How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

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SP_FACE1
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How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

#1

Post by SP_FACE1 » Sat Nov 11, 2017 9:14 pm

Since Zandronum v2 I've experienced a bug with the Linux client where the keyboard suddenly stops working, i.e. the game does not react to any input, yet the game itself runs normally, enemies (and other players) continue their merry ways. I basically have to killall zandronum to get out of the situation.

It happens after I enter the message mode by pressing the default T (binded to say) or right after entering the console via a binded key. But it does not happen every time, it's mostly random as I cannot find the real trigger for it but it when it happens it's always after I've pressed T or the console key.

I've seen this happen on four different computers, all running Ubuntu. Its an issue with the current stable v3 and it was also an issue with the previous version v2.

How should I try to reproduce this? Would running a debug build help?

Edward-san
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Re: How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

#2

Post by Edward-san » Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:34 pm

I think I had the exact same issue years ago, but now I cannot recall how I managed to fix.

What version of Ubuntu do you have? 32 or 64 bit? Please post also your computer specs.

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SP_FACE1
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Re: How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

#3

Post by SP_FACE1 » Sun Nov 12, 2017 12:53 pm

64 bit Ubuntu 16.04 on a Lenovo IdeaPad G50.
But I've experienced this with at least four different computers (laptops and a desktop). All were running 64 bit Ubuntu. Ubuntu versions have been 14.04, 15.04, 15.10, 16.04, 17.10.

One more thing: when the controls disappear, I still see the mouse (the impaled bunny cursor) and can move the cursor around. But keyboard becomes totally unresponsive. I have to SSH into the machine and kill zandronum.

Edit: I've never experienced this with GZDoom. But I didn't really use GZDoom before the v2 release.

Lollipop
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Re: How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

#4

Post by Lollipop » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:09 am

I can confirm this bug. This has been discussed before when Polygon brought it up in a forum thread, but it seems noone but I cared in the slightest.
As far as I could gather, the bug is an old SDL1 bug that I don't think will be fixed and requires a third party patch to be applied. (made by a zdoom user IIRC)
Upgrading to SDL2 would solve the problem entirely, and IIRC, SDL2 has legacy support for SDL1 functions, so it shouldn't be a problem to upgrade. The only problem is that I can think of is that it might have to wait for upstream to update.

Heck I might be entirely wrong on this in the first place, just digging up things from memory.

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Dusk
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Re: How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

#5

Post by Dusk » Wed Nov 15, 2017 10:23 am

IIRC this can be fixed by installing the tip of the SDL1 branch on the git repository.

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SP_FACE1
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Re: How to reproduce a bug with random freezing of controls?

#6

Post by SP_FACE1 » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:07 pm

Thanks, yeah, this has been an issue for a while. So far I've just avoided it by not using the console and not using the message system.

So this can be fixed if I compile myself by first installing the tip of SDL1 on the git repository? How exactly to do this? Isn't the Zandronum repository on Mercurial?

Edit: Found it: https://zandronum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8156
I'll have to try this. Looks like the bug was first reported in 2013. I remember experiencing this back then too.

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