Xbian with Transmission freezes after a couple of days

[juanghurtado]

Hi everybody!

I'm having a strange issue with my Raspi (512 model) with Xbian and Transmission installed.

On a fresh install, after a couple of days of working (downloading and sharing torrents) the system freezes. Well, it doesn't exactly freezes. I mean, on first days I can log in via SSH, but after those days SSH stops working (but everything else is working fine: XBMC, transmission…). And if I reboot the system, it doesn't boot again, it gets stuck on loading screen.

Xbian version is beta 1.1. Transmission is downloading files (incomplete and downloaded) on a 2Tb USB disk (ext4). Transmission was installed following the instructions on this forum category (http://forum.xbian.org/thread-1018.html).

I tried with fresh installs at least 3 times now.

Do any of you guys know what could be happening? Since SSH stop working, I can't get any info about what could be the problem.

[rikardo1979]

check your log when the issue occur, so means when you find that its frozen than get the log out and see if there is anything in it

[juanghurtado]

I'm sorry if this is a newbie question, but… How do I get the log if I can't log in through SSH and I can't reboot the system? Can I get a terminal access shutting down XBMC? Which log file should I watch?

Thanks a lot.

[IriDium]

If XBMC is still running but not ssh (Then it seems to a network issue, not Xbian)

1/ Can you ping your Rpi?
2/ Are the yellow lights on the RPi
3/ Are you Ethernet or wireless?

You can when it happens:
a) Install xbmc.log from addons - that will send the required xbmc.log.
or cp xbmc.log > xbmc.log.txt
b) Exit out of XBMC from the shutdown menu and choose exit.
From there, sign in, and do: dmesg > dmesg.txt.

Reboot system. Sign in and send us the output of both text files (See my signature - Please read before you post - to see how/

[juanghurtado]

Thanks for your answers. A few notes:

- It's not a network issue, I can ping the RPi. I can even see Transmission web interface
- SSH is working, but when I log in using it, the prompt does not init. It makes the connection, but the prompt doesn't load.
- I'm on ethernet, and all lights of the RPI are working normally
- If I reboot the system, it doesn't boot again. Gets stuck on "Loading" screen.
- Next time I'll try to use Xbian without Transmission for a few days, to see if it is Transmission fault.

(5th Nov, 2013 03:07 AM)IriDium Wrote:  If XBMC is still running but not ssh (Then it seems to a network issue, not Xbian)

1/ Can you ping your Rpi?
2/ Are the yellow lights on the RPi
3/ Are you Ethernet or wireless?

You can when it happens:
a) Install xbmc.log from addons - that will send the required xbmc.log.
or cp xbmc.log > xbmc.log.txt
b) Exit out of XBMC from the shutdown menu and choose exit.
From there, sign in, and do: dmesg > dmesg.txt.

Reboot system. Sign in and send us the output of both text files (See my signature - Please read before you post - to see how/

[IriDium]

Ok, then it sounds plausible that it's a high CPU or high wait state. Have you left the frozen ssh for say 20 minutes?

The "loading" on reboot is more than likely because of a corrupt file system, due to the hard reset - so it was obvioulsy doing something at the time.

I suggest leaving the ssh for a while - I've seen it delayed before, but not for more than 10 minutes.

Check XBMC -> System -> System Information and look at the heat - if it's high, then it's more than likely high CPU.

[juanghurtado]

Thank you for your answer

Next time this happens, I'll follow your suggestion. By now I'll stay with Xbian without Transmission, to check if the problem is related with it or not.

(6th Nov, 2013 12:20 AM)IriDium Wrote:  Ok, then it sounds plausible that it's a high CPU or high wait state. Have you left the frozen ssh for say 20 minutes?

The "loading" on reboot is more than likely because of a corrupt file system, due to the hard reset - so it was obvioulsy doing something at the time.

I suggest leaving the ssh for a while - I've seen it delayed before, but not for more than 10 minutes.

Check XBMC -> System -> System Information and look at the heat - if it's high, then it's more than likely high CPU.

[rikardo1979]

(4th Nov, 2013 08:00 PM)juanghurtado Wrote:  I'm sorry if this is a newbie question, but… How do I get the log if I can't log in through SSH and I can't reboot the system? Can I get a terminal access shutting down XBMC? Which log file should I watch?

Thanks a lot.

when the sys is all freeze than you can just unplug the power(is already corrupted anyway) than you can acces the file on SD from linux machine.if you dont have a computer running linux you can easily make live boot cd or usb which you can boot from

[belese]

i run transmission and others package download with not many problem, pi was still fluid,
until i've no space left, and all goes very slow.
Maybe it's your problem too
what is your sd card size?

[juanghurtado]

Last two times getting this problems it was on a 8Gb SD. Right now I'm on a 4Gb card.

Torrents are being downloaded (incomplete folder too) on an external HD with 2Tb. Why should the PI get out of space? Log files maybe?

(6th Nov, 2013 07:37 PM)belese Wrote:  i run transmission and others package download with not many problem, pi was still fluid,
until i've no space left, and all goes very slow.
Maybe it's your problem too
what is your sd card size?

[belese]

(6th Nov, 2013 07:43 PM)juanghurtado Wrote:  Last two times getting this problems it was on a 8Gb SD. Right now I'm on a 4Gb card.

Torrents are being downloaded (incomplete folder too) on an external HD with 2Tb. Why should the PI get out of space? Log files maybe?

(6th Nov, 2013 07:37 PM)belese Wrote:  i run transmission and others package download with not many problem, pi was still fluid,
until i've no space left, and all goes very slow.
Maybe it's your problem too
what is your sd card size?

mine also download on USB, and have no file on it, but it's a 4Gb sd card too.
and have btrf-autosnapshot enable. On a 4Gb, no space left appear quite often for me, even with no file on it, just with snapshot enable. But it's maybe not your problem, just it looks like mine, and it was this.
Everything running, but slow.
df show me 60% of free space, but free space and btrfs (i m'not expert) is hard to determine due to btrfs feature. (there are a wiki on google that explain quite well this).

[juanghurtado]

After all this days (without Transmission) my RPi is working fine. So the suspect seems to be Transmission. I will backup the current status of the SD card, and after that I'll install Transmission to check if it is the cause of the problem.