Bugzilla – Bug 3958
SB display goes black on setup errors -- Instead, show the error
Last modified: 2009-09-08 09:29:44 UTC
Currently, when the Squeezebox cannot proceed during some setup procedures, the display simply goes black. This is a bit of a support nightmare. Here are the three cases I can think of: 1. Connecting to Squeezenetwork. 2. Connecting to Slimserver 3. Connecting to a WiFi network (I think this was fixed already. Testing it now seems to produce an error instead of a black screen, but I'll leave it in for good measure.) If it cannot connect, the screen goes black. Instead, display the appropriate error for 30-60 seconds. (then go black if you wish)
This works for me. The blanking work as follows: 1) During setup all failure messages will remain displayed 2) Automatically connecting to slimserver at power on, failure messages are displayed for 10 seconds then blank 3) After you have already connected to the slimserver, failure messages are initial blank (so as not to disturb people sleeping) Can you give specific instructions to a case that breaks. Thanks.
This is still the same. Example 1: * Connect a player to Slimserver. * Next connect it SqueezeNetwork. * Next, turn off the Slimserver. * Lastly, sign the player off of SqueezeNetwork. It will attempt to connect the last Slimserver it connected to with the message, "Connecting to Slimserver..." Then, the screen simply goes black. No error message. Example 2: The same would happen if someone had a firewall on their PC. (or just installed one) On attempting to connect to Slimserver, even during the first try, it says "Connecting to Slimserver..." then goes black. The above two examples are the most common calls we get in Support where this is an issue.
I was able to reproduce this using Daniel's instructions on fw81. I'm using a wireless connection to today's 6.5.2 nightly.
This is still evident in FW 81. How to reproduce #1: 1. Connect the player to a wifi router that has no internet access 2. Once at the Specify Music Source page select SqueezeNetwork 3. the player displays, "Connecting to SqueezeNetwork..." and goes blank after about 10 seconds. No error message. How to reproduce #2: 1. Run SqueezeCenter on a Windows XP or Vista OS. 2. Connect a player to this server. 3. Turn on the built-in Firewall and check the "Don't allow exceptions" box 4. the player's display will go blank, but this time it's Normal. I accept that. 5. click LEFT and go through setup again. the server will still be listed on the Select a Music Source page. 6. the player will display "Setup is complete! Go right to use your Squeezebox." Press RIGHT. 7. the player will display "Connecting to SlimServer..." and go blank No error message. These are the types of situations that get us into trouble. In example #1 I'm simulating a healthy local network but accessing SqueezeNetwork is problematic. In example #2 I'm simulating a healthy local network but access to SlimServer is problematic. Specifically we see this when TCP 3483 & 9000 are blocked. (but not UDP) --Proposal--- I propose that until the player successfully connects to a server we considers ourselves in "Setup mode", and while in Setup mode we need error messages. I understand that if we've already connected to a server going blank may be a necessity. It's debatable, but I get that that's the decision. But while trying to Setup the player we need error feedback. The above two examples are the most common customer headaches we get calls about. They are actively standing in front of their player, trying to set it up, and the screen just goes black without warning. This is what I want to avoid.
Seems like a reasonable fix for support.
*** Bug 7564 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I was looking at this last night and had a few more thoughts. While we're in Setup mode, we definitely need an error in the above cases. I also would like to re-evaluate how we handle errors post-Setup. Those cases really break down to: 1. Port 3483 is blocked ... this is fixed by bug 7009 2. Port 3483 TCP is blocked ... open issue 3. Port 9000 TCP is blocked ... open issue 4. Player is unable to talk to SqueezeNetwork ... open issue I'd like to change my proposal slightly: * When we're in Setup, we should display an error in these cases and keep it on the screen. Do not go blank. * When Setup is complete, if any of these ports gets blocked, can we display an error briefly (5s?) and only then go blank? * When Setup is complete, and the display is set to 0 Brightness, if we lose connection, do not display anything. (already fixed in bug 4670, I think.)
This seems like a ton of work for what seems to me quite a simple problem. Should we split off bugs here? The bug I would like to see fixed to fix the CAT issue 0008 is this: Increase the time the error message is shown by 100% (i.e. from 10 seconds to 20 seconds). Done.
(In reply to comment #8) > This seems like a ton of work for what seems to me quite a simple problem. > Should we split off bugs here? > > The bug I would like to see fixed to fix the CAT issue 0008 is this: > > Increase the time the error message is shown by 100% (i.e. from 10 seconds to > 20 seconds). Done. > Also CAT issue PR-0009, as well as many others. The CAT users saw this issue when they attempted to login for the first time, and don't have a local server running.
Chris, current there is NO error message displayed in these cases. It's not a matter of extending the timer.
Firmware rev 4466 changes the behavior like this: - During first time setup (i.e. not yet connected successfully to SC/SN after reset or reboot) leave error messages on the display (i.e. display does _not_ go dark after 10 seconds).
What firmware should we expect this to appear in?
Fixed in SB fw 107, SBR fw 42 and TR fw 56.
Dan: Can you verify that the new firmware are working as you expect them to? Please use the latest 7.2 build to validate against.
(In reply to comment #14) > Dan: Can you verify that the new firmware are working as you expect them to? Comment #2 example 1 still reproducible, no error on screen.
Ross: Please see comment #11. The error message is only shown if the player has not yet successfully connected to either SC or SN after it has been reset (or factory reset) last time. So in comment #2 example 1 firstly the player is connected to SC (and assuming it has been reset beforehand) then if there would be a problem the error message would show. Secondly the player is connected to SN (and assuming it has not been reset in between) then if there would be a problem the error message is _not_ shown. Now thirdly the player is connected back to SC (and assuming it has not been reset in between) then if there is a problem the error message is _not_ shown. The reason for this behavior is that we would like to help and show error messages if the player cannot connect properly in a first time setup (i.e. after a reset), but we do not want it to show error messages if the connection drops and the player tries to reconnect. Unfortunately there is no other indicator in fw that I could use (at least I don't know of any) to distinguish between a user trying to setup the player and a player trying to reconnect. The idea is that if there is a problem connecting, support could ask the user to do a reset and then try to connect and in that situation the error message is visible.
In that case I can verify this bug to be fixed. Dan if this isn't sufficient please speak up, otherwise I'm closing/verifying this bug as it is fixed as Felix describes in comment #16.
Changed the behavior to always show errors for about 30 seconds before going dark. (i.e. not dependent on whether player already has connected to SC / SN or not.) Fixed in rev5007, will be in SB3 fw 117, TR fw 67, SBB fw 37
This bug has been fixed in the 7.3.0 release version of SqueezeCenter! Please download the new version from http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html if you haven't already. If you are still experiencing this problem, feel free to reopen the bug with your new comments and we'll have another look.