Audacity Forum

If there is anyone here who uses Audacity Beta's portability feature, and who had difficulty with the portable settings folder being recognised outside its default location, please try our latest nightly build at the bottom of this file list. If there are any problems with the fix, please let us know.

Thanks

Gale

I'll visit this later. I'm starting from zero because I have no idea what this is or why I would want it.

Right now it's 78 degrees in LA and I need to drag the sewing machine outside and mend some shirts.

I also should mow the lawn but I'm not going to.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:I'll visit this later. I'm starting from zero because I have no idea what this is or why I would want it.Koz

The only possible requirement I think to test this is a USB stick or even a CD ROM. Extract the contents of the latest .dmg:
http://www.audacity.homerow.net/index.php?dir=mac%2F

to a USB stick or similar, and create a folder called "Portable Settings" on the USB stick.

Now launch Audacity from the stick or ROM and make some Preferences changes that are easy to see (like "Update display while playing" on the Interface tab) and exit Audacity. Pull out the USB stick and put it back and launch Audacity again - have the preference changes been enforced?

Now, having updated your usual Audacity installation folder to use the latest nightly build, make some Preferences changes that aren't default, like unchecking "Show Welcome Screen" in the Interface Preferences. Exit Audacity and create a "Portable Settings" folder inside the Audacity installation folder and launch Audacity. It should ignore your non-default preferences stored in audacity.cfg at ~/Library/Application Support/audacity, because it is reading preferences from that "Portable Settings" folder. Because that folder won't have an audacity.cfg file until you exit Audacity, it should do the default thing and show you the Welcome Screen when you launch Audacity.

Can you give it a go? Someone unfamiliar may be just the person to test it..



Gale

Yes. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just cranking through the steps. I will say I couldn't round up a USB stick, but I could mount an external USB drive. Seagate 750G almost empty. I bought it to take a couple of movies on vacation last year. It supports both USB and FireWire, so I changed the adapter to USB.

I'm mounting Audacity 1.3.7 dated 2009.01.20-03.15/

I need to go back and look at the directions.

Koz

<<<Now launch Audacity from the stick or ROM and make some Preferences changes that are easy to see (like "Update display while playing" on the Interface tab) and exit Audacity. Pull out the USB stick and put it back and launch Audacity again - have the preference changes been enforced?>>>

Yes. That part worked. The actual folder is /audacity/Portable Settings. I dismounted the drive and powered it down. Powered it back up and mounted it and my Preference change was preserved.

Now the next part.

Koz

============================================
Mac Mini 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2G memory
Mac OS-X 10.5.6
piano2.wav 16-bit Integer (Little Endian), Stereo, 48.000 KHz.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html
===========================================

Audacity 1.3.7 Dated 2009.01.20-03.15/

Clean install.
/Applications/audacity/audacity.app
Audacity opens asking me for English? and then presents the Opening Screen. I close and open and get the Opening Screen multiple times. I tell it to stop showing the Opening Screen and close Audacity.
Open Audacity and it now opens directly to the timeline multiple times. Close Audacity.

Launch the same Audacity version, but from /Applications/audacity/Portable Settings/audacity.app.
Audacity opens asking me for English? and then presents the Opening Screen. I close and open and get the Opening Screen multiple times. Close Audacity.

I open the original Audacity and it opens directly to the timeline.

There is a folder called /Applications/audacity/Portable Settings/audacity.cfg. This file is missing from the original install folder.

Did I hit everything?

Koz

One note. I thought I wrote this earlier. The USB trick was done under Tiger OS-X 10.4.11, not under my test Leopard install. If that makes any difference.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:Did I hit everything?

Yes, thanks for that. All seems to be working fine.


Gale