SO... in regards to the KT-SGS4 KitKat 4.4 TouchWiz kernel, the vast majority of users seem to have no problems with it, but there ARE KNOWN issues that appear to be caused by this kernel for some users, with varying degrees of rarity. WHY certain users have these issues when others do not is not currently known, but it would be great if we could figure this out. I am HOPING this thread (and it will only be a THREAD with input from others) will help us find cures for the issues we face with this kernel.
KNOWN ISSUES:
#1. Sound skipping - This seems to be the most common issue experienced with the kernel and I actually would not call it rare. Some possible fixes for this are to: A) increase the Media/Music Min Mhz and Bluetooth Profile Mhz to around 702 Mhz or so, B) try using a different I/O Scheduler and try adjusting the Internal and External Read Ahead Buffers, C) change disable_hotplug_media from a 0 to 1.
#2. Phone freezes/locks up while charging
#3. Screen flickers when a window is open over the desktop
#4. Mobile connection/data (and possibly also GPS) loss a while after booting phone - this may be the rarest issue, but it is OBVIOUSLY the most serious. I have suffered from it personally. I contacted Ktoonsez regarding this and he denies it being a known issue since many thousands of users use his kernels and don't have this issue... I have confirmed multiple other users who DO have this issue and the only thing I see we have in common is the KT-SGS4 kernel. It appears that this issue MAY be fixable by using the "right" choice of governor and settings. The problem is that what the "right" choice of governor and settings are MAY be determined by your ROM. On stock rooted NAE with MF9 bootloader, using largely the kernel default settings, including the interactive governor, APPEARS to have cured this issue for me (as well as the freeze while charging), while using the ktoonserativeq governor or the pegasuq governor appear to have caused this issue (I am still in the process of investigating this...).
This is not meant to be in any way negative towards Ktoonsez and I certainly appreciate all the work he does to provide us kernels, but there ARE issues that some of experience and I hope this thread can help us work TOGETHER to solve them! If there are any other issue that you believe should be listed, please post them. If you have any possible cures, please post them. If you need any help, please ask. If you have any input, please post! :highfive:
I can't get his kernel to run on my phone for the life of me so I stuck with Negalite NAE Stock Kernel, but I use his kernel religiously on my wife's s3. Even using basically the same setup I still get skipping on music, phone goes unresponsive after charging a few hours. And a few others.
Is music skipping only for users who are also trying to do ViPER4Android (probably with Convolver turned on)? I think the governor and adjustments are also critical in solving this problem. I've been using ondemand and somebody said interactive is also helpful. The other thing here is that it could be an issue of I/o scheduler. I've been using sio. I'm getting minimal skipping at this point. You're right that ktoonservativeq caused MAJOR skipping, even with tons of governor tweaks.
After switching to ondemand, my phone hasn't locked up while charging, but it has randomly locked up at other times. Weird.
On issue #4, I've lost data less with ondemand but it hasn't completely solved the problem. Sometimes I can toggle Airplane Mode on and off and get going again, but mostly that toggle won't even work and I have to reboot.
JesseAaronSafir said:
Is music skipping only for users who are also trying to do ViPER4Android (probably with Convolver turned on)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is an interesting question, now that you mention it. I had been using ViPER4Android, probably while I was having the skipping issue, but I stopped using it in the long process of attempting to cure my mobile connection issue (I read something that made me think it could be related) and I'm actually not sure if I ever had the skipping issue without it.
Of all the issues though, this one is very common in the KT-SGS4 kernel thread, so I DOUBT (but don't know) that everyone experiencing it is using
ViPER4Android.
(Also, I THINK it skipped for me without Convolver turned on).
I haven't used v4a since I was on Negalites
elwood said:
I haven't used v4a since I was on Negalites
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I think the skipping has to do with the kernel generally allowing the governor in default settings to throttle down too low when music is playing...
rsngfrce said:
Yeah, I think the skipping has to do with the kernel generally allowing the governor in default settings to throttle down too low when music is playing...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget the issue where the phone will not power up while charging if it's charging while off.
I don't. Mine even skips while the screen is on and I don't use V4A and have tried other than stock music players as well. I have no such problems with Nega but I've tried different modem firmwares too. These don't seem to affect this problem.
If anybody wants, though, they could chime in on my Wifi tethering problem. Nobody seems to wanna tackle it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-sprint/help/wifi-tether-disappeared-t2877341
arikdahn said:
Don't forget the issue where the phone will not power up while charging if it's charging while off.
I don't. Mine even skips while the screen is on and I don't use V4A and have tried other than stock music players as well. I have no such problems with Nega but I've tried different modem firmwares too. These don't seem to affect this problem.
If anybody wants, though, they could chime in on my Wifi tethering problem. Nobody seems to wanna tackle it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-sprint/help/wifi-tether-disappeared-t2877341
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Click to collapse
I didn't forget it, it is issue #2!
#2. Phone freezes/locks up while charging
In my experience, the phone does NOT have to be off while it is charging to have this issue, it would happen to me when I was charging my phone with it on. Fortunately, on NAE stock rooted with MF9 bootloader, using the mostly default kernel settings with the interactive governor seems to have fixed this issue for me, as well as the mobile connection/GPS issue (knock on wood still...). I mainly just adjusted the I/0 Sceduler to noop and the Media/Music and Bluetooth Min Mhz to 702 Mhz from the stock settings. The only issue I am personally left with now is the screen flicker.
I don't think the screen being on or off relates THAT much to the music skipping issue, it skipped for me too with the screen on. Definitely I would say, using the ktoonservativeq governor with Ktoonsez' settings WILL result in music skipping... BUT, IMO, this MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT, Ktoonsez DOES NOT HAVE OUR PHONE... how can his settings POSSIBLY be OPTIMAL for our phone? Think about that!
As far as your WiFi tethering issue, I am well aware of it personally, having read your other posts, but I don't know much about this (don't use it myself) and in another thread I was going to direct you to a link you are already aware of that didn't help. If anyone can help arikdahn with this, please jump in! :good:
I definitely had more problems with music skipping when the screen would turn off. Using ondemand or interactive with sio and 2048 read ahead caches seems to have almost completely resolved the issue for me. I'm still not sure which I/o scheduler is best.
I would think that the governor throttles down MORE when the screen is off, which is why I consider the Media/Music and Bluetooth Min Mhz settings important to be set above the default, which I believe is Min and should override that throtte down when music playing (ay the expense of battery time, but the battery is meant to be USED when needed) and I can't see how that CAN'T cause skipping in most setups. But it does occur for some even with the screen on.
rsngfrce said:
I would think that the governor throttles down MORE when the screen is off, which is why I consider the Media/Music and Bluetooth Min Mhz settings important to be set above the default, which I believe is Min and should override that throtte down when music playing (ay the expense of battery time, but the battery is meant to be USED when needed) and I can't see how that CAN'T cause skipping in most setups. But it does occur for some even with the screen on.
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Click to collapse
Well, all I have to go off of is my own expertise with MY equipment only. My thoughts based on this is that it's not a limited-resources type issue, like if the CPU's throttling down or not buffering ahead enough or whatever. I had skipping problems all the time and I tried it with uTorrent running in the background, items downloading/moving, and these processes didn't slow down or cause any problems themselves. That's why I think what I think. Anyway, what this means to me is that I do not believe that in my situation, anything I can do with the kernel's configurable options will change anything. Then again, i think my phone's possessed anyway. It won't run the dialer on AOSP/CM roms and might just be one of the most finnicky high tech devices I've ever owned.
arikdahn said:
Well, all I have to go off of is my own expertise with MY equipment only. My thoughts based on this is that it's not a limited-resources type issue, like if the CPU's throttling down or not buffering ahead enough or whatever. I had skipping problems all the time and I tried it with uTorrent running in the background, items downloading/moving, and these processes didn't slow down or cause any problems themselves. That's why I think what I think. Anyway, what this means to me is that I do not believe that in my situation, anything I can do with the kernel's configurable options will change anything. Then again, i think my phone's possessed anyway. It won't run the dialer on AOSP/CM roms and might just be one of the most finnicky high tech devices I've ever owned.
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Click to collapse
Hey, I'm not in any way disputing what you are saying, the point of this thread is to figure these things out! I'm certainly not presenting myself as the expert on these issues! I'm just a lucky one who seems to have mostly resolved the issues on MY phone. (BUT... I AM NO ANDROID EXPERT EITHER and will never claim to be, but I am not saying it is a limited-resources issues, what I am saying is that I believe the default settings will allow the governor to throttle down to below the level necessary to play music without skipping... I could be wrong, but that it what it looks like to me.)
Because SO MANY people APPARENTLY don't have MOST of the issues mentioned, I personally think this is highly related to which ROM you are using... though I don't know what ROM those other people are using...
Related
FYI to anyone using SetCPU. I have discovered an issue with my ringer volume caused by running SetCPU. The issue is intermittent but quite annoying. Regardless of the volume of my ringtone the phone will either start out with a normal ring volume and get extremely loud or just start out as if you had the volume turned all the way up. I changed ringtones, turned off quiet ring on pickup, changed Kernels and even wiped and re-flashed ROMs. This was driving me crazy. I tried all kinds of volume apps to remedy the issue also to no avail. This is not ROM specific as it happened to me on Fresh, Evio, Elite, MikFroyo and Azrael. I don’t know if this happens with all Kernels but it did happen on HTC stock #15 and Netarchy 4.3.1 havs-nosbc. I do know this…..as soon as I removed SetCPU the issue immediately went away. I was not running any profiles in SetCPU. The strange thing is….on an AOSP ROM (Cyanogen/MIUI) this does not occur with SetCPU running. Has anyone else run into this? Hope this was helpful if anyone else has experienced this issue. Hopefully someone has a fix/workaround to this issue.
After going crazy with this issue that seemed to pop out of nowhere I decided to backup my crucial data from my sdcard and format it. I then did a full wipe (2x using Amon Ra 2.3) and flashed MikFroyo 4.5. I installed some basic apps (Weather Channel, Walgreens, Zynga Poker, Go SMS, Blacklist, Dr. Web). So far I have not had any volume issues (without SetCPU). I will install and test with SetCPU and provide feedback. Although I may just test out my battery life as is for now. Some of these tweaked ROM's and newer Kernels just about eliminate the need for SetCPU or Overclock widget (IMO). In other postings I've read they just cause issues negating the purpose of a HAVS Kernel altogether. We shall see.
I finally found others with this issue. Apparently this is a feature?? Anyone else heard of this? I suppose I didn't take notice that my phone only does this when in the belt case (sensors covered). Certainly there must be a way to disable this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=11781327#post11781327
http://forum.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=669629#post669629
Man, I have a friend that has been having trouble with his volume control and we couldn't figure it out. He uses setCPU, and I don't... I think I better send a link to this post.
I've been running SetCPU on my Evo for 6 months with many different ROMs/kernels and I've never experienced this. Sounds to me like you have a volume, or music app/widget that's conflicting.
12MaNy said:
I've been running SetCPU on my Evo for 6 months with many different ROMs/kernels and I've never experienced this. Sounds to me like you have a volume, or music app/widget that's conflicting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought so too. However, after a fresh flash of a ROM and installing SetCPU this issue starts. Really strange.
See changes in my first post. It's not SetCPU.
I may be the last Streak owner on the planet to discover this, but if I'm not, I hope it helps someone else!
I have had my Streak for over a year now and have used many of the great ROMs from DJ Steve and others. I am currently on Simple Streak 1.2 with PerfUpdate. It serves my purposes well.
To the point, for the past 4-6 months my streak is hard to wake. The screen turns on but is unresponsive for about 10 seconds and then the FC window pops up with the choice to wait or FC. It happens on every app that is open when the screen turns off, most usually in ADW. I have tried several of the newer ROMs and different launchers thinking this would correct the problem, but it hasn't.
It occurred to me that the one thing in common with all of the ROMs I have tried/used were my SetCPU settings. Since I have my Streak plugged in most of the time at home or in my office, battery life isn't an issue for me. I have been running SetCPU on the PERFORMANCE setting. Several days ago, I changed it to the ON DEMAND setting and the hesitation problem vanished completely! I have tested to be certain this was the cause and I am 100% certain. If I go back to PERFORMANCE, hesitation starts immediately. ON DEMAND, zero hesitation. I have noticed no slow down in performance otherwise. The numerical values and the various profiles have not been changed except for setting to ON DEMAND.
Again, I hope this is useful to someone. Please don't flame me if this is old news. Thanks.
kraz
Yeah, I tried other governors, but I prefer Ondemand. It is the most reliable in my opinion.
ondemand is the default governer for the stock rom/kernels,
the only time it's not ondemand is if it's changed by the rom (at startup) or by the kernel itself (as a default option)
Regardless you should NEVER use performence as a normal use governer as it keeps it at max speed the whole time, even while it sleeps.
i agree, ON DEMAND is what i always used for gov
most reliable for me
but, sometime i changed it to CONSERVATIVE too...
I've all ways used the above 2 except with StreakDroid roms I would frequently use 'smartass'. Not sure how it works but I seem to remember reading that it was optimized for those roms. Seemed to work well, anyway...
Sent from my Dell Streak using Tapatalk
I've been having a recurring problem where my phone will lock up in a deep sleep, leaving the phone completely off. In order to restart the phone, I have to hold Power and Vol Down which takes me to a charging logo, and then hit power again. This generally happens overnight when the phone is charging, but I've also had it happen once while making a VoIP call. I thought I resolved the issue by wiping the phone and flashing the stock 4.2 ROM. However, the issue just occurred last night after 4 days of bug-free usage.
My question is whether this is some sort of weird software bug or a hardware issue. I haven't seen others report identical behavior but I've seen lots of complaints about freezing and random reboots that seem to be due to software. Should I request an RMA?
+ 1 . I am having the same issue. I would say hang tight. Call the support team and let them know you are having issues. If atfer a few weeks the problem persists perhaps go through an rma. I suspect it is software related. Lets say you did RMA still had the issue then had a dead pixel or other problem? It would suck and you would have to go through the whole process again. rinse and repeat. Only if you want to return the device for a full refund, then I would say hurry up and make that call. My .02 Good luck.
NexUsandThem said:
+ 1 . I am having the same issue.
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Click to collapse
+1
Having the same issue. Although no clear pattern is visible. Sometimes I find the phone dead-locked after putting it aside for 10 minutes and sometimes it seems to run for a day or even two without issue. Running _motley kernel right now without any change on this front.
I rather think it's a software issue than hardware. So I am not going to RMA it.
Strangely when I power off the phone on such a lock-up and then reboot it I will see a substantial drop in battery after the reboot. So the phone seems to be in some state where it still drawns more battery than in normal operation. E.g. with _motley kernel and limited clocks I typically see 3-5% battery drop over night only. When it locks up during the night and I reset it in the morning then battery usually drops much more (e.g. 30-50% is gone). Maybe it's caused by some hanging/deadlocked driver.
If you full factory reset and flashed then i'd say some app of yours is causing the issue.
shotta35 said:
If you full factory reset and flashed then i'd say some app of yours is causing the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact I got the device in dec 2012. Started to set it up and then decided to root it (including full factory reset). I only have a very minor amount of system-level applications installed. Actually the main reason to root was to use Voltage Control as I intended to limit clock rates and (if possible) voltages the same way I was used to do it on my Galaxy Tab 7 (P1000) where I was very pleased with 6-days battery lifetime.
Initially I found the minimum clock rate was set to 1GHz and I have reduced it to 304MHz (minimum with stock kernel). When I discovered first freezes/lock-ups then I reverted to default settings and found it still locking up occasionally. Meanwhile I am using _motley kernel which seems to include some voltage mod as well. Although Voltage Control does not show options to modify voltages. Then I found Trickster MOD which shows some voltage control but it seems to have no effect (at least I was used my galaxy tab to crash when undervolting too much and it's pretty "strange" to be able to set all clock voltages to 0.6V while still running stable; so I guess the settings won't have any effect right now).
I have also tried to remove all modifications and applications and/or profiles which could cause the issue without any difference. Even when run stock settings it occasionally completely locks-up the device.
Edit: I was wrong regarding voltages. In fact I found my device happily works at 1134MHz using 600mV. Since I am used to limit max clock rates to 810MHz I could simply put all voltages to 600mV without seeing a crash/reboot.
CAUTION: This does not necessarily have to apply to all devices. My one is "faster" binned Rev. 11 device. Some voltages of different users are collected here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnlqtEwFJwR6dE55WkZYSThEM3U4SGtKMVl2V1VqMmc#gid=0
My phone shuts down on 4.3 and 4.4 based roms.
It happens much less often on 4.2 and stock based roms.
It seems to happen when the screen is off. It doesn't shut down when I'm in the middle of doing something. I've seen that on other phones.
If the screen is off, but I'm listening to the music player or Pandora, it does not shut down.
It does not seem to be overheating.
I'm on my 3rd sim card in 2 months and my second class 4 SD card. I only bought a new one b/c used the one from my old phone and thought it was best to start fresh.
Currently I'm running the first CM11, but this has been happening on CM 10.2, AOKP, and a variety of other roms.
My recovery is TWRP 2.6.3.0
I use the regular GAPPS, not PaGAPPS and the appropriate GAPPS for the given AOSP base; 4.2/3/4
I flash SuperSu-v1.65 after a full wipe when installing new roms.
The current apps I have installed in addition to what comes with CM are:
Evernote
Freecell
Google Voice
gReader Pro
Pandora
Quickoffice
Rom Toolbox Pro
Scanner Radio
Shuttle+
SMS Backup+Restore
Solitaire
Tapatalk Pro
UPM - Universal Password Manager
Xposed Installer - I don't have any modules installed at the moment and the last time today it shut down by itself was before I installed Xposed.
I know that logcats are good for tracking down errors for apps that FC, though I don't know yet how to read logs.
Is there an app I can use that can show me activity before the last shutdown?
How can I track down what's causing it?
TIA
please delete
On 2nd thought I did not feel I could contribute well.
Sounds like S.O.D's (sleep of death). It's a kernel problem and I believe they're cause by qcom's hot plugging. You could rename MPdecision to MPdecision.bak and reboot. That will keep the second core on and it should help. I used to get them as well until I updated to the two latest updates. But SOD's are a well known issue with the RAZR M.
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
EDIT:
Code:
system \ bin \ MPdecision
aviwdoowks said:
please delete
On 2nd thought I did not feel I could contribute well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for trying though.
ATTACK said:
Sounds like S.O.D's (sleep of death). It's a kernel problem and I believe they're cause by qcom's hot plugging. You could rename MPdecision to MPdecision.bak and reboot. That will keep the second core on and it should help. I used to get them as well until I updated to the two latest updates. But SOD's are a well known issue with the RAZR M.
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
EDIT:
Code:
system \ bin \ MPdecision
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Attack,
Thanks for the response and thanks for the clarification.
I found two instances of MPdecision, so that narrows it down.
Sorry, but answers always do tend to lead to more questions.....
What functionality do I lose by "disabling" it?
If it keeps the second core on, does that have a significant impact on battery life?
Does the governor have any impact on that?
Would other kernels make a difference?
FirePsych said:
Attack,
Thanks for the response and thanks for the clarification.
I found two instances of MPdecision, so that narrows it down.
Sorry, but answers always do tend to lead to more questions.....
What functionality do I lose by "disabling" it?
If it keeps the second core on, does that have a significant impact on battery life?
Does the governor have any impact on that?
Would other kernels make a difference?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MPdecision is qcomm's hot plugging service that keeps the second core off when its not needed by the system and turns it on when it is needed. By disabling MPdecision, you'll have better performance and slightly higher battery usage, but it's not very noticeable (battery usage will very on how you use your phone). Governor's have no impact on SOD's and all kernels for the Razr M are basically the same either stock or CM's both use the same MPdecision (which I believe to be the problem).
I could be totally wrong and you could have a hardware / software problem. But I know that when I was having this issue, I disabled MPdecision and the SOD's stopped.
Thanks,
I had read that the SOD had been reported elsewhere, but never saw any solutions. Just lots of folks replacing their phones.
I haven't had one in the last 24 hrs on the 12/08 CM nightly and flashed the 12/09 this morning.
I also made the MPdecisions change. We'll see if it sticks. I assume since it's a system file, I'll have to make the change every time I flash a new nightly or or new rom, but that's not a big deal.
Oh, and yes SOD is probably more accurate than "shutdown" because I've noticed that the led will flash if I've received a message, but I can't revive the phone, so obviously it's not complete shut down.
ATTACK said:
MPdecision is qcomm's hot plugging service that keeps the second core off when its not needed by the system and turns it on when it is needed. By disabling MPdecision, you'll have better performance and slightly higher battery usage, but it's not very noticeable (battery usage will very on how you use your phone). Governor's have no impact on SOD's and all kernels for the Razr M are basically the same either stock or CM's both use the same MPdecision (which I believe to be the problem).
I could be totally wrong and you could have a hardware / software problem. But I know that when I was having this issue, I disabled MPdecision and the SOD's stopped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@ATTACK.
Thank you!
I hate to jynx myself, butthis seems to have done the trick. Only had 1 or 2 BSOD since your response and I think both times were because I forgot to make the change after flashing a new rom.
Happy Holidays
FP
This thread may have saved my phone. I keep waking up to find my phone with a blinking LED notification and me being unable to get the screen to turn on. I renamed the MPdecision file and I'll hope for the best. (^^)
Hi everyone,
Thanks for reading this . As specified above, my phone has a rather serious problem of overheating. To try and reslove the issue I tried modifying the CPU frequency, to set it low enough. And a very bizarre thing just happend.
Opening Kernel Adiutor, I saw that 4 out of my 8 cores (the 2.5 ones) were running normally. No overclock, stock settings, stock governor and so on. The issue seems to be in the other 4 (the 2.3 ones). Both the minimum and highest frequency allowed is set up to the same parameter (1556 mHz), forcing it to stay at maximum clock all the time. I tried modyfing via Kernel Adiutor the settings, lowering the minimum frequency allowed to stock one (which should be around 300 or something), but it had no effects: it immediatly comes back to 1556 and just won't come down.
All of this started happening after i removed Franco Kernel from my system, flashing another ROM (Chroma) with a different kernel altogether. I'm currently on Cataclysm ROM and after doing a clean install, formatting internal storage as well as every other partition, i couldn't resolve the issue. Moreover, Kernel Adiutor sometimes won't even show my CPU settings, stuck on an infinite loading. If anyone could help me, it would be much appreciated. It's really important. I'm by no means Android expert but i do have a rather basic understanding of ADB and so on.
Thanks a lot for your time.
-LVBNR5
I used to own a n7 and that allowed me to set min and max freq. with apps fine but i am also seeing this on my 6p, i don't notice any "overheating" although it may be due to me being used to it always running hot since i run a lot of heavier programs and also you know... SD810 but i guess it does the frequency thing as a way that frequency is actually controlled on this platform or something, because it sticks fine to the limits you set while flashing a kernel but no app can get it to stick. Then again this is just me sharing my experience with it as it is my first phone with this platform, so maybe someone who knows more about this could offer some help.
ml11ML said:
I used to own a n7 and that allowed me to set min and max freq. with apps fine but i am also seeing this on my 6p, i don't notice any "overheating" although it may be due to me being used to it always running hot since i run a lot of heavier programs and also you know... SD810 but i guess it does the frequency thing as a way that frequency is actually controlled on this platform or something, because it sticks fine to the limits you set while flashing a kernel but no app can get it to stick. Then again this is just me sharing my experience with it as it is my first phone with this platform, so maybe someone who knows more about this could offer some help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks anyway, i really appreciate it!