Topic by wanthalf

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Topic: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

Hello, I have been trying the PTQ 4.2 in an ArchLinux box today and got problems with the interface not redrawing. I also tried remote X connection, but that was just worse.

(Old PTQ Play 3 seems to redraw OK, but I did not want to register it on the machine and there is no old trial version (or is it?) so that I have not come very far with it.)

Anyway, it would be nice to know the dependencies or requirement of the Linux GUI, or at least get some error messages. ArchLinux does not install much by default and it took me some time to guess that I need to install some truetype fonts to make it display anything at all, and then I noticed it also requires XDG (and eventually dbus?). But I have no more ideas about what requirement or dependency could affect the redrawing failure.

Reply by julien

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

Well I have no idea either, maybe you forgot to install some X extension ? What do you mean "not redrawing", you mean there are some rare redrawing bugs or you mean it does never redraw anything ? I suggest that you contact us @ support and send the list of installed packages with their versions. XDG is only used for the xdg-open command, dbus is not used.

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Reply by wanthalf

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

I get the interface, but the widgets do not seem to work. The menus are displayed over each other - I cannot see the menu items highlighted but PTQ does react to selecting an item. Any overlay windows (e.g. configuration, about, etc.) appear just once but never disappear and I cannot (visually) switch to another tab. Selectors (e.g. sound card selector) show a listing, but then do not get removed nor redraw the selected card. When I move the whole window away from the screen or just switch to an VT, I am completely lost (a black window, in the best case the original contents of the window get redrawed when moving the mouse cursor above the window).

I will have a look at the X extensions... is PTQ using some special rendering/compositing/GL API? (It could as well be a problem of the Intel Atom GMA driver...?)

Last edited by wanthalf (30-09-2012 16:25)

Reply by julien

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

No GL is not used , you just need a working X11 with its "typical" extensions (mit-shm, xrender, xinerama, possibly others). Did you try to run any gtk application on this box, does it work fine ?

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Reply by wanthalf

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

Just a GTK demo and that seems OK... I have only installed XFCE and LXDE desktops, since this should be a mostly headless machine.

I guess the problem could be the framebuffer X driver...? There is actually no real proper linux graphics driver for Intel GMA 3600 chipsets. And the problem seems to consider the graphical contents of the GUI. The widgets do react, they are just never overdrawn.

Reply by Maxei

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

wanthalf, I recommend you to use Ubuntu studio 12.04 (with XFCE as desktop). It works great in my laptop. To eliminate the xruns, I crank up the cpu to "performance" in both cores (2.2 GHz max in my case). No issues on graphics so far.

Reply by wanthalf

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

Thanks, but the question was "why does not run well on *that* machine with *that* system", not which machine and which distribution to use. Anyway, I think the problem is bound to the graphics chipset/driver rather than the distribution. Or  - do you have a laptop with an Intel Atom D2800 (or another GMA 36x0-based) system? Is your system a 64bit one? Can you have a look at what X driver it is using and how it is configured? (I know Intel released a driver for this chipset lately, but it is 32bit only.)

Last edited by wanthalf (20-10-2012 15:18)

Reply by wallpaper

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

17-05-2012 12:18
Have an HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop running Kubuntu linux 8.04 (Hardy Heron) in i386 mode.
When I launch PT4 the welcome window pops up with its widgets dead. It blocks almost the entire PT4 GUI and thus prevents access to most of the PT4 controls.  Any subsequent windows or drop down menus are also zombies and clutter the desktop.  Meanwhile the piano works fine – I just can't  change anything.  Clicking the exit button shuts down PT4 properly and returns the desktop to normal.
Kubuntu 8.04 is a bit dated and may be the source of the problem. My desktop PC is currently running Linux Mint 12 (based on Ubuntu 12.04, the latest stable version).  I plan to install that OS on the laptop to see if that makes PT4  happy.
[And it did !]

My earlier post, quoted above, would seem to suggest that you have a problem similar to the one I had.  So why not follow Maxei's suggestion and let go of your ArchLinux.  The question really boils down to:  are you more interested in fiddling with Linux or in playing piano?  Now I'm a great fan of Linux, but I am passionate about piano, so the decision for me was easy.

Do what you have to do to get PT4 up and running.
So many songs - so little time.

Piano dilettante

Reply by wanthalf

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

You are right, but my point was different. I have lots of computers to run Pianoteq well. I just wanted to test it on a platform which I currently use as a (headless!) music player and which could eventually be embedded into a MIDI controller to make a "physical" piano based on Pianoteq (Ubuntu is not suited for such purpose). I do not mean I will really do it, but some people might be interested in such possibilities. And then it needs some initial configuration using a monitor, before running just headless. But that fails. I wanted to report a possible bug - and obviously it is not just a problem of the software platform, since Pianoteq 3 runs well in the same environment (and in the Changelog of Pianoteq I can see a "fix for Linux redrawing" problem, so maybe it is really just a bug that re-appeared in PT4).

So: no, I do not really have to use that particular computer with Archlinux myself, but I like experimenting on the possibilities of deployment of Pianoteq in different environments, and I wished to report a problem that might be serious for other people.

Last edited by wanthalf (22-10-2012 13:15)

Reply by wanthalf

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

So, Ubuntu studio 12.10 does not even manage to boot into X on the machine, but the pre-version of Ubuntu studio 13.04 runs well and Pianoteq interface works perfectly. However, when I run PTQ on this machine remotely through SSH from my MacOS, the interface is unusable again (using the latest XQuartz 2.7.4 which is also based on xorg-server 1.13).

Still cannot find any difference between the Ubuntustudio and Arch linux / XQuartz configuration. They seem nearly identical - same driver, same extensions, etc..

Reply by wanthalf

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Re: PTQ 4.2 not redrawing in Linux

Well, problem solved. Unfortunately I have no idea what was the cause. By accident I was forced to install the ArchLinux again from scratch, and the problem disappeared.

I still would like to know what is the cause. E.g. the problem with remote X access remains...