Help: Bitten by Samsung bug

[Backporch]

I have two machines with touchdro glass v2 interfaces and two samsung galaxy tab A7s and somewhere along the way picked up the pausing readout bug.

I’ve seen touchdro posts that it’s a Samsung OS bug but can’t find what to do about it. Reading about OS downgrades indicates something between fraught with peril and forget about it.

Though I’m a retired EE and have much hardware and software experience on many platforms, TouchDRO is my first and only exposure to to things Android as in I don’t know ‘nothin….

So some questions:

- what is the nature of the problem?
- is it known to Samsung?
- is it likely to significantly effect any widely distributed apps such that Is it likely to get fixed anytime soon?

And short of trashing the Galaxys what to do?

thanks, Louis

 

[Backporch]

PS: I did see the “V3 freezing” thread (I’m still on v2) with no updates since October. Hoping for some new info…

 

[Oldseabee]

Try a Lenovo m10 or 10.6. No bugs. I went through the same thing Sent Samsung back

 

[Backporch]

For worse or worse I’m stuck with them.

 

[DavieJ75]

Try rooting one of them and removing all the samsung bloatware. I have not had a chance to get my touchdro setup working so not to sure if this will work or not. But the tab I have done this with is a completely different device since rooting it and is working on my bench.

 

[ycroosh]

I have two machines with touchdro glass v2 interfaces and two samsung galaxy tab A7s and somewhere along the way picked up the pausing readout bug.

I’ve seen touchdro posts that it’s a Samsung OS bug but can’t find what to do about it. Reading about OS downgrades indicates something between fraught with peril and forget about it.

Though I’m a retired EE and have much hardware and software experience on many platforms, TouchDRO is my first and only exposure to to things Android as in I don’t know ‘nothin….

So some questions:

- what is the nature of the problem?
- is it known to Samsung?
- is it likely to significantly effect any widely distributed apps such that Is it likely to get fixed anytime soon?

And short of trashing the Galaxys what to do?

thanks, Louis

Louis,
It is a bug in Samsung OS that affects (for the purposes of TouchDRO) the BlueTooth input buffer. I don't have access to their source code (haven't tried really hard to look for it, so it might be available), but the symptom is that with some random interval the OS tries to put the wireless chip into an unsupported state, which causes it to freeze for 150-500 milliseconds. Before every freeze I see the following in the log (this is the OS log, not TouchDRO):

2022-10-30 23:25:21.530 24319-24801/? E/bt_bta_dm: Received unknown power mode status event:5
2022-10-30 23:25:21.531 24319-24801/? I/bt_stack: [INFO:rfc_port_fsm.cc(101)] rfc_port_sm_execute: BD_ADDR=b827eb_6, PORT=29, STATE=4, EVENT=4
2022-10-30 23:25:21.993 404-404/? I/hwservicemanager: getTransport: Cannot find entry vendor.mediatek.hardware.mtkradioex@3.0::IMtkRadioEx/mtkCap1 in either framework or device VINTF manifest.
2022-10-30 23:25:21.995 404-404/? I/hwservicemanager: getTransport: Cannot find entry vendor.mediatek.hardware.mtkradioex@2.0::IMtkRadioEx/mtkCap1 in either framework or device VINTF manifest.
2022-10-30 23:25:22.077 24319-24801/? I/bt_stack: [INFO:rfc_port_fsm.cc(101)] rfc_port_sm_execute: BD_ADDR=b827eb_6, PORT=29, STATE=4, EVENT=4
2022-10-30 23:25:22.078 24319-24801/? I/bt_stack: [INFO:rfc_port_fsm.cc(101)] rfc_port_sm_execute: BD_ADDR=b827eb_6, PORT=29, STATE=4, EVENT=4

This is not a V3 thing, or even a TouchDRO thing. You will see this in app like BlueTerm, etc. The problem appeared after upgrade to Android 12 (I had two devices that were working perfectly fine before Android 12, and did the before and after with a brand new tablet that shipped with Android 11; upgrade to 12 caused the freezes). I have one tablet that just got Android 13, and the issue is still there.

I have not seen this with any non-Samsung devices, or Samsung devices running Android 11 or before. It seems to be a "niche" bug. It affects things that receive data over BT, WiFi (using UDP) or GPS. Given that most things that do this don't care about timing, I suspect Samsung will not prioritize this much (they are pretty bad about bug fixes in general).

As far as OS downgrades, you are stuck. Samsung is pretty militant about forcing OS upgrades, and even if you can find the old OS image, it's a lot of trouble, since there are firmware upgrades that are not backwards compatible.

Regards
Yuriy

 

[ycroosh]

Try rooting one of them and removing all the samsung bloatware. I have not had a chance to get my touchdro setup working so not to sure if this will work or not. But the tab I have done this with is a completely different device since rooting it and is working on my bench.

This won't help. It's a driver problem deep in the bowels of the system.

 

[Capo.]

Hi Folks,

Just signed up to get in on the TouchDRO conversation and this looks like a great place to take the plunge.

In anticipation of a TouchDRO installation I have picked up a Samsung A8 10" tablet and haven't even broken the seal yet so I have the option to return it if this bug is going to be a problem.

So:

1. What is the impact of this bug? Delay of output of position data by whatever the glitch duration is but not losing position? Loss of position?
2. Is this bug an Android bug or just a Samsung bug?

What else do I need to know before deciding whether to return the tablet?

I'm not impressed, I got the tablet on a good pre-Christmas sale....

Thanks,

Capo

 

[pontiac428]

If the OP rooted his tablet and installed a nice, compact version of SlimKat or other universal OS ROM that has universal drivers built in, would that work? I think the A7 can run older versions of android, at least back to Oreo, which may not have the issue either.

Samsung hardware is stellar. Their software, however...

 

[woodchucker]

I almost bought a Samsung A7 for the touch dro, planning on going to Ireland so need a tablet to communicate while traveling. But after reading all the reviews, I find many problems with the Samsung A7.. mostly WIFI losing connection/can't make connection, but also bluetooth dropping connection. Problems where it stops charging. too many issues to even consider it a viable tablet.
Seeing that, my opinion is drop the Samsung.. there's a problem... I'm so glad I investigated before buying.