MagicQ Problems with Apple Macs

[CharlieH]

Good Afternoon All :)

I have MagicQ on my MacBook, and it seems very unreliable and unstable. For example, it doesn't open as a 'real' app, but appears to open through Terminal, and doesn't appear in my Apps folder. When opened, the 2-finger scrolling doesn't work and I can't resize the screen. I can put up with all of that, it doesn't bother me much; but what does annoy me is some of the more fundamental bugs, such as not letting me delete cues or cuelists (refuses to do it, then after being rebooted it does it), not opening tabs when I click on them (if I click on 'Patch' for example it doesn't always go there, and sometimes needs rebooting again to do this), whenever I move the mouse it seems to 'refresh' the entire screen, very similar to refreshing an internet page, if I change a fade time (or similar) it doesn't respond to anything etc.

 

This is getting very annoying now, and slowing down my progress hugely (took me about an hour to program 30 cues today as I kept having to reboot and redo things).....I love many of the features in it, and it seems a great bit of software, however I would not trust it in a show situation at the moment, and I would definitely not want to program an entire show into it!

 

So my question is this:

Many people here seem to love MagicQ, and there are a lot of posts about it from people using it in a show situation. I have seen images of a laptop with just a maxi-wing running small scale festivals, and it seems great.....am I doing something wrong? Have I downloaded the wrong file, for example, or should I have done something to make it run more stable, or is it just like this, and if so how do people put up with it???!!!!!

 

Hopefully the guy from Chamsys and any other MagicQ users will be able to help me as I would love to use it more at school for medium sized shows, but currently can't http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif

 

Many Thanks,

Charlie

[timd]

The issues surrounding opening in the wrong size and coming through the terminal etc I believe to be due to the way it uses X11.

 

More generally, I've found it downright unstable, regularly just exiting. No chance of hitting my 5 hour limit on the £10 dongle! Also did the same on a very minimal arch linux VM prepared especially, which doesn't seem to marry up well with the consoles, which run a fairly minimal linux of some form.

 

Tim

[cedd]

I've run MagicQ on a windows xp laptop with no issues in a show situation. However I too have had the issue you describe on my new macbook pro. Opens a terminal first, then eventually runs. It then seems to crash after either waking up or coming back from screensaver, may just be tied to length of time running though rather than coming back from those specific events. To be honest I've never chased it with them - the macbook is my editing and audio machine so I never need it, I simply downloaded it to be there in case of emergency. My windows machine has become a dedicated show control pc and it runs fine on there.

 

I too wondered if I'd downloaded the wrong version, I can't remember if it came from the main website or the magicDMX one. It's one of those things that you kind of assume is local to you and as it wasn't overly necessary, I just put it down as "one of those things". If somebody else is having the same issue then maybe the boys at chamsys need to know (and knowing their great customer service, they'll get it fettled pretty quickly).

 

Drop them an email. I seem to recall that the contents of the terminal box made for interesting reading, especially after it had crashed! Contained errors and all sorts. Unfortunately I've now removed it so can't test.

[themadhippy]

Not used it on an apple,but did have a few display issues in earlier versions running on linux,however recent versions seen to have sorted these out .Are you running the most upto date version?

I have seen images of a laptop with just a maxi-wing running small scale festivals, and it seems great.

.

do you mean piccys like this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/themadhippy/ote1.jpg

not quite as power full as a laptop, an assus all in one touch screen pc running linux and magic q,bloody dodgy looking crew though

[CharlieH]

Not used it on an apple,but did have a few display issues in earlier versions running on linux,however recent versions seen to have sorted these out .Are you running the most upto date version?

 

Glad to know others are having the same problem! I only have a Mac unfortunately, and can't afford 2 computers http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif My version was downloaded in June 2010....is that the most up to date?

[Wol]

Glad to know others are having the same problem! I only have a Mac unfortunately, and can't afford 2 computers http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif My version was downloaded in June 2010....is that the most up to date?

 

We release a new stable release with new features and bugfixes every few months, so if you're still on 1.4.6.0, then that's definitely ancient in comparison to the version at the moment!

 

The issues with the lack of support of resizing the window is down to how it uses X11 to do the graphics. The terminal window should only pop up briefly before MagicQ opens though. You should also have a MagicQ folder in your Applications directory. MagicQ runs from that folder, so unless you've got some strange configuration where your default applications folder isn't /Applications, then it should show up in there. I dont think that the scrollwheel in the Windows version was implemented in 1.4.6.0, so it won't be in the Mac version. I can't remember if we've got support for the X11 events for the scrollwheel for the Mac/Linux version, but give the latest version a try to see if this works any better. Again, there were some issues with the Mac version and mouseclicks on some systems where it would get a down/up event, but not both, so that might be the cause of the issue where clicking wouldn't open items.

 

The issue where it doesn't let you delete cues or cuelists, it's possible that it was just to do with how you were trying to delete them, in conjunction with the problems above that caused it to not work. Update to our latest version and give it another try.

 

If you still have problems with it, then use our bugtracker at http://download.magicq.co.uk/ to report the problems you're having so we can look into them when we can.

 

 

themadhippy: I ....... won't ask :P

[neilalexrose]

I use magicQ on my MBP, and yes I do also notice the odd issue graphicly, but generally it's been pretty stable for me. First things first, check you have the latest stable version from the Chamsys website (1.4.9.6 I've just checked). I believe that terminal and X11 are the reason it's not brilliant graphically, but it's how the program has to be run.

 

If you haven't found it yet The resizing issue is easy to overcome, If you open the MagicQ folder that installs on the mac using finder (rather than through applications on the dashboard) and open the 800x600 shortcut with text edit (right/ctrl click and open with), you will see that it gives you the option of setting custom resolutions for the size of MagicQ. Change the resolution to what you desire (1440 x 900 in my case), save the shortcut (but don't rename it in text edit, as it will become a text document, not a shortcut), and then rename the shortcut in finder to the resolution you've just saved it as (it helps if you copy the original 800 x 600 shortcut first!)

 

As for the clicking on windows, I do find that the software can't keep up with the touchpad (oh, and no two finger scrolling doesn't work, but I don't think scrolling works on the PC version), especially if you're like me and tap the touchpad, rather than click! I sometimes find I tap the tabs, and it will open the window briefly, then close it again. As I said, I think this is something to do with the touchpad being quicker than the interface to MagicQ, via terminal. One suggestion, try a USB mouse, and see if that solves any issues?

 

Neil

 

EDIT as posting: Erm, a june 2010 version is almost certainly likely to be out of date! Chamys update the software very frequently!

[CharlieH]

I've downloaded the most recent version (both the Beta 1.5.0.0. version and the Stable 1.4.9.6 version) and they both refuse to open. X11 opens, and MagicQ flashes up then immediately closes again, just leaving the X11 window. The window mentions a 'Bus Error'.....what is this? http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif

 

Thanks to everyone for your help, @themadhippy......http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif

[neilalexrose]

Was trying to edit my last post and say that win xp discs were pretty cheap on ebay last time I looked, going in via bootcamp or even parallels.

[Wol]

I've downloaded the most recent version (both the Beta 1.5.0.0. version and the Stable 1.4.9.6 version) and they both refuse to open. X11 opens, and MagicQ flashes up then immediately closes again, just leaving the X11 window. The window mentions a 'Bus Error'.....what is this? http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif

 

Thanks to everyone for your help, @themadhippy......http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif

 

Take the 1.4.5.0 version, and grab any information you can from the terminal window and the relevant dated logfile in the Console app on your mac under the Crash reporter folder, and attach that to a bug report for us to look at.

[CharlieH]

Take the 1.4.5.0 version, and grab any information you can from the terminal window and the relevant dated logfile in the Console app on your mac under the Crash reporter folder, and attach that to a bug report for us to look at.

 

This is the info from the 1.4.9.0 version, copied straight out of Terminal when it crashed. Is this what you wanted?

 

Last login: Mon Jun 13 18:00:26 on ttys000

You have new mail.

Charlies-MacBook:~ charliehouse$ /Applications/MagicQ/MagicQ ; exit;

Bus error

logout

 

[Process completed]

 

Charlie

[LX-Dave]

I have been using MagicQ on both Mac and PC, and aside from a few failed starts on OSX, it's not been a problem, although I have never really subjected it to any heavy use, with the PC being the main MagicQ machine.Wi

 

 

However I did find using it within X11 to be much less pleasant than on a pc, and actually found running it within windows on Parallels Desktop to be more useable if you have this option.

 

If you boot-camp windows and run the same partition in parallels, it means you can program whilst working in the normal OSX environment, and reboot into windows for increased reliability for running shows.

 

Dave

[dirkenstein]

As for the clicking on windows, I do find that the software can't keep up with the touchpad (oh, and no two finger scrolling doesn't work, but I don't think scrolling works on the PC version), especially if you're like me and tap the touchpad, rather than click!

 

I believe mouse wheel/two finger scroll support is disabled unless you have a Chamsys wing or interface plugged in. It definitely works on XP with a PC wing. I can't remeber whether it works under MacOS as I rarely have the PC wing plugged into the MBP.

[themadhippy]

I believe mouse wheel/two finger scroll support is disabled unless you have a Chamsys wing or interface plugged in. It definitely works on XP wing

The scroll wheel seems to work with windoze without a wing,but on linux it dont want to play,not sure about with the wing cause that aint here at the moment,and most of the time I slide the bar up and down with my finger anyway.

Wol if you want to use the piccy for advertising purposes im open to offers,a nice shiney MQ300 and youve got worldwide rights :P

[CharlieH]

As suggested by many, I have now installed Windows, via VmWare, on an external HDD, and installed the Windows version, which is much better http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif Thanks to all that have helped.

Next challenge - is it possible to get MagicQ on my virtual Windows machine to talk to Capture Polar (demo) on my MB? http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/huh.gif