PixInsight 1.8.8-5 Released - StarNet module installation

Out of interest, is starnet still broken for Mac OS users? I have decided to keep on hold migrating to the new version of PI until this is resolved.
Thank you
 
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Yeah, I’m on the fence waiting as well. StarNet++ is an important part of my workflow, and for now its importance outweighs the benefits of updating.
Francesco
 
the status of this is that nikita was thinking of trying to buy the apple developer subscription and sign the module himself, however, he owns 0 apple products making this impossible. i guess i am going to pay the $100 and try doing it. he offered to pay me back but that doesn't seem right as of course the certificate belongs to me and not him so he derives no benefit from it. also there's always a chance that it does not work because of the TeamID stuff.

i need to do this all on my wife's laptop since it's a "stock" macosx installation of 10.14, and she's using it today so i haven't had a chance to work on it.
 
Any word if this problem has been addressed. I am still running 1.8.8.4 on both my computers one running Catalina and the other running Mojave.


Steve
 
basically the signed module (juan's corporate signature) loads, but then PI fails to load the tensorflow dylibs - those need to be signed too.

i suspect this is going to be resolved when juan releases -6, as there are some XCode flags which can permit unsigned dylibs to load. either that, or juan will also sign the tensorflow dylibs and those will have to be distributed alongside the starnet module.
 
If one really NEEDS to run 1.8.8.5 on Catalina, and while waiting for the proper solution, it is possible to remove the signature from the PixInsight application, which would let it load the StarNet++ module. This has other serious security implications so I won’t give details here, but if one knows what he’s doing it is a possibility.
Francesco
 
Any update on PI 1885 + OS X Catalina + Starnet? I am basically stuck and have no way of down-grading Catalina since I have a brand new machine.
 
i don't think it's going to run on -5 without a lot of trouble on the user's part. we're hoping -6 is configured in such a way that the starnet++ module will load as-is. however if it does not, juan offered to sign it with the PI corporate identity. it's just a question of whether or not the tensorflow libraries also need to be signed under the new configuration of -6.
 
Thanks - that is really unfortunate. I don't know a single person that runs PI on Windows (or even uses Windows - other than for telescope control). Please put more focus on OS X !
 
I want to support RichH. I've needed to use Windows from time to time and it is a depressing experience compared to MacOS. I am very grateful that PixInsight runs on MacOS and hope that the StarNet problem can be resolved as quickly as humanly possible.
 
I have dual installations 1.8.8-4 with StarNet installed and 1.8.8-5 without it.....when I need to use star net I just switch installations and really it no hassle.....we have to be patient on this one its not an easy problem to solve.
 
Just wondering if anybody finds the solution to install StarNet_PI_OSX on either PixInsight 1.8.8-4 or 1.8.8-5? I tried both and goth the same result.

- My OSX 10.13.6 High Sierra
- Followed StarNet_PI_OSX instruction to install all the necessary files to PixInsight locations (I even tried to copy the library files to /usr/local/lib).

Observations (for both 1.8.8-4 and 1.8.8-5):

- PixInsight won't load StarNet++ module on booting time.
- With StarNet-pxm.dylib in PixInsight's bin folder, if I do a "Scan module" (with or without "recursive"), PixInsight crashed immediately.
- Without StarNet-pxm.dylib in PixInsight's bin folder, if I do a "Scan module" (with or without "recursive"), PixInsight finished the scan and reported 0 modules found.

I appreciate any suggestions!
-Min
 
On OSX 10.15.5 with 1.8.8.4 and StarNet-pxm.dylib in PixInsight's bin folder, it works for me.
 
I ask for a bit (more) of patience here. These problems will be resolved in version 1.8.8-6, which should be released soon. This new version comes with important changes and very complex features, which require a lot of hard development work and intensive tests. I am trying to release a very stable and capable version before 1.8.9, which will be an important milestone. Please understand that we really cannot work faster. The wait will be worth it.
 
Thanks for the update. No issues at all with waiting since 1.8.8.4 is very capable but certainly looking forward to 8.9.
 
Hey all, I solved the issue of StarNet with PI 1.8.8-5 on MacOSX Catalina v10.15.5 (latest version).
It involve a process described by fmeschia in his post above (thanks!). Do it at your own risk as it involves removing PI application signature by disabling GateKeaper for that Pixinsight and it's related modules. I don't mind the risk as it's realistically extremely low. StarNet finally working again now for me ?

How to make StarNet work under 1.8.8-5 and Catalina :
1. Install StarNet per the instruction
2. Quit Pixinsight
3. Open a terminal window and type the following :
cd /Applications/PixInsight/PixInsight.app/Contents/MacOS
cp PixInsight ~/PixInsight.old [backup of your Pixinsight application executable]
sudo codesign --remove-signature PixInsight
[enter your admin password when prompted]
4. Launch Pixinsight and install the module under Process > Modules > Install Modules... [Click Search, select StarNet and click Install]

Voila! Please report back how it works for you.

Antoine.
 

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is codesign even installed if you don't have Xcode installed? yes some of us knew about this but since it basically goes against juan's wishes (he did after all set the hardened runtime bit) we didn't want to publicize it.

rob
 
I don't mind the risk as it's realistically extremely low.

It depends. By removing our digital signature you have absolutely no guarantee that the code you are executing is the original code that we have released and you have downloaded from our servers. macOS is nowadays a vulnerable operating system—that's why Apple is making so many efforts trying to make it secure, and making our work (of us developers) much more difficult at the same time. Among other consequences of doing this, you are taking the risk that a potential malware alters some of the files in the PixInsight.app application bundle (either by modifying the executable file or its image in memory) and nothing will protect you if that happens.

After removing our corporate digital signature from the PixInsight core executable, Pleiades Astrophoto S.L. accepts no responsibility at all for what may happen if you run the modified executable on any machine. You are the sole responsible. Besides this, altering one of our executable binaries may have other implications in terms of license compliance, but let's leave this topic aside for now.

Of course I know that your intention is good, and I understand why you are doing this. But please understand that I cannot recommend removing a digital signature from an executable file, and I am obliged to discourage these practices for obvious reasons. Please be patient while I complete the next 1.8.8-6 release. I'll contact Nikita soon because we are going to improve the current StarNet module implementation, besides solving these code signature issues in the next version.
 
Thank you very much Juan !
Glad to see you are working on issue and even do an improved version
I will wait for 1.8.8.6 instead of cancel digital signature. I use actually Starnet++ on OSX on standalone application where I transfer 16bits TIF files. This makes the job while waiting for you ;)
 
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