still alive. Perhaps a dbus query that fails when the desktop shortcuts are frozen. I'll try different dbus queries when the freeze happens again.

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

No ideas on that, but to make restoring as effortless as possible, you could do what I did and create a shortcut for the script and place it in the system menu, I placed mine under "Desktop".

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Here's an outline for an idea:
1. add a desktop widget which touches file1 to update its timestamp when the widget runs.
2. using a mechanism which is *not* dependent on the desktop being alive, but which can know when a widget *should* be activated (e.g., some kind of notification that the desktop is being displayed), touch file2 to update its timestamp whenever the widget's *should* run.
3. A background script can periodically compare the timestamps of file1 and file2, if file1 lags, it's a good indication that the desktop is not alive.

I'm just not sure how to do (2) ;)...

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

Just do it as aonsalthya explained. This is a simple and effective approach. Thx again :)

As a lot of others guessed, that it is DECW causing this, count me also to those:
I had to do a reflash and installed (almost) all of my programs, incl all widgets. I recovered my settings from a backup and detected an error in the .desktop_cmd_exec config file. I corrected this and had no freezes since then!

Re: Hildon Desktop Shortcut Freezing Randomly
 

aonsalthyas solution is effective but I'd like the desktop to restart automatically because I believe that a frozen desktop resulted in me not receiving phone calls or sms messages.

I really hope to solve this without reflashing but good to know that it is an option. I guess I'll first have to learn how to create desktop widgets and try the idea dovf presented earlier.