Re: [Audacity-devel] Hang when scanning for VST effects on Mac

[Bill W. <bi...@go...>]

On 11-Nov-09, at 1:30 AM, Leland wrote:

> Bill,
>
> Do you ever get any VST effects to actually load?  I can (and can't
> reproduce your issues below) on Intel/OSX10.6, but I can't get ANY VST
> plugin to load on my G5/OSX10.4 machine.  I don't hang and I see where
> the plugin actually gets called (some debugging messages), but they
> never appear in the Effects menu.
>
> There is definitely something fishy afoot...
>
>

Leland:
   I can get VST effects to load but only one at a time, and only  
after going through the hang. See steps 3, 5a, 5b and 6. It appears  
that Audacity has found the first *new* VST effect (alphabetically in  
the plug-ins folder), written the info to plugins.cfg, then hung up.

   Ignore all that business about the invisible window. That is a  
separate issue and has been solved, I believe.

   I can't test on 10.6. I get different behaviour on 10.4. Look for  
the second Audacity icon to appear briefly in the dock.

   From a previous email:

> I just tested this on:
> - an iMac Core 2 Duo 2 GHz running OSX 10.4.11
> - a PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz running OSX 10.4.11
> and got very different behaviour. Using 1.3.9 beta.
>
> Edit audacity.cfg to just the line "NewPrefsInitialized=1".  
> plugins.cfg is empty.
> Put a Blue Cat VST effect in Audacity's plug-ins folder.
> Launch Audacity
> - get "language" dialog - wait a few seconds then click "OK"
> - second Audacity icon flashes briefly in the Dock
> - dialog pops up that Audacity has quit unexpectedly - click "Close"
> - Audacity opens OK! - get welcome dialog.
> - Audacity does not pick up the VST effect in Audacity's plug-ins  
> folder
> - plugins.cfg remains empty
> Check "Rescan VST effects" in Effects Preferences
> Quit Audacity
> Launch Audacity
> - identical behaviour to the above, except no language dialog.
> Quit Audacity
> - Rescan=0 in audacity.cfg
> Launch Audacity
> - identical behaviour to the above
>
> On the PowerBook running 1.3.10 alpha Oct 24 2009, identical  
> behaviour.
>
> * As long as the VST effect is in Audacity's plug-ins folder the  
> "Unexpectedly quit" dialog will appear every time you start Audacity.
>
> * Behaviour is different for 10.4.11 versus 10.5.8
>
> * With 10.4.11, behaviour is the same on PPC and Intel.
>


-- Bill

>
> Bill Wharrie wrote:
>> I hope this is clear in other mail clients. My original tests are
>> quoted two levels deep. My comments on the Nov 9 Mac build are not
>> quoted.
>>
>> The short answer is that this is not fixed. Scanning on startup when
>> plugins.cfg does not exist or is empty appears to still be happening
>> (although I never see the dialog - is this a symptom?). The hang when
>> Audacity finds a VST plug-in still occurs.
>>
>> However, some things have changed.
>>
>> In step 5a) it appears that audacity.cfg has not been completely
>> initialized, and the [Window] parameters cause Audacity to
>> subsequently launch with an invisible window. Quitting and re-
>> launching clears this and Audacity launches OK and presents a visible
>> empty project window.
>>
>> In step 5b) Audacity *does* pick up the second VST effect added to  
>> the
>> plug-ins folder, even though it still hangs.
>>
>>> I've committed a patch from Ed that may fix this issue.
>>>
>>> Leland
>>>
>>> Bill Wharrie wrote:
>>>> I can reliably reproduce this bug. The hang apparently occurs  
>>>> only on
>>>> Mac, but the scanning on start if plugins.cfg is empty has been
>>>> reported
>>>> on Windows.
>>>> http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14801
>>>> <http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14801>
>>>>
>>>> Audacity 1.3.10 alpha Oct 21 2009 Mac
>>
>>
>> Now Audacity 1.3.10 alpha Nov 9 2009 Mac
>>
>>
>>>> G5 dual 2 GHz, OSX 10.5.8
>>>> Virgin install, with Portable Settings folder
>>>>
>>>> Note: I used the Portable Settings folder so I could do these tests
>>>> without messing up my working installation of 1.3.9.
>>>>
>>>> Sorry if this is too long. I tried to hit every case.
>>>>
>>>> 1) -- Effect of "Rescan VST effects" with no VST effects in the
>>>> plug-ins
>>>> folder
>>>> Launch Audacity
>>>> Check "Rescan VST effects"
>>>> Quit Audacity
>>>> Launch Audacity - OK
>>>> Check "Rescan VST effects"
>>>> Quit Audacity
>>
>> [The point of step 1 was to demonstrate that launching with "Rescan
>> VST Effects" checked does not cause a hang if there are no VST  
>> effects
>> to find.]
>>
>> No change, which is fine. After the first restart "Rescan VST  
>> effects"
>> is unchecked.
>>
>> Note that "Rescan VST effects" is active for the next launch.
>>
>>
>>>> 2) -- Effect of "Rescan VST effects" with one VST effect in the
>>>> plug-ins
>>>> folder
>>>> Add a VST effect to the plug-ins folder
>>>> Launch Audacity - hangs
>>>> Notes:
>>>> - a second Audacity icon briefly appears in the Dock on launch  
>>>> when a
>>>> hang occurs.
>>>> - you cannot force quit Audacity from the Dock icon, as right-
>>>> clicking
>>>> on the Dock icon does not show the "Force Quit" choice.
>>>> - you can switch to Audacity, and the "Audacity > Quit Audacity"  
>>>> menu
>>>> item is there but it has no effect. The Help menu appears when you
>>>> switch to Audacity but is not populated. No other menus appear.
>>>> - you must use "Force Quit" from the Apple menu to force quit
>>>> Audacity
>>>> - the option to rescan for VST effects is now in audacity.cfg and
>>>> it is
>>>> impossible to launch Audacity without trashing that file or editing
>>>> it
>>>> so that the relevant line is "Rescan=0"
>>
>>
>> Identical behaviour.
>>
>>
>>>> Start over: trash plugins.cfg, edit audacity.cfg to the single line
>>>> "NewPrefsInitialized =1", leave VST effect in the plug-ins folder.
>>>>
>>>> 3) -- Effect of having one VST effect in the plug-ins folder when
>>>> plugins.cfg does not exist --
>>>> Launch Audacity - get "Language" prompt, then Audacity hangs, as
>>>> above.
>>>> Force Quit Audacity
>>>> Notes:
>>>> - the "Rescan" option was not active since audacity.cfg had been
>>>> cleared
>>>> - after force quit, plugins.cfg contains information about the VST
>>>> effect
>>>> - after force quit, audacity.cfg has not been altered
>>
>>
>> Identical behaviour.
>>
>>
>>>> 4) -- Effect of having one VST effect in the plug-ins folder when
>>>> plugins.cfg exists but is empty --
>>>> Edit plugins.cfg, clearing all content, then save
>>>> Leave the VST effect in the plug-ins folder
>>>> Launch Audacity - hangs, as above
>>>> Force quit Audacity.
>>>> Notes:
>>>> - identical to case when plugins.cfg did not exist.
>>
>>
>> Identical behaviour.
>>
>>
>>>> 5a) -- Effect of adding one VST effect to the plug-ins folder, then
>>>> later adding another --
>>>> Start over: trash plugins.cfg, edit audacity.cfg to the single line
>>>> "NewPrefsInitialized =1", remove VST effect from the plug-ins  
>>>> folder.
>>>>
>>>> Launch Audacity -  get "Language" prompt, launches OK
>>>> Check "Rescan VST Efffects"
>>>> Quit Audacity
>>>> Add VST effect to the plug-ins folder
>>>> Launch Audacity - hangs as above
>>>> Force Quit Audacity
>>>> Launch Audacity - hangs, as above - Force Quit
>>>> - the option to rescan for VST effects is now in audacity.cfg and
>>>> it is
>>>> impossible to launch Audacity without trashing that file or editing
>>>> it
>>>> so that the relevant line is "Rescan=0"
>>>> Edit audacity.cfg setting "Rescan=0" and save
>>>> Launch Audacity - OK, and the VST effect appears in the Effect menu
>>
>>
>>
>>>> 5b)-- Now test if we can add another VST effect --
>>>> Check "Rescan VST Efffects"
>>>> Quit Audacity
>>>> Add another VST effect to the plug-ins folder
>>>> Launch Audacity - hangs
>>>> Force Quit Audacity
>>>> - the newly-added VST effect is not in plugins.cfg
>>
>> Different. The info for the two VST effects is now in plugins.cfg,
>> even though the hang occurred.
>>
>> 5c) Edit audacity.cfg setting "Rescan=0"
>> Launch Audacity - OK, and both VST effects are in the Effect menu
>> Quit Audacity
>>
>>>> 6) -- Will Audacity pick up two newly-added VST effects? --
>>>> Start over: trash plugins.cfg, edit audacity.cfg to the single line
>>>> "NewPrefsInitialized =1", leave both VST effects in the plug-ins
>>>> folder.
>>>> Launch Audacity - hangs, as above
>>>> Force Quit Audacity
>>>> - plugins.cfg contains info for only one VST effect, although there
>>>> were
>>>> two in the plug-ins folder.
>>
>> Identical behaviour.
>>
>> -- Bill
>>
>>
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