BC4 on Linux (Fedora 20)

[Coldforest]

Hi,

I've been using BC on Windows for years and have recently moved to use BC4 on Linux (Fedora 20). My Linux setup includes running StarNet FastX for displaying the remote X desktop (XFCE) on my Win7 host. This works awesome except when I attempt to use BC4.

Some examples of this include:
1. odd looking results dialogClick image for larger version.
2. full X session crash when attempting to double-click into a compared directory (in BC)

What can I do to help you work through correcting these issues?

Thanks,
-David

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4 requires XWindows as a base component to function. While Starnet FastX is an XWindows emulator, it may have some specific issues with something we rendering. It looks like they have a trial available, which I will download and test with, but the best course of action would be to open a ticket with Starnet, as we don't have any similar reports when running natively on Linux.

The other alternative is that our licensing allows you (as a user) to install BC4 on multiple machines as long as you are the only user using the application. A Multiplatform license would allow you to have a native Windows install on Windows and Linux on Linux.

[Aaron]

As an update, with the trial I do see the Compare Contents dialog issue, but not the full crash when attempting to double click on anything in the comparison. I am able to launch child viewers normally.

[Coldforest]

BC4 requires XWindows as a base component to function. While Starnet FastX is an XWindows emulator, it may have some specific issues with something we rendering. It looks like they have a trial available, which I will download and test with, but the best course of action would be to open a ticket with Starnet, as we don't have any similar reports when running natively on Linux.

Yes, I get this, however, this is (so far) the only (graphical) application I've seen that doesn't seem to work (I use NetBeans, SmartGit, Cervisia, native XFCE applications, etc. all without error)...

The other alternative is that our licensing allows you (as a user) to install BC4 on multiple machines as long as you are the only user using the application. A Multiplatform license would allow you to have a native Windows install on Windows and Linux on Linux.

I already have licenses for both Windows and Linux and do use these separately. This doesn't help though when I'm running on Linux (via my FastX session).

[Coldforest]

As an update, with the trial I do see the Compare Contents dialog issue, but not the full crash when attempting to double click on anything in the comparison. I am able to launch child viewers normally.

OK, good. So is there anything you can tell me about the dialog issue?

It may be that there's something additional related to the directory/double-click crash that I'll need to experiment. The scenario that I usually encounter is as follows: 1) attempt to use the results dialog in a large directory comparison, 2) notice the results dialog is bad and redo the compare without the results dialog, 3) after the compare completes attempt to double click into one of the directories showing differences...

[Aaron]

Hello,

For "redo" the comparison, once you run it once, this updates the center column with the status of that scan. If you aren't changing anything, another scan wouldn't be necessary. The dialog is an optional summary screen of the results that would also be in the main display.

When you are running Linux via FastX, are the resources not available via a remote connection, such as a network share or FTP, to the Windows build that would run on the Windows machine? It would be tricky to troubleshoot the emulation issue without some help from FastX. In the same regard that you haven't noticed an issue with other applications, we also don't have any similar reports of a draw issue with our dialog; it's a unique problem that only occurs with the interaction between both our applications.

[Coldforest]

For "redo" the comparison, once you run it once, this updates the center column with the status of that scan. If you aren't changing anything, another scan wouldn't be necessary. The dialog is an optional summary screen of the results that would also be in the main display.

Yes, I realize this; the results dialog is also helpful as a roll-up for *large* directory compares (e.g., if I wanted to see all orphaned files - as opposed to having to traverse the entire tree manually to find these).

When you are running Linux via FastX, are the resources not available via a remote connection, such as a network share or FTP, to the Windows build that would run on the Windows machine? It would be tricky to troubleshoot the emulation issue without some help from FastX. In the same regard that you haven't noticed an issue with other applications, we also don't have any similar reports of a draw issue with our dialog; it's a unique problem that only occurs with the interaction between both our applications.

Right, the data is not visible across both systems - I really do need to run the Windows and Linux versions of BC separately.

OK, so I think you're saying you can't move forward with the FastX results dialog issue independently? I can certainly try to engage Starnet, my only concern is that they say the same thing (i.e., contact the application vendor) .

[Aaron]

The Results dialog is helpful, but your description mentioned running the Compare Contents command with dialog, then re-running it without the dialog. Maybe I don't understand what is making it 'bad', but re-running the Compare Contents with the same options won't provide any new information unless something has changed. The first scan, and dismissing the summary dialog, would provide the same results.

For finding all Orphans, for example, I would recommend using the main interface's Display Filters, and Show Orphans (only left or right also available) to quickly find all Orphan files. You can also generate a visible report using the Session menu -> Folder Compare Report, Summary (Preview or View in Browser) to see a customizable, full list.

If you are able to open a tracker issue with Starnet, you can include our contact information and we'd be happy to help or answer any questions they might have.
[email protected]
http://www.scootersoftware.com/index.php?zz=contact

[Coldforest]

The Results dialog is helpful, but your description mentioned running the Compare Contents command with dialog, then re-running it without the dialog. Maybe I don't understand what is making it 'bad', but re-running the Compare Contents with the same options won't provide any new information unless something has changed. The first scan, and dismissing the summary dialog, would provide the same results.

OK, yes, this is correct (I didn't need to re-run the compare again - I was mostly just repeating my steps to explicit about what I was doing, in case this was relevant).

For finding all Orphans, for example, I would recommend using the main interface's Display Filters, and Show Orphans (only left or right also available) to quickly find all Orphan files. You can also generate a visible report using the Session menu -> Folder Compare Report, Summary (Preview or View in Browser) to see a customizable, full list.

Perhaps, yes. Suffice to say that I've gotten very used to using the results dialog (everything is just there, in one easily navigable result)...

If you are able to open a tracker issue with Starnet, you can include our contact information and we'd be happy to help or answer any questions they might have.
[email protected]
http://www.scootersoftware.com/index.php?zz=contact

Thanks, I've opened a ticket with Starnet. I'll get back to you when I know more.

[Coldforest]

A brief update on this thread. I received an updated version of FastX, which so far has seemed to fix the crash issue. Hopefully, Scooter is working on fixing the dialog issue. Thx.

[Aaron]

Hello,

We haven't heard from StarNet yet. Is there a status update on the ticket, and do they have our contact information?

[Coldforest]

Hi Aaron, it wasn't clear to me that you were expected to hear from StarNet. I've confirmed with them that their latest update has (so far) eliminated the crashes I was seeing originally. However, I still see the results dialog corruption, which I think you've also confirmed. Is it your belief that this is still a FastX issue? If so, is this something that you can just work with them directly on?
Thanks,
-David

[Aaron]

That was my assumption. We run on a wide variety of Linux platforms, but only seem to have this draw issue when called through their software. It's possible we're doing something wrong, but it'd be nice if they were able to help point us in the right direction of what we're doing that they don't expect (as we draw correctly in other cases). I've usually found it's best if the customer is able to initiate the ticket, as that both keeps you in the loop and helps get us in as a support ticket; once open they can talk with us directly at [email protected]. Otherwise, we're contacting them through any public/general email they have on their website and hope it is passed on to the proper contacts.

[Coldforest]

Hi Aaron,

I thought I'd get back to you on this as I've not heard from either StarNet or Scooter regarding this issue. I decided to do some more tests and have an interesting result that will hopefully help Scooter to get this fixed. I've now seen this same error when running BeyondCompare on the *local* console (completely independently of the StarNet session). The key thing is that I see the results dialog corruption when running a local *XFCE4 session* and not a *Gnome3 session*. Perhaps there is some XFCE4 setting/font that can be tweaked to finally fix this? Hopefully you will at least be able to reproduce this easily now on your Linux targets.

This is good news for another reason too: I've never seen any distinct X server behaviour in the StarNet sessions and this result further confirms that these sessions appear to operate identically to a local X session.

Does this help?

Thanks,
-David

PS: Reminder that I am running Fedora 20, XFCE4 4.10.1, and BeyondCompare 4.0.7.

[Aaron]

Thanks. I can confirm we've fixed this in BC 4.1's beta. If you are comfortable testing the beta you can install it, or wait for another beta release or full release.