Improve the crashlogs saving in Grim Reaper

[samo79]

Not everyone have a serial cable today or just doesn't have the necessary knowledge for how to use it properly ... quite often still hard to track informations or even saving properly a crashlog information using Grim Reaper, because some time when an application crashed (and a Grim Reaper window appear) it's very common that even the Grim Reaper GUI will "freezed" aswell with the impossibility to even select its tabs buttons in order to verify the log in details !

In addition to that, sometimes even pressing its dedicated button (Write crashlog) will simply create a blank txt file or just doesn't save anything in the specified path ..
That probably because the nature of the specific crash it handled

I wonder if Grim Reaper could be improved a bit in this area, maybe with the possibility to select with the mouse the log areas in order to let users to copy and paste elsewhere the crashlog information he need before the reboot so not to lost important info

The tabs that may support copy and paste text selection (or even better a new option in GR menu called "Copy log" or something similar could be actived in that 3 areas

Stack Trace
Memory Dump
Disassembled

In short all we need will be a 100% secure way to ALWAYS save every information by a crashlog in a new external file in order to not lost any of that important crash informations we need, despite the nature or the crash, and despite the impossibility of the GR window to continue to work properly

[nbache]

There is already a Save Crashlog button (or is it a menu item, not sure ATM).

You can save it in a persistent place instead of the Ram Disk, which I believe is the default destination.

Anyway, you still need to be able to set up a serial link for those cases where a crash locks up the machine, or where the crash occurs during startup.

Best regards,

Niels

[samo79]

@nbache

There is already a Save Crashlog button (or is it a menu item, not sure ATM).

I know, i can point the save log to any other directory so to not lost it in RAM:
However as i said, sometimes this doesn't help either .. because in some particolar condition the GR is unable to save the log .. it save an empty txt file, or just doesn't save anything locally

Currently In menu we have only that 3 options:

Empty
Disassemble PPC
Disassemble M68k

Anyway, you still need to be able to set up a serial link for those cases where a crash locks up the machine, or where the crash occurs during startup.

Yep, however something more simple could help ... the possibility to select the crashlog text with the mouse or even by a simple menu option will be an easier way

[nbache]

But how would you save that copy/paste text, if you can't save a crash log?

Best regards,

Niels

[samo79]

Well, while various element of the GUI can "freezed" (such the buttons or the resize window gadget) menus in general still continue to work, so eventually we can save logs from them
Also there is some more important info that are not saved in the usual crashlog .. f.e. memory dump or disassembler logs

[Rigo]

The problem here is that a program is being run (GrimReaper) on a system that is in an unknown state. Depending on the severity or nature of the crash, even starting the program could be problematic, let alone doing file I/O stuff. A serial terminal is really the only way to go as the dump is handled by the debugger hook built into the kernel, which is far safer than trying to run another program on a system that is in turmoil.

Simon

[samo79]

@Rigo

Yeah, however most of the time we are still able to mantain the Grim Reaper window opened and continue to use the system for a while, atleast enough time eventually to open NotePad from a directory, copy and paste a text and then save it

However as i said Grim Reaper GUI actually doesn't support any kind of manual text selection in its crashlog text-areas and from its menus there are no options for selecting things .. currently the only way is press the "Write crashlog" button and pray it will save a log fully ..
The only alternative to save somethings permanently before a necessary reboot is by using an external program, open the tabs (hoping they can be opened!) and making a grab of them (using SGrab for example)

A bit annoying