PixInsight 1.8.8-6 Released

Hello,

I am testing Starnet on the latest version of PI released today on my Mac. When I open the process, next to RGB weights file and Greysacale weights file appear two red circles with x and when I try to use it the console says:

StarNet: Processing view: NGC_3324_Color3
Writing swap files...
239,237 MiB/s
*** Error: File I/O Error: Invalid or empty file name
Reading swap files...
3183,893 MiB/s
<* failed *>


What am I doing wrong?

Thank you,
 
click the wrench icon of the starnet process and populate the two boxes with the right weights files by clicking on the little folder icons to the right.

rob
 
Hey.

Just updated to 1.8.8-6 - love the sound of it. I'm currently getting a Crit Sig Backtrace on startup.
Code: 
PixInsight 1.8.8-6 - Critical Signal Backtrace
Received signal 4 (SIGILL)
Module: /opt/PixInsight/bin/PixInsight(+0x1725ff1) [0x55d1bacccff1]
================================================================================
 17: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0x128a0) [0x7f8a48dd08a0]
 16: /opt/PixInsight/bin/lib/libtensorflow_framework.so.2(+0x72bb79) [0x7f897fb64b79]
[...]
================================================================================
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'pcl::EUnixIllegalInstructionException'

My system is an (old!) Xeon x5650 running Linux Mint 19 - Tara (ubuntu derivative) running Cinamon desktop environment. I know that this is not a preferred/tested environment etc. although previous upgrades have generally worked out OK.

Now, I have been experimenting with Starnet, and this does not work on my machine as the CPU does not include AVX instructions which tensorflow requires. When I have tried to run that in the past, I have got illegal instruction exceptions similar to the above.

I am wondering now that as Starnet is included in base, whether this incompatibility is now being triggered on PixInsight startup here, as per the logs above? It wasn't obvious to me from the release notes or anything I read prior that this would be an issue.

(I have newer hardware on it's way, but it's not here yet - perhaps there is an option to disable Starnet?)

Cheers -
 
i think all that's happened is that it's nighttime in spain and juan has been asleep since the release, or i think this would have already been fixed.

yes this is due to starnet and he'll have to come up with a solution. i guess the xeons are missing a lot of the vector instructions that tensorflow needs for performance reasons. not sure what the right answer to all of this is.
 
pfile said:
i think all that's happened is that it's nighttime in spain and juan has been asleep since the release, or i think this would have already been fixed.

yes this is due to starnet and he'll have to come up with a solution. i guess the xeons are missing a lot of the vector instructions that tensorflow needs for performance reasons. not sure what the right answer to all of this is.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks pfile. Older Xeons (launched 2010) lack these and possibly other instructions, later versions (E5 Xeon series that launched 2013 (v2)) include AVX. Not sure how much effort you want to put into supporting 10 year old CPU's, however, with a drive to being able to offload the calculations to a CUDA based processor, I don't know if (under that situation) there would be any reason to _require_ specific AVX CPU instructions if you were using CUDA for the number crunching.

I don't want anyone to bust their nuts on this specific problem just for me, I am cheeky running old datacentre type CPU's, however it seems likely others will see this problem as well.
 
i think that darkarchon has already figured out how to replace the tensorflow dll with a CUDA-based one, at least on windows. IDK if this is an option for linux but it probably is.

Page not found - _darkSkies Astrophotography

darkskies.space darkskies.space

you are right - i think this problem might be more widespread as anyone running an older mac pro (and maybe even the new ones - i haven't kept up) has Xeon CPUs missing these instructions. so PI dies on those machines and there are probably more of those out there than older linux-based servers.
 
New PI 1.8.8-6 CRASHES when launched!
MAC:
Model Name: Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
Model Identifier: MacPro5,
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 32 GB
Boot ROM Version: 138.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.39f11
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f11
Hardware UUID: C702F3EE-B5AF-5AB9-B02D-4672A947804C

Deleted Pix insight in Applications⁩/pixinsight folder as instructed.
Installed new pkg
launched
activated
Java begins to launch in PI console then crashes (closes)
"Initializing PixInsight...
JavaScript runtime initialized."

Rolled back to 1.8.8-5 this version works fine.
 
Looks like there may be an issue with the Mac release of 1.8.8.6. Have tried multiple times to download from the Software Distribution portal, it gets to within a few seconds of completing the download then it says "Download Failed". There is a .pkg file in my Downloads folder but it only shows as 1KB, no content in it.

Any ideas?
 
Capt Buscemi said:
Looks like there may be an issue with the Mac release of 1.8.8.6. Have tried multiple times to download from the Software Distribution portal, it gets to within a few seconds of completing the download then it says "Download Failed". There is a .pkg file in my Downloads folder but it only shows as 1KB, no content in it.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

UPDATE: Doesn't seem to download with Firefox, but works OK with Chrome.
 
The problem with old machines without AVX2/FMA instruction support is extremely easy to fix: just remove the StarNet module.

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 machines.

Note: I have added this information to the announcement post.
 
Updated everything on my MAC Book Pro 2015. Everything working perfectly, including Starnet.
Thank you.
 
liberty54321 said:
The new version 1.8.8-6 is simply amazing. And surprising, I can launch PixInsight in Wayland native mode. Basically I got instantly hidpi and most XWayland UI bugs are resolved. Many process / script UI works but I cannot load image at all so the Wayland is still not usable. But that's still a big step forward for Wayland support.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I am making efforts to implement full Wayland support in PixInsight.

However, please note that PixInsight is not causing the problem you are reporting:

Code: 
** No running X11 compositing manager has been detected. Some core GUI functionality will be reduced or unavailable.
*** PCL Unix Signal Handler: Critical signal caught (11): Segmentation violation

PixInsight 1.8.8-6 - Critical Signal Backtrace
Received signal 11 (SIGSEGV)
Module: /home/liberty/opt/PixInsight/bin/./PixInsight(+0x1725ff1) [0x5566b2d5eff1]
================================================================================
39: /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0(+0x140f0) [0x7f08b85880f0]
38: /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(XQueryKeymap+0x26) [0x7f08b85cd496](+0x26 [0x7f08b85cd496])
37: pi::IsKeyPressed(int, int)(+0x39 [0x5566b2a84e69])
36: pi::PixInsightMainWindow::FileOpenRecentImageFile(int)(+0xa9 [0x5566b27fabb9])

The crash happens in XQueryKeymap(), a utility function that belongs to libX11. It is used to query the state of the keyboard keys on UNIX/Linux. For some odd reason, this basic X11 function is not working on your machine. Maybe there is a conflict between X11 libraries (which are still necessary) and Wayland.
 
I just loaded the new 1.8.8.6 version, it says it installed the EZ Processing Suite but I'm unable to find it. This is what it shows under "Installed Packages" Can you help with this?

Package type : Script
Title : EZ Processing Suite
Repository : http://darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8888/
File name : release.tar.gz
Release date : 2020-08-23 23:46:14
Install date : 2020-08-24 16:36:33
Full Repository Deployment as of Release Date
Currently contains:
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Denoise (Automated TGV Denoise + MMT)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Decon (Automated Deconvolution, requires StarNet)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Soft Stretch (Automated Delinearizing)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Star Reduction (Automated Star Reduction, requires StarNet)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Live Stack (Monitors a folder for images and stacks them one by one)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ HDR (Brings back bright core detail in galaxies and nebulae)
 
did you do "check for updates" and then make sure the EZ Processing Suite is selected, then restart PI? i just did that and it loaded up fine.

rob
 
dhess2 said:
I just loaded the new 1.8.8.6 version, it says it installed the EZ Processing Suite but I'm unable to find it. This is what it shows under "Installed Packages" Can you help with this?

Package type : Script
Title : EZ Processing Suite
Repository : http://darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8888/
File name : release.tar.gz
Release date : 2020-08-23 23:46:14
Install date : 2020-08-24 16:36:33
Full Repository Deployment as of Release Date
Currently contains:
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Denoise (Automated TGV Denoise + MMT)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Decon (Automated Deconvolution, requires StarNet)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Soft Stretch (Automated Delinearizing)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Star Reduction (Automated Star Reduction, requires StarNet)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ Live Stack (Monitors a folder for images and stacks them one by one)
  • EZ Processing Suite -> EZ HDR (Brings back bright core detail in galaxies and nebulae)
Click to expand...
I had exactly the same problem and uninstalled and re-installed with the same result, I ended up deleting the pixinsight.ini file in: -

C:\Users\*Username*\AppData\Roaming\Pleiades and then re-installing and ran the repository add in and restarted and it then found it
 
Jkulin said:
@Juan Conejero no reply to my earlier post, would you be kind enough to reply, thanks.
Click to expand...

#1 was addressed here:

NBRGBCombination Obsolete

I see NBRGBCombination is obsolete and missing in the new version 1.8.8-6. I am shooting with ZWO ASI2600MC + Optolong L-Enhance filter. Could you please recommend how can I now mix the narrowband with RGB? Thank you!
pixinsight.com

on #2, all i had to do was check for updates again and all the scripts from the various repositories i've loaded reappeared after restarting PI. that's really not so bad.

rob
 
pfile said:
#1 was addressed here:

NBRGBCombination Obsolete

I see NBRGBCombination is obsolete and missing in the new version 1.8.8-6. I am shooting with ZWO ASI2600MC + Optolong L-Enhance filter. Could you please recommend how can I now mix the narrowband with RGB? Thank you!
pixinsight.com

on #2, all i had to do was check for updates again and all the scripts from the various repositories i've loaded reappeared after restarting PI. that's really not so bad.

rob
Click to expand...
Hi Rob,

I did try that and it refused to update and show in the menu, it was only when I deleted the pixinsight.ini file that I could then get it to display.
 
ok... well juan is going to put the script back into the main distribution but it sounds like for you it is solved.

rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top