PixInsight 1.8.6 Ripley Released

[gerra1]

Hi thanks a lot for this new version! No surprise that Pixinsight is always more popular :-)

I have question about OSX: you say 10.10 is not supported anymore..is there any specific reason? From 10.10 to 10.11 many things changed, and not everyone can update..so I'm on 10.10, and I was wondering what I can do to try the new version.

Can I keep both? Is it not working at all or simply you're not supporting it in case of problems?

Thanks!

[copello]

Hi everyone!


At the beginning, I apologize to all of You for my simple and imperfect English.

I'm Mariusz (or Mario - if You like ) and I'm new here. From a few months I'm happy (more or less ) user of PixInsight.

I've been waiting impatiently for the PixInsight update because now I mainly use the Nikon Z6 for astrophotography. I was hoping that support for this camera will appear in the 1.8.6 release ... but unfortunately not.


And here is my question, when will this support be implemented?


     Greetings
     Mariusz

Hello Mariusz,

Juan merged recently the latest stable LibRaw library in the PCL code.

Code: [Select]

commit 7358ec9043a23cd6d61f21aa5aab31cb591b9b74
Author: jconejero <juan.conejero@pixinsight.com>
Date:   Sat Dec 1 21:13:30 2018 +0100                                                                                                       

    Integration of LibRaw 0.19.1-Release.
The LibRaw library handles all the DSLR RAW bayer/debayer functionality. The LibRaw library supports
since commits

Code: [Select]

commit e8fa8dfb2791e2ba5942d3b33aaef01a1547c6be
Author: Iliah Borg <iliah.i.borg@gmail.com>
Date:   Thu Nov 8 16:38:55 2018 -0500

    Nikon Z 6: CM replaced for the one borrowed from Adobe DNG Converter Beta 11.1

commit 537d837526be36a7d197e03dd460b3140294f7db
Author: Iliah Borg <iliah.i.borg@gmail.com>
Date:   Wed Nov 7 15:39:15 2018 -0500

    Nikon Z 6: support for uncompressed 14-bit FX
and also

Code: [Select]

>git show d164724576244d61a3b17aa64f95991a4e3603a0

commit d164724576244d61a3b17aa64f95991a4e3603a0
Author: Alex Tutubalin <lexa@lexa.ru>
Date:   Tue Dec 4 08:16:41 2018 +0300

    Z6 to camera list

diff --git a/src/libraw_cxx.cpp b/src/libraw_cxx.cpp
index 868a58e..5986313 100644
--- a/src/libraw_cxx.cpp
+++ b/src/libraw_cxx.cpp
@@ -5889,6 +5889,7 @@ static const char *static_camera_list[] = {
        "Nikon D7200",
        "Nikon D7500",
        "Nikon Df",
+       "Nikon Z6",
        "Nikon Z7",
        "Nikon 1 AW1",
        "Nikon 1 J1",
However, these commits are NOT tag as a stable release, that is why the latest PI does not contain them.

However, since PCL is open source and if you want take the risk, you can copy the related source file from LibRaw to the proper PCL directory and
rebuild the LibRaw and RAW module used in PixInsight yourself. That is:

~/dev/LibRaw>grep -r "Nikon Z6\|Nikon Z 6" .
./internal/dcraw_common.cpp:    { "Nikon Z 6", 0, 0,
./dcraw/dcraw.c:    { "Nikon Z 6", 0, 0,
./src/libraw_cxx.cpp:   "Nikon Z6",

However ./dcraw/dcraw.c is not required. There are however, additional files *.cpp/*.h which needs to be copied.
Now you need to recompile libraw library and you should get: liblibraw-pxi.a, in addition one needs RAW-pxm.so to be finally
compiled. As a final output, you should get:

Code: [Select]

pixinsight/pcl/bin>strings RAW-pxm.so| grep "Nikon Z6"
Nikon Z6
So in other words, the RAW-pxm.so has now Nikon Z6 support.

Now make sure, you backup the original RAW module:

Code: [Select]

/opt/PixInsight/bin>sudo mv RAW-pxm.so RAW-pxm.so.origand copy the new build one into /opt/PixInsight/bin

However, keep in mind that this is just an approach how to enjoy Open Source and to solve problems :-). It is better to wait until the LibRaw authors marks/tags
the next stable release and Juan merges this stable release in PCL.

If you want I can email you the RAW-pxm.so file (for Linux only).

Cheers
 Copello

[Juan Conejero]

Now - I am confused.  I just launched PixInsight (Mac version) and went to resources ==> updates ==> check for updates and it comes back with no updates available.

Major updates of the PixInsight core application (e.g. from 1.8.5 to 1.8.6) are never available as automatic updates. You have to uninstall the old version and install the new one manually. There are technical reasons for this beyond the scope of these forum posts.

I presume the new licence key version will not work with the older version of PixInsight on my system, so I must first upgrade to v1.8.6 before applying the new licence.

That's correct. Please read the announcement post, the first post in this thread, for complete information on the new version and the new licensing system.

Will future upgrades to PixInsight drop support for the older pre MacOS versions of OS X

Yes. That will happen, it is unavoidable. The current version 1.8.6 supports Mac OS X 10.11, macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14. Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) is no longer supported.

Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) is still supported, but the next release in the 1.8.6 series will probably drop support for it, and then macOS 10.12 will be the oldest version we'll support.

Please note that I am not happy when this happens. I am also a victim of Apple's policy regarding support for previous operating system versions. With each new SDK version released by Apple, something becomes unsupported in older versions of the operating system. I always have to use one of the latest SDKs when I build a new version of PixInsight, or otherwise I'd be generating incompatibilities, security issues and lack of support for the latest versions. On the other hand, PixInsight depends on 3rd party libraries, which have their own requirements.

does the old pixinsight-license file get removed automatically once you upgrade to 1.8.6, if not, I presume you should remove it manually then, for security reasons?

No, it is not removed automatically. And yes, removing it is a good idea for security reasons, once you feel comfortable with 1.8.6.

[Juan Conejero]

I have question about OSX: you say 10.10 is not supported anymore..is there any specific reason?

The macOS version of PixInsight 1.8.6 uses Qt 5.11.3, which supports macOS 10.11, 10.12, and 10.13 (10.14 is not supported officially, but it works fine). Unfortunately, OS X 10.10 is incompatible with this Qt version.

The next release in the 1.8.6 series for macOS will hopefully use Qt 5.12 (as the Linux and Windows versions already do), which is incompatible with OS X 10.11. Sorry for this bad news, but there's nothing I can do to avoid this.

Can I keep both? Is it not working at all or simply you're not supporting it in case of problems?

As a result of Apple's Gatekeeper Folder Randomization, the core application has necessarily to load all modules, scripts and support files from the /Applications/PixInsight/ folder. This means that you can't have PixInsight versions 1.8.5 and 1.8.6 installed on the same machine.

[Juan Conejero]

I've been waiting impatiently for the PixInsight update because now I mainly use the Nikon Z6 for astrophotography. I was hoping that support for this camera will appear in the 1.8.6 release ... but unfortunately not.

The authors of LibRAW have released a new snapshot a few days ago that supports the Nikon Z6. This snapshot was available a couple of days before the PixInsight 1.8.6 release, and I was considering the possibility to include it. Since the RAW module is a critical component, I decided to keep the latest 0.19.1 stable release of LibRAW to stay on the safe side. I can release a development version of the RAW module built with the snapshot through the update-devel repository; I'll keep you informed about this.

[lenbo]

Attempted to update to 1.8.6. Had problem with my password for downloading. No idea why. Never had much problem before. In any event eventually got password reset and downloaded OK. Then installed 1.8.6 without problem after uninstalling current version. I then requested activation codes. No communication at all. Checked spam. Received password reset and other communications quickly before this but nothing for activation. Been messing with it for a long while now. Can I just revert without problems? Hanging it up for now. Out of time. Will check back later tonight or tomorrow. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

OK. I'll see if I can just revert since I can't even use PI at all now. Sorry I bothered you folks. Take care.

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Len,

It seems that your email provider is blocking some of our notification messages. The best solution to these problems is using a different email address, on a different provider, to manage your license. Free Gmail and Yahoo accounts work without problems with our licensing system. If you have one of these email accounts, we'll be glad to associate it with your license on our server.

[dpastern]

Thanks Juan!

I uninstalled PixInsight 1.8.5 (silly me realised after my earlier post that 1.08.05 is 1.8.5 lol!) as per the FAQs (install section). 

Went to the software depository, logged in, grabbed the 1.8.6 pkg install files and voila! 

Post install, entered my identifier/password and got the licence Email immediately.  Opened that up, clicked on the link and new activation code all good! 

Have grabbed the latest update for 1.8.6 too.

Many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

I guess I'm going to be stuck with this version of PixInsight on the Mac then...I know it's NOT your fault, but it's still frustrating as a customer (not frustrated with PixInsight, I'm frustrated with Apple Computers).  Their new MacBook Pros have various hardware issues that Apple continues to ignore (see Louis Rossman's excellent YouTube channel for many sordid details!), I despise the new AHT (Apple Hardware Tax) aka hard soldered hard drive, RAM etc.  Apple will NEVER get a cent out of me in my lifetime.  Note: curiously, Apple did not firmware block the MacBook (not pro) 2010 model...their logic is illogical (I'm half Vulcan)! 

Apple diatribe aside, I will stick with this 1.8.6 release - I see no reason why it should be inferior to 1.8.5.  Many of the newer features I will not use, but the core application does not appear to have really changed UI wise.  I have removed the old licence file via the terminal (UNIX guy here), hopefully I will not need to revert to 1.8.5!

If I need to have a later/newer version of PixInsight in the future, I will run it from my Windows PC and/or laptop as required. 

Many thanks again!

Now - I am confused.  I just launched PixInsight (Mac version) and went to resources ==> updates ==> check for updates and it comes back with no updates available.

Major updates of the PixInsight core application (e.g. from 1.8.5 to 1.8.6) are never available as automatic updates. You have to uninstall the old version and install the new one manually. There are technical reasons for this beyond the scope of these forum posts.

I presume the new licence key version will not work with the older version of PixInsight on my system, so I must first upgrade to v1.8.6 before applying the new licence.

That's correct. Please read the announcement post, the first post in this thread, for complete information on the new version and the new licensing system.

Will future upgrades to PixInsight drop support for the older pre MacOS versions of OS X

Yes. That will happen, it is unavoidable. The current version 1.8.6 supports Mac OS X 10.11, macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14. Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) is no longer supported.

Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) is still supported, but the next release in the 1.8.6 series will probably drop support for it, and then macOS 10.12 will be the oldest version we'll support.

Please note that I am not happy when this happens. I am also a victim of Apple's policy regarding support for previous operating system versions. With each new SDK version released by Apple, something becomes unsupported in older versions of the operating system. I always have to use one of the latest SDKs when I build a new version of PixInsight, or otherwise I'd be generating incompatibilities, security issues and lack of support for the latest versions. On the other hand, PixInsight depends on 3rd party libraries, which have their own requirements.

does the old pixinsight-license file get removed automatically once you upgrade to 1.8.6, if not, I presume you should remove it manually then, for security reasons?

No, it is not removed automatically. And yes, removing it is a good idea for security reasons, once you feel comfortable with 1.8.6.

[lenbo]

Hi Len,

It seems that your email provider is blocking some of our notification messages. The best solution to these problems is using a different email address, on a different provider, to manage your license. Free Gmail and Yahoo accounts work without problems with our licensing system. If you have one of these email accounts, we'll be glad to associate it with your license on our server.

Thanks for response. Not sure what happened. Went back and attempted to activate again and it worked and it looks good. I had to have done something wrong but can't figure out what I did. I've only worked with computers since 1968 including programming, project development and management, technical support for 3000 workstations, a couple dozen remote midsize mainframes, a couple large water cooled machines, telecommunications, network development, second level problem support for a large customer base, etc.. You might think I would be past this kind of thing but sometimes I assume I know what I'm doing and suffer the consequences. Anyway thanks for the follow up. Take care.

[Dave Bloomsness]

I just updated to the new core and when I start it up I get a notification that a new core is available, ver 1.8.6.1448. My installed version is 1.8.6.1447. Do I need to do it all over again?
Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Bloomsness]

Never mind. I just saw the thread on this.
Thanks,
Dave

[arthuss]

Hello. Sorry for my bad english. I Use google translate.

When the nikon Z6 will be supported ?
how can i use my raw in the meantime?

Thanks

Jean-marc

[kmorefield]

AVG anti virus is Quarantining my download of the 64 bit Windows version saying it is infected with Win32:Malware-gen.

Does that make any sense to you guys?

[msmythers]

See this posting.

https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=13064.msg79466#msg79466



Mike

[pantarei]

Hello, installing the new release (on iMac) all third parts scripts I added manually  and saved projects were deleted. Is there a way to keep them when a major upgrade has  done?

Best regards
Max