Golly issues on Linux

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Sphenocorona
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Golly issues on Linux

Post by Sphenocorona » April 30th, 2013, 7:34 pm

I was just trying to view the comment lines for a Golly script when I got this message:
exkYvYc.png
exkYvYc.png (27.9 KiB) Viewed 312 times
I checked the preferences, and the location was correct, and I was able to open the text editor fine. I haven't had this problem before. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks.
Last edited by Sphenocorona on May 6th, 2013, 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Andrew
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Re: Linux: Golly 2.4 cannot find text editor

Post by Andrew » April 30th, 2013, 9:01 pm

I'll need more information. Which Linux system and version are you using? (I have 32-bit Mint 13 and 64-bit Fedora 17 and have never seen that error, but I don't use them all that often.) The "fork failed" error suggests that maybe you have too many processes running? Maybe some app is creating lots of zombie processes? If so, try killing them. Otherwise try rebooting.

EDIT: Another thought... Maybe Golly is using lots of memory, so try quitting it. This can happen if you're running lots of Python scripts that use lots of memory. When a Python script finishes it does not free up all the memory it has used (unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about that).
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Sphenocorona
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Re: Linux: Golly 2.4 cannot find text editor

Post by Sphenocorona » May 1st, 2013, 8:40 pm

That would make sense. The Linux distribution I am using is a lightweight one called SliTaz, and the reason why I am using it is because the computer I installed it on only has about 350 MB of RAM. (The reason was partly to make the computer actually useful again, and now it works much better.)
I still have another computer I can run Golly on which runs on Windows, so it's not too big of a deal.

Thanks!

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Re: Linux: Golly 2.4 cannot find text editor

Post by Andrew » May 1st, 2013, 9:03 pm

Sphenocorona wrote:... the computer I installed it on only has about 350 MB of RAM.
In that case you should check the max memory settings in Preferences > Control and make sure all the non-QuickLife algos are set to no more than about 250.
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Sphenocorona
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Golly issues on Linux

Post by Sphenocorona » May 6th, 2013, 10:52 pm

Since I do not want to start a new topic I am going to use this as a thread for posting issues involving running Golly on Linux. Rarely while using Golly on the same computer as disscussed above (it might have happened on a windows though) i'll go to click on a part of the interface that is not in the cell window and the view will move over to the side and have a few new lives cells at the very edge of the screen near where I clicked. Once that happens, no matter where I click on the window Golly will the interpret it as drawing on the grid. There's no simple way to fix it, and it doesn't just affect the window; it affects everything. I can't close the window, I can't click the taskbar to minimize Golly, I can't even make anytype of click anywhere out side the window. All mouse button and scroll wheel input goes to Golly. Eventually I was able to get out of it by pressing [Super] + D (The "Super" key is also known as 'windows' key), but attempting to edit the pattern again caused the glitch to start again.

This is more serious than the previous bug as it could have caused me to lose all my unsaved data. Is there any way this could be fixed?

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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Andrew » May 6th, 2013, 11:51 pm

This sounds very similar to a bug Dave Greene reported in the golly-test list:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/foru ... golly-test

But that was on Windows (7, I think), so are you sure you saw it on Linux? Dave says he was able to get out of that mode by switching to another app and then back to Golly, but you seem to be saying that doesn't work. Please read the above thread and see if any of Dave's clues match what you see -- in particular that "autoscroll" mode he mentions near the end.

I spent a lot of time trying to reproduce this bug on my Windows system (XP) but never saw anything like it. I really need someone to come up with a sequence of steps that will reproduce the bug, even if not 100% of the time, otherwise I don't hold much hope of being able to fix it.
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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Sphenocorona » May 7th, 2013, 12:30 am

I believe I have had it happen on Windows Vista once and I still was in the process of compiling that post above when I accidentally re-triggered it the second time on the Linux computer. For Vista it only affected the Golly window, but on my Linux it applied to the entire screen.

I'm not too familiar with these bugs yet so I can't say if the things in that post are true for me.

On an unrelated note, I have found that on my linux computer for some reason I can't pause using the spacebar. If the program is already paused the step one generation by pressing the spacebar is fine; it's just pausing while it's running that doesn't. On windows that works fine.

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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Andrew » May 7th, 2013, 1:16 am

Sphenocorona wrote:I believe I have had it happen on Windows Vista once and I still was in the process of compiling that post above when I accidentally re-triggered it the second time on the Linux computer.
That's a useful clue (rules out my theory that it's a bug in wxMSW). Again, please try to remember the exact sequence of steps leading up to the bug. Does it happen after running Golly for a long time? Does it happen soon after switching back to Golly from another app (your browser in the above case)? Was Golly running a pattern or script when you switched back? Does it only happen while using a particular algorithm or rule? The more clues you can provide, the better.
On an unrelated note, I have found that on my linux computer for some reason I can't pause using the spacebar. If the program is already paused the step one generation by pressing the spacebar is fine; it's just pausing while it's running that doesn't.
Yep, I see that bug on my Linux system, so I should be able to fix it. Curiously, hitting tab (for Next Step) does pause the generating loop -- do you also see that?
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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Sphenocorona » May 9th, 2013, 9:50 pm

Ok, I've managed to replicate it multiple times just now. Unfortunately it's not an ideal way to replicate it and it might not work on other computers except by random chance. On my linux computer doing anything will make the CPU jump up to 50% or more, for example adding a single lone cell in Golly. So to get the glitch to occur on the computer all I had to do was rapidly click back and forth between the undo button and the grid. I believe the the CPU or other memory usage has to be high at the same time too. The glitch happens in both LifeHistory and QuickLife B2/S23, so the algorithm does not seem involved.

Now that you pointed out the tab thing I tried it and it stopped generating the pattern.

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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Andrew » May 11th, 2013, 11:31 pm

Sphenocorona wrote: So to get the glitch to occur on the computer all I had to do was rapidly click back and forth between the undo button and the grid.
I can't seem to reproduce that on my Linux or Windows systems, but I've added some code in 2.5b4 (coming soon) that will hopefully avoid the problem.

I've also fixed the problem with the space bar not stopping pattern generation.
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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Sphenocorona » June 20th, 2013, 1:22 am

Here's a new one that's really annoying me already: In the new Golly 2.5 any time I paste in a pattern from the standard Conway's Game of Life and I am not already on that rule (I have set Golly so that if I paste in a pattern from a different rule and the grid is blank it changes to that rule), instead of ending up on the QuickLife B3/S23 I end up on RuleLoader's B3/S23. There are multiple reasons why this is annoying:

1. If I'm not mistaken the QuickLife algorithm runs faster than RuleTree/Table/Loader algorithms.
2. RuleLoader's default color for on cells starts with red, but when working with life-like cellular automata, I would prefer the on state to be white.
3. The B3/S23 RuleLoader rule is built-in and cannot be changed.

I'm not sure why two copies of the Life rule are needed anyways. I wouldn't be suprised if this is true for all versions; the new features listings seemed to imply that RuleLoader takes precedence over the other algorithms, and said that if you wanted to give the B3/S23 rule special coloring, that you could make a rule with the rule name B3_S23 (as slashes can't be in the @RULE rule name) and it would take precedence over the Quicklife coloring. But now this is already done for us without any choice in the matter; I might continue using 2.4 for a little while more now. I'm also putting a reference to this in the Golly 2.5 thread.

EDIT: This has also happened when loading patterns bundled with Golly.

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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Andrew » June 20th, 2013, 8:29 pm

Sphenocorona wrote:Here's a new one that's really annoying me already: In the new Golly 2.5 any time I paste in a pattern from the standard Conway's Game of Life and I am not already on that rule (I have set Golly so that if I paste in a pattern from a different rule and the grid is blank it changes to that rule), instead of ending up on the QuickLife B3/S23 I end up on RuleLoader's B3/S23.
The only way I can reproduce that is if the clipboard pattern contains "rule = life" rather than "rule = B3/S23". In version 2.4 you would end up in the RuleTree algo, so nothing has really changed. Only the RuleLoader algo treats "life" or "Life" as a synonym for "B3/S23" (which is what the RuleTree algo used to do).
There are multiple reasons why this is annoying:

1. If I'm not mistaken the QuickLife algorithm runs faster than RuleTree/Table/Loader algorithms.
2. RuleLoader's default color for on cells starts with red, but when working with life-like cellular automata, I would prefer the on state to be white.
3. The B3/S23 RuleLoader rule is built-in and cannot be changed.
1. QuickLife is faster for small or chaotic patterns. For very large, highly repetitive patterns the RuleLoader algo is likely to be faster because it is based on hashlife.

2. If you want to force RuleLoader to use white for B3/S23 then create B3_S23.rule:

Code: Select all

@RULE B3_S23
Force RuleLoader algo to use white for Life cells in state 1.

@COLORS
1 255 255 255 (white)
And create a similar life.rule file (with @RULE life) if you want to override the color when RuleLoader is using "life".

3. The RuleLoader algo HAS to have a built-in rule (in case Golly fails to find any .rule files) so it seemed sensible to use B3/S23 (which is what the RuleTree algo used). The RuleTable algo's built-in rule was Langtons-Loops, but that always seemed rather an odd choice.

Again, I don't see any real change between 2.4 and 2.5 in this regard, but if you need a quick way to switch from RuleLoader to QuickLife then create a keyboard shortcut like "Q" that runs this simple script:

Code: Select all

import golly
golly.setalgo("QuickLife")
EDIT: This has also happened when loading patterns bundled with Golly.
Which patterns? And what exactly has happened? If there are any supplied patterns that use "life" rather than "B3/S23" then I'll change them for the next version.
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Re: Golly issues on Linux

Post by Andrew » June 20th, 2013, 8:37 pm

Sphenocorona wrote:Ok, I've managed to replicate it multiple times just now. Unfortunately it's not an ideal way to replicate it and it might not work on other computers except by random chance. On my linux computer doing anything will make the CPU jump up to 50% or more, for example adding a single lone cell in Golly. So to get the glitch to occur on the computer all I had to do was rapidly click back and forth between the undo button and the grid. ...
Do you still see that bug in version 2.5?
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