During slideshow screen went black

Using applications, configuring, problems
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Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Shut down

#41 Post by Barq's »

Disciple

Since all versions of Puppy that I've tried on this machine have always been able to shut down the machine completely without the "system halted" message, I'm pretty confident that the hardware supports the feature. I will search the forums for tips on working with acpi/apm and see if I can figure out what is going wrong. I will let you know how I fare.

Thanks for the explanation.

disciple
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#42 Post by disciple »

I should have mentioned that it is often kernel-dependent. e.g. I have a machine that switches off using apm in previous puppies, but only using acpi in 4.3.x
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Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

SlideShow Update

#43 Post by Barq's »

et. al.

I heard from Jeremy today. He has updated the slideshow to version 1.2 and it now includes a loop feature. YES!

He also added some other stuff that he had wanted to do. I've sent MU a note to let him know that the update is now available on Jeremys' web site ( http://www.xmission.com/~jstanley/slideshow.html). We are getting close :-)

In the mean time I have gotten the pizza key to convert to an escape key (thank you npierce). The function is rather interesting however. It's as if the screensaver only looks for the esc command every 10 to 15 seconds so it is necessary to hold the key down and wait for the screensaver to look for the command. It's kind of weird but it works so I will dig out a little sand paper and borrow some fingernail polish and relabel that key. I'm thinking that ESC might be a little boring, do you think anybody would notice a bright orange key that was labeled $#!^ Probably a bad idea ... never mind.

No success with the full shut down yet but I have not given up.

npierce
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Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#44 Post by npierce »

Hi Barq's,

Good to hear that you are making progress, and especially that Jeremy has added the loop feature to slideshow.


As disciple pointed out, power-down stuff can be kernel-dependent. You've probably already seen this thread, but I'll toss it in here in case you missed it:

Puppy 4.3 APM won't power off [solved]

I've not tried that fix since my PC uses acpi, but it sounds like it could apply to your old i-opener, especially since the i-opener powered-down with older puppies.


That is odd about the 10 to 15 second delay after pressing the Pizza key. Perhaps the developers of the i-opener thought that ordering pizza more than once every fifteen seconds would lead to an unhealthy diet.

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Power Down Fixed

#45 Post by Barq's »

npierce

Thank you for the link to the power-down solution. I can't believe that I missed that one...I mean look at the thread title, it is everything that I was searching for... this is embarrassing. I humbly thank you for the link, it worked.

As for the 10 - 15 second time delay after pressing the pizza key...that only seems to happen with the screen saver. The pizza key has always worked really quick when getting back from the black screen issue, granted that could just be the luck of the draw.

Speaking of the black screen issue, I have not yet tried to shut off the default black screen function in this version of Puppy. I think I shall attempt to resolve that before taking on setting up Wine and E-Sword, while we wait for the fixed screensaver.

I shall let you know how I fare. Thank you again for that link.

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Black Screen Solution Found

#46 Post by Barq's »

Black screen solution found;

I copied the following line from the front end script running Gxine, that BarryK had pointed out, and put it in the screen saver script in the startup folder, then rebooted.

xset s off -dpms

NOTE: xset s off all by itself did not work, it had to have the -dpms part as well.

The slideshow still runs out of pictures and hangs everything, but I have been able to stretch that out for several hours by adding more pictures and increasing the delay between pictures. I expect that problem to go away when MU finishes incorporating the latest version of the slideshow into the screensaver. Adding a "No Black Screen" toggle to the screensaver setup that either wrote or deleted the above line in the screensaver start up script would be a nice fix, but I don't think I want to push my luck with MU since he has already been so gracious to incorporate the slideshow fix.

While we wait for Mu to finish the incorporation of the slideshow, I shall go find a thread on installing wine.

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MU
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#47 Post by MU »

First, sorry, that it took so long.

I work again since middle of last year, and have not much time left for coding in my spare time.

I attach PuppyScreensaver03.

Changes:

- Now located in /usr/local/PuppyBasicScreensaver03
- includes slideshow.bin, the compiled Perigee Slideshow 1.2 from february 2010. http://www.xmission.com/~jstanley/slideshow.html

I compiled it in Newyearspup, and did not test other Puppys. Please let me know it it will not work, then I must try to compile it in Puppy 4.3.1.

The slideshow now shows the pictures randomly, and you can exit it by pressing "esc" or "q".
The "q" key was easy to add to the source (modified slideshow.cpp is included).

The slideshow no longer needs a "recursive symlink", as it now has a "-loop" option.

I did not run it over a longer period, so could not test, if it crashes after a longer time.

Thanks to George for repeatingly reminding me about Jeremias updated slideshow, so that I now finally could add it.

Mark
[url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=173456#173456]my recommended links[/url]

npierce
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#48 Post by npierce »

Hi Mark,

I really had hoped to respond sooner, but I've been busy with other things these days. Sorry for the delay.

I have been running the new version of the slideshow module, and it it is working fine in Puppy 4.3.1. Last night I ran it overnight, and eight hours after I started it, it was still running fine (not that I would have expected otherwise, but it is nice to be sure).

Thanks very much for taking the time to update this. It is great to now have a properly looping slideshow. And the quit with 'q' feature should be a big help to those who were previously unable to ESCape.

Looking around the forum I see that the PuppyBasicScreensaver has quite a long history. And not only do I want to thank you for all your work on this over the years, but thanks to any others who have had a hand in it. Like so many Puppy-related projects, it seems that a number of folks have contributed a little bit, here or there, along the way. And it looks like every year there has been a milestone.

Thanks to you for creating it in 2005, and adding a slideshow module in 2006. Thanks to Jeremy Stanley for creating Perigee Slideshow. Thanks to muggins for making the first .pet of Jeremy's application in 2007. Thanks to puppyluvr for adapting PuppyBasicScreensaver for Puppy 4.1 (by substituting slideshow for gtksee and gtk-1.2, which apparently were not in Puppy 4.1) in 2008. And finally thanks to you again, Mark, for improving how it worked with slideshow in 2009 and, most recently, updating it with Jeremy's improved slideshow in 2010. Also thanks to Barq's for contacting you and Jeremy to start things rolling on these newest improvements. Probably there are others, unknown to me, that deserve thanks too. (If you know who you are, thanks!)

Lastly, I'd like to add a reminder that this screensaver requires PuppyBasic and the slideshow module requires a couple of SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) libraries. These are not included in newer Puppies (like Puppy 4.3.1). Details on what packages are needed and where to find them were provided by vtpup in this post:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 245#365245

There may be other packages needed to get some of the other modules to work, but I've not looked into those since I've been concentrating on the new slideshow module.

--npierce

Barq's
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Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

#49 Post by Barq's »

et.all

I sincerely apologize for such an extended absence. I wish I could tell you a real creative excuse but I will have to live with "life tossed me a nasty curve ball" and leave it at that. But I am alive and I'm back.

I see that ninety people have already downloaded it and only one post. So I shall give it a go and report back.

Thank you MU for updating this.
Thank you npierce and disciple for staying with me through out this.

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Lost the start up script

#50 Post by Barq's »

et. al.

I uninstalled the slideshow screensaver 2.0 and installed version 3.0...now it does not work and the screen goes black on schedule again. The screensaver start up script seems to have been deleted from the startup folder when screensaver 2.0 was uninstalled and version 3.0 did not put one back (i.e. I no longer have the xsets off command in the startup folder either).
Under the menu item "Desktop" "Puppy Screensaver Setup" the selected module is slidshow and the the screensaver shows as active. I selected the "test screensaver" option and the slideshow starts just fine (the "q" key for exit works great...thank you). The interval is set for 1 min and I selected the start screensave option and it starts up on schedule. The only problem seems to be the absence of a start up script in the startup menu. I remember how to modify a script, but I do not know how to create one from scratch. how is that done?

npierce
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#51 Post by npierce »

Hi Barq's,

Welcome back!

The /usr/local/PuppyBasicScreensaver03/run-PB-screensaver script is what you are looking for. Yes, installing the old package placed a symbolic link to the script in /root/Startup, and installing the new packages does not. Some people might not want it to start automatically. You do, so you can create the symbolic link yourself with the following command (which is actually all on one line, although it may appear on multiple lines here if your browser window is small):

Code: Select all

ln -s /usr/local/PuppyBasicScreensaver03/run-PB-screensaver /root/Startup/
Then you can edit it to add your xset s off -dpms as you did before.

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Start up Script

#52 Post by Barq's »

Hello npierce

I created the symbolic link per your instructions, tweaked it with the xset s off -dpms script and rebooted. The screensaver kicked up on schedule. It's late and I'm going to let it run overnight to see if it locks up or goes black and let you all know tomorrow evening.

Thank you (it's great to be back)

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Success

#53 Post by Barq's »

et. al.

Well it has been running for almost 24 hrs now, no hangs, no black screens, just doing what it was intended to do...YES!

npierce
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Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#54 Post by npierce »

That is good news! Success is nice, especially after a long journey.

Thanks for contacting Jeremy and Mu to encourage them to add the new improvements. It is very nice to have looping working well.

Enjoy!

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Hanging Again

#55 Post by Barq's »

Well I placed the machine in the church library three weeks ago. Each week when I returned I found the machine was hung.

AGHHHH!

How do I diagnose the cause of the hang this time?

npierce
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Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#56 Post by npierce »

My guess is that some curious soul clicked the mouse or pressed one of the various manual-advance keys, putting the slideshow into manual mode. To put it back into auto-advance mode press t. See RUNTIME CONTROLS at http://www.xmission.com/~jstanley/slideshow.html for more info.

Or do you mean it was totally hung, requiring reboot? If so, was it still displaying one of the slideshow images? Were you able to move the mouse cursor?

Barq's
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun 07 Dec 2008, 21:05

Hung machine

#57 Post by Barq's »

It is totally hung requiring a forced re-boot. This has been very consistent ever week when I go back to it. It has always been hung on one of the photos, but never the same one twice.

npierce
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2009, 01:40

#58 Post by npierce »

Barq's,

Coming back to the forum after a long absence, I was sorry to read that you were still having problems with the screensaver.

As you know from experience, troubleshooting something that only fails after running for many days, can be a tough mission.

Trying to think of a reason that it would run overnight fine, but fail later in the week, I considered the possibility that the program might have a small memory leak which -- after running for many days -- eventually consumed all available memory, causing the system to hang.

But that does not seem to be the case. As I write this, I've had the screensaver running in a window for nine days, and it is using no more memory now than it was on the first day it was running. Once it displayed all of the images in the directory, there was no further significant increase in memory use by the screensaver. (Actually, it didn't necessarily need to display all of the images: once it had displayed the one image that caused it to use the most memory (which was not necessarily the largest image file) memory use did not grow significantly.) Oh, it might occasionally jump up or down a few megabytes, but would eventually return to about the same as it was at first.

I looked at all three processes: the process that is always running in the background waiting to start the screensaver (scr.pbas), the module that calls the slideshow program (mod_slideshow.pbas), and the slideshow process itself (slideshow.bin).

Granted, running it in a window, as I did, is not the same as running it full-screen. It is certainly possible that there is a bug that will only raise its nasty head when run full-screen. But the odds of that, while not impossible, are probably slim. Naturally, I did not want to give up using my computer for a week just to test this in full-screen mode.

Anyway, it seems that we can probably rule out a memory leak.

Perhaps you have a very large number of images? When you tested it overnight, was that long enough for it to display all of the images? If not, perhaps there is one image that is very large and complex that pushed the memory use beyond the limit of available memory. I think that is unlikely, but I am running out of ideas. If I remember correctly, you only have 128 MB in that machine. That should be more than enough for a computer that isn't doing anything else except displaying simple images, but perhaps you have a few humongous images in the mix, or possibly one or more corrupt image files. As I said, I'm running out of ideas here.

So if your overnight test did not test all of the images, you might want to reduce the number of images to just a few known good ones, and test it that way to see if it will keep running for a week.

Since the screensaver will run overnight for you, and is still running for me after nine days, I suspect it is more likely that something else is causing your system to hang. It could be some other process, or even a hardware problem. Perhaps your machine is sensitive to temperature variations? Is the church office heated during the week?

I would suggest testing it at home for a week, where you have more control of its environment and can be sure that no one else is interfering with the test during the week. Also, if you haven't already done so, try shutting down other applications such as browsers (this forum has countless tales of buggy browsers).


Anyway, I realize that by now you may have gotten tired of pulling your hair out, and may have thrown in the towel while you still have hair left. But if you are still working on this project, good luck!

And Happy New Year.

npierce

P.S. I noticed that the server where I previously found the SDL pet has vanished. If anyone needs it, an alternative location is http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Games/SDL-1.2.9.pet.

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