#17 1.2.21 VST crashes on loading

[David Harty]

As of 1.2.21, The VST versions of the LSP plugins are crashing in my Bitwig DAW and Carla-Rack.
When bitwig tries to pre-load them, I get the following error:

com.bitwig.flt.library.metadata.reader.exception.CouldNotReadMetadataException: could not read metadata: createAEffectInstance returned NULL

I also tested on Carla-Rack and I simply get a popup saying "Plugin failed to initialize". and in the Logs:

[ERR] Could not find VST core library

Reverting to 1.2.20 resolves the issue.
I do not have any issues with the latest versions using clap or vst3, but some old projects were using the vst, and I needed to open them so I could save the settings to preset config.

[SadKo]

Hello! It looks like VST2 version of LSP Plugins can not find the liblsp-plugins-vst2.so shared library or it's version mismatches the desired. Please try to remove liblsp-plugins-vst2.so from your system and reinstall the package.

[SadKo]

Also the problem may be related to missing some system libraries. You can check it by issuing
ldd liblsp-plugins-vst2.so.

[David Harty]

In both cases, (1.20 and 1.21+) liblsp-plugins-vst2.so is included in the released zip.
I also tried installing my distro's (Arch/Manjaro) lsp 1.22 package instead of the downloaded files. In that case, liblsp-plugins-vst2.so was in /usr/lib/vst/lsp-plugins.vst/, but none of the vst2 plugins would load.

[SadKo]

IN 1.2.21 we introduced OpenGL drawing instead of slow Cairo. Maybe that can be a reason. What does ldd liblsp-plugins-vst2.so command show?

[David Harty]

if I enter ldd liblsp-plugins-vst2.so in a generic console, I get

ldd: ./liblsp-plugins-vst2.so: No such file or directory

If I enter it in either the 1.20 or 1.21+ versions the lsp-plugins.vst folder, I get

ldd: warning: you do not have execution permission for `./liblsp-plugins-vst2.so'
        not a dynamic executable

[SadKo]

You need to switch to the folder where the liblsp-plugins-vst2.so is located and enter the command there or specify the full path to the location of the file:

ldd <path-to-library>/liblsp-plugins-vst2.so

[David Harty]

Right, when I'm in the directory of a given lsp version, I get the following (for both the working 1.20 and the non working 1.21+ versions).

ldd: warning: you do not have execution permission for `./liblsp-plugins-vst2.so'
        not a dynamic executable

ditto if I run sudo ldd ...

[SadKo]

Try to add execution permission to liblsp-plugins-vst2.so:

chmod a+x liblsp-plugins-vst2.so

Anyway, it is not that warning to worry about. Below you should see the list of dynamic libraries the liblsp-plugins-vst2.so depends on. Show it please.

[David Harty]

ditto:

[lsp-plugins.vst.1.20]$ chmod a+x liblsp-plugins-vst2.so
[lsp-plugins.vst.1.20]$ ldd liblsp-plugins-vst2.so 
ldd: warning: you do not have execution permission for `./liblsp-plugins-vst2.so'
        not a dynamic executable

[SadKo]

I don't have any idea why ldd fails to dump dependencies for shared object.

For me it woks just fine:

ldd liblsp-plugins-vst2.so 
        linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd8f37a000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fc4c09f8000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fc4c09d4000)
        librt.so.1 => /lib64/librt.so.1 (0x00007fc4c09ca000)
        libsndfile.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libsndfile.so.1 (0x00007fc4c094d000)
        libcairo.so.2 => /usr/lib64/libcairo.so.2 (0x00007fc4c0816000)
        libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x00007fc4c0400000)
        libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libfreetype.so.6 (0x00007fc4c0000000)
        libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libGL.so.1 (0x00007fc4c0788000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libX11.so.6 (0x00007fc4c0647000)
        libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/lib64/libXrandr.so.2 (0x00007fc4bfc00000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fc4bf9ac000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007fc4bfeb4000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fc4bf7b5000)
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fc4c1566000)
        libFLAC.so.8 => /usr/lib64/libFLAC.so.8 (0x00007fc4bf400000)
        libogg.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libogg.so.0 (0x00007fc4bf000000)
        libvorbis.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libvorbis.so.0 (0x00007fc4bec00000)
        libvorbisenc.so.2 => /usr/lib64/libvorbisenc.so.2 (0x00007fc4be800000)
        libspeex.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libspeex.so.1 (0x00007fc4be400000)
        libpixman-1.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libpixman-1.so.0 (0x00007fc4be000000)
        libEGL.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libEGL.so.1 (0x00007fc4c03ea000)
        libpng16.so.16 => /usr/lib64/libpng16.so.16 (0x00007fc4bdc00000)
        libxcb-shm.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libxcb-shm.so.0 (0x00007fc4c03e6000)
        libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007fc4c03bc000)
        libxcb-render.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libxcb-render.so.0 (0x00007fc4c03ac000)
        libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libXrender.so.1 (0x00007fc4bd800000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXext.so.6 (0x00007fc4bd400000)
        libz.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libz.so.1 (0x00007fc4c0393000)
        libexpat.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libexpat.so.1 (0x00007fc4c0354000)
        libuuid.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007fc4c034c000)
        libbz2.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1 (0x00007fc4bd000000)
        libGLX.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libGLX.so.0 (0x00007fc4c0318000)
        libGLdispatch.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libGLdispatch.so.0 (0x00007fc4bf6ff000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fc4c02eb000)
        libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXau.so.6 (0x00007fc4bcc00000)

Try also readelf -h liblsp-plugins-vst2.so.

[David Harty]

readelf of the 1.22 binary returns:

ELF Header:
  Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
  Class:                             ELF64
  Data:                              2's complement, little endian
  Version:                           1 (current)
  OS/ABI:                            UNIX - System V
  ABI Version:                       0
  Type:                              DYN (Shared object file)
  Machine:                           Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
  Version:                           0x1
  Entry point address:               0x0
  Start of program headers:          64 (bytes into file)
  Start of section headers:          12836440 (bytes into file)
  Flags:                             0x0
  Size of this header:               64 (bytes)
  Size of program headers:           56 (bytes)
  Number of program headers:         7
  Size of section headers:           64 (bytes)
  Number of section headers:         35
  Section header string table index: 34

The 1.20 in comparison returns:

[dwh@msi-ge66 lsp-plugins.vst.1.20]$ readelf -h liblsp-plugins-vst2.so
ELF Header:
  Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
  Class:                             ELF64
  Data:                              2's complement, little endian
  Version:                           1 (current)
  OS/ABI:                            UNIX - System V
  ABI Version:                       0
  Type:                              DYN (Shared object file)
  Machine:                           Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
  Version:                           0x1
  Entry point address:               0x0
  Start of program headers:          64 (bytes into file)
  Start of section headers:          11472192 (bytes into file)
  Flags:                             0x0
  Size of this header:               64 (bytes)
  Size of program headers:           56 (bytes)
  Number of program headers:         7
  Size of section headers:           64 (bytes)
  Number of section headers:         35
  Section header string table index: 34

Only difference appears to be in start of section headers.

[SadKo]

Looks like both binaries are valid. Still I suppose that the problem of loading 1.22 version is related to missing some dynamic libraries lilke libgl.
What operating system and of what version do you use?

[David Harty]

I'm using Manjaro (based on Arch).

[David Harty]

FWIW, I built 1.2.20 from source, and ldd returns:

      linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ff598eb7000)
        /usr/NX/lib/libnxegl.so (0x00007ff598200000)
        libsndfile.so.1 => /usr/lib/libsndfile.so.1 (0x00007ff598ddc000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007ff597e00000)
        libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007ff598508000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007ff598daf000)
        libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007ff597c10000)
        /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007ff598eb9000)
        libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007ff598da8000)
        librt.so.1 => /usr/lib/librt.so.1 (0x00007ff598da3000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007ff598d9e000)
        libogg.so.0 => /usr/lib/libogg.so.0 (0x00007ff598d94000)
        libvorbisenc.so.2 => /usr/lib/libvorbisenc.so.2 (0x00007ff598470000)
        libFLAC.so.14 => /usr/lib/libFLAC.so.14 (0x00007ff598427000)
        libopus.so.0 => /usr/lib/libopus.so.0 (0x00007ff597600000)
        libmpg123.so.0 => /usr/lib/libmpg123.so.0 (0x00007ff5981a2000)
        libmp3lame.so.0 => /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 (0x00007ff59812b000)
        libvorbis.so.0 => /usr/lib/libvorbis.so.0 (0x00007ff5980fd000)

for 1.2.21 it returns

      linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007f3e26918000)
        /usr/NX/lib/libnxegl.so (0x00007f3e25c00000)
        libsndfile.so.1 => /usr/lib/libsndfile.so.1 (0x00007f3e2683d000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f3e25800000)
        libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007f3e25f08000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f3e26810000)
        libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f3e25610000)
        /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f3e2691a000)
        libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f3e26809000)
        librt.so.1 => /usr/lib/librt.so.1 (0x00007f3e26804000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f3e267ff000)
        libogg.so.0 => /usr/lib/libogg.so.0 (0x00007f3e267f5000)
        libvorbisenc.so.2 => /usr/lib/libvorbisenc.so.2 (0x00007f3e25e70000)
        libFLAC.so.14 => /usr/lib/libFLAC.so.14 (0x00007f3e267aa000)
        libopus.so.0 => /usr/lib/libopus.so.0 (0x00007f3e25000000)
        libmpg123.so.0 => /usr/lib/libmpg123.so.0 (0x00007f3e25e12000)
        libmp3lame.so.0 => /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 (0x00007f3e25b89000)
        libvorbis.so.0 => /usr/lib/libvorbis.so.0 (0x00007f3e2677c000)

With the 1.2.21 build,Impulse reverb is loadable in the daw, but it does not provide a ui.

 ll ~/.vst/lsp-plugins.vst.1.21/                                       
total 8.0M
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dwh dwh  22K Jun 28 09:57 impulse-reverb-stereo.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 dwh dwh 8.0M Jun 28 09:56 liblsp-plugins-vst2.so

[SadKo]

Looks like you have built LSP Plugins without the UI.
If you build VST2 only, you need to provide:

make config FEATURES='vst2 ui'

The 'ui' option is important here.

[David Harty]

yup, adding "ui" to features resolved not having a ui. who'd a thunk it.

[SadKo]

Does the UI work now?

[David Harty]

yes

[SadKo]

Still I think the problem is caused by mismatching shared libraries name on your system to the system I build plugins. This may be a reason, and installing LSP Plugins from Arch Linux repository could be a better option for you.

[David Harty]

Thats what I had done originally. The package manager updated my plugins to 1.2.22 and the vst versions stopped working. This began my investigation into what happened and determining that 1.2.20 worked, but not 1.2.21.

[SadKo]

That looks strange.
Have you tried builds from tarballs provided here?

[David Harty]

Yes, when the package manager version didn't work. I downloaded 1.2.22 from here. Then, when that didn't work I jumped back to a version (1.1.16 IIRC) that worked, then I split the difference until I landed on 1.2.20 as the one (tarball) that worked on my ssystem and 1.2.21 as the version where the built tarballs stopped working on my system.