Re: PixInsight 1.8.8-3 Released

[MineralMike]

There's a problem: Every time I close PI. I get the Windows error dialog that says "The program has stopped working...."

Closing the program does not return directly to the desktop; this dialog always appears.

As instructed, I uninstalled PI, then installed the new release. After the "stopped working" dialog appeared when closing PI six times, I uninstalled again and installed the new release again. Same problem. Both installs completed normally.

I'm running Windows 8.1 64-bit. I've attached a screen shot of the dialog.

[Juan Conejero]

This cannot be reproduced on any of our working and testing Windows 10 machines. Can you provide additional information, such as the information that can be obtained from the error dialog you have attached?

Anyway, Windows 8.1 is not supported. The only Windows version supported by PixInsight is Windows 10.

[MineralMike]

Here are the details from the crash report dialog:

Code: [Select]

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
  Application Name: PixInsight.exe
  Application Version: 1.8.8.3
  Application Timestamp: 5df3c331
  Fault Module Name: Qt5WebEngineCore.dll
  Fault Module Version: 5.13.2.0
  Fault Module Timestamp: 5dc1834c
  Exception Code: c0000005
  Exception Offset: 0000000001c3d1c3
  OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.768.101
  Locale ID: 1033
  Additional Information 1: 007a
  Additional Information 2: 007a3ad546c6a11291b4aef8f027155e
  Additional Information 3: 5104
  Additional Information 4: 510495ba5c2e04bca3a3c1035f8038b2

Read our privacy statement online:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=280262

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
  C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
I am surprised and devastated that PI supports only Windows 10. I can't use Win10 due to its massive automatic updates and my metered internet data with a monthly limit. Win 10 used 80% of my monthly data in one day, so I had to roll back to Win 8.1.

 

--- Mike

[jliu]

FYI, I also get the same program crash message using Windows 7 Pro.  Windows 7 is no longer supported as well.

[gstone]

I too am unhappy that windows 7 is not supported.  Microsoft's update philosophy is really hard to live with when you need stability and have no way to get the enterprise version.

[Joe Cool]

Yeah, I have this same problem. Real shame as so will 417 million other Windows 7 potential users.

[Joe Cool]

Only Windows 10 That heap of junk! And here I've been singing Pixinsight praises to our local astronomy group of about 25 users. Not any more. Almost none of them are running Windows 10, and at $275 for a copy for Windows 10, or a new PC, most will not be doing that for 1 program. In the past year alone I've convinced about 10 people to make the change from PhotoShop. They're gonna be pissed!

[dld]

Yeah, I have this same problem. Real shame as so will 417 million other Windows 7 potential users.

In less than a month Microsoft will no longer provide security and support for Windows 7 rendering it a potential security risk for all of its users. So the problem is Microsoft here. Their next OS is Windows 8.1 which is worse than 10 and will also be decommissioned in three years from now. If you were a developer, would you invest your time and efforts supporting a dying OS?

I am also reading that people using an unsupported OS are trying to find a missing dll. This is a great security risk. What if a ransomware infects your system? How many man-hours of data collection will be lost then? I am not a Windows fanboy but considering the security threats, the next sane solution is upgrading your system or switching to Linux.

[Juan Conejero]

FYI, we have released new Windows installation packages that will allow you to run PixInsight 1.8.8-3 on Windows 7 SP1:

https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=14446.0

I fully agree with everything dld says.

[MineralMike]

Since PI was developed under Linux, and Windows 7 and 8.1 are becoming unsupported by Microsoft, I'm considering adding a Linux box just for processing astro images. I have some questions:

1. Am I correct that my PI license allows me to install it on a Linux computer as and on my Win 8.1 box? Only one will be used at a time.

2. Will PI work under Linux's KDE and Gnome GUIs? Is one preferred over the other?

Thanks.

--- Mike

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Mike,

1. Am I correct that my PI license allows me to install it on a Linux computer as and on my Win 8.1 box? Only one will be used at a time.

Yes, absolutely. And you can use both at the same time. Actually, our license agreement allows you to install and use PixInsight on any machine you own, on any supported operating system.

2. Will PI work under Linux's KDE and Gnome GUIs? Is one preferred over the other?

My recommendation is Kubuntu 18.04 LTS. This is the operating system we use on all of our development workstations. GNOME also works well, but KDE provides a much better integration of bundled PixInsight projects.

Saying this is probably unnecessary, but I also recommend:

- Depending on the amount of money you want to invest in the new Linux box, one of the latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper (third generation) or AMD Ryzen 9 processors. See the benchmark for comparisons.

- Not less than 32 GB of RAM. The more the much better.

- Fast SSD disks.

You're about to experience the performance and stability of Linux. Warning: it is addictive

[MineralMike]

You're about to experience the performance and stability of Linux. Warning: it is addictive.

Yes. I've had a Linux server running on our household network for more than 15 years. Plus, I have a Raspberry Pi that I occasionally boot-up and run a script to backup server files to an external SSD (the server has a second HD, and a cron job backs-up files to it daily, but I like the extra security of the RasPi backup).

Linux is great, and the only reason I use Windows on my computer is that I run some Windows-only software. If I get a second computer with Linux to run PI, I'll see how much of that Windows-only software can be made to run under a virtual machine like Wine.

--- mike

[danoid]

You're about to experience the performance and stability of Linux. Warning: it is addictive

And the fun of opening console windows and typing in the dark if you put it on your acquisition computer!

[MineralMike]

And the fun of opening console windows and typing in the dark if you put it on your acquisition computer!

Typing in the dark is no fun. I added white LEDs to illuminate my observatory keyboard. http://astronomy.mdodd.com/observatory.html#KBD

[Joe Cool]

So, I install Kubuntu onto VirtualBox.
I've followed https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=6336.msg43114#msg43114
which is the only install manual for PixInsight I can find.
After getting as far as "sudo ./installer" it now says "Illegal instruction."
An even earlier post https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=6336.msg44353#msg44353
says to try a few things.
One of them is "/lib64/libc.so.6"
My output says "bash: /lib64/libc.so.6: No such file or directory"
I try googling for this, and no luck.
Is this still required (that post was from years ago)?
If I run "./PixInsight/bin/PixInsight.sh" I get "./PixInsight/bin/PixInsight.sh: line 37:  3687 Illegal instruction     (core dumped) /usr/local/pi-install/./PixInsight/bin/PixInsight"
hmmmm That's kinda telling me something bad???
Line 37 is "eval "$dirname/$appname $args""