Hi all,
I am glad to announce a new version of PixInsight: 1.8.8-11. This release provides bug fixes and improvements on all platforms.
Installation packages for PixInsight 1.8.8-11 are now available to all licensed users for Linux, macOS and Windows:
https://pixinsight.com/dist/
As happens with all updates to the PixInsight core application, this version cannot be downloaded as an application update. You have to install version 1.8.8-11 manually:
Main Improvements and Bug Fixes
Version 1.8.8-11 is a cumulative maintenance/bugfix release, and as such, it does not add relevant new features to the previous 1.8.8-10 version. Here are the more relevant bug fixes and improvements:
Recommended Platforms and Supported Operating Systems
The reference implementation of PixInsight, where you may expect the maximum performance and best user experience, is the Linux version. Currently our primary development platforms are:
We strongly recommend running PixInsight on Kubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS with the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
PixInsight 1.8.8-11 for Linux requires GLIBC 2.27 or a newer version.
PixInsight 1.8.8-11 for macOS is only compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina, 11.x Big Sur, and 12.x Monterey. macOS 10.14 Mojave and older versions are no longer supported. All of our macOS installation packages are digitally signed with our corporate Apple developer certificates and have been notarized by Apple.
PixInsight 1.8.8-11 for Windows is compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 exclusively. Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and older versions are not supported. The application might run on Windows 7, but there is no guarantee and please do not report problems on Windows 7 and Windows 8. All of our Windows installation executables have been digitally signed with our corporate extended validation (EV) code signing certificate.
Known Issues
FreeBSD and Linux
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 a version 1.8.6 or later and the interface looks correct, then you don't need to do this; this is only required for new installations.
All Platforms
——————————————————————————
Thank you for your attention and support.
I am glad to announce a new version of PixInsight: 1.8.8-11. This release provides bug fixes and improvements on all platforms.
Installation packages for PixInsight 1.8.8-11 are now available to all licensed users for Linux, macOS and Windows:
https://pixinsight.com/dist/
As happens with all updates to the PixInsight core application, this version cannot be downloaded as an application update. You have to install version 1.8.8-11 manually:
- Linux: The installation packages are xz-compressed tar archives (.tar.xz). To install one of these archives, just extract its full contents on any directory, preferably on one located under your home directory. Then become root and run the installer program from a terminal. Normally you should just type "yes" and press Enter to accept the default settings. Say './installer --help' for detailed information on command-line arguments.
- macOS: If you have a previous version of PixInsight already installed, you must uninstall it by moving the /Applications/PixInsight folder to trash (also known as bin on macOS 10.15 and later). Run the .pkg installation package and follow the instructions. All our macOS installation packages are digitally signed with our corporate Apple developer certificate and have been notarized by Apple.
- Windows: Run the installation package for version 1.8.8-11 and follow the instructions. The installer will remove a previous version automatically, so there is no need to uninstall it. All executable files in the PixInsight distribution for Windows, as well as our installation packages, have been signed with our corporate Extended Validation (EV) code signing certificate.
Main Improvements and Bug Fixes
Version 1.8.8-11 is a cumulative maintenance/bugfix release, and as such, it does not add relevant new features to the previous 1.8.8-10 version. Here are the more relevant bug fixes and improvements:
- The Windows installer now removes a previously installed version of PixInsight automatically. This means that you no longer have to uninstall the application with Add or Remove Programs on Windows. This makes our installer packages easier to use and more robust.
- Users can now opt-out of CDN downloads. We use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute large files, such as software installation packages, astronomical catalogs, ephemerides data, etc. This allows us to provide fast downloads since our CDN service, besides using a high-performance network infrastructure, selects the nearest server to your location automatically. CDN downloads are enabled by default for all user accounts. However, some users have reported unusually slow download times for files distributed by our CDN service. This always denotes an anomalous situation and usually happens because of wrongly configured network connections or misbehaving Internet service providers. In these cases the user can disable our CDN service and use local downloads from our corporate server, when available, as a last-resort solution. To disable CDN downloads, open the Download Options section on your Software Distribution download area and follow the instructions.
- Fixed several user interface problems with the SubframeSelector tool. See the bug reports forum section for details. See for example this thread.
- Fixed a potential crash in the SubframeSelector tool upon application exit. These crashes were rare and sporadic, and were being caused by an incorrect cleanup procedure applied to the embedded WebView controls (the SubframeSelector graphs).
- Application-specific file associations are no longer broken on Windows after updates. See this bug report for detailed information.
- WeightedBatchPreprocessing version 2.3.1, which fixes a number of problems detected in the previous 1.8.8-10 release. See the original bug report.
- The PixInsightUpdater program (updater stage 1) no longer rewrites existing module files when they are updated. It now forces creation of new .so, .dylib or .dll files respectively on Linux, macOS and Windows. This prevents problems with digitally signed files that can be invalidated sometimes when their digital signatures have been cached by the operating system. By creating a new file (with a new inode), the cached signature data is invalidated and regenerated by the kernel on the first access. This is particularly critical on macOS since version 12 Monterey. See an example in this problem report.
Recommended Platforms and Supported Operating Systems
The reference implementation of PixInsight, where you may expect the maximum performance and best user experience, is the Linux version. Currently our primary development platforms are:
We strongly recommend running PixInsight on Kubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS with the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
PixInsight 1.8.8-11 for Linux requires GLIBC 2.27 or a newer version.
PixInsight 1.8.8-11 for macOS is only compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina, 11.x Big Sur, and 12.x Monterey. macOS 10.14 Mojave and older versions are no longer supported. All of our macOS installation packages are digitally signed with our corporate Apple developer certificates and have been notarized by Apple.
PixInsight 1.8.8-11 for Windows is compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 exclusively. Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and older versions are not supported. The application might run on Windows 7, but there is no guarantee and please do not report problems on Windows 7 and Windows 8. All of our Windows installation executables have been digitally signed with our corporate extended validation (EV) code signing certificate.
Known Issues
FreeBSD 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.
- 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, such as slow cursor movement over image windows, with certain hardware configurations. If you experience these problems, this option should be disabled for optimal PixInsight performance:
- System Settings > Display and Monitor > Tearing prevention: set to 'Never'
- Click Apply
- PixInsight is not compatible with the open-source Nouveau graphics driver. If your distribution is using Nouveau, you must remove it to use the proprietary NVIDIA driver in order to use PixInsight.
- 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:
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 a version 1.8.6 or later and the interface looks correct, then you don't need to do this; this is only required for new installations.
All Platforms
- The StarNet module uses the TensorFlow library, which requires a processor with support of AVX2 and FMA instructions. This excludes very old machines with Intel processors released before 2013 and Apple machines with M1 processors (because the Rosetta emulator on macOS Big Sur does not support AVX2 instructions). The macOS installation package for version 1.8.8-11 includes a post-install script that will delete the StarNet module automatically when the host machine runs an ARM processor, so there should be no problems on Apple Silicon computers.
If you are using a vintage pre-2013 Intel processor, or if the StarNet module has not been deleted automatically on your M1 machine for some odd reason, PixInsight 1.8.8-11 won't work as it is installed by default. However, this problem is very easy to fix: just remove the StarNet module. Do the following:
Linux
Enter the following command from a terminal:
sudo rm /opt/PixInsight/bin/StarNet-pxm.so
macOS
Remove the following file:
/Applications/PixInsight/bin/StarNet-pxm.dylib
Windows
Remove the following file:
C:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\StarNet-pxm.dll
In all cases you need administrative privileges to remove the required file, which you also need to install PixInsight. After this simple action, PixInsight will run without problems on your old machine.
——————————————————————————
Thank you for your attention and support.