Editor Hangs ... - jAlbum forums

linuxrog

Posts: 199
Registered: 21-Nov-2008

Editor Hangs
Posted: 26 Jun 18, 04:27

Tools | Skin Developer | Open Empty editor hangs

ctrl-shift-E seems to go into suspended animation only to "spring to life" minutes later.

Indeed, sometimes attempting to access the editor freezes jAlbum and it must be killed by external means.

This is a relatively new behavior, especially for the freezing part. It seems to be skin independent as it occurs with Turtle as well as Zigzag (Ver. 1.5). jAlbum is up-to-date (Version 16, 64 bit).

Of course I'm running Linux - the mostly widely used OS in the known universe.

/Roger

JeffTucker

Posts: 8,182
Registered: 31-Jan-2006

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 26 Jun 18, 04:54

in response to: linuxrog

Reply

(Thread moved to Bug Reports.)

You know what I'm going to post, even before I post it, right?

I won't leave you in suspense - both opening an empty editor and opening the skin files for editing work just fine in Win10 and macOS 10.13.5.

davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 28 Jun 18, 15:03

in response to: linuxrog

Helpful

Reply

@ linuxrog, to investigate why jAlbum is hanging so severely, trigger the hanging, then open a Terminal window and issue:

jps

If you have Oracle's Java's "bin" folder in your path, this command should print jAlbum's process ID. Now issue:

jstack pid >thread-dump.txt

where "pid" is exchanged with the process ID the jps command reports. Finally pass the generated file to me. I will inspect the "AWT thread's" stack trace and see if it hangs in a specific call.

Alternatively, open Preferences->Advanced and check the "Use watchdog" checkbox. This should trigger jAlbum to produce the same file if its UI hangs for more than 20s.

davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 29 Jun 18, 11:03

in response to: davidekholm

Correct

Reply

I now think I know what's causing the hanging. See this part of the thread-dump file:

Thread[AWT-EventQueue-0,6,main]
java.desktop@9.0.4/sun.print.PrintServiceLookupProvider.getDefaultPrintService(Unknown Source)

This indicates that Java is stuck waiting for the OS to deliver your default print service. See if reinstalling printer drivers help!

davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 29 Jun 18, 11:17

in response to: davidekholm

Reply

If you can't get rid of the hanging by tweaking/updating your printing system, try this version of the ext/JTextPad.jar file. It defers initialization of the printing system until you first try to print something. Now you can at least use the editor although you won't be able to print until the problem in the printing system has been resolved.

linuxrog

Posts: 199
Registered: 21-Nov-2008

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 29 Jun 18, 22:51

in response to: davidekholm

Reply

I found that a default printer had not be designated for my current setup - I had bought and installed a new printer. But, the real key was your update to 16.1: the issue of not being able to open the editor has disappeared.

Just for fun, I tried the print dialog (File | Print). jAlbum stalls for some seconds then opens a file manager to select a file! If I select a file, it opens in a file viewer (editor?). Then jAlbum freezes. Since I don't print from jAlbum, this does not stymie me. My problem is fixed.

Thanks for the fixes and a great album.

/Roger

davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 30 Jun 18, 11:27

in response to: linuxrog

Helpful

Reply

You're welcome. It's unfortunately out of our control to control the behaviour of the printing sub system or how Java interacts with it.

linuxrog

Posts: 199
Registered: 21-Nov-2008

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 30 Jun 18, 22:28

in response to: davidekholm

Reply

I guess it's the price we pay to use Linux (jGromit gloats now). It did take a bit of doing to get the printer going: it's a Brother all-in-one print / scan / copy. Outside developers put together installers that configure the printer under CUPS.

As regards the built-in editor, I don't have much call to use it as I am not a developer and could use an external editor if / when needed.

You guys are great. Thanks for the attention to our problems and the great skins. I'm finding the ZigZag skin to be great for putting up step-by-step illustrated driving directions.

/Roger

JeffTucker

Posts: 8,182
Registered: 31-Jan-2006

Re: Editor Hangs
Posted: 30 Jun 18, 22:55

in response to: linuxrog

Reply

linuxrog wrote:
It did take a bit of doing to get the printer going....

Peripherals are always an adventure. We used to refer to "plug-and-pray."

I had an older Canon scanner that Win10 balked at, but macOS cheerfully accepted. Opposite situation with an ancient HP LaserJet. Both times, I had to lie to the operating system about what the device was, and force it to use a driver that was nominally for a newer version of the same device. Thankfully, the newer drivers were backward-compatible, so I ended up with usable devices. But it took the kind of finagling that most users couldn't handle.