A600GS blank screen (fixed!)

[simokun]

I just turned on my new A600GS for the first time,
after a few steps blank screen with red mouse pointer

- First setup / registration
- I tried to update AmiSphere (46.1.805 -> 46.1.864)
- An error occured: std::bad_alloc
- Restart
- Blank screen with red mouse pointer

I would like to try to reset SD card:
can I open A600GS without losing the warranty?
where do I find the SD card image?

[broadblues]

No you won't invaldate the warrantee but there is a better way, please check your PMs

[amyren]

I powered up my A600GS today and find I have the same issue.
This is not the first time powering it up tgough, as I did use it to set it up and updated the firmware once, then I did make a backup of the SD card.
After this I powered it up and added a few adf ganes, as well as copied some files across to the Amibench environment.
But powering it up today gave me that black screen with the pointer.
I am currently writing the backup image to a new sdcard to test, but if there is another way then please enlighten me.

[amyren]

Restoring the backup image did work, so I got it up and running again.

[notel98]

@broadblues
Should we be removing SD card and backing it up, or is there a default image available in case of an SD or software failure?

Thanks

[amigakit]

I always shut down with the Power Off menu and have never had this problem.  I wonder if it is caused by simply switching off without proper shutdown ?

[TribbleSmasher]

it happens if you e.g. switch display resolution to 4k, which is offered but it ends up in a black screen. so you have to power-cycle it.

[amyren]

In my case it happened even if I did use shutdown from the menu.

[F0LLETT]

it happens if you e.g. switch display resolution to 4k, which is offered but it ends up in a black screen. so you have to power-cycle it.

You should'nt need to switch, it auto selects maximum resolution, unless forced in menu.
Also, never had this issue when switch resolutions on my 4K monitor.

[simokun]

After the failed update I tried "Restart Menu",
from then A600GS did not start properly.

Andy helped me by studying the problem;
somehow the bluetooth did not work and this prevented the start.

now everything is ok, thanks Andy!
I am happy with the support received

[TribbleSmasher]

why would you need BT for a working system?
Sounds ridiculous.

[SkulleateR]

why would you need BT for a working system?
Sounds ridiculous.

Linux could get in a boot loop with hardware not working (but triggered) ... makes sense to me:)

[TribbleSmasher]

One is not supposed to see any Linux, the system should always recover.
I can't open it up and rewrite the SD card every time there is a failure of sorts.

What if i have disabled any BT? ot nothing is found?

[SkulleateR]

One is not supposed to see any Linux, the system should always recover.
I can't open it up and rewrite the SD card every time there is a failure of sorts.

What if i have disabled any BT? ot nothing is found?

Of course this "should" not happen but it "can" ... I had a Linux box which stopped booting while loading the WiFi drivers, if I had no console output (like it is on A600GS) I wouldn´t know what was going on ...

[broadblues]

@TribbleSmasher

why would you need BT for a working system?

Well you don't in theory and we offered the option to disable bluetooth service completely for those that would never need it, to speed up booting etc.

but...

Initially the bluetooth stack was accessed only with external tools an all was fine. Later I added some additional functionality to scan the currently available bluetooth devices dynamically, this required direct calls to the BlueZ bluetooth stack via DBUS using libdbus. Here is where the issue comes because when the BlueZ service was not running (disabled or stopped) libdbus triggered an Abort() rather than returning some kind of service not available  error code. Unfortunately raising a SIGABRT promptly caused our front end to do just that every boot resulting in the black screen issue.

I've worked through and ensured that no dbus calls are made if the bluetooth stack is unavailable and the update will come out very soon. Still needs further testing.

In the meantime, work around is don't disable bluetooth.