PowerTools causes crash when Quick Access is launched

[eingram23]

Have been having this issue from ver 4.0 to 6.0 and on SD OS up to the latest (3.2).

Doesn’t happen all the time…typically works fine after a reboot but after using it for a while, eventually trying to access Quick Access results in loss of all controls. Whatever is running (game, etc) continues to run in the background. Only way to recover is to hold down the power button.

Also notice that it sometimes causes a delay in opening the QA menu…and sometimes it will work fine once it’s open…other times it hangs all the same.

Removing PowerTools from plugins fixes the QA crash issue. Am using the latest version of plugin manager.

If there are log files generated anywhere, let me know and I can show them, if that helps. Or if there’s anything I can test on my end.

[eingram23]

Just popped on over to the plugin loader GitHub and looks like there’s some recent (17 hours ago) anecdotal cases of QA hangs using plugins other than PowerTools. So the problem might not be with PowerTools and it’s just the random nature of the issue where I haven’t experienced it with PowerTools removed. I’ll play around with it some more to see if that’s the case and I guess this issue can be for awareness only at this point.

[NGnius]

There's anecdotal evidence of this happening without even PluginLoader installed.
Anyway, if this happens again please send the log file at /tmp/powertools.log. Just be sure to grab it before restarting the device (e.g. thru SSH, SFTP, or SCP)

[notimp]

More anecdotal evidence, that it is PowerTools:
https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/uzgmiv/steamos_locks_up_after_pressing_quick_access/

(The user who opened the issue on reddit reported back, that when powertools is uninstalled, the issue goes away.)

Also, I can report, that I'm still having this issue. This time while playing Retroarch/Flycast games, although only the massively delayed input reacting (and then - eventually - spooling off all the inputs made) part, and no freezes. But with Paper Mario - using these settings: https://i.imgur.com/pSWaEl7.png it will crash on close (game in retroarch) after having played for a few hours. (steam per game profiles active (PowerTools per game profiles NOT active) TDP limit set to 8Watt, overlay Frame limiter to 60 FPS, and scaling set to FSR and sharpness 1 in the overlay rest pretty much default.)

So again, sometimes it recovers, sometimes it doesnt.

Also if it is caching for the first time on ... button press, it might be important, that you play a demanding game for a while without having pressed the ... button after bootup. And then pressing it would cause the delay/freeze.

Dont have ssh enabled, so sadly cant help with logs.

[NGnius]

The OP on that reddit thread also mentioned disabling the plugin manager, so it could be actually this too: SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader#67 (comment)

Unfortunately this makes it hard to distinguish which is the culprit. Here's hoping that the React rewrite of PowerTools and PluginLoader make the issue go away

[notimp]

More people having the issue: https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/vadqpo/menu_hangs_steam_deck/

Still hard to distinguish. Found a new way to trigger it. If you have chrome installed in game mode, launching chrome, opening a bunch of tabs, going fullscreen, loading a few images in tabs, advancing them (so loading new images in existing tabs (gallery using javascript)), eventually also caused the lockup (full lockup) upon pressing ... (hadnt pushed it before that moment, so for reproducing, try to not push the ... button until the system is taxed. :) ).

Settings in the overlay that applied to chrome FSR with sharpening 3, TDP set to 8, 60Hz limit, that should be it... Powertools not loaded (clicked on) at any stage.

[notimp]

New report from someone starting to get those freezes, again anecdotally directly after installing powertools (and PluginLoader):

(From the Emudeck discord.)

Still no diferenciation possible.

Also found a new way to reproduce (not reliably, but... ;) ) Citra, current version playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
european version, decrypted with dlc installed (single 10mb file), and Anime4kfast texture filturing enabled. (Resolution at 2x.)

Steam overlay settings: Half-Rate Shading on, TDP limit at 8 Watt, FSR on with Sharpening 2, 60 fps limiter on, use per game configurations on (in the steam menu, not in power tools), the rest default.

As far as reproducing the crashes goes, this is the least convoluted way I came up with. :) Same pattern. Played it for a while without opening ... menu first, then on opening ... menu > freeze. Havent touched powertools, also powertools is NOT set up to use individual game profiles, also, this was directly after a fresh boot.

But I played for a while, maybe 40 Minutes or so...

But then, as the person which just set up powertools got those crashes as well, within a day (playing switch games) it shouldnt be impossible to reproduce. :)

Also read anecdotal evidence that older versions of Powertools dont cause crashes, but that could have been older versions of the OS as well, didnt test.

[parabolee]

Also having these issues after installing PowerTools. Also only seems to happen for me after I use PowerTool. If I reboot and don't touch it, everything is fine. If it wasn't essential for Switch emulation I would uninstall. Hopefully and update can fix.

Also the per game option doesn't seem to work for me. Not switching between settings, just always at what I set it last.

[Godsbane]

powertools.log
had a QAM lockup, grabbed logs. I still think this is pluginloader, not powertools. QAM lockup was at 21:49

powertools2.log
had another QAM lockup. something like 01:52 in this one.

[outerwinnie]

This isn't happening to me anymore after updating to the latest pre-release of Decky Loader (Plugin Loader) btw.

[NGnius]

Oh great! I've never had this happen to me so I can't confirm either way. But since I seem to be on a roll with closing issues right now, I'm going to close this too since all the reports I've seen say that this is fixed with the React rewrite of decky.

As always, feel free to re-open if it's still happening in v0.7.0

[theCroh]

I have at least similar problems although I'm not sure it's exactly the same. Having PowerTools installed seems to cause crashes not only with the quick access menu but other overflowing Steam elements as well. These crashes seem to happen at least sometimes when a Steam Input radial menu is shown.

Also some Resetera user reported similar problems here .

Can I provide some logs that might help investigate this? I'm on the latest stable SteamOS and have the latest Decky Loader (Prerelease v2.0.5-pre20) with the 0.7.0 PowerTools.

Edit: Reading the above comments more thoroughly, I'm not sure if they have actual crashes or just freezes. In my case, Steam actually restarts from "Verifying installation" so it's not just a freeze.

[NGnius]

Sounds like a different issue, so I've opened that issue for it instead of reopening this one