Common Cure Suggestion for Frozen Enigma2 User Interface

Unfortunately, none of our E2 linux boxes are 100% stable all the time. For a variety of reasons, they can freeze - which means whichever and however many buttons on the remote you press nothing happens.

As a last resort, I used to reach for the power switch/plug. Unfortunately, what I have learnt is that more often than not that would result in a blue screen or similar upon restarting. Usually, that means the E2 file system got corrupted due to an improper shutdown, which necessitates a hard reset if not reflashing the box with a clean image, both of which in turn can mean losing various recent setup/skin/build etc., unless a recent (preferably full image) backup performed after such changes happens to be available.

As it happens, I believe most freezes occurs in the E2 system rather than the linux kernel. I further believe that corruption of the E2 file system essential for proper reboot usually occurs as a result of pulling the plug/power, rather than as a result of the freeze.

What made me reached the above conclusions, is that nowadays whenever the box freezes I would simply telnet/putty* into the box, and enter reboot at the linux prompt (which performs a tidy, proper shutdown and restart at the box's operating system level irrespective of the E2 application "crash"). I have found that nine times out of ten the system would then reboot successfully, with no loss of anything.

Hope it helps!


* by downloading and running telnet or putty in your pc/iphone which is on the same router as the E2 box, enter the IP address of the box (found by pressing menu/information/network) into the program, and simply enter root as username: and press return at the password: prompt
 
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