BUG: Android 7.0 - HueyModule random crashes

[Jecht_Sin]

Around once per day (taken or given) I get a pop up window telling that the HueyModule crashed. I had the exact same issue in Android 6.0.1, but it seemed to be fixed in the last 6.0.1 version (it never crashed once).

It happens completely randomly. Sometime playing the PS4, others watching a movie in Amazon or TIM Vision. If it matters I have enabled the DLNA server in Plex and I do have the Plex client  installed. Sometime I watch HDR videos stored in Plex with the Sony's Video app via DLNA.

Just to be precise this is the guy I am talking about:

I mean, to be honest i do get all kind of Force Close in Android 7.0 (and yes, I did a restore to factory settings after upgrading. I had to!), but many ask to wait (like settings). This one just crashes and with a much higher frequency.

[Peter_S.]

Hi Jecht_Sin,

Had the same issue on my XD80 in the beginning after upgrading to Nougat.

Factory reset didn't work but a simple restart did.

Having no pop-ups or crashing apps anymore - give it a try.

Cheers

Peter

[Jecht_Sin]

Sorry, what do you mean with restart? Restart/reboot the television? Because I did plenty. Even taking the power off a couple of times because it seemed the only way to fix some issue (I don't remember which ones, though).  Oh no, it came to my mind!! Putting some HDR demo in my USB pendrive, surfing the video with X-plore and the thumbnails in X-plore active, the television simply was sitting down. A restart didn't fix it, I really had to unplug the power cord. Disabling the thumbnails it worked fine again. Also the preview in Sony's Video were getting stuck. All kind of issues, but this would be for another thread, in case (I wouldn't know where to start from, though).

Anyway, some time after a restart the HueyModul crashes again. Not sure if today it happened after or before a restart.

Oh, to be clear. I didn't mess up with strange settings in the tv in a long time. I am just reporting issues happening with regular usage.

[Peter_S.]

Hi Jecht_Sin,

Yes, that was what I've meant

Since updating my XD80 - which is similar to yours - to Nougat I did not face any issue in regular use (except straight after updating). TV is super stable and nothing crashed since updating.

Do you probably use some sideloaded apps on your TV?

If not I would recommend to get in touch with our service.

Cheers
Peter

[Jecht_Sin]

Nope. Not that stable. Once in a while there is a process dying here and there. Actually HueyModule crashed again today, after I did various restarts. Maybe because I tried to play a video via DLNA earlier using X-plore and HueyModule (whatever it is) became active.

[Jecht_Sin]

And it keeps happening... At least is there a way to have those popup windows not showing?? It gets very tedious when playing games with the PS4. Especially with a game like Dark Souls 3!

[Jecht_Sin]

It happened even just few hours after a reset to factory settings. And it keeps happening. Also when playing the PS4, which is the most annoying.

[Jecht_Sin]

After a further investigation I discovered that HueyModule gets started by Sony's Video (stock) app and it is completely useless (for the user). I seems to be some DRM related junk, as if more faulty blotware is going to stop people from watching pirated movies..

So I made a Unix shell script that every few seconds it stops HueyModule if active. Unless Video is the foreground app, in that case I avoid stopping it because if surfing the DLNA libraries with Video on fron, Video crashes.

Actually this is the code if anyone is intererest (I have been put it in: /data/local/tmp/huey_kill):

#!/system/bin/sh
# busybox binary must be installed in /data/local/tmp
# All its applets must be linked running:
#
# /data/local/tmp/busybox --install -s busybox
#
# busbox applets must be the first in the $PATH
PATH=/data/local/tmp:$PATH
# This process must be unique
kill -9 $(ps | grep "/system/bin/sh $0" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}' | grep -v $$)                        
while [ 1 ]; do
# Neither Sony's Video app nor X-Plore must be the current active app
        dumpsys window windows | grep -E '(mCurrentFocus.*(com.sony.dtv.osat.video|com.lonelycatgames.Xplore))'
        if [ $? -eq 1 ] && [ "$(pgrep com.sony.huey.dlna.module)" != "" ]; then
                am force-stop com.sony.huey.dlna.module
        fi
       sleep 3
done

The busybox binary mus be installed in "/data/local/tmp" and all applets must be linked there. To run the script one can do it directly via adb shell after each TV restart:

adb shell '(cd /data/local/tmp; /data/local/tmp/nohup /system/bin/sh /data/local/tmp/huey_kill )'

Then interrupting it with CTRL-C. I didn't manage to make it running in background otherwise.

Obviously this is very far from ideal, but it works and no, it doesn't create any issue. Also it shows how Sony could simple remove it instead of finding a fix for it often crashing.

PS: Sorry for the very technical post, but since Sony seems to be deaf on this kind of issues this is what I need to resort to.

[Anonymous]

Dump question - isnt having a script constantly running in a background process to kill another process increase the CPU load?

[Jecht_Sin]

---

Quinnicus wrote:

Dump question - isnt having a script constantly running in a background process to kill another process increase the CPU load?

---

Nah.. Even if it was running every second it does just a loop when HueyModule isn't active (which is most of the time). Yes, it still has to be interpreted by the shell, but my guess is that it doesn't take more than few thousand CPU cycles per loop. Probably much less. I believe it spends much more CPU time when actually stopping HueyModule (which is done using "am" - Android Activity Manager - and that seems a bit heavy. Well, slow for sure). 

Anyway, just to be sure I monitored the CPU usage and it was ininfluent in real time. While this is the total CPU usage after 15 hours or so running:

BRAVIA_ATV2:/ $ ps | grep huey_kill | grep -v grep
11444 shell      0:15 /system/bin/sh /data/local/tmp/huey_kill

Which means 15 seconds out of 15+ hours. Including stand-by time, I suppose (I'm not sure what happens to the scripts when the CPU goes in deep sleep). About 0.03% of the CPU. Basically nothing.