Troubleshooting

1. Run MPF without text ui

The text ui which is shown by default may hide some errors and make troubleshooting more difficult. To disable text ui run mpf using:

$ mpf game -t

You can also add some more logging output:

$ mpf game -t -v -V

Scroll up in the console (or check the log file in the logs folder) to find the error which was emitted.

2. Run diagnosis

If your game won’t run and you don’t get an error, let’s make sure MPF is ok. Run mpf diagnosis from within your machine folder to see if your installation is fine:

$ mpf diagnosis


MPF version: MPF v0.50.0-dev.11
MPF install location: /data/home/jan/cloud/flipper/src/mpf/mpf
Machine folder detected: /data/home/jan/cloud/flipper/src/good_vs_evil
MPF-MC version: MPF-MC v0.50.0-dev.5 (config_version=5, BCP v1.1, Requires MPF v0.50.0-dev.10)

Serial ports found:
/dev/ttyUSB3
    desc: Quad RS232-HS
    hwid: USB VID:PID=0403:6011 LOCATION=1-12
/dev/ttyUSB2
    desc: Quad RS232-HS
    hwid: USB VID:PID=0403:6011 LOCATION=1-12
/dev/ttyUSB1
    desc: Quad RS232-HS
    hwid: USB VID:PID=0403:6011 LOCATION=1-12
/dev/ttyUSB0
    desc: Quad RS232-HS
    hwid: USB VID:PID=0403:6011 LOCATION=1-12

If you suspect a problem with MPF itself you can try to run the demo_man game. Make sure that you select the same version as your MPF version (i.e. demo_man 0.33.x for MPF 0.33.10).

Additionally, you can run the MPF and MPF-MC unit tests (the number of tests may be different).

$ python3 -m unittest discover -s mpf.tests
[...]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 622 tests in 20.818s

OK

Similarly, you can run MPF-MC unit tests (they will take a bit longer and might show some deprecation warnings from kivy):

$ python3 -m unittest discover -s mpfmc.tests
[...]
Ran 182 tests in 193.610s

OK

3. Debug crashes/segfaults/hangs

If you experience a crash/segfault or hang (especially in MC) you can run gdb on python to find the crash or hang. You can attach a debugger to the running mc process like this:

$ ps aux | grep mpf
jan       9678 12.4  0.3 1082068 127304 pts/2  SNl+ 23:17   0:06 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/mpf mc
jan       9760 37.0  0.1 571368 56660 pts/3    Sl+  23:17   0:01 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/mpf game -X

In this example 9678 is the pid of MC and 9760 is the pid of MPF. You can then attach gdb:

$ sudo gdb python3 9678
[...]
(gdb) thread apply all bt
[...]
(gdb) thread apply all py-bt
[...]

Please send us the complete output of gdb. That will help us to figure out the problem.

4. Ask in our forum

If you cannot solve the problem ask in our support forum. Please include the following information:

  1. The output of mpf diagnosis
  2. In case you suspect an installation problem include the output of unittests and if you can run demo_man.
  3. If you got a problem with a device (e.g. a ball_lock) or a platform (e.g. P-Roc or FAST) add debug: True to the relevant config section to enable extra debug output.
  4. Add a log of your game. Therefore, run your game with mpf both -v -V and grab the latest MPF and MC log from the log folder in your machine.
  5. Describe how to reproduce your problem.
  6. Provide relevant config snippets or, if possible, a link to download/checkout your machine config so we can reproduce the issue.