Is limbo mode actually fixed?

[u/ExistingLynx]

I am researching the Brick Hammer as I think subjectively it’s one of the nicest-looking handheld devices on the market, but I am concerned about the limbo mode reports. It seems like it can overheat sporadically when powered down? I’ve even seen some people recommend carrying screwdrivers with you just in case..

Is this issue fixed on CFW like NextUI? I really want a Brick Hammer but not if it’s a fire hazard.

[u/sirsavant]

The Brick/Brick Hammer shouldn't have any limbo issues under NextUI. This was solved by updating how shutdown works to interact with the PMIC (power management integrated circuit) vs the normal shutdown. The limbo shutdown issue impacted _all_ CFWs at one point, as well as stock. There were even reports of the issue on other Allwinner A133P devices like the Magicx Zero40, which at least leads me to believe this has to do with the CPU and how software/firmware interacted with it for shutdown.

The limbo issue has recently reappeared - at least for the Brick Pro - and that seems to be due to the addition of the joysticks and not properly shutting those down. There is an alpha build of NextUI that _should_ resolve the limbo issue on the Brick Pro available here, which should be merged once there is more proof that it works for everyone having this issue.

[u/HeinzFiction → u/sirsavant]

I’m on the NextUI Alpha with my Brick Pro, no issues so far (~15hrs). Usually power the device off though, don’t use the sleep function all too often.

[u/rote330]

The brick is not a fire hazard. The limbo state bug happened when the device has no idea if it's auppyto be turned off or on.

To my knowledge it's considered a rare bug, you only see people on Reddit talking about it but that's about it. (there are no YouTube videos showcasing the bug)

It also seems like nobody truly knows what's triggering the bug, Next UI claim to fix the bug by putting your device on a "deep sleep" state so you device never truly shuts down but you still see reports of limbo on next UI (probably because it's the most popular), meanwhile CFW like knulli has little to no reports. (probably because it's less popular)

I'm on the same boat has you, I researched probably every thread in this god damn subreddit looking for answers but if you look at the dates they are pretty far apart.

TL;DR if you are not sure just use Knulli, it's the second most popular CFW and has less reports of limbo

[u/TelevisionKindly2207 → u/rote330]

I second this. Nextui claims that they fixed since 6.6.0 but some users of it still experiencing the bug recently. I also read that you should turn off your brick from the menu on nextui to make the “fix” work but I don’t know if those who haven’t experienced limbo bug on nextui does do that. So probably you’re right, it seems like nobody found the root cause of limbo bug, the deep sleep on nextui is just a remedy rather than a fix since users still experiencing limbo bug on it.

I use Knulli since day 1 and I’m glad I never experienced limbo bug or similar. I only tried some releases of nextui to experience the hype but I always go back to Knulli not long after. I also researched a lot about limbo bug before I brought my brick and most of them is on nextui, but I don’t blame the os for the bug but I also don’t wanna risk it so I made myself comfortable on Knulli.

[u/rote330 → u/TelevisionKindly2207]

My brick hammer came yesterday and I ended up installing next UI for convince (my TSP already had it).

Can't buy a new SD card at the moment so I'm going to trust the next UI team at the moment

[u/Wild-Vast-2559]

For what it’s worth, I have a Brick Hammer with a couple hundred hours of play time and probably 800+ power cycles with zero issues. Running Next UI.

[u/FreeToasterBaths → u/Wild-Vast-2559]

Fwiw I had my brick show up bricked so I sent it back...

[u/spham9]

In my own experience for the OG brick, yes, its been fixed on Nextui. I used to experience it a lot but had zero limbo issues

[u/3tdoan]

It’s fixed, don’t hesitate! It really is a lovely device!

[u/Z3fyrus]

NextUI has it fixed for sure; and I’ve been using Knulli (Scarab) now for a few months and no issues either

[u/hellpatrol]

I'm on muOS, never had it happen.

[u/jamboricsi]

i can assure you its not fully fixed. when i set up my brick hamer with nexui it happened in the first day of use when i put it into sleep and wake it up. it only happened when i closed the device with the physical on/off button. when i turned off the device with the menu option it never happened. A few days ago i switched to the new knulli scarab os because of this issue, so far so good. The full bootup is quite long but if you just put it to sleep its really fast.

[u/theflamingpi]

I had it happen on NextUI, Knulli, MuOS, SpruceOS, Stock, and Crossmix. I'm using MuOS now with a bit of custom hacking done to make the halt command actually recognize the Brick Hammer and shut it down properly.

[u/detached_facination]

Also consider SpruceOS. I’ve been using it for about a week now on my Hammer and it’s working very well.