I Need Help Decipherimg Linux Style Logs From An Android Phone.

Heat84

This is actually an Android problem, but the only logs Android has are Linux style logs that are only accessible by command line, ADB, or an app, and I’m having a hard time deciphering them. Why does Android have very few error messages and no logs that an average user can access? You can say alot of bad things about Windows, but Windows has tons of error messages and logs. And the logs are app and OS level. Why does Android do this?😡 Actual Linux OSes aren’t much better.

Anyway…
About once a day for the past two weeks, my phone freezes and reboots. There’s no error message at any point. Today’s crash happened at around 4:20 PM, which would be 16:20 PM in the logs. I’m running LineageOS 21, which has an Android 14 foundation. I’ve attached a Zip archive with all the logs, which were put in the zip file by an app named SysLog. Maybe somebody can decipher them for me and tell me what’s going on? Thanks

Edit: I’m usually using a browser when the crash happens. Iceraven, which is a Firefox family browser or Brave, which is a Chrome family browser. It could also be my keyboard app, which is Microsoft SwiftKey.

2025-06-08-1623-crash-4-20.zip

517kB

taraf

Heat84 You can say alot of bad things about Windows, but Windows has tons of error messages and logs. And the logs are app and OS level. Why does Android do this?😡 Actual Linux OSes aren’t much better.

That’s easily configurable in Linux (and probably Android) – you need to set the loglevel. If you want to fill up your logfile with junk, set it to “Debug” (loglevel 7). By default, Linux uses loglevel 3, which only shows you error & higher severity faults.

As far as how to make that change on Android… no idea. But if you’ve got terminal access to it, you can probably change it in the kernel, or in the app you’re running. But logs are only as good as the app that generates them – if the app writer doesn’t think something needs logging then it’s not going to get logged.

Heat84

taraf That’s another problem I have. I don’t know what I don’t need.

taraf

Android’s intended to be an OS for everybody – that means it has to be written to the lowest common denominator. That’s why there’s no logging: your average user isn’t going to go sifting through the logs, they’re going to stop using it - if it’s just an app that consistently crashes they’ll find another app, and if it’s the whole device crashing they’re going to call their telco & get a new phone, and if they’re using sideloaded apps that didn’t come from the Play store the first thing they’re going to hear is “stop doing that”. And if you’re writing an app for that ecosystem, why would you bother with logs at all? Use them to debug while it’s in development, sure, but once you’re publishing it to the app store turn off the logging. Before today I wasn’t even sure that Android had syslog at all.

geek

Factory reset, install only your browsers and see what happens. That might at least help narrow things down.

LineageOS huh? Android fork? That could be part of it too.

Donoreo

geek LineageOS huh? Android fork? That could be part of it too.

That was my thought too as soon as I saw LineageOS. Is it updated? Are all the apps updated? Also, 4:20. 😆

Heat84

taraf Android’s intended to be an OS for everybody

So is Windows, and they have logging and error messages.

Heat84

geek Factory reset

I’m not going through that for how often this happens.

Heat84

geek LineageOS huh? Android fork? That could be part of it too.

I don’t know, but the last time this was happening a few years ago, it was caused by 5G. I figured that out because it wasn’t happening when I switched to LTE or when I was connected to WIFI. I can’t remember how it was fixed. I’m connected to WIFI most of the time, so I know that’s not the culprit this time.

taraf

Heat84 Windows is also intended to be run on a full size monitor and interacted with using a mouse & keyboard.

You do you, but I wouldn’t want to interact with a syslog on a 6″ display with nothing but a touchscreen to interact with.