"AFWall+ keeps stopping", LineageOS 21 nightly, Pixel 4a (sunfish)

[abugher]

Describe the bug

Right after installation, I was able to use the application long enough to select all of my preferences for the firewall, over many minutes. After applying the rules for the first time, though, I started seeing the following behavior.

Most time, when opening the application, I see a notification that it has been granted superuser rights for about a second, then it clears, then, after about another second, the application closes. Sometimes I don't see the notification, and the app closes after only about a second. From the app icon, I can long-press for a menu and jump straight into Preferences, Firewall Logs, or Iptables rules, but any of those actions results in the same pattern. Attempting to interact with the notification icons in the system status bar for applying iptables rules or for disabling the firewall, the same pattern plays out.

I have just enough time to disable or enable the firewall if I'm quick. This seems to make no difference. I rebooted with the firewall disabled, but the application still seems to want to quickly exit. I then managed to enable the firewall again. The pop-up window showing the progress seemed to display for a long time, and I think the numerators kept resetting to lower numbers and then shooting up gain, but that was hard to track visually. The rules listing was then visible for longer than two seconds, but after a while it did close.

Sometimes if I make it to the log and switch to old view, the application stays visible for a while. This allowed me to export the log.

Android occasionally shows me a dialog after the close event: "AFWall+ keeps stopping", with buttons for "App info" and "Close app".

Firewall Logs

AppID :	10153
App Name:	SIM Manager
Total Packets Blocked:	3
[TCP]34.89.151.119:443(3)

	---------
AppID :	10278
App Name:	QR & Barcode Scanner
Total Packets Blocked:	6
[TCP]172.253.115.95:443(1)
[TCP]172.253.63.95:443(2)
[TCP]64.233.180.95:443(1)
[TCP]172.253.122.95:443(2)

	---------

Smartphone (please complete the following information):

• Pixel 4a (sunfish)
• LineageOS 21 (Android 14)

Additional context

I recently switched to LineageOS from stock. I used to run rooted stock image, with AFWall+, and I was pretty cozy with it, on past devices. It's been a while, though; I've been running unrooted stock image for a few years. I can sound knowledgeable, but I might be missing something dumb.

[abugher]

It seems like the app is dying or getting killed in the middle of performing operations including logging and applying new rules.

Logging does not seem to be happening, at least consistently. I can see that Android always thinks my wifi network has no network connectivity. My past experience tells me this means I have blocked a UID that Android wants to use to probe one of their servers to ensure that I am connected to the internet. (I don't need help with that part; that is a separate issue.) Nothing new is added to the log, though.

When I manage to tell the application to disable, I see notification that rules are removed, but on a shell I can see many iptables rules still in place. As stated in the original description, I also see jumpy numbers when applying rules, almost like the process applying the rules is getting killed and the parent process is trying again.

[abugher]

Some reboots and some hours later, AFWall+ seems stable. The firewall is enabled and seems to be working. I can make changes and apply the rules, and the interface remains stable.

I will speak up if this occurs again. At the moment, though, it does not seem like I can replicate the problem.