Software Update Version 20191205
August 19th, 2020
Dear Valued Dejavoo Customer:
In the last few weeks, we have been working diligently to address a sporadic, but non-field recoverable, issue
of terminals that would randomly freeze on “System Initializing”.
On July 8th we provided a correction to a specific memory issue caused by one specific credit card, which we
thought may be the cause of the memory corruption, which was believed to ultimately be causing the System
initializing freeze. Since most reported occurrences came from TSYS enabled terminals, we hoped that the
fix would address the freeze issue and another related issue in where terminals were unable to commit
transactions to the database causing the transaction number to either duplicate or revert back to transaction
#1.
Unfortunately (and fortunately) we realized that there was another more critical issue hiding as the initialization freeze increased the frequency of the failures, post downloads, led us to discover and cure the core issue causing the freeze and with it, several other memory related fixes were discovered and resolved.
We added to the release a long awaited and significant improvement to the way the terminal application
handles GPRS communication, more specifically, the roaming between towers in rural areas and while on the
go.
Our first release of this fix is done as a patch of the 20191205 release, which is our most commonly used
application. We are in the process of implementing and releasing these changes also to the new Aura
application. All changes and improvements will of course be part of our next major release that will be ready
for production in the upcoming weeks, however, the patch is important and should be applied at your
earliest convenience.
After thorough review of these reported issues it was determined that the terminal device would operate in a
normal state and didn’t experience the “System Initializing” error until a reboot was initiated. Please note, any
terminal that is already in this state may still experience the “System Initializing” error when performing the
new download. Once the new software version is downloaded and the application is running, we believe the
issue is resolved.
Going forward we strongly urge and request that all new Terminal Profiles (TPNs) be created using the
templates in this new software model, the version can be identified by the model name, for example: V3CoreF
w CrDb_PATCH20191205, the new software version will be assigned to your STEAM profile. In addition to
all new terminal installs, please rebuild the Terminal Profile for any replacement terminals to this new software
as well.
For your convenience, the information below summarizes the cause of these reported issues and the
resolution we implemented in this new software version.
DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE – UPON BOOT UP THE TERMINAL FREEZES AT “SYSTEM INITIALIZING”, A WHITE SCREEN APPEARING AND
DISABLING TERMINALS AND TRANSACTION SEQUENCE OUT OF ORDER OR NOT COMMITTING TO DATABASE
REASON FOR ISSUE – THE LINUX FILESYSTEM EXPERIENCED CORRUPTION. THIS CORRUPTION IS ONLY REVEALED DURING
TERMINAL STARTUP/REBOOT.
EFFECT OF ISSUES – TERMINAL DISABLED TEMPORARILY AND/OR MEMORY MAY NOT BE FULLY RECOVERABLE OR OPERABLE.
TEMPORARY SOLUTION – WITH EXISTING SOFTWARE SEND TERMINALS TO DEJAVOO, PERFORMED SULD
(MEMORY RESET) AND RETURN TERMINAL TO THE FIELD.
PERMANENT RESOLUTION – WITH NEW SOFTWARE WE REMOVED THE USE OF ALL SYNC AND FSYNC
FUNCTIONS FROM OUR CODE. WITH THIS CHANGE THE SOFTWARE CREATES A BACKUP OF THE FILE, UPDATES
THAT BACKUP AND THEN RESTORES THE ORIGINAL FILE WITH THE UPDATED BACKUP.
IN ADDITION TO THE CHANGES IN THE BOOT UP PROCESS OF THE SYSTEM INITIALIZING OF THE
APPLICATION, WE HAVE MADE IMPROVEMENTS TO OTHER FEATURES, SUCH AS: MEMORY ALLOCATION,
SPIN REQUEST VALIDATION, PREVENTION OF MEMORY CORRUPTION, AND GPRS COMMUNICATION
IMPROVEMENTS.
POSSIBLE IMPACT IN LOADING NEW SOFTWARE – SOME TERMINALS THAT ARE CURRENTLY DEPLOYED
AND OPERATIONAL IN THE FIELD MAY ALREADY HAVE CORRUPTED MEMORY OR FILE SYSTEM AND WILL
EXPERIENCE THE SYSTEM INITIALIZING FREEZE ON THE NEXT BOOT UP (AS TERMINALS AUTOMATICALLY
REBOOT AFTER THE DOWNLOAD); THEREFORE, THESE AFFECTED TERMINALS WILL SEE THE ISSUE. EFFECTED
TERMINALS ARE NOT RECOVERABLE IN THE FIELD AND WOULD REQUIRE TO BE SENT TO DEJAVOO FOR ONE
LAST SULD (RESET MEMORY IN OUR LAB) BEFORE RESUMING NORMAL OPERATIONS.
We appreciate your continued support and we will always work hard to bring you the most reliable and
flexible software in today’s market. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this software
update please contact your Dejavoo Account Executive and he/she will be happy to assist you.
Respectfully,
Dejavoo Executive Team
