FF8 crashing PCSX Rearmed Libretro Core on Odroid XU4

Libretro
#1

I originally posted this in the Lakka forum, but after an update, I feel this needs to be posted here so the libretro team can see it.

Specs: Odroid XU4, Lakka and roms on a 128gb micro sd card, wireless Logitech Game Controller, Hdmi out

As the title states, FF8 randomly crashes while playing. The game runs flawlessly up until that point. It has happened four times so far on a run that’s 10 hours in. I’ve had to set the sram write interval to 5 minutes in an attempt to save what data I can if it happens. I can’t tell what triggers it. It can happen when entering a battle, during a battle, exiting a battle, or even in a town.

I’ve tried using both American bios, the scph5501 and scph1001. The problem happens with each. I doubt that the Odroid is overheating since it has a fan and the entire system doesn’t crash, only the core as it sends me back to the Lakka OS. It shouldn’t be the ROM, because the same ROM has played fine on the PC without ever crashing using mednafen. I am not running any unique or particular settings. I’ve checked and double checked to make sure there are no hotkey bindings I’m pressing to exit the core. I’ve disabled all of them. I’ve also reflashed Lakka to no avail. Is there a way to check some kind of logs after a core crashes? Or to check and make sure the bios is taking right?

Any and all advice is much obliged. Thanks in advance.

Update: Tried running FF8 on a different distro with Retropie. Still had the same issue. So it has to be something to do with Retroarch or emulator settings.

Final Update: After picking up an old used Lenovo small form factor business PC, my backup of FFVIII, along with the save for this playthrough, has run flawlessly on the x64 bit PC Retroarch installation for a few months. (hope I’m not jinxing it by posting this update haha). I still don’t know what the issue is with the Odroid XU4, Retroarch, and FFVIII. After trying multiple distros of Retroarch and backups of the game, I still couldn’t escape the random crash. I never did try it on a Raspberry Pi machine. Anyways, I’ve still found a solution, even though it isn’t as portable. Just posting this update for anyone else in the future who might run into the same issue. Cheers. Thank you all for the help!

FF8 randomly crashing PS1 core on Odroid XU4 running Lakka
FF8 randomly crashing PS1 core on Odroid XU4 running Lakka
#2

have you gotten a log of the crash?

#4

How do I go about doing this?

#5

https://docs.libretro.com/guides/generating-retroarch-logs/

paste the resulting log somewhere like pastebin.com and then post a link here.

#6

it could be platform-specific issue, or game compatibility. have you tried continuing the game on the PC version instead and see how long before it crashes (or does it?)

#7

Awesome. Thank you. I’ll get on this ASAP, although it might take some time to reproduce the crash.

#8

It’s possible. It has run for a few hours on the PC version of Mednafen without ever crashing.

#9

i did not say anything about testing it on pc using mednafen…

#10

Sorry for the delay guys. On generating logs, do I have to recreate the crash before I can create the log? Also does the log need to be generated in the same playing session as the crash, or can I generate a log for a previous crash? If the link you linked answers these questions just say so and I’ll dig a little deeper.

#11

The log needs to contain the crash, yes.

#12

So in order to accomplish this, the system needs to be powered on, the crash needs to occur, and then I run the lakka logs after the crash, all while the power remains on? Sorry for the dumb questions. But I don’t want to mess it up, because it unfortunately takes some time for this random crash to occur. I see where running the logs has you stop and restart retroarch, would it lose the info on the crash this way? Again, sorry if that is a dumb question, just double checking before I invest more time in catching lightning haha

#13

Okay, so I believe I caught it. The crash happened when entering a battle while I was running in verbose mode and here is the runcommand.log:

https://pastebin.com/bGeW1023

#14

hmm, unfortunately, I don’t see anything particularly helpful in there, just a notice of segfault.

#15

Darn. What is segfault? Also would it be worth it to try a different backup of FFVIII? Also, did I do the log wrong? Did it show the crash?

#16

Update: I tried a different backup of FFVIII, still had a similar crash happen. :frowning:

#17

use latest retroarch available and pcsx core and upload new log when crash happens. you may need to change Settings > Logging and set Core Logging Level to Debug since some stuff are now hidden in latest version (for whatever reasons)…

#18

Update: After picking up an old used Lenovo small form factor business PC, my backup of FFVIII, along with the save for this playthrough, has run flawlessly on the x64 bit PC Retroarch installation for a few months. (hope I’m not jinxing it by posting this update haha). I still don’t know what the issue is with the Odroid XU4, Retroarch, and FFVIII. After trying multiple distros of Retroarch and backups of the game, I still couldn’t escape the random crash. I never did try it on a Raspberry Pi machine. Anyways, I’ve still found a solution, even though it isn’t as portable. Just posting this update for anyone else in the future who might run into the same issue. Cheers. Thank you all for the help!

#19

its probably on those issues that only happens on dynarec builds…