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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Kstars crashes

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Replied by Odd Høydalsvik on topic Kstars crashes

I was away over the weekend, but brought my ZWO camera, my laptop and a tracker. So only the camera was connected. I only used the capture window, but still had a couple of crashes. However, I didn't switch on logging.

/Odd
5 years 3 months ago #32673

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Replied by Antonio Soffici on topic Kstars crashes

Hey guys,
fairly new to KStars 3.0.0 on Mac, and Jasem has already been more than helpful.
But last night I decided I wanted to image IC2118 (Witch head nebula).
Equipment-wise, I'm only using the camera and filter modules. The camera is an Atik 383L+,the filter wheel is an SX-USB with 5 50mm unmounted-filter slots.
Guiding is done with PHD2 (ZWO ASI178MM on the guidescope) stand-alone, as I don't trust myself enough yet to use it via Ekos.
I've used the focus module (no electric focuser, just a human one) to accurately focus the CCD and then got on the job.
After aligning the mount (EQ8 whose RS232-RJ45 cable I've misplaced and am not able to find anymore...) with the camera attached by taking 4x4 binned previews with the camera module and then slowly working my way up the resolution to more accurately align the mount, I fired up PHD2 and calibrated the guiding process.
When everything was set and the CCD was at its correct temperature, I tried inputing the sequence as single L-R-G-B frames, to be repeated until dawn.
First thing I noticed: when deciding where to put the captures and the .esq file, the reaction time of the "finder" window was 12-15 seconds between the click and the result.
That puzzled me as rather strange (did not have this issue in 2.9.8) and annoying, but just a minor hurdle to be overcome in order to get good images.
After painstakingly programming the sequence, I started it, and that's where things get interesting: KStars just crashed. And crashed. And crashed. Again and again. At various steps of the sequence set-up process, with no apparent pattern to be recognised.
Until it did not crash anymore and seemed to work perfectly.
Only to trick me into leaving the telescope for a few minutes. When I came back KStars had taken an L frame and then crashed.
Stubborn like a goat, I tried again for something like 20 times, always unable to even get the sequence loaded.
Then again it took one L frame, just to crash once more.
Fed up, I dedicated myself to other things.
Then it dawned on me I could try comet 46P.
I worked my way through another series of random crashes, but then managed to have the CCD start taking exposures.
Left the laptop working. Came back after about one hour, to find out KStars/Ekos had crashed after about 25 minutes of capture time.
Tonight I tried to start KStars (no Ekos) once more to look for some targets for the future. It crashed without mercy.
Attached you'll find:
- Ekos logs from yesterday and tonight (zip file)
- Mac OS logs of the crashes (rtf files)
Can someone help in solving this issue?
With 2.9.8 I had other problems, but at least it was kinda stable. 3.0.0 solved some of the problems I had in 2.9.8, but has become manageable like a wild tiger...

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make the whole adventure clear to all

Cheers

Antonio Soffici

File Attachment:

File Name: KStarslogs...0103.zip
File Size:63 KB

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File Name: KStarslogs...0104.zip
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File Name: KStarscrash1.rtf
File Size:98 KB

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File Name: KStarscrash2.rtf
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5 years 2 months ago #33296
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Replied by Odd Høydalsvik on topic Kstars crashes

After the release of 3.0.0 it has been cloudy where I live, so I have not been able to carry out real world tests.
I have however updated my darks library with several hours of exposures (only camera and filterwheel connected).
No issues seen so far.

I look forward to some clear nights for real imaging though, but weather forecast is still bad :-(

/Odd
5 years 2 months ago #33308

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Replied by Antonio Soffici on topic Kstars crashes

Hello Okhoydal,
I’m a total noob, so I may be missing something important, here. But why the FW for darks?
Cheers
Antonio
5 years 2 months ago #33309

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Replied by Antonio Soffici on topic Kstars crashes

UPDATE
Today I captured Flats and Darks from the camera panel, with no glitches whatsoever during the 3 hours it took.
THEN I set up a simulator-only profile, fired up Ekos again and tried to build a sequence.
All of this in order to rule out any CCD/FW/cables hardware issues.
Lo and behold, the sequence panel is still sluggish in its responses when trying to create/locate/load an .esq file and, while it is thinking about God knows what, it renders the laptop totally unresponsive.
The I finally managed to get it to make and execute a sequence.
Then I got the "spinning beachball of death", which lasted long enough that I got fed up and force-quit KStars.
On the Mac, when you force-quit something, the OS asks you to send the report of the crash to Valhalla in California (I guess).
I copied the text and you'll find it attached
Enjoy the reading
Cheers
Antonio

File Attachment:

File Name: KStarscrash3.rtf
File Size:2,005 KB
5 years 2 months ago #33313
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Replied by Guillem on topic Kstars crashes

Hi,

I have no problem with my laptop (ubuntu 18.04 LTS) and Kstars / Ekos directly connected to my equipment ( atik383, SW wheel, lodestar guiding with internal Ekos ,EQ6-R ( with eqdirect usb )), ...

Maybe the failure is to some operating system libraries ( Kstars is crashing to me with raspberry with ubuntu mate 16:04... I have a post in this forum to get some help).

I am wating reply from -> bugs.kde.org/enter_bug.cgi?format=guided...kstars&version=3.0.0

it's very important to share our experiences.
I cannot test it with OS X apple operating systems, sorry for that.
good luck with your tests

cheers

Guillem
5 years 2 months ago #33315

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Replied by Odd Høydalsvik on topic Kstars crashes

Hi Antonio,

FW not necessary for darks, but in this case it was already in place and mounted on the scope. But you can of course take darks (and bias) with just a camera with a cap.

/Odd
5 years 2 months ago #33316

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Replied by Rob Lancaster on topic Kstars crashes

Antonio Soffici,

Are you using KStars and INDI both on the same computer? In other words, are you connecting to a raspberry pi or other SBC from your Mac when you experience these crashes? I had some strange crashes in OS X version 3.0 right after I first build it when I was testing it, until I updated the software on the pi. Since then, I have not seen any crashes.

I can certainly make a new Mac build if there is something wrong with the current one, but first, we would need to figure out what is wrong. Is some incompatibility in the Mac build, is there a version conflict between the KStars build on the Mac and the INDI build on an SBC, or is there some other problem that is more general that affects all users on Windows, Mac, and Linux. For the last one, it could be an issue with KStars, with INDI, or with some dependency of those.

I know that PHD2 had some changes recently to how it communicates data back to the client programs and I am planning to look into how we need to update KStars soon to adapt to those changes, but I don't think that anything they did would cause crashes in KStars, nor does it seem to affect the quality of the guiding. But I will look into that one.

It would be very good if we can get a pattern or cause of any crashes, especially if they seem to be reproducible, so that we can narrow down the cause. For me, the crashes just happened randomly until I updated the software on the pi and then they did not happen anymore. I think sometimes it happened when I was trying to focus and sometimes when I was trying to run a sequence if I remember correctly.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 2 months ago #33324

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Replied by Rob Lancaster on topic Kstars crashes

Antonio Soffici,

I did just test saving and loading a sequence file using simulators on my MacBook Pro. It loaded almost instantly with no beachball or delay of 10-15 seconds. That is very strange. I am using the latest version of Mojave on this computer that I just tested it on and the computer KStars version 3.0.0 was built on is running El Capitan, so it should work for any system running El Capitan and later. Please see if there is anything else that is strange or sluggish, because that is definitely odd.

Also you might want to run KStars from the command line to see if that reveals anything about the sluggish behavior or the crashing that you reported. Try this:

lldb /Applications/KStars.app
run

Then try whatever you can do to produce sluggish or crashing behavior so it all gets recorded.

Thanks,

Rob
5 years 2 months ago #33325

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Replied by Rob Lancaster on topic Kstars crashes

Oh, I forgot to mention, you might want to set the Logging to "Default" instead of "File" before you run it via lldb so that all of the logging gets sent to the terminal window along with any crash info.
5 years 2 months ago #33326

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Replied by Antonio Soffici on topic Kstars crashes

Ah, ok.
So, no total noob, then
5 years 2 months ago #33329

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Replied by Antonio Soffici on topic Kstars crashes

Hello rlancaste.
No, the Mac is connected directly to the equipment (only CCD and FW, as I haven't been able to connect the EQ8 mount, yet) via KStars
The guider goes to another USB port
5 years 2 months ago #33330

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