nRF connect for desktop BLE & DTM apps opens with a blank window

[eyalasko]

Hi,

Like many posts before I'm facing blank white screen when trying to run nRFCOnnect for desktop (3.4.1) BLE app (2.4.0)

Tried to:

• Restart PC
• Uninstall-reinstall 3.4.1
• Uninstall-reinstall 3.4.0
• Uninstall-install latest nrf command line tools-reinstall (link)
• Use nRF52840 (PCA10056) dongle
• Use nRF52832 (PCA10031) dongle
• Use another fresh nRF52840 dongle

all to no avail....

Same blank screen occurs on all other NRFConnect's apps: DTM, RSSI viewer, Programmer but NOT with the toolchain manager... implying it stems from (probably) the same root cause (jlink driver? graphic library?)

Any advise ?

[scottesimon]

I am having the exact same issue, however, I had been using the BLE app for 3 weeks and have changed nothing. Now, all of a sudden today, I have the blank with screen. I have no other apps running. I.E. nothing claiming the COM ports. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, reboot, etc. 

Are there any other ideas?

I have:

BLE tool v4.0.4

nRF Connect for Desktop v4.1.2

thanks

[Jakob]

I am running Ubuntu 22.04 and use nRF Connect for Desktop v4.1.2

My BLE tool v4.0.4 window blanks only after selecting the adapter/USB device (both nRF52840 DK and nRF52 DK, adapter programming / image download through JLink still works). It is similar to the problem described here

Other nRF Connect applications (e.g. RSSI viewer) work fine.

Reinstalling nrf command line tools as suggested and even downgrading JLink do not help in my case. 

I double checked my udev rules and read/write permission to serial ports, ttyACM / CDC)

It had been working until yesterday, I never had the "blank window" issue before. Ctrl-R does not help, it will just repeat the crash. From my /var/log/syslog:

systemd[1]: tmp-.mount_nrfconf256ro.mount: Deactivated successfully.

...
kernel: [ 78.648080] nrfconnect-blue[1821]: segfault at 0 ip 00007fca09eb542b sp 00007fca05dfcba8 error 4 in libstdc++.so.6.0.30[7fca09e7d000+111000]
kernel: [ 78.648121] Code: 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 31 d2 e9 14 ff ff ff 90 49 89 f0 48 8b 0f 48 8b 77 08 48 89 fa b8 fe ff ff ff 48 29 ce 0f 84 8a 00 00 00 <0f> b6 01 83 f8 7f 0f 86 89 00 00 00 3d c1 00 00 00 76 72 3d df 00

[scottesimon]

Hi X2023. I just updated to the latest libstdc++6 version and the problem persists.

I am going to try to go back a version.

[ctd]

I'm on Kubuntu 22.04 and same is happening to me after an update. nRF connect for desktop and the ble standalone are fully up to date but after selecting a device in ble standalone the window goes blank white and ctrl+r just causes it to close.

[Jakob]

I was able to reproduce the issue on a second system. It worked until i performed an apt upgrade. So it must be related to any of the packages listed below

I downgraded  libstdc++6  to an older version and my application works again

[MCA]

If not too complicated, can you share how you downgraded libstdc++6 ?
I have the same blank screen since today (was working perfectly yesterday), I'd like to confirm that this is the same issue.
Thanks !

[runsiv]

I don't have a linux computer today, but it used to be something similar to this

sudo apt install pkg_name=version

You may want to uninstall the current version you have installed

sudo apt remove pkg_name

Regards

Runar

[Jakob]

I was not able to do it that way, since the earlier version libstdc++6=12.1.0-1ubuntu1~22.04 seems not to be available any more on the update server (but only 12.3.0, with which the conflict seems to occur). I still got an earlier version for my distro and architecture. I placed the file in  /usr/lib  and re-linked  libstdc++.so.6  to that file.

That was my quick workaround - mainly to prove that my problem has to do with libstdc++6 12.3.0. It is certainly not recommended, also for security reasons!

[scottesimon]

Hi Jakob, can you elaborate on how you got the older libstdc++6 from http://archive.ubuntu.com/.

Allso how you re-linked it ?

[Jakob]

Hi scottesimon,

[assuming you are on Ubuntu 22.04 64bit] download libstdc++6_12-20220319-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb and extract libstdc++.so.6.0.30

rename the file and (sudo-)copy it to the location of your cuerent libstdc++.so.6.0.30, probably /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

rewrite the link from libstdc++.so.6 to your renamed file, e.g. sudo ln -fs <your_renamed_file> ./libstdc++.so.6

check if your nRF Connect for Desktop App is working (and revert the link change afterwards).

Regards,

 

[scottesimon]

Thank you so much Jakob. With your help, I was able to get it working again !!

[MCA]

Thank you Jakob !

A safer way (but still not 100% safe) would be to

- extract the lib in a folder of your choice (do not overwrite your system one).
- in a shell, lauch the app using LD_LIBRARY_PATH : LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<your_extract_path> ~/opt/nrfconnect-bluetooth-low-energy/nrfconnect-bluetooth-low-energy-4.0.4-x86_64.AppImage

It seems to do the trick here.