Hi all,
I am glad to announce a new version of the PixInsight core application: 1.8.8-2. This version is now available as an automatic update to versions 1.8.8 and 1.8.8-1 for FreeBSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.
Main Bug Fixes and Improvements* Fixed a complex bug in version 1.8.8-1 of PixInsight that has been causing sporadic segmentation faults, especially during long script executions. This mainly includes the BPP and WBPP scripts. See original bug reports:
https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=14283.0https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=14265.0* Windows: Fixed a bug where process and script execution times where incorrect (with absurdly long values) for tasks lasting more than 20 minutes approximately.
* All platforms: Improved elapsed time measurements with guaranteed time stamp resolution better than 1 microsecond on all supported platforms.
* Improved management of updates, with better evaluation of package inter-dependencies and more flexible update repositories.
Known IssuesFreeBSD and Linux
* Recent versions of the KDE Plasma desktop environment include a morphing popups desktop effect that causes problems with recent PixInsight versions. If this effect is enabled, it slows down some dragging operations in the PixInsight core application, such as dragging icons and view selectors. You should disable this effect, which is very easy from KDE's System Settings panel. This problem is also present on Linux.
* On recent versions of the KDE Plasma desktop environment, a display tearing prevention option (v-sync) is enabled by default. This option can cause input lag problems (e.g., slow cursor movement over image windows). This option should be disabled for optimal PixInsight performance:
- System Settings > Display and Monitor > Tearing prevention: set to 'Never'
- Click Apply
Linux
* PixInsight is not compatible with the open-source Nouveau graphics driver. If your distribution is using Nouveau, you must remove and replace it with the proprietary Nvidia driver in order to use PixInsight.
macOS
* On Apple laptops with dual graphics cards, the integrated Intel graphics driver may cause problems with recent versions of PixInsight. If you use one of these laptops, we recommend you disable the Automatic graphics switching option on System Preferences (Energy Saver section) before running the PixInsight core application.
Windows
* There are problems with Intel graphics drivers on machines where the _only_ graphics card available is an integrated Intel HD graphics GPU. This mainly affects laptops. This does not mean that PixInsight cannot work on these machines, just that you can expect screen rendering and usability issues. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to solve these problems. On machines with dual graphics (e.g., an NVIDIA discrete graphics card plus an integrated Intel HD graphics card), there are no problems at all because PixInsight forces the use of the high-performance discrete GPU automatically.
* On some laptops with nonstandard screen resolutions, such as the Microsoft Surface, PixInsight cannot find valid screen scaling factors automatically. On these machines, you may have to run the PixInsight core application with the --ui-scaling command line argument. For example, to apply a UI scaling factor of 2:
C:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe --ui-scaling=2
You only have to do this once, since the scaling factor will be stored in application preferences automatically. Of course, if you already are using version 1.8.6 and the interface looks correct, then you don't need to do this; this is only required for new installations.
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Thank you for your attention.
