Sudden crash when using external USB-3 DVD player

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

My brand new Vero 4k+ is totally crashing without trace (nothing in dmesg, journalctl -f or kodi.log) when plugging in this cheap external USB DVD drive, which otherwise works fine on my workstation.

This is what it looks like, when it works:

fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb 2-2: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=3940, bcdDevice= 4.03 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb 2-2: Product: INIC-3609        
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb 2-2: Manufacturer: Initio   
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 30303030303030303030303030303030 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb-storage 2-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usb-storage 2-2:1.0: Quirks match for vid 13fd pid 3940: 2000020 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: scsi host3: usb-storage 2-2:1.0 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage 
fév 01 16:20:43 curie kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver uas 
fév 01 16:20:45 curie kernel: scsi 3:0:0:0: CD-ROM            TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633A  TO01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 
fév 01 16:20:45 curie kernel: scsi 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 5 
fév 01 16:20:45 curie kernel: sr 3:0:0:0: Power-on or device reset occurred 
fév 01 16:20:45 curie kernel: sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] scsi3-mmc drive: 8x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray 
fév 01 16:20:45 curie kernel: cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 
fév 01 16:20:45 curie kernel: sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0

The above is from my workstation, which does have a USB-3 port and can operate the DVD drive fine. I was surprised to find out it doesn’t actually work on my laptop, which has only USB-3 ports. But my laptop does not crash, it simply cycles between the USB initialization and resets. Here’s a typical reset cycle:

[fév 1 16:34] usb 2-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
[  +0,110293] usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=3940
[  +0,000007] usb 2-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  +0,000004] usb 2-1.2: Product: INIC-3609       
[  +0,000003] usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: Initio  
[  +0,000004] usb 2-1.2: SerialNumber: 30303030303030303030303030303030
[  +0,571522] usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[  +0,000220] usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0: Quirks match for vid 13fd pid 3940: 2000020
[  +0,000065] scsi host6: usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0
[  +0,000757] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[  +0,006518] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[  +1,079697] scsi 6:0:0:0: CD-ROM            TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633A  TO01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[  +0,001451] scsi 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[  +0,383512] sr 6:0:0:0: [sr0] scsi3-mmc drive: 8x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[  +0,000006] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[  +0,000680] sr 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[fév 1 16:35] usb 2-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 4

But the Vero just totally crashes: dmesg -w doesn’t even catch the USB device detection line. I feel that’s bad enough to open a bug report here. It also goes to show how useful a USB-3 port would be in my current situation.

Sorry to bring back that topic again, but it’s a fairly concrete example of why that could matter. :slight_smile: Arguably, that DVD drive should fallback to USB-2 correctly, I’m quite surprised by its behavior and it might be unfair to blame that on the Vero. But I would say that a device shouldn’t simply crash when buggy hardware is plugged in, particularly USB…

I would love to hear how I can diagnose this further. If there’s a way to open the Vero safely and hook up a serial console, I have the cabling and some experience to do that as well. Let me be your remote monkey! :slight_smile:

Cheers and thank you in advance!

2

Log snippets are not useful. We need to see complete logs with debugging enabled in Kodi.

To get a better understanding of the problem you are experiencing we need more information from you. The best way to get this information is for you to upload logs that demonstrate your problem. You can learn more about how to submit a useful support request here.

Depending on the used skin you have to set the settings-level to standard or higher, in summary:

  • enable debug logging at settings->system->logging

  • reboot the OSMC device

  • reproduce the issue

  • upload the log set either using the Log Uploader method within the My OSMC menu in the GUI or the ssh method invoking command grab-logs -A

  • publish the provided URL from the log set upload, here

Thanks for your understanding. We hope that we can help you get up and running again shortly.

OSMC skin screenshot:

normal_logging
normal_logging1920×1080 764 KB

3

Right, so the problem with that is that when I “reproduce the issue”, the machine totally freezes, and there’s absolutely zero change in the logs. I would submit the log but there’s actually quite a bit of private information in there and I would like people here to trust me in that it’s basically impossible for anything to show up in the logs. (I’ve sent you the log in a private message to prove that, but I’m not okay showing it publicly.)

I’ve reproduced the issue again, and it’s interesting that it crashes immediately, as soon as the USB plug is inserted, and even before it’s fully in. I feel this means it’s something at the board level, an electronic misfeature that makes this drive fundamentally incompatible with the vero.

Update: I added a link to the shop where I got the device:

4

Hi,

How to submit a useful support request - General - OSMC

Check out the bit about: Sanitizing your logs

Seriously we can’t help without seeing whats going on with the vero4k, without seeing logs at the time of the crash.

Tom.

5

Problem is that’s a lot of data to go through. I skipped through it and there was stuff like sensitive filenames, hostnames, and that’s only what I found. It would take me an hour to clean that up. I sent a copy to @ActionA and I can send a copy to any developer that needs it, but I don’t want to make it public.

Besides, I hope you can understand and trust me that I am certain there is just nothing in the log. There’s just no time for anything to be written there when the crash happens. What I need is a way to hook up to a JTAG or serial console on this thing, is that possible?

7

You should test connecting the USB drive through a powered USB hub. It’s entirely possible that your “cheap drive’s” electronics are demanding so much amperage that a catastrophic voltage drop is unable to be mitigated. This doesn’t sound like a software issue at all.

8

Agreed, a DVD drive might be a bit much! Unfortunately I don’t have a powered USB hub on hand right now, but I’ll make sure to try that out next time I can get my hand on one! So good idea and thanks! :slight_smile: