Control Pad Buttons stopped working BETA 2.3.0

[ukjohnd]

Kore 2.3.0 on Nexus 5x Android 8.0
Kodi 17.3 (LibreELEC)

Remote Up-Down-Left-Right- Centre Select buttons in App stopped working
All other buttons work ok.

[SyncedSynapse]

Thanks for the report. Could you please check if enabling/disabling the option "Use EventServer" on the media center configuration (in Kore) makes any difference regarding making the buttons work.

Also, are you able to sideload a previous version of Kore, so we can have a clearer idea on what might be causing that. Specifically, i'm interested in knowing if the nightly version from 14-08-2017 has the same issue. You can get it here:
http://mirrors.kodi.tv/tools/kore/nightlies/

(the second one).

[Kjartansson]

The one from 14.08.2017 is working

[poisdeux]

I'm unable to reproduce this issue. @SyncedSynapse are you able to reproduce this?

@Kjartansson what kind of device and which version of Android and Kodi are you using?

[Kjartansson]

I am using Android asop version 7.1.2 on Huawei p9 Lite

[poisdeux]

@Kjartansson just to be sure, you have the same issue with 2.3.0 as @ukjohnd does

[Kjartansson]

Jep same problem

[poisdeux]

@SyncedSynapse I think we should revert 3106a5f to see if that resolves the issue.

[MartijnKaijser]

@poisdeux you can always make a test branch and get jenkins to build it for users to test if it solves it

[SyncedSynapse]

@poisdeux I'm also unable to reproduce this (Nexus 5x on Android 7), but there are several reports on the Google Play beta feedback, so it's a somewhat widespread issue.

I'll try to take a closer look at that PR today but i agree that a revert will probably need to be done for now.

[poisdeux]

Only thing I can think of would be a layout issue where the buttons bounding boxes are smaller (zero ?) than the actual images or placed at a different position on the screen.

@ukjohnd and @Kjartansson are you familiar with the android developer options? If you are, could you enable "Show Layout Bounds" under "Drawing" and create a screenshot of the control pad and post it here in a comment.

As an example and reference I've added a screenshot on my Nexus 5:

[poisdeux]

Oh btw to create a screenshot you need to hold the downbutton and powerbutton simultaneously for a few seconds. Then you should be able to sent the screenshot using the share option.

[ukjohnd]

Afraid did following before seeing request for Debug screen grabs.

Tried enabling "Event Server in the app for 2.3.0 and no change those buttons still provide no effect.

Uninstalled 2.3.0 and installed Nightly 14-08-2017 works fine with both "Event Server" enabled/disabled.

Uninstalled Nightly 14-08-2017 and reinstalled 2.3.0 and now 2.3.0 works fine on with both"Event Server" enabled/disabled.

Tried upgrading again from 2.2.0 to 2.3.0 on Oreo using .apk's on mirror and problem didn't re-occur so unable to replicate again.

[poisdeux]

Nooooo, a heisenbug. I'll see if I can reproduce the issue with a fresh virtual machine.

Update: unfortunately no luck in reproducing this yet.

Based on @ukjohnd findings my hypothesis is now that the gridlayout-v7 support library, which we added in this release, is not correctly installed on some devices. This means that the new SquareGridLayout will extend the standard GridLayout instead of the support lib's version.
I simulated this by just have SquareGridLayout extend the standard GridLayout. This results in a control pad that doesn't work but also doesn't show the control pad buttons.
@ukjohnd and @Kjartansson Is this similar to the problem you encountered?

[poisdeux]

I went ahead and redesigned the control pad implementation. See #445. It now doesn't depend on the GridLayout from the support library. The implementation doesn't allow for a lot of control on how the control pad should be laid out (e.g. no gravity), but it's enough for our usage.

@MartijnKaijser my access rights don't allow me to create a nightly build. Can you or @SyncedSynapse create one?
@ukjohnd and @Kjartansson could you test the nightly build when it is available?

[SyncedSynapse]

@poisdeux I've merged your changes, and built a new version, that should be available in:
http://mirrors.kodi.tv/tools/kore/test-builds/

soon (the last file, with today's date).

Given the nature of the bug, even if this one works for @ukjohnd and/or @Kjartansson i'ts not guaranteed to work for everyone. Guess we should launch it to beta to check it out and warn users (at least those that reported the issue on Google Play - i can do that)

[ukjohnd]

Tested kore-20170908-876db18-master.apk on 2 devices.
Nexus 5x - Android 8.0 - Works Good
Nexus 7(2013) - Android 7.1.2 - Works Good.

[poisdeux]

Definitely release it as a new Beta as well. I assume the beta testers want a working control pad ASAP.

[SyncedSynapse]

I'm going to close this for now and publish a new Beta.

@ukjohnd @Kjartansson If the issue reappear, please report it again.