Memory/resource leak in Android 10

[John F. Eldredge]

When I first moved into my apartment, I was relying on an open WiFi hotspot elsewhere in the building. The signal was weak after passing through the concrete floor, and it was common to lose my connection for a few seconds. I was also having to reboot my phone, a Motorola One Action running Android 10, several times per day because it would stop being able to connect to the WiFi.

Now that I am using a router in my apartment, I am only having to restart my phone every couple of days. Apparently there is a memory leak or resource leak every time the WiFi connection is lost and has to be reestablished.

[Csaba Toth]

Interesting! Is this a suspicion, or do you have any references to the said memory leak?

The only thing I noticed in my case is that sometimes my phone doesn't pick up mobile data reception or LTE towers. I suspect that it has to do with my phone provider which is Google Fi, and it uses T-Mobile as an MVNO. I usually put the phone into airplane mode, wait a few seconds and then take it out of airplane mode. That shuts down mobile data, wifi, bluetooth and turns them back on. I assume it also unloads and reloads kernel modules and thus resets subsystems. I'd try that in your case as well, because it might be enough to release resources kept in memory by some part of the wifi subsystem.

I must add that my phone is a OnePlus 6, which is partially supported by Google Fi and is not able to use Sprint or US Cellular or other CDMA MVNOs of Google Fi. I got a Pixel 3 for my wife and it's much smoother sailing with that: sometimes I check and where I have LTE blackouts she usually has LTE probably through those CDMA providers' towers (I know LTE is not CDMA, but those towers are separate).

Bonus question: is your phone updated to latest? Who is your provider? Motorola in my mind is still less bloatware than Samsung or certain other phones...

What router do you use in your apartment? Free wifi is sweet, in your case I'd possibly try to set up a pair of wifi APs: one to pick up a steady signal (with some boosted antennas) from the free AP and other to provide the wifi for you. Maybe it's doable even with one AP if you can separate the radios and you use OpenWRT or some capable ROMs.

Cheers!

On Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 5:09 AM John F. Eldredge <jo...@jfeldredge.com> wrote:

When I first moved into my apartment, I was relying on an open WiFi hotspot elsewhere in the building. The signal was weak after passing through the concrete floor, and it was common to lose my connection for a few seconds. I was also having to reboot my phone, a Motorola One Action running Android 10, several times per day because it would stop being able to connect to the WiFi.

Now that I am using a router in my apartment, I am only having to restart my phone every couple of days. Apparently there is a memory leak or resource leak every time the WiFi connection is lost and has to be reestablished.

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group.
To post to this group, send email to nlug...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nlug-talk+...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nlug-talk+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAJfAAYK-rFLOY8a6ez7CbVgEFEouKBHJAedRL14kGR%3D9-3i5FA%40mail.gmail.com.

[John F. Eldredge]

No references, but the fact that the need to reboot went down sharply once I was using a stronger connection makes me suspect the bug is in the WiFi code. Cycling airplane mode on and off sometimes cleared the problem, but not always. My phone is a Motorola One Action, connecting to Verizon, and running the latest Android firmware (the most recent security update was a few days ago. If the bug is in the device driver, it might be Motorola-specific. If the bug is in the kernel, it may be more widespread.

I am now connecting to a Comcast router. I don't know what hardware the free WiFi is using, but it is one floor down in a high-rise, likely meaning reinforced concrete floors.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CA%2BKhHx%2B-0Y6YE6Vs81jEZjeYKe%2B5_ZP9FfbiBAtru9ZC4DBzFw%40mail.gmail.com.