AstroPixelprocessor hangs when started under MacOS Big Sur

Hi all @j-notht-online-de, @vincent-mod, @favalessa, @rodolgo, @supercreative, @wvreeven, @paul-from-northern-mi, @eckhardv, @mkearl, @wornish

Please check this video that shows you what you need to do, the hanging/freeze is due to a MacOS window that sometimes does not show, that window is blocking everything 😉 . And to be clear: there is no need at all to install APP as a startup application. I have never done this myself.

Installation on an iMac Pro with Big Sur:

Kind regards,

Mabula

Yes, and it should! Mabula is uploading a video, maybe that might hint at something?

edit: Oh there it is. 🙂

 

A good contact of mine, a long APP user as well, is a Technical Sales person for Apple Belgium. He has confirmed to me that this should work. He has been running APP on different Macs with Big Sur without problems. Even on the new M1 hardware, everything works with these guidelines.

The last step is probably why some APP users tend to think that APP freezes, I suspect the MacOS window that is asking the permission is not visible/hidden and thus is blocking everything until the question is answered.

Kind regards,

Mabula

APP 1.082 is working fine on my iMac running BigSur. 

Posted by: @wornish

APP 1.082 is working fine on my iMac running BigSur. 

Excellent @wornish, thank you for your feedback 😉

Hi

I posted a reply in the incorrect thread, but I finally got it to work as per the steps explained here:

https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/postid/13743/

thanks

Thanks for letting us know!

Hello Mabula,

I have a 2020 iMac i9.  I have had no luck running APP after the Big Sur update.  I have followed your video and all the other suggestions on the 3 forums on this topic.  I have made sure I uninstalled and removed DMG files and reinstalled.  I have done this with 1.082 and 1.083 beta 4+ times or more.  I have allowed full disk access.  No matter what, when I start APP, the "Please select your working directory opens" (look different under big sur).  This screen cannot be resized or closed (picture attached). I can move it though to see if any warning under. 

 There is absolutely no Mac OS dialog or warning popup.  I cannot go further as unresponsive. Then once out of 10 times force quitting and reopening, after 10mins of frozen working directory screen, APP opens!  

Any and all new suggestions welcomed. 

Hi

I had the same issues but found a way to work it out. Just check my previous post, here:

https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/postid/13743/

Rodolphe,  I had already followed your post, but I just tried it again:

I uninstalled APP using CleanMyMac. searched and deleted all DMG and ZIP files.  emptied my trash bin.  rebooted.  set the security as you suggest.  re-downloaded and installed 1.082-MacOS-64bits.  APP opened successfully!  I then had to change the RAM allocation in APP, close and reopen...sadly did not open correctly, back to being frozen like before.  I am so frustrated.

john 

interestingly APP while frozen is using 9% of my CPU  (intel i9 10 core).  

after 25 minutes the attached screenshot opened.  there are 2 tabs, the first tab is APP in full glory.  Any thoughts?

The second window is the APP log window which is always present and normally is hidden behind the main APP window. Using CMD-Shift ~ you can bring the main APP window to the foreground.

@favalessa

I tried the same and got the same issue as yours, unfortunately.

I could observe 3 windows displayed, as captured below:

• the main GUI Interface (I assume so)
• The console window
• and the select working directory dialog box

all 3 taking up the entire screen.

The APP is not "frozen" per the system, but impossible to close/quit or even navigate. It also doesn't show up in the Folders and Files permissions.

Out of luck 🙁

I guess we have to wait for a reliable fix from Mabula.

@rodolgo

That is exactly what my computer is doing.  Thanks for the more detailed information.  Hope that helps Mabula.  At least this behavior is on more than one computer...is duplicatable. 

for now yes, out of luck.

john

@wvreeven

as Rodolphe mentions at this screen the app is frozen. CMD SHIFT is unresponsive.  

@favalessa Are you sure you are trying CMD SHIFT ~ ? Please note the ~ which is very important here.

@wvreeven

Yes.  all is frozen and unresponsive.  interestingly there is CPU load from APP durning this frozen time. 

@favalessa

This output seems ok. This is exactly how the app loads. The app checks for the OpenGL compatibility and if is ok goes with that, otherwise only with CPU.

Just a thought...could you check your Java version? Open a terminal and write 

java -version

Posted by: @euripides

@favalessa

This output seems ok. This is exactly how the app loads. The app checks for the OpenGL compatibility and if is ok goes with that, otherwise only with CPU.

Just a thought...could you check your Java version? Open a terminal and write 

java -version

I am wondering; is Java necessary for the APP install?  On the terminal I see that I don't have Java installed when typing in "java -version".

Java also doesn't show up when I look on the System Preferences page.

I recently uninstalled Adobe Flash which may not be related but now there is no flash or java installed on my Mac.

APP brings its own Java runtime. In the finder you can right click on the Astropixelprocessor.app file and "Show Package Contents". Other installed Java versions (see the Java applet for the Control Center) are irrelevant for Astropixelprocessor. 

When you "force quit" APP after it hangs, the system will create a "Spin Report". Open the Console app, choose "Spin Reports" and then Astropixelprocessor. This report shows what Astropixelprocessor was busy with before it was killed. 

Big Sur is very restrictive when it comes to applications accessing files and folders. A modal startup dialog ("choose working directory") may run into problems. Cross thread UI updates are also really problematic. When a background thread traverses the file system and error messages are not dispatched to the UI thread it may cause a problem. This is the area where I would look first.  

On my machine (2018 MacBook Pro 2.7 GHz i7 with 16 GB RAM) Astropixelprocessor hangs as described by others 9 times out of 10 - but once in a while the app opens opens normal. Astropixelprocessor has full disc access and I have not noticed any pattern why APP sometimes opens without problems.

There is no need to install Java when using APP. APP comes with a Java Runtime Environment of it's own.

Wouter

Hello Wouter, hello "eckhardv"

yes, exactly what "eckhardv" writes,
I already suspected 2 weeks ago.

APP has its own JAVA 8 runtime environment
and it spins with Big Sur for some users, for me too!

But just now APP has opened up again, but
only because I checked the box "Open at startup".
set. System reboot!
When I close a running APP, it does not work
more in the running system!
As a programmer I would like to fix the bug in the JAVA 8
search runtime environment 🙂

Can it be, that Big Sur with JAVA 11 is better
harmonizes?!

I hope you understand what I mean.
My English is not so perfect!

Jürgen

@j-notht-online-de

Hi Jürgen, it is possible that Java 11 works better on Big Sur than Java 8. However, that doesn't explain why several users have reported that it does work for them. We are still not able to reproduce this behaviour which makes it VERY hard to find a solution. APP will switch to Java 11 in the future but when this will be done is not clear yet.

Wouter

Update:  APP now opens successfully 3 out of 7 tries.  I have not changed any settings in the OS.  APP has full disc access.   So for now it's usable.  

@favalessa sorry to hear about your ongoing troubles but at least you manage to start it occasionally in a usable way.

Hello Wouter,

short current intermediate result with 3 of my Mac`s and "Big Sur"

 - Mac Mini 2019 - APP runs clean with "Big Sur"

 - Mac Book Pro 2020 16" - APP runs clean with "Big Sur"

 - iMac 2014 Retina 5K 27" - APP only runs, when the hook
                                          "open at startup" is set and reboots.

All computers have been changed from "Catalina" to "Big Sur
made an update.
Under "Catalina" APP was running clean on all computers.

I will reinstall the iMac 2014 with "Big Sur"
then I can see if APP runs normally?!

Jürgen

Posted by: @wvreeven

@favalessa sorry to hear about your ongoing troubles but at least you manage to start it occasionally in a usable way.

Hi,

good to hear it can work under unclear conditions but that shouldn’t prevent the search for a stable fix.

thanks!

@rodolgo Hi Rodolphe, rest assured that we are searching for a solution for this. However, as stated before, it is really hard to do so since we are unable to reproduce this.

Posted by: @favalessa

Update:  APP now opens successfully 3 out of 7 tries.  I have not changed any settings in the OS.  APP has full disc access.   So for now it's usable.  

Hi

I did the same tests as John mentioned, and obtained the same results; to make it happen, I did allow access to the full disk. Without this security setting, APP never launches correctly.

However, there's a minor glitch: the top 3 buttons of the main GUI window hardly display, see screenshot below.

I could get rid of it by unchecking the console output (button in the middle).

HTH.