Crashes (red LED, black screen, reboot) with running Xposed

[jelbo]

Yesterday I couldn't hold it any longer and unlocked my bootloader. Then, I rooted, flashed Xposed and run some root apps.

Every now and then, my Z4T freezes and fully reboots (Sony Xperia logo). In between, the screen turns blank and the LED flashes red 4 times. Does this have any special meaning on Xperia devices? Overheating? Or just a generic crash?

/edit: I have the feeling it is a System UI crash in my case, which then causes a total system reboot. I think so because when I try to do a Soft Reboot, which is a System UI reinitialization (or a zygote reinit?), it will also fully reboot. Tried that with the Xposed Installer and (Material) Power Menu.

/edit2: It's probably not a System UI crash, but if it is, it's definitely Xposed related. Also, soft rebooting is broken on the Z4 Tablet, it'll result in a crash and a full reboot. Right now, there is a scenario in which Xposed causes either random reboots or reboots right after booting into Android after the 'optimizing apps' stage (after wiping Cacvhe/Dalvik after flashing Xposed). Uninstalling Xposed fixes these issues. Research is ongoing, if you have any experiences yourself, please share your findings.

 

[D_STROY]

Hi,

I don't have the answer to this unfortunately, but I have had exactly the same issue with the blinking red light and it happened after I installed Xposed too, a few funny things have happened since I rooted and flashed Xposed....

I also get the red light if I use soft reboot but its fine with a proper full reboot. I would be interested too if anyone knows the answer to this.

 

[jelbo]

Hi,

I don't have the answer to this unfortunately, but I have had exactly the same issue with the blinking red light and it happened after I installed Xposed too, a few funny things have happened since I rooted and flashed Xposed....

Is this with just Xposed and no active modules or apps that use root? Have you applied the Camera crash fix mentioned in the Xperia z4 tablet[root] and xposed thread?

I also get the red light if I use soft reboot but its fine with a proper full reboot. I would be interested too if anyone knows the answer to this.

Same here. So it looks like soft rebooting is definitely broken on the Z4T, so I think it could be the ROM or kernel. What are you running? I'm on latest stock ROM (CDA 1295-4711, Germany, Customized DE, 28.0.A.8.260 / R6A) and kernel is AndroPlus v10. Xposed is v79, SDK21, ARM64 (xposed-v79-sdk21-arm64.zip).

Right now my suspicion is on the app GMD Auto Hide Soft Keys root that casues a System UI crash...

 

[Mr. Schnabel]

Hey!

Had same issue, started about 3 weeks after unlocking, rooting and xposed out of nowhere ... reflashed Stock, rooted again and problem solved!
No more reboots even i set up my system ecxactly like before ...

Don´t know what was really causing the issue but reflashing helped me

Cheers

 

[jelbo]

Hey!

Had same issue, started about 3 weeks after unlocking, rooting and xposed out of nowhere ... reflashed Stock, rooted again and problem solved!
No more reboots even i set up my system ecxactly like before ...

Don´t know what was really causing the issue but reflashing helped me

Cheers

Thanks for the feedback. This seems like a common fix so I'll try that (after I have completed my Titanium backups). I should use Flashtool, right?

 

[scoobydu]

Yesterday I couldn't hold it any longer and unlocked my bootloader.

Now why did you have to go and do that jelbo that just means less people to try the root method when marshmellow is released!

Oh well...

 

[Mr. Schnabel]

Thanks for the feedback. This seems like a common fix so I'll try that (after I have completed my Titanium backups). I should use Flashtool, right?

Yes, restored via Flashtool did the trick!
Downloaded the FW directly there and flashed it then rooted again with AndroPlus Kernel ....

Reboots startet after updating from V7 to V8 if i remember correctly ... when rooting then again i needet to start with V5 and updated then to V10 ... every higher Version than V5 gave me an error in ADB ....

 

[jelbo]

Yes, restored via Flashtool did the trick!
Downloaded the FW directly there and flashed it then rooted again with AndroPlus Kernel ....

Reboots startet after updating from V7 to V8 if i remember correctly ... when rooting then again i needet to start with V5 and updated then to V10 ... every higher Version than V5 gave me an error in ADB ....

That could have worked back then maybe, but the .260 firmware apparently needs v10. I just flashed v5 and my tablet didn't boot anymore. That got fixed though, phew.

I re-flashed .260 with Flashtool, reflashed the kernel, SuperSU and Xposed. I somehow had my apps still there, so I hope that's OK for this fix.

Let's see if it's stable now...

Now why did you have to go and do that jelbo that just means less people to try the root method when marshmellow is released!

Oh well...

Haha, yeah... the software keys were making me mad. I could hide them with GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode, but when immersed, you can't type

/edit2: Oh noo.... first thing that happened when Android finished booting: the crash I described.

 

[Mr. Schnabel]

Sorry wasn't really clear i only flashed V5 to get into TWRP and then flashed V10 on latest FW. English is not my first Language but everything ok from what i read now?

 

[jelbo]

Sorry wasn't really clear i only flashed V5 to get into TWRP and then flashed V10 on latest FW. English is not my first Language but everything ok from what i read now?

I was just a bit too hasty, no worries. English isn't my first language either.

Everything ok so far now, yeah. I re-flashed with wiping everything and this time just rooted, no Xposed. So far, so good.

 

[D_STROY]

Is this with just Xposed and no active modules or apps that use root? Have you applied the Camera crash fix mentioned in the Xperia z4 tablet[root] and xposed thread?


Same here. So it looks like soft rebooting is definitely broken on the Z4T, so I think it could be the ROM or kernel. What are you running? I'm on latest stock ROM (.260) and kernel is AndroPlus v10. Xposed is v79, SDK21, ARM64.

Right now my suspicion is on the app GMD Auto Hide Soft Keys root that casues a System UI crash...

Hi Jelbo
Sorry I haven't replied sooner, haven't been on XDA for a few days! I wasn't aware of the camera fix, i'll check that out, thankyou. Aside from the camera not working, Audio settings and MusicFX have gone right up the wall, I had to freeze them because of all the FC messages popping up.....was driving me crazy in the end!

Yes I am also running the same ROM, Kernel and Xposed version that you have, and I also think that something with Xposed and the soft rebooting causes a System UI crash too, I don't know why I didn't mention it in my first reply to you as that was one of my suspicions, a soft reboot is a an unclean shutdown (I think?...) and the Z4 doesn't seem to like it!

I had some problems with Xposed modules too, I haven't got the GMD one installed but Gravitybox was the first one I installed straight away, I was really missing it without having root and aswell as numerous other modules I have installed I had the newest version of xStana running and everytime I went into the Recent apps either via softkey or BKB50 , I was getting a full system UI crash so I disabled gravitybox as I have navbar tweaks enabled....rebooted and still same issue, disabled xStana and all was fine again. So to my relief it wasn't Gravitybox and to fix the problem I installed the oldest version of Xstana and it has been working fine.

Also.....do you have or want viper4android FX installed? I just thought I'd ask because I cannot get it to work either Apk or ZiP install. I flashed the ZiP after no success with Apk and I was convinced I had bricked my beloved tablet after that, I couldn't get it to boot then it turned to bootloop and after nearly 2 days of trying alI I could think of I managed to rescue it by removing the ZiP via TWRP......I dont know if its SONY or Lollipop that causes problems but I have had things that won't play nicely it seems.....

EDIT: Sorry I just realised you asked if I had a problem with Xposed itself or wether it was with modules/apps that were active that were causing problems, I'm afraid I don't have the answer as I have had active modules as soon as I rooted and flashed Xposed.
My guess is that it is Xposed framework that is causing issues, I don't know if you have this too....but the system logs on my device have wall after wall of error code displayed in red and they nearly all mention Xposed, honestly I have never seen such a vast list that repeats over and again of errors, it made me think about uninstalling Xposed but I just can't live without it!!!

 

[jelbo]

Hey!

Had same issue, started about 3 weeks after unlocking, rooting and xposed out of nowhere ... reflashed Stock, rooted again and problem solved!
No more reboots even i set up my system ecxactly like before ...

Don´t know what was really causing the issue but reflashing helped me

Cheers

But are you running Xposed again or not?

Hi Jelbo
Yes I am also running the same ROM, Kernel and Xposed version that you have, and I also think that something with Xposed and the soft rebooting causes a System UI crash too, I don't know why I didn't mention it in my first reply to you as that was one of my suspicions, a soft reboot is a an unclean shutdown (I think?...) and the Z4 doesn't seem to like it!

I don't think it's an 'unclean shutdown', as it reboots. I think a SystemUI crash has more or less the same effect as a soft (or hot) reboot. These should immediately show the boot animation, but on the Z4T they cause a full (or cold) reboot, beginning at the splash screens, showing the Sony and Android logo's.

Also.....do you have or want viper4android FX installed? I just thought I'd ask because I cannot get it to work either Apk or ZiP install. I flashed the ZiP after no success with Apk and I was convinced I had bricked my beloved tablet after that, I couldn't get it to boot then it turned to bootloop and after nearly 2 days of trying alI I could think of I managed to rescue it by removing the ZiP via TWRP......I dont know if its SONY or Lollipop that causes problems but I have had things that won't play nicely it seems.....

No, I don't use or intend to use that.

EDIT: Sorry I just realised you asked if I had a problem with Xposed itself or wether it was with modules/apps that were active that were causing problems, I'm afraid I don't have the answer as I have had active modules as soon as I rooted and flashed Xposed.
My guess is that it is Xposed framework that is causing issues, I don't know if you have this too....but the system logs on my device have wall after wall of error code displayed in red and they nearly all mention Xposed, honestly I have never seen such a vast list that repeats over and again of errors, it made me think about uninstalling Xposed but I just can't live without it!!!

I haven't installed Xposed yet on my fresh install. It's been running great so far with all kinds of root apps and tweaks. When I had the reboot problems I also had it with no Xposed modules active.

I'm very hesistant now to install Xposed, because of stories that the uninstall.zip didn't fix problems and that's the only rollback option since TWRP restore is broken.

 

[Mr. Schnabel]

But are you running Xposed again or not?

Yes, like said running same setup as before the re-boots occurred. Root/Xposed/Same modules/ same apps, etc.

System was running w/o problems for about 3 weeks and out of nowhere came those re-boots. Didn´t update any app/module/etc. in this time only thing was the BK50 but i had it for about 10 days before it started acting weird so don´t know what was really causing the problems ....
Sometimes after seconds, sometimes after minutes, sometimes after hours ... out of nowhere black screen/Red light and reboot ...

 

[jelbo]

Yes, like said running same setup as before the re-boots occurred. Root/Xposed/Same modules/ same apps, etc.

System was running w/o problems for about 3 weeks and out of nowhere came those re-boots. Didn´t update any app/module/etc. in this time only thing was the BK50 but i had it for about 10 days before it started acting weird so don´t know what was really causing the problems ....
Sometimes after seconds, sometimes after minutes, sometimes after hours ... out of nowhere black screen/Red light and reboot ...

I just flashed xposed-v79-sdk21-arm64.zip, after I was running great for a few days, rooted. Guess what? After the boot and when all the apps were 'optimized': black screen, red LED and a reboot. So, this issue is definitely caused by Xposed.. What I still don't understand is why it's working for @Mr. Schnabel. Guess something is different and the cause of my issue.

I just flashed xposed-uninstaller-20150831-arm64.zip, hopefully things will be stable again.

Anyone else running Xposed, but without issues?

/edit: seems like we're not alone in this. I'm currently searching older Xposed framework .zip's, these are somehow hard to find as the old versions are replaced with the new in the Xposed thread :S I want to try xposed-v78-sdk21-arm64.zip.

/edit2: Just tried it with xposed-v78-sdk21-arm64.zip (found on a flaky Chinese Baidu mirror) and this also resulted in a crash, very quickly after booting. I'll have to delve into how to get some logging on this so people can look into this.

/edit3: @dl12345 once compiled an unofficial v74 build that worked great on a Z3+, but a Sony ROM update killed compatibility. At least on the Z3+, according to @DHGE, who ran the unofficial v74 on his Z4 Tablet. I just read now last week he was running v78 on his Z4 Tablet, so I guess he is also running it without the rebooting issue on the latest .260 firmware...

 

[DHGE]

@jelbo

typing this on my tablet:
all fine here with xposed v78, now on v79 - no random reboots

only Sony camera app is crashing, deodexing according to AndroPlus did not help. That could be a tablet issue.

 

[jelbo]

@jelbo

typing this on my tablet:
all fine here with xposed v78, now on v79 - no random reboots

only Sony camera app is crashing, deodexing according to AndroPlus did not help. That could be a tablet issue.

All right. Just to be clear, this is with:

• firmware 28.0.A.8.260 (mine is CDA 1295-4711, Germany, Customized DE, R6A)
• AndroPlus Kernel v10
• AndroPlus' TWRP 2.8.7.0
• xposed-v79-sdk21-arm64.zip

No other, special things like disabling SELinux?

I really wonder what causes the difference here. I completely re-flashed the stock firmware a few days ago, including the kernel, recovery and Xposed. First thing that happened was the crash. So it couldn't have been any other 3rd party apps or Android settings.

I then redid everything, but did not install Xposed and things run fine. As soon as I flash Xposed (have tried v78 and v79) I get the crash. I do wipe cache and Dalvik cache after I have flashed Xposed. When I uninstall Xposed, the problem is gone.

I did not do the deodex trick for the camera app this time, but that would not bother me anyway, I don't use the camera.

Do you have any idea? Life without Xposed is hard.

 

[jelbo]

Here are some logs, one from a normal boot without Xposed, two with Xposed v79 flashed; an initial boot and a second boot, both of where the device crashed and rebooted.

I also filed a report on rovo89's Xposed GitHub.

From similar Sony Xposed issues I have the feeling that some of my odex files are corrupted (which ship on several Sony ROMs) and that people who are running Xposed on a Z4T just fine are running a slightly different build than me (e.g. a non German one), in which these files are OK.

 

[DHGE]

All right. Just to be clear, this is with:

• firmware 28.0.A.8.260 (mine is CDA 1295-4711, Germany, Customized DE, R6A)
• AndroPlus Kernel v10
• AndroPlus' TWRP 2.8.7.0
• xposed-v79-sdk21-arm64.zip

No other, special things like disabling SELinux?

Do you have any idea? Life without Xposed is hard.

I do not know the exact numbers of the german ROM but since I got it via XperiFirm we should have the same version.
SELinux is enforcing.

I have deactivated lots of bloatware like VideoEditor, Google apps, myxperia...
I have disabled all autostarts of apps via Xprivacy (or Titanium Backup?) that I deemed unnecessary/nosy.

 

[jelbo]

I do not know the exact numbers of the german ROM but since I got it via XperiFirm we should have the same version.
SELinux is enforcing.

I have deactivated lots of bloatware like VideoEditor, Google apps, myxperia...
I have disabled all autostarts of apps via Xprivacy (or Titanium Backup?) that I deemed unnecessary/nosy.

Thanks. More or less the same here. I disabled or froze a lot of system apps using Titanium Backup and My Android Tools Pro, based on this Xperia LP 5.x debloat script. I did miss a few, because they were not listed and I don't know what they do, so maybe one of those that is still running is the culprit here. Rather difficult to compare between you and me.

Here's the Xperifirm list as of now, by the way. Maybe I'll try the US variant.

 

[killdozer56]

Thanks. More or less the same here. I disabled or froze a lot of system apps using Titanium Backup and My Android Tools Pro, based on this Xperia LP 5.x debloat script. I did miss a few, because they were not listed and I don't know what they do, so maybe one of those that is still running is the culprit here. Rather difficult to compare between you and me.

Here's the Xperifirm list as of now, by the way. Maybe I'll try the US variant.

Hi,
I just can confirm that soft reboot doesn't work. (Without Xposed installed)
Sony Xperia Z4 SGP771
Androplus Kernel V10
Twrp 2.8.7.0
SuperSu 2.46
28.0.A.8.260/R10A Customized FR

I tried xposed-v79-sdk21-arm64.zip (three modules loaded: greenify,3c toolbox pro,Ownorientation) two weeks ago and my only problem (I think) was the Sony camera app stop working, so reflash stock rom, androplus,twrp,SuperSu and restore UserData via twrp did the job.
I try to install xposed and the deodexed trick for the sony camera app next weekend if i'm not busy.