Start up errors in log

[richard.n]

Hi

This is my first posting and have used Audacity successfully using version 1.3.10 (beta) and have just upgraded to version 1.3.13 running XP Pro SP3, by uninstalling and doing a new install.

Looking at the log that appears on the help tab, I see a number of errors for .dll files that appear to be missing, any thoughts please? Have had an initial look at bug reports for this release, but so far not found an answer.

Thanks
Richard

<Copy of log file>

14:51:58: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'MainPanelFunc' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
14:52:00: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
14:52:00: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-52.dll'.
14:52:00: Looking up PATH environment variable...
14:52:00: PATH = 'C:WINDOWSsystem32;C:WINDOWS;C:WINDOWSSystem32Wbem;C:Program Files;C:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0;C:Program FilesCommon FilesAheadLib'
14:52:00: Checking that '' is in PATH...
14:52:00: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
14:52:00: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-52.dll'.
14:52:00: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-52.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
14:52:00: Loading avutil from 'avutil-50.dll'.
14:52:00: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avutil-50.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
14:52:00: Loading avcodec from 'avcodec-52.dll'.
14:52:00: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avcodec-52.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
14:52:00: Loading avformat from 'avformat-52.dll'.
14:52:00: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-52.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
14:52:00: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
14:52:00: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.

[steve]

Try resetting the Audacity Preferences. See here for instructions: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Preferences#reset
I don't expect this will be a complete solution, but please try it and let us know what happens and we can take it from there.

[richard.n]

Hi Steve

Thanks for the reply. I have done as suggested, found the preferences cfg file and deleted all lines except the recommended line (after keeping a backup copy), but the errors in the log are still the same. It seems that the .dll files are missing for some reason as I would have thought they would have been part of the program and also the FFmpeg libraries may not be installed.

Richard

[Edgar]

Briefly, these are not really "errors" and you should just ignore them.

Read on for a detailed explanation...

When one of the official Team Audacity Programmers is debugging problems with the code they put in "log" messages so that the code may run uninterrupted but the programmer can go look at the log to see what happened. Generally these messages should be removed before the public see the program but in a beta release this is not always done. Sometimes the programmer gets lazy and other times the object is to get beta testers to examine the log and report any error statements.

Another problem is that there are a few "flavors" of these messages; each has its own prefix: "Error...", "System Error..." and "..." (no prefix--just a message not meant as an error warning). Sometimes the programmer uses the wrong "flavor" and a general message gets an "Error" prefix. This is the case in many of your reported "Error" messages.

Finally, there is the "Error: Couldn't find symbol 'MainPanelFunc' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)" which shows a benign bit of programming laziness. When a programmer wants to use some code from an outside library that library must be opened. It is very easy to try to open an external library for code and if that fails do something else to handle the coding. Unfortunately, this approach, while it works, has the side effect of logging an error. There is a work-around in that one may turn off logging just for the call to open the library then turn it back on.

[rant]
Unfortunately, common courtesy leads one programmer to refuse to remove another programmer's logging messages. This has resulted in over a hundred "stale" (no longer needed) messages being left behind by Team Programmers who are no longer active Developers and maybe 50-75 stale messages which lazy active Developers committed but are just ignoring and not removing. I have created a list of all these messages, with each attributed as to author and date created which I supplied them to Team Audacity; I created a patch which removes most of the antique ones as well as wrapping the "open library" errors in Lof Off...Log On calls to suppress those messages. Unfortunately, the Programmers are too busy with more important stuff to look at this now. I really hope they deal with this issue before releasing a "stable" version of Audacity!
[/rant]

[steve]

Thanks for the reply. I have done as suggested, found the preferences cfg file and deleted all lines except the recommended line (after keeping a backup copy), but the errors in the log are still the same.

Thanks richard, I was just wanting to see which, if any of the messages were "left overs" from your previous installation.

Finally, there is the "Error: Couldn't find symbol 'MainPanelFunc' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)" which shows a benign bit of programming laziness. When a programmer wants to use some code from an outside library that library must be opened. It is very easy to try to open an external library for code and if that fails do something else to handle the coding. Unfortunately, this approach, while it works, has the side effect of logging an erro

Thanks for jumping in Edgar. That was the error that I was unfamiliar with - I now see that "error" is "normal for Windows".

It seems that the .dll files are missing for some reason as I would have thought they would have been part of the program and also the FFmpeg libraries may not be installed.

FFMpeg is not included in Audacity as most users want to use builds of FFMpeg which are not strictly compatible with the Audacity License. FFMpeg is therefore an optional add-on for Audacity. FFMpeg is not required for the normal functioning of Audacity, but it is required for extending the range of supported file formats to include WMA, MP4, AC3, and so on.

Apart from the first line message, the rest of the "errors" are indicating that Audacity cannot find a version of FFMpeg that it is able to load.

If you only use WAV, AIFF, MP3, OGG and FLAC formats then you do not need FFMPeg and can safely ignore all of those messages.
If you need to import/export file types that are not supported by Audacity (such as WMA, MP4 or AC3) then you will need to install a suitable version of FFMpeg.
Have you previously installed FFMPeg for Audacity?

[richard.n]

Hi

Thanks for all the replies and explainations which have been very useful. No, I have not installed FFmpeg before. As a matter of interest, I have today installed this same Beta version on a XP Home laptop and receive the same details in the start up log file which I now see is normal for these Beta versions and will not affect it's performance.

Many thanks
Richard