"Window Manager Crash" on dispatching 'Down' key on Samsung Galaxy S

Question

I am running my Unit tests on various android devices using Instrumentation . Testcases works fine on emulator & all devices except Samsung Galaxy S. On Samsung Galaxy S it displays a Window Manager crash after injecting some 30 key events using instrumentation here is the complete crash log:

D/dalvikvm(11862): GC_EXPLICIT freed 6800 objects / 374040 bytes in 54ms
D/dalvikvm(11862): GC_EXPLICIT freed 780 objects / 71856 bytes in 39ms
W/dalvikvm(11862): threadid=9: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001d7d0)
E/WindowManager( 2472): Window Manager Crash
E/WindowManager( 2472): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/WindowManager( 2472):         at com.android.server.WindowManagerService$KeyWaiter.waitForNextEventTarget(WindowManagerService.java:5844)
E/WindowManager( 2472):         at com.android.server.WindowManagerService.injectKeyEvent(WindowManagerService.java:5565)
E/WindowManager( 2472):         at android.view.IWindowManager$Stub.onTransact(IWindowManager.java:110)
E/WindowManager( 2472):         at com.android.server.WindowManagerService.onTransact(WindowManagerService.java:692)
E/WindowManager( 2472):         at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:288)
E/WindowManager( 2472):         at dalvik.system.NativeStart.run(Native Method)
E/AndroidRuntime(11862): FATAL EXCEPTION: Instr: com.myapp.test.ImpInstrumentation
E/AndroidRuntime(11862): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/AndroidRuntime(11862):        at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1266)
E/AndroidRuntime(11862):        at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1248)
E/AndroidRuntime(11862):        at android.view.IWindowManager$Stub$Proxy.injectKeyEvent(IWindowManager.java:830)
E/AndroidRuntime(11862):        at android.app.Instrumentation.sendKeySync(Instrumentation.java:859)
E/AndroidRuntime(11862):        at android.app.Instrumentation.sendKeyDownUpSync(Instrumentation.java:872)
E/AndroidRuntime(11862):        at com.myapp.test.util.ListUtil.<b>arrowDownToPosition</b>(ListUtil.java:69)

And here is the piece of code where it generally crashes:

    private void arrowDownToPosition(int position) {
          int maxDowns = 50;
        while(mListView.getSelectedItemPosition() < position && --maxDowns > 0) {
             mInstrumentation.sendKeyDownUpSync(KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_DOWN);
        }

//Crashes on below line dispatching enter key
      mInstrumentation.sendKeyDownUpSync(KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER);
    }

All solutions/suggestions are welcome.

Wieche

What version of Android? – Metamorphic

@ReubenScratton on Android 2.2 – Wieche

Annoying that your stack trace doesn't line up with any of the 2.2.x source trees. Presumably Samsung customized it. – Metamorphic

Any ideas what that method waitForNextEventTarget() does? – Wieche

Any comments/solution/suggestions from the Samsung guys.... – Wieche

What key sequence are you injecting? – Metamorphic

I am injecting keyevents in this order (1)-. HomeActivity:4 key down then Key Enter (2).- SummaryActivity:1 Key down then Key (3)- DetailActivity - Key down +1 key Enter and then it crashes . But this is just one scenario this issue is getting reproduced in other ListView handling too. – Wieche

I saw the same issue in monkey tool too once. – Wieche

Answer 1

Not sure if this helps, but while briefly researching this issue, I found this source. Have a look, particularly from line 175 about a bug with DPAD_CENTER on the Galaxy S, and how the issue is resolved.

Marthamarthe

thanks for the hint I am facing the issue in ListView only. I don't have any alternative method to move to a particular position in ListView besides KEYPAD_DOWN on that ListView. – Wieche

Ahh I understand, I'll keep looking. – Marthamarthe

Answer 2

according to your stacktrace it seems that your variable mInstrumentation is null. did you forget to initialize it?

try this:

while(mInstrumentation!=null && mListView.getSelectedItemPosition()>-1) {
    mInstrumentation.sendKeyDownUpSync(KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_DOWN);
}

Paradox

Not it's not. 'mInstrumentation' has clearly been initialised because the stack trace shows the exception originating from inside a child of the 'sendKeyDownUpSync' method. – Brainsick