View Full Version : projectM black screen
Hi,
my projectM-viualization does not work, maybe someone has a tip?
My system:
Ubuntu 8.04 (mini), Kernel 2.6.24-24-generic
compiled and installed xbmc from SVN, rev. 20437
Alsa properly configured (digital sound output via Toslink to receiver), other visualizations (Gloom, waveform) work fine.
The debuglog shows, that projectM has been loaded and started correctly.
I can even open the projectM-Settings screen when playing a song and it lists me all available presets. But if I choose one manually, I just get a black screen. :(
Because it lists me all available presets, I don't think its a path-issue. However, I installed XBMC to /usr/share/xbmc and projectM is located in /usr/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM.
Could it be because I'm not using PulseAudio?
Is it possible to reinstall projectM somehow?
are you playing files on a smb share?
if you are, it's just the same issue i (and others) have... the only workaround i found so far has been to add a line to fstab to mount the share at boot and make nxbmc mount to the locally mounted folder... as far as i can see, projectm works just fine on local files, and on locally mounted files too :)
Thanks, it really has to do with playing files from SMB. Unbelievable. :)
I played a file locally and saw the visualisation. But it didn't work the second time. Very strange.
All my stuff is over SMB and projectM works. Odd...
i know that it works for someone, others answered to my other threads saying it works, but it really seems quite strange to me, as i have 2 different machines, both with 9.04, both with nvidia video cards, both with compiz disabled (but not apt-get purged), both working fine on local files and NOT working after playing remote files
again, i'm under gnome (but the same happens using plain xbmc session), could it be something with the desktop environment?
it could be something with the hardware or something with some missing strange and unexplicited dependency, but i think there must be something wrong out there :)
btw, all is working fine under windows, for both local and remote files, but it's all a different beast :p
Where's the other thread? Or do you have a debug log showing this?
hi, i was answering yesterday but got involved in something, so couldn't do it...
anyway, you could look at this (http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40576)
or this (http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44505)
or this (http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34031)
i saw sometimes ago i solved it by exporting XBMC_HOME so put that in /etc/environment but, again, with no result (when i solved that way i was running xbmc in standalone mode from a folder, building with build.sh, now i'm installing it with make install, and exporting didn't work then too, if using ppa)
you want a debug log?
i got one in which i played a local file (working projectm) and then a remote file (no more visualization)
of course removed all usernames/passwords :)
here it is: http://www.pastebin.ca/1431872
as far as i can see there is nothing strange, but anyway...
thanks for the help, bye
Try to make sure the option of looking for icons on remote shares is unchecked. See if that makes a difference. It does look to be trying to update album art or something. Not sure if that is causing issues.
yes, i already tried that, and it solved the problem for a while (it was in one of the threads i posted :) ) but after a while the black screen issue reappeared
will try again and let you know :)
edit: just tried it... no difference at all
if you want another debug log with the icon search disabled, tell me :)
I need to be able to reproduce somehow. It has always worked for me and all my music is on smb.
Actually, pastebin your ~/.xbmc/userdata/projectM.conf file.
oscarmax
2009-05-23, 21:32
I have this same problem. ProjectM not working just black screen - but the path in the ProjectM config file is correct and I can see the list of presets in xbmc.
I have all my music on SMB share but tried putting some local to try if it was the SMB messing up but no change. It's really annoying.
If someone has a solution to this I would be most grateful.
Still, post your projectM.conf and xbmc.log. Saying you have the same issue without providing anything additional isn't going to help.
oscarmax
2009-05-23, 21:46
ofz,
here is my ProjectM.conf
http://pastebin.com/m6a6db3f7
and here is my xbmc.log
http://pastebin.com/d63a28a28
That's not a debug log.
Enable debug please.
Also, this looks odd:
#
Window Bottom = 0
#
Window Height = 768
#
Window Left = 3
#
Window Width = 1017
How are you starting XBMC? Are you not in full screen?
Please kill off your projectM.conf and also try to make sure xbmc starts in full screen (not sure that is causing any issues).
Here is how my projectM.conf looks compared to yours:
Window Bottom = 0
Window Height = 1080
Window Left = 0
Window Width = 1920
Sorry, I think I was looking in the wrong place for projectM.conf.
Please look in ~/.xbmc/userdata/visualisations directory. Paste contents from there please.
oscarmax
2009-05-23, 22:23
ok, I have turned on debug in settings so here is my new log.
http://en.pastebin.ca/1432246
I run my xbmc with the xbmc command and are starting with fullscreen - only have a 1024x768 Plasma screen and my xbmc is set to that.
in option it says : 1024X768 @ 50.00HZ (FULL SCREEN)
Already tried removing the ProjectM.conf file before and that didn't help.
Please show me the correct projectM.conf from the location I mentioned in my last post.
Umm..
What does this mean?
#
21:12:21 T:3049805632 M:789598208 DEBUG: Loading: /usr/local/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM.vis
#
21:12:21 T:3049805632 M:789598208 ERROR: Unable to load /usr/local/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM.vis, reason: /usr/local/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM.vis: kan inte öppna delad objektfil: Filen eller katalogen finns inte
Do you even have a /usr/local/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM.vis ?
I had someone tell me that is swedish. That means that file does not exist.
Go check.
oscarmax
2009-05-23, 22:49
my ProjectM.conf file I posted earlier is from that location u mention.
And thats correct that is swedish and that is telling me that the file is missing, this reminds me to something I changed an hour ago in my GUI conf file - forgot to undo that.. but changing that back don't help .. still black.. here's a new fresh logfile with the filename correct.
http://en.pastebin.ca/1432274
Sorry.. No idea :(
I can't reproduce.
Without details on how to reproduce, we may be at a standstill.
oscarmax
2009-05-24, 00:14
Not easy to debug without beeing able to reproduce the fault - it's very annoying that I have this problem since I have had ProjectM working in the past. I think it was when I switched to Ubuntu Intrepid It went dark.
Im almost considering wiping the whole thing and do a complete reinstall of Ubuntu and the recompile xbmc and hoping that that will make it work.
There is nothing with the graphics drivers I have to adjust to get it to work - I have a Nvidia card it the box?
tslayer, are you running xbmc in standalone mode (from a folder) or installed as a package/made install?
if you run it standalone it could be what makes it work for you but not for us... btw what is your XBMC_HOME setting set to? for me it's /usr/share/xbmc
what i want to try now is to copy projectm.conf to /usr/share/xbmc/userdata/visualizations and see...
I compile using regular : ./configure; make; sudo make install
So, it is installed in /usr/local/share/xbmc
And I just use xbmc to run it (which invokes /usr/local/bin/xbmc script).
This is the normal way to do it.
i compile with --enable-avahi --enable-mid --enable-vdpau --disable-pulse --prefix=/usr so that xbmc is installed in /usr/share/xbmc
again, i guess it can depend on one of three things:
1: the distro (what distro are you on?)
2: the hardware/drivers (all of my pcs are nvidia-based, what's yours?)
3: some missing dependency (i have all the ones detailed in README.linux, but who knows)
i can't think of anything else...
Some more details from me:
- I always compile with --disable-pulse --
- my files are played form SMB
- the XBMC_HOME variable had no influence
- using NVIDIA 9400GT usually with VDPAU enabled, XBMC is set to 1080p
- my XBMC installation is located in /user/share/xbmc.
I have nvidia 9500GT. vdpau enabled. pulse enabled/disabled does not matter as I have tested both.
I use ubuntu 8.04(32-bit). Latest beta drivers from nvidia. 185.18.#.
For arguments sake, test without specifying a new --prefix. Keep it default and see. That is the only other difference really.
so you're on ubuntu 8.04... this seems to me to be a BIG difference
i made uninstall and re-made without any prefix, so now it's installed in /usr/local/share/xbmc
i used the prefix because, as far as i can remember, ppa builds used /usr instead of the default /usr/local
no difference at all... my next move will be to try live, as it should e jaunty based, so if it does work it myst be something with my environment
will let you know
edit: just noticed that, even if i exported XBMC_HOME i have a line in the terminal log saying "[PresetLoader] ENOENT error. The path "/usr/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM" probably does not exist. "man open" for more info."
will reboot and see if anything changes
mmmmmmmh... somehow XBMC_HOME gets hardcoded in projectm at configure time, as even rebooting gave me the same error
anyway, made reallyclean and re-configured, and noticed that i have a warning regarding ftgl not being installed (i guess this is to show track names and so on)
anyway, just installed libftgl-dev (shouldn't it be listed in README.linux?), re-configured, re-made, re-made install (in /usr/local) and say what? nothing changed :(
p.s. just noticed that the preset path is not hardcoded during configure, but is in .xbmc/userdata/visualizations/projectM.conf
edited that too :)
XBMC_HOME should not be needed.
Show me your console output.
Also, what are the permissions on /usr/share/xbmc/visualisations/projectM?
Do ls -al /usr/share/xbmc/visualisations
regarding the terminal log, there is nothing particular, only some 'trying to leave destroyed section's
the ls output is ls -al /usr/local/share/xbmc/visualisations/
totale 3648
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2009-05-24 20:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 2009-05-24 20:19 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 542222 2009-05-24 20:20 Goom.vis
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49208 2009-05-24 20:20 logo31a.bmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-05-24 20:19 Milkdrop
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 90174 2009-05-24 20:20 opengl_spectrum.vis
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12344 2009-05-24 20:20 particle.bmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 61440 2009-05-24 20:19 projectM
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2880142 2009-05-24 20:20 ProjectM.vis
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 41316 2009-05-24 20:20 Waveform.vis
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3168 2009-05-24 20:20 xbmc_vis.h
btw, within projectM folder all files are -rw-r--r--
again, nothing special... did you ever try to install 8.10/9.04 to see if it makes a difference?
Nope, no plans to install those versions. But others on the DEV team do and don't have problems.
But, if opendir is failing, that is odd.
Not sure why it can't open that folder.
Please paste the exact line in stdout showing that opendir is failing.
You could also try to strace the process and really see if opendir is failing, and if so, for what reason.
p.s. just noticed that the preset path is not hardcoded during configure, but is in .xbmc/userdata/visualizations/projectM.conf
edited that too
again, the opendir problem has been solved, i had a path set in .xbmc/userdata/visualizations/projectm.conf, so i just deleted that file and it was automagically regenerated at the next boot without the path to visualizations
so, no problem with opendir
my next step will be to try live... it's jaunty, isn't it? if so, should it be related to jaunty, it shouldn't work
will let you know :)
Oh, didn't know you solved that.
Now I am out of ideas.. Sorry.
ok, tested live and it works quite nicely with projectM on smb shares... so this leaves me with nothing at all...
my next step will be to destroy .xbmc folder and start ftom scratch with default settings (maybe exporting databases before, as i wouldn't like to lose it :) )
again, will let you know :)
and again: no way
this was an homemade build... next try will be with a ppa build
but, again... doesn't this mean that i miss something to make it work, some strange and unexplicited dependency (or that i have some package too much, interfering with xbmc)?
If you have all the dependencies as in the README.linux, you should be fine.
I really can't explain it. Also, I am unsure which version of ubuntu the Live is based on.
it's kernel 2.6.28.11, so definively 9.04
again, really strange as the same hardware works with live and doesn't with a full desktop environment
i'll try to install from ppa and see if it changes something from an install from manual build...
another try would be to list the packages installed with live and see if the list is different from the ones installed with plain ubuntu, if there's something noticeably more in the live :)
Try copying the projectM.vis from the Live CD and see if that works.
mmmmh... should it be a problem with the vis file i would NEVER see a projectM visualization... i can see it on local files... anyway, it's not a problem to give it a try :)
So many different things here. Some people say it never shows, then you say it is sometimes. So, not sure anymore :)
Perhaps you just have some bad .milk files and it always gets stuck on a bad one? Maybe it is locked as well? When you have projectM up and running, hit guide or whatever the key you have that is mapped that shows whether the preset is locked or not.
Thanks.
Morning
My ProjectM runs fine on SMB files, but sometimes i get a blank screen. It has been annoying but it doesnt happen all the time. It might be a bad .milk file as i have 8000 .milk vis files in that folder. Is there a pack that a person could download of known .milk files that work in projectM? The ones that i have work flawless on XBMC on my xbox and never get a blank screen, only in projectM do i get the random blank screen
Setup:
XBMC 9.04 on Ubuntu 8.04
Intel Core2Duo 2.0Ghz
2GB RAM
200 GB HD
Nvidia 7900GS
XBMC 9.04 on XBOX
Cheers!
Figure out which ones get black and remove them. Remember that xbox is not using projectM. It uses milkdrop. So maybe there are problems with some presets.
When you get a black screen, bring up the info and see which preset it is.
i don't think it's a question of bad milk files... yesterday i played a film and then played some music and it showed on all presets it could find (it went on for one hour and a half, so many presets :) )
today no way
yesterday i even tried to install from scratch the xbmcbuntu way on an usb key but i couldn't get the audio to go, so no way (yet) to test smb music
again, what i guess is that there must be something in ubuntu (but not in the xbmc-live) interfering with projectm but i still have to identify it :)
compiz is disabled right?
yes, it's even apt-get purged
i succeeded in making projectm work, but i had to do some strange magic :)
what i noticed is that projectm doesn't show if i start directly the music but (strange but true) shows just fine if i start a video, stop it and then start the music, as if projetctm doesn't initialize the video surface, but i really can't find anything like that on the log i posted some time ago, and, more than that, why should it happen with remote files but not with local ones???
i tried it again... start xbmc, go to some music and tab to vis, blank screen... close xbmc, restart it, go to video, start a video, stop it, go to some music, start vis and it's alright... again, i've got no clue :(
did anyone try the workaround to start a video BEFORE the music?
i'd like to know if it could be confirmed that in 'not working' environment this is caused by the screen not being init (who knows why) by projectM
Hi succo,
Great, you're still investigating this issue. So did I understand correctly, that when:
- you use local files projectM always works fine and
- when using remote files it works, if you start a video previously?
Odd, but really could be the case. ProjectM was working for me the last times I tried (remotely) and I played a lot around with video files the last days. I'll check your workaround in detail when back home (it's just in the morning here and my working day just began ;) ).
succo,
I have the exact same behaviour here. it works after starting a video.
projectM also doesn´t work for me with shoutcast but in this case the little trick is not helping...
that's because shoutcast doesn't use paplayer but dvdplayer, and visualizations work only with paplayer :)
as I can remember other visualizations like spectrum work great with shoutcast ?!?
try to look what are you using for shoutcast, pressing o while playing... it should popup something saying what is happening behind the scenes :)
Very strange behaviour...
I now tried several use cases:
- projectM never works when playing smb-files, independently of playing a video flie before or not
- but it works on local files. Sometimes directly after restarting XBMC, but also sometimes I get a black screen and if I in this case start a videofile, projectM works after that
- projectM doesn't work with shoutcast streams
I assume that doesn't help very much.... :oo:
o_neill, another question... is the video file you're playing on a smb share?
as far as i can guess, somehow projectM could need the video to be initialized from the same (local or remote) source, and this could explain why there is no projectM on shoutcast, as there is no shoutcast video source at all to init the screen
am i completely off target???
edit: i can confirm that playing a local files doesn't make projectM work on smb music... are we going somewhere?
succo, you are so right :) ;)
To conclude my behaviour:
- projectM works for remote files, if a remote videofile is played before, a local videofile is not enough
- projectM works for local files sometimes
- if it doesn't work for local files, playing a local videofile helps
Crazy stuff :cool:
ok, so... do i need to fill a ticket for this or is this investigated by someone? :)
i don't think i can be any more precise in a ticket as there is nothing strange in the logs, only visualization doesn't work if the screen isn't init from the same source before playing the music (as far as i can guess...)
Same problem here with r23824, ProjectM fullcreen and menu Viz gives a black screen and XBMC reboots after a while if the Viz stays up! Any clues?