#85 SyncTerm 1.1 for Mac crashes on startup on Lion 10.7.5

[Harry Smith]

SyncTerm 1.1 for Mac crashes on startup on Lion 10.7.5. See attached crash log.

Note: Sync Term 1.0 and SyncTerm 1.2b run fine on Lion 10.7.5.

[Anonymous]

Oops. SyncTerm 1.1b also crashes but I see the SDL screen for a few seconds before it crashes.

Looks like StncTerm 1.0 is the only version that runs on Lion 10.7.5/.

O might try compiling the source using Xcode on Lion. Are they any instructions on how to build SyncTerm from source on Lion?

[Harry Smith]

Oops. I spoke to soon. SyncTerm 1.2b does NOT run well on Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5.
It launches and I see the screen. But a few seconds later, SyncTerm 1.2b also crashes. Just like SyncTerm 1.1.

I might try building the SyncTerm 1.1 and 1,2b from source using the native Xcode gcc compiler. Are there any instructions on how to build SyncTerm from source?

[Harry Smith]

I finally got SyncTerm v1.1 to run on Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. I had to replace SDL2 inside the SyncTerm Application with the latest SDL2 version (Version 2.0.22) from the official SDL website https://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php

FYI -- For those who are interested, below are the steps for the fix:

1. Download SyncTerm 1,1 (i.e. syncterm-1.1-osx.zip) from Sourceforge
2. Download SDL2 version 2.0.22 from https://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php
3. Unzip syncterm-1.1-osx.zip
4. Mount the image SDL2-2.0.22.dmg
5. Right click on SyncTerm and click on "Show Package Contents"
6. Replace the Versions folder inside Contents:Frameworks:SDL2.framework with the Versions folder found in the SDL2-2.0.22.dmg image
7. Replace the SDL2 binary found inside Contents:Frameworks:SDL2.framework with the SDL2 binary found in the SDL2-2.0.22.dmg image
8. Now the SyncTerm 1.1 application will run just fine under Lion!!

I am pretty sure the same fix will work with SyncTerm 1.2b on Lion.

Please consider updating Version 1.1 and 1.2b of SyncTerm on Sourceforge with SLD2 version 2.0.22.

[Anonymous]

How to build SyncTerm from source for/on macOS 12.5 ?

Tried the cmake classics without success:
cmake -B build -S .
cmake --build build

when I saw ncurses is missing I tried:
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ncurses/6.3
cmake --build build

Then saw that src/syncterm/CMakeLists.txt contains error and searches for crc16.c and crc32.c in wrong subfolders. It uses ../hash/crc16.c not ../smblib/crc16.c and list of problems goes on.
Then errors during compiling with problems in some src/xpdev/genwrap.h, src/xpdev/gen_defs.h and src/xpdev/dat_file.c files.

Looks like nobody tired to build it for macOS in a while and so the problems summed up.

It is a pitty since prebuild binary SyncTerm 1.1 is in principal running on macOS via Rosetta but it has on German keyboards this "@" bug from SDL so that this key can not be pressed witch is a bad since most BBS exect a email-address to register with is hard without "@" key. Read this bug is already fixed in newest SyncTerm code but this is kind of useless if nobody can compile it.

Found someware a prebuild binary SyncTerm 1.2b that has the "@" bug fixed but therfore has a SDL scaling bug and UI only fills 1/4 of window.

[Harry Smith]

Please note that you must replace SDL in SyncTerm v1.1 with SDL version 2.0.22 if you want to use SyncTerm v1.1 on Lion. Do not use newer versions of SDL because newer versions of SDL require Core Graphics which Lion does not have.

P.S. Apple introduced Core Graphics in Mountain Lion (10.8). So if you want to use the latest versions of SDL in SyncTerm v1.1 (or later), go ahead and use my instructions above. It should work just fine. (I tested it on High Sierra). Just make sure you are running Mountain Lion (10.8) or later!

[Stephen James Hurd]

Per the COMPILING file in the syncterm directory, MacOS releases were build using make RELEASE=1 USE_SDL_AUDIO=1 PREFIX=/usr

[Stephen James Hurd]

As stated, 1.2b runs fine, and will be the next release. Closing this to clear the board.