Flirc no longer works

Howdy.
Installed the new August update only to find my remote (Sofabaton X1 → Flirc) no longer works!

Dig a little, and I see the flirc USB device is no longer being detected by the kernel.

Working 4k+ on the previous release:

[    2.440089] usb 1-1: new low-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-hcd
[    2.638335] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=20a0, idProduct=0001
[    2.638343] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[    2.638347] usb 1-1: Product: flirc
[    2.638351] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: flirc.tv
[    2.740560] usb 1-1: Unsupported device
[    2.677723] input: flirc.tv flirc as /devices/platform/c9000000.dwc3/xhci-hcd.0.auto/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/0003:20A0:0001.0001/input/input4
[    2.740385] hid-generic 0003:20A0:0001.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.01 Keyboard [flirc.tv flirc] on usb-xhci-hcd.0.auto-1/input0

And now on my verov

[   31.331077] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-hcd
[   31.471108] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[   31.731095] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71

Any suggestions on how to help?

Have you tried it on another device like a PC? Those errors could suggest a hardware problem with the FLIRC receiver itself.

The FLIRC USB is definitely supported as I use one on a Vero V that runs test builds, a RPi 4 that runs test builds, and three RPi’s that have only ever run stable releases. I’ve seen no glitches so far on any of them and my stable release boxes were all updated yesterday and are working as expected.

Have you tried running from the terminal…

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

to see if there were any update errors?

Definitely no update errors, and just confirmed then.

So, I have a Vero4k, a Vero4k+ and a VeroV. Two of them have the same flirc dongles in them. And so far, the V is the only one I’ve installed the August update on, and the only one that the flirc no longer works with.

OK so… just did some more digging and it seems more general USB failure than Flirc.
In fact, If I plug in a USB keyboard, it doesn’t work.
I don’t even see any hotplug messaging in dmesg to indicate it’s detected.

Actually. USB messages are showing up in dmesg just very delayed, and indicating an error.
For example. the USB keyboard I mentioned:

[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 27 using xhci-hcd
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c223
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2: Product: G15 Keyboard Hub
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] hub 1-2:1.0: USB hub found
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 27
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2-port1: attempt power cycle
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2.1: the parent's name is 1-2
[Mon Aug 26 07:11:18 2024] usb 1-2-port1: Device no response

Assuming you don’t have another USB device plugged in that may be drawing too much current from the USB bus, I’d be inclined to run a backup of userdata and see where your at with a clean install.

1 Like

Literally nothing plugged in

Yeah, I might do a wipe and see if that helps. I’m also seeing instability on the August update - watching a movie it hung after ~20 minutes (twice in a row). And then just now when I had left it idle it hung after a longer time period.

I’d just enabled debug logs and was trying to repo for a new thread, so something is definitely wrong here (and I’m now hesitant to upgrade my other two hosts)

You might also want to swap in a PSU from your other Vero since you have access to it just to gut check it isn’t a failing PSU. I know it might seem a bit odd that it would go south the same time as you installed the update, but things sometimes work out that way. As for being leary about installing on your other boxes I’d suggest this has actually been less eventful than any I can recall in years. Testing has been fairly quiet and the only bug I’ve seen since yesterday’s release is now fixed and will pushed to a general release update in the next couple hours.

OK you convinced me and I upgraded the less critical Vero4k+ and it worked fine and it’s back up with a working Flirc.

So I guess yes, this is leaning towards just an issue with my VeroV and USB which may or may not be related to the update, but it’s a pretty big coincidence

A user said that they couldn’t update their skin today and said it was the update causing a problem. DNS issue on their side.

The coincidence was that we released a new version of Kodi which would need a skin update. But a DNS problem made that tricky.

Let’s get some more information and get your issued solved properly.

OK. New update.

Did a fresh install using OSMC_TGT_vero5_20240825.img
Came up, USB keyboard was working. Did the fresh install config.
SSHed in and did a final set of updates
Rebooted, and USB keyboard no longer works

I have to duck out for some things, but when I get back I’ll try again, this time not doing that final update straight away, and will reboot with the vanilla image and confirm USB works fine before those updates.

The latest image has everything included aside from a Kodi issue we resolved (Duplicate imports after upgrade). So you will get an update. But this won’t affect USB.

Do you experience a problem if you try a cold boot?

Turn device off at the mains for a couple of minutes and boot

Sam

Same problem.
And now, in fact, I can’t even get it to trigger a fresh install from the USB so I’m not sure how to keep experimenting

Did you try powering your Vero V with the power supply from your Vero 4K?

Yep… and it works.
That’s annoying.
So yeah, swapping over the PSUs from the 4k+ and the V now has them both with working USB

Is there something … not quite right with the AUS power supplies? I’ve seemingly had so many issues with them. Had 2 replacements bought for the 4K and the 4K+ and now the V seems to have a dodgy PSU as well. Not a good track record

Honestly, no. We have a problematic power supply occasionally but for you to have hit three problematic ones over time would be indicative that something else is the issue, particularly as your problem has developed over a relatively small period of time.

If you’re saying swapping the PSUs has both devices working then I’m a bit puzzled — please clarify.

I’d check sockets and make sure these aren’t running off a surge or extension that may be problematic.

I definitely want to get to the bottom of this for you.

VeroV running with the VeroV PSU it was shipped with: No USB
Swapped over to have it use the PSU that was powering my Vero4K+ and USB works again on the VeroV
Fully complete the swap and have the 4K+ use the V PSU (just in case that issue followed the PSU) but no, that system works fine too.

Each of my PSU issues has been in a different room, on a different socket, which is what makes this even more odd. The house is the only commonality.

When I started out tinkering with the V, it was having issues in the living room. I swapped it out for the old Vero4K and moved the V in here to the study to tinker with it more, and the problem followed it between rooms, so if we want to blame something upstream, it’s really only the power feed into the house!

I am happy to ship you a new Vero V PSU (just send me some order details so I can get an address), but they shouldn’t be dropping like flies like this.

Some of the older Vero 4K power supplies would show their age after a few years. We improved the PSUs with Vero V, although it’s too early for users to tell and all PSUs degrade over time. We just added some more headroom with our downfall being that we have very, very long support commitments for the Vero so things do show their age where users would have otherwise moved on more quickly with other products

Something doesn’t quite seem right though (electrically).

Something is definitely not right.

After a few days of stability with the V working fine in the lab, I decided to swap them all back with their working setups and say thanks but no thanks to the new PSU

But now I just cannot get the V to have working USB when running in the living room. No matter which PSU I use. No matter if I plug it in to where it has always lived, or into another wall socket. It just comes up with no USB.

So I gave up again, moved it back into the lab (where USB worked again) and have put the vero4k back in the living room for now.

Any more suggestions? Can I just buy a local PSU (assuming this is still the actual issue) that’s overpowered enough to handle the job? I’m a bit over running these things back from room to room and just want a working system like I had before the upgrade :\

So your USB keyboard (not talking about SofaBaton dongle) is no longer detected?