Crashing on Yosemite

[cmac185]

I suspected that would be what you would find. Just what I found in trying to track down the recording corruption I had.

Unfortunately I'm using a wireless also so can't turn off the router as others use it. I suppose I could delete the login connection and try that.

Anyone have a gremlin trap?

Cliff

[cyrano]

You don't need to turn off the router. Just select another network under the Airport icon (in your Finder menu), connect, give no password and cancel. That should leave the Airport card on, but not connected.

As another test, you could simply switch off wireless...

[cmac185]

Tried the recording scenario you suggested on El Capitan with no crash.

Was trying on Yosemite and Audacity 2.1.1 crashed while just sitting doing nothing after the first recording. As far as I can tell the crash happened when I plugged in my second display so probably is not related to the crashes we're trying to isolate. I'll make a separate posting regarding the crash.

Cliff

[cmac185]

This evening Audacity 2.1.1 crashed on Yosemite when plugging in my second display. This is the second time this has happened. Last time it was with Audacity 2.1.0. Actually, it has happened every time I connect the second display if is Audacity is open. This time it was doing nothing, just sitting there on another Mission Control desktop.

There was no crash report in the usual place, but Audacity had a popup window saying it wanted to create a debug report with the config and some other files. Checking the console it shows some error messages that might be helpful. It also has a message about too many wake-ups while making a recording 20 minutes previous. I'll attach the files in case they might be useful. Regarding the too many wake-ups could that be because I have the recording buffer set to 15 ms?

Cliff

[cyrano]

Smells like a graphics related bug. Possibly a font server error. Do you have MS Office* or Chrome** installed?

* MS Office comes with MS fonts. A corruption of one of these could wreak havoc.
** Google Chrome has an updater running in the background. It's a buggy bastard.

Your Mac has dual graphics processors I think- a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 256 MB of dedicated GDDR3 SDRAM and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.

Have you tried disabling "Automatic Switching" for the GPU in System preferences/Energy saver?

You could also try running on one of the GPU's and not letting the system decide. From feeling, I'd try the GeForce 9600M GT first. But the bug could be in either of the drivers and even in Apple's auto switch.

[Gale Andrews]

This evening Audacity 2.1.1 crashed on Yosemite when plugging in my second display. This is the second time this has happened. Last time it was with Audacity 2.1.0. Actually, it has happened every time I connect the second display if is Audacity is open. This time it was doing nothing, just sitting there on another Mission Control desktop.

There was no crash report in the usual place, but Audacity had a popup window saying it wanted to create a debug report with the config and some other files. Checking the console it shows some error messages that might be helpful. It also has a message about too many wake-ups while making a recording 20 minutes previous.

Do you still have "Prevent App Nap" enabled in Audacity's right-click "Get Info" menu?


Gale

[cmac185]

Smells like a graphics related bug. Possibly a font server error. Do you have MS Office* or Chrome** installed?

* MS Office comes with MS fonts. A corruption of one of these could wreak havoc.
** Google Chrome has an updater running in the background. It's a buggy bastard.

Chrome is installed, but almost never used. What is the name of the updater process - I don't see anything in the Activity Monitor that looks like it would belong to Chrome or Google.

Your Mac has dual graphics processors I think- a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 256 MB of dedicated GDDR3 SDRAM and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.

Have you tried disabling "Automatic Switching" for the GPU in System preferences/Energy saver?

You could also try running on one of the GPU's and not letting the system decide. From feeling, I'd try the GeForce 9600M GT first. But the bug could be in either of the drivers and even in Apple's auto switch.

I am already running on only one GPU, the most energy efficient one, i.e. the 9400, not the 9600.

Cliff

[cmac185]

Gale,

Do you still have "Prevent App Nap" enabled in Audacity's right-click "Get Info" menu?

Yes.

Just an observation regarding display issues. I've been running El Capitan Public Beta on the side to see how it does. When running on El Cap Audacity does not rapidly flash the screen on saving a new recording like Yosemite does. Also I tried this morning recording both messages without restarting Audacity between and no crash. Will have to do it more times to be sure, but it seems as if with the new display engine in El Capitan that maybe the display issues will go away. I'll have to play with the crashing on putting in the second display more and see if that goes away also. It seems as if it only happens when it has been sitting for a while since if I just open it and then attach the second display it does not crash.

Cliff

[cmac185]

Just to add a little more information to my above post:

I tried to recreate the crash with the second display startup on purpose and doing the following I can recreate it at will on Yosemite.
1. Open Audacity in another Mission Control desktop.
2. Record 25 minutes or more then save as normal.
3. Close Audacity window, CMD-W, then open up a new window CMD-N.
4. Go to another Mission Control desktop and do what ever for 20 minutes or so.
5. While in the non-Audacity desktop, plugin the second display cable and Audacity will crash and 2.1.1 will bring up a window asking to save several config files for debug purposes.

Note: I haven't played with times to find what the limits are, but came up with these times from what originally caused the crash. As I mentioned earlier, just opening audacity and then plugging in the display doesn't cause a crash on Yosemite. Some time has to elapse and whether the recording time is required I'm not sure, but with it I can make it crash. If you recall, recently someone else reported crashing on Yosemite with Audacity just sitting for a length of time so the sitting time aspect seems to be crucial to this problem.

Cliff

Note2: Tried the above on El Capitan and no crash. It seems to me as if the display interface between Audacity and Yosemite is the issue and El Capitan, with its different display engine doesn't trigger what ever was the issue with Yosemite. I'm glad for the relief, but it doesn't figure out what the real issue was or stop it from cropping up again.

Cliff

[cyrano]

There is definitely still a bug in Yosemite when it comes to multiple screens. I have a user with a Mac Pro whom's screens keep defaulting to mirroring and they keep no settings.

I hope Apple will fix this.

Have you doen some testing with only the most powerful GPU enabled?