A whoops or two in LW 4.0.8 for Mac
 

Too damn often, when a large download (700 meg) is within moments of completing it vanishes. It's gone from the screen, from the incomplete folder, from everywhere, as though it never was—even when searched for via the Finder. It appears that you're sometimes dropping the ball during the handoff from the download to the verify routine because the verify never appears. I've noticed this in the past, so it's not unique to 4.08. It's frustrating to spend several days searching out and downloading a large file only to have the effort turn out to be wasted.

What is unique to 4.0.8 is what appears to be a memory leak. When I open LW I have 1.5 gigs left on the system drive. It stays that way until people begin uploading large video files from my machine. Then it plummets each time a new file is requested. I could understand the need to make a working copy of the file, but I'm not given the option to select the work-disk, so my 75 gig disk sits idle while the crowded system disk free-space drops, until I get messages talling me I have to force quit something because there's no room for application memory on the disk. And that situation does not correct if the uploads either complete or I force-terminate them via the monitor screen. The only thing that will restore the drive to normal is restarting LW, which means I have to get back in line for anything I'm downloading, after waiting half the day for access.

And while I have you on the line... It seems that if the right click is used to select the contextual menu on a search tab it can only be dismissed by either selecting one of the menu options or clicking the tab. It should also dismiss if the body of the search screen is moused.

I also have to comment that with this upgrade the preferences didn't copy properly. It lost the force IP checkbox, the freeloader settings, and I think, preferencing (I'm pretty sure I had it disabled, but it was on and set to 3 when I looked at it after installation).

And... Though I enabled iTunes support, when I launch a mp3 file the LW previewere plays it, where in the past iTunes opened and played the selection. I haven't verified if the control is simply backward, but it doesn't do what it claims to do.

And of course, chat and sharing partials had been re-enabled.

And finally.... The incomplete downloads are going into the folder I created on my second disk—as I instructed LW to do when that destination was something that could be user-selected. I don't know why you removed that ability (or hid it so it couldn't be set from the preferences), but if a future version of LW decides to place those files in my user's incomplete file or within the LW application folder I will probably be forced to stop using LW due to lack of room. The present incomplete-folder size is greater than my free space on the primary drive (and no, I can't move the system to the large drive because it's a 7200 rpm drive, which is too fast for my G3, so the system often freezes on bootup if that drive is used (agreed, it's not impossible that the missing file business I mention above is related to this, but no other application has ever had a problem, and even the system ran perfectly if it got by the speed-bump on bootup, so...).

In any case, I think you may need a new set of beta testers.

Jay

I almost forgot
 

Sometimes killing LW when the disk space is tied up doesn't work and a reboot is required. Sometimes even that doesn't work and I have to use Techtool to rebiuld the volume desktop. And that is a real pain in the ***.

Another clue
 

LW had dragged my hard drive space from 1.4 gig to 200k, tonight, when I decided to post my original comments. This time quitting LW did not restore the memory. I was about to reboot (hating to do it because I had files actively transferring on the Carracho network) when I decided to try the system's disk utility and repair the permissions. There was a single error, and fixing it restored the free space to 700 meg, which was enough to get by on for tonight without a reboot.

Hope this helps.

Can u supply us all your specifics of your comp. G3 model, speed, ram, connection type, hard dd's & their sizes & speeds & types, OS version, Java version, & any other details u can think of. Which 3rd party utilities do you have? Do u use other apps at same time as LW? Are u on a network & how is it set up in regards to u using LW? Do u save locally?

Re: A whoops or two in LW 4.0.8 for Mac
 

It transfers newly downloaded songs to a Playlist called LimeWire in iTunes. There's no connection between "iTunes Support" and LimeWire's Preview button or the integrated player!


An option to change the location of the incomplete directory never existed! The location is coupled to the "Save Directory" so if you desire to change the Incomplete directory you must do it via the Saving option.

Btw. the reason you run out of Disk space is probably the Preview function which creates copies of the files before it opens them (they're kept in the Incompletes directory and have a "Preview-" prefix).

Machine Model: Power Macintosh G3 Series
CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (83.2) @ 500 mhz
Boot ROM Version: 154
Ram = 640 meg
Primary Hard drive = 6 gig
secondary hard drive = 80 gig
Os = 10.3.5
Java Webstsrt = 2.0.2
Java 1.4.2 plugin settings = 2.1.1
Java 1.3.1 plugin settings = 2.0.0
Connection is comcast cable via a Belkin router, with no traffic on the network, though there's an idle PC on the network.
I'm also running Dragthing, Explorer, PandoCalender, and may or may not be running Carracho (same effect either way)
Files, both complete and incomplete are saved to the 80 gig drive.

The permissions fix this last time (I left LW running all night and day and when I came home I had to do a warm boot because the drive showed only 23 meg of free space left and system response was measured in macroseconds) showed:

We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
Permissions differ on ./private/var/log/install.log, should be -rw-r--r-- , they are -rw-r-----
Owner and group corrected on ./private/var/log/install.log
Permissions corrected on ./private/var/log/install.log
Permissions differ on ./private/var/log/wtmp, should be -rw-r--r-- , they are -rw-r-----
Owner and group corrected on ./private/var/log/wtmp
Permissions corrected on ./private/var/log/wtmp

I hope this helps. As a quick fix, if I could tell the program to use the larger drive as the workspace disk it would at least keep me from crashing on a daily basis.

Jay

Re: Re: A whoops or two in LW 4.0.8 for Mac
 

The last version opened iTunes, placed the song in the music library, and played it, using the iTunes controls. This version plays it via the Limewire player control at the screen-bottom, and does NOT open iTunes. Nor does it enter it into the iTunes library, which means I have to do that manually, now. So, what does the iTunes support button do if it has no connection to iTunes?

<<An option to change the location of the incomplete directory never existed! The location is coupled to the "Save Directory" so if you desire to change the Incomplete directory you must do it via the Saving option.>>

Hmm... Okay, then it should exist. If my main disk was larger I would want completed files to be saved there, but still want the incomplete crap to accumulate on a scratch disk where it didn't waste space.

<<Btw. the reason you run out of Disk space is probably the Preview function which creates copies of the files before it opens them (they're kept in the Incompletes directory and have a "Preview-" prefix).>>

No chance. You're talking to a computer professional with forty years in the computer field, from logic design to programming. They had tubes in the things when I came on board, so I'm not taking stabs in the dark, here. The memory leak takes place when others download from me, not the other way around. And in any case, the drop in free space is unconnected to the rate data is arriving, which is usually lethargic, only the upload rate, which is often running at the max my cable connection can handle (and yes, I reduced the bandwith, which did slow the rate of leakage). And finally: It's not me screwing up the permissions. That only happens when I run Limewire.

I don't mean to be insulting, and I know how hard you guys are working to make the product better, but this release was not ready for prime time. Something like the preferences not being moved over tells me that your guys are testing for success rather than failure, because they "know" that teeny little change they made won't effect anything important.

Test plans... You gotta love them.

Let me get back to you. I'd like to view this over a few times before I respond. Particularly considering my time zone (which is in the middle of the ocean - no don't say it...hehehhe)

Re: Re: Re: A whoops or two in LW 4.0.8 for Mac
 

I didn't said that! I said there is no connection between "iTunes Support" and the integrated Player or the Preview/Launch button. It transfers only newly downloaded songs to iTunes. Files that you already have on the Disk stay entirely untouched by "iTunes Support".

If LimeWire's build in player is enabled then will Launch and Preview open songs in the build in Player and if it is disabled then they trigger an "open /Path/To/File.mp3" on the CLI.

Take a look at this and open then ~/Library/Preferences/LimeWire/limewire.props in TextEdit. As a computer professional with forty years in the computer field with experience from logic design to programming you should be able combine the information you see in both files.

OK

Did you upgraded Java to 1.4.2_05 (recent Java Update)? You said you have a 6GB boot disk, is it also the swap disk? I'm asking because:

a) 1.4.2_05 on OSX seems to have a bug in the Garbage Collector which lets the Real/Virtual Memory grow until the JVM runs out of memory or maybe b)

b) as your boot disk is quite small and if the swapfiles are kept on the same volume then you can run out of disk space. If it happens next time take a look at the Virtual Memory and /private/var/vm.

There's some discussion in the LimeWire Beta forum.

That is utter crap and an insulting for everyone who is participating on LimeWire.

http://www.limewire.org
http://bugs.limewire.com/bugs/home.jsp

Re: A whoops or two in LW 4.0.8 for Mac
 

well . . . I agree that was offensive for others, but personally I'd be glad to see more beta-testers who can read and write code. The rest of us owe too much to the three or four regular volunteers who help with the code. Hell . . . the LW team itself spends so much time outside of office hours helping that many of then are more like volunteers too.

nothing to read here . . . carry on :)

Re: Re: Re: Re: A whoops or two in LW 4.0.8 for Mac
 

You seem a teeny bit defensive. Had a tough day?

Perhaps you didn't understand the implications when I said I had forty years experience in the field. Or perhaps I underestimated you. Either way: The latest version of Limewire DOES NOT OPEN iTunes. Not only did I enable iTunes support, I disabled the Limewire player. Perhaps if you had taken a moment or two to verify the problem I took the time to report, before getting pissy about the fact that I did and snapping back a snide answer, it would be fixed by now.

<<It transfers only newly downloaded songs to iTunes. Files that you already have on the Disk stay entirely untouched by "iTunes Support".>>

=sigh= Let me see if I can make this clear: When you double click on a newly downloaded song—one that's sitting in the transfer window—with iTunes support enabled and the Limewire player disabled, the song is played by the Limewire player. I'll let you decide if that's a bug or a feature. I'm just reporting the problem in case someone at your end gives a damn.




Take a look at this and open then ~/Library/Preferences/LimeWire/limewire.props in TextEdit. As a computer professional with forty years in the computer field with experience from logic design to programming you should be able combine the information you see in both files.



OK



<<Did you upgraded Java to 1.4.2_05 (recent Java Update)?>>

According to the system profiler I'm running 1.4.2. Since I'm getting my updates via the software update feature I assume I'm on the latest version of Java. That would make sense because Limewire is the only fully java app I'm running.



<<That is utter crap and an insulting for everyone who is participating on LimeWire.>>

Feel free to be insulted when someone suggests that you need to test your software more completely—and with a formal test plan. If we ignore the memory problem, the fact remains that you released a version of software in which preferences weren't copied over, the player doesn't follow the checkbox, the contextual menues don't dismiss properly, and files vanish when transferring from download to verify status. You may call them features, but when I was chief engineer I called them bugs.

To reiterate, if you tick that iTunes support box, then, from that point on, every song dld (in a format supported by iTunes of course, eh?) that completes will be imported to iTunes. That is, if iTunes isn't launched, LW will open iTunes.
If it is the first ever song that you import that way (with the iTunes support feature), LW will create a playlist entitled "Limewire" (doh) and import the song(s) there. This results in you having 2 copies of the song(s): one in the Music folder and one in the Shared Folder.
If you wish to have LW open iTunes every time you click Launch on a dld, then disable the iTunes player in the Preferences, click Apply, quit LW and re-launch it (please, do not be offended by the way I write this. I do it only to make sure that a "heated debate" won't take place because of a slip). Every time you now choose a music dld (in progress or completed), click Launch and iTunes will open. If you have enabled in iTunes' preferences the copying files to Music folder when adding to Library, iTunes will also make a copy of the file in the Music folder.

And which part of: That doesn't happen, are you having a problem with?

To reiterate: With iTunes support turned on, and the "Use Limewire Player" box unchecked, a newly downloaded song will NOT open iIunes on a G3 Mac running OS 10.3 and the latest updates. It WILL open the Limewire player


<<If you wish to have LW open iTunes every time you click Launch on a dld, then disable the iTunes player in the Preferences, click Apply, quit LW and re-launch it (please, do not be offended by the way I write this.>>

Not offended by the way you wrote it, but a bit amused, because the post you replied to clearly said, "The latest version of Limewire DOES NOT OPEN iTunes." Some help-desk people would actually check to see if that was true, under the conditions stated, before replying.

"Please, do not be offended by the way I write this," but you appear to either think your users are idiots or dismissed my comment that I'm a long time computer professional and am not taking shots in the dark. Either way... Had you taken a moment to download and launch an MP3 file on a Mac instead of climbing on that high horse, Limewire, and your clients, would have benefitted.

Hey listen JayG I promised I would review your situation (whether I'd be of any help or not), but I've been a bit slow. I do appologise. You know sometimes ticking & unticking/vice versa can actually swing LW into action to what it's supposed to do.

I noticed you have a G3 processor but at 500 mHz. Apple never released G3's at that speed but did offer upgrades (from what I heard back then, they were supposed to be better than the g4's for some reason I can't remember why. I think they were faster or something.) So what was your G3 originally? And did your model have a nickname or ID & what was the original weight (yes that says a lot!)?

I have heard that the recent version of Java by Apple does in fact have some issues. That may/not have affected you.

I WILL get back to u if not within the next 12 hrs then by monday! I do appologise again, please be patient. I am a volunteer so I do have

With iTunes support turned on, and the "Use Limewire Player" box unchecked, a newly downloaded song will open iIunes on a G4 Mac running OS 10.3.5 and the latest updates, provided that you have quit and restarted LW after disabling the LW player. The reason is that LW (4.0.4. I can't really say for the newest versions or the betas, but I figure that this mustn't have changed) needs the restart to remove the player controls, so, if done correctly, then LW with a disabled player doesn't show the various Play/Stop/blah blah controls at the bottom right of the LW window.
I suppose that you did do the procedure right (again, not forgeting to click Apply after the changes are made and then restarting LW), so I'm thinking that this is a one time problem.
I took the time to dld several songs to test it. Sure enough, a dld in progress, when Launched would open iTunes and import the portion of the song that had been dlded up to that point. When the dld finished, iTunes would open and the songs would go into the Limewire playlist.
See my signature to see my configuration (LW version, OS, etc etc.)
Note also that I am not a developer and, when it comes down to computer programing, I don't know squat.
I wrote the "do not be offended" remark precisely because you wrote that you have experience with computers. I wanted to point out the exact steps in a clear way to make sure that everybody is talking about the same procedures. Knowing that you were knowledgable about comps, I thought that it might offend you if I used "baby talk" to clear up the steps (because you'd think that I wasn't taking you seriously and/or I was trying to make fun of you). That's why I wrote that. I get the feeling that it had the oposite effect...:(
And one last important thing. I made a huuge mistake in the previous post. I wanted to write "disable the Limewire player in the Preferences, etc etc". I accidentaly wrote iTunes.

But in this case it didn't. Nor does rebooting, nor does anything else. The previous version of Limewire worked well (I've ised it on the Mac and PC since it came out)

<<I noticed you have a G3 processor but at 500 mHz. Apple never released G3's at that speed but did offer upgrades>>

They did offer one at 450, and anyone with a pair of tweezers and a map of the clock block can overclock a B&W G3 motherboard by at least 50 meg (some chips support even more, but virtually all will support 50, reliably, if the machine is in an air-conditioned environment). This has never caused a problem. When the clock speed gets too high for that CPU to support the processor crashes, or fails to exicute one particular machine language instruction, which has far greater effects than what I've reported.

<<I have heard that the recent version of Java by Apple does in fact have some issues. That may/not have affected you.>>

True, and I thought that might be causing the memory leak, but the previous version of LW was a Java application, too, and should have have had the same problems. It didn't.

Hrrm, it kinda depends on what version you were using before. If it was one of the 4.x.x too then you're right. If on the other hand it was an older one, then you might be wrong because other versions were pretty different...

Now, if I hadn't been smart enough to restart the program, or reboot the machine...

=sigh= I really did learn something about computers during those forty years of designing them... Really. And on a good day I can sometimes find my own *** (if I use both hands).

Still, today I went to the preferences to verify that the settings were unchanged from what I reported. They were as reported. So I downloaded a song and tried it, just to be certain. This time, iTunes opened properly. The system had been rebooted a dozen times since those settings had been in place, but there is something different. A day or so ago the latest security update downloaded and installed.

Unfortunately, your memory leak is still in operation because I was just told to quit some appliccations to free memory. My 1.2 gig of free memory has been reductd, by LW, to 72 meg. Where can I download the prior version?

For someone who knows so much about computers, you sure haven't been much help tracking down your preferences problem.

For the "leak"--see the beta forum.

For older versions, try here http://www9.limewire.com:82/download/

[QUOTE]Originally posted by stief
[B]For someone who knows so much about computers, you sure haven't been much help tracking down your preferences problem.B][/QUOTE

So let me see if I have this straight. The latest version of Limewire for Mac was released with a memory leak, an inability to update its own preferences, and a screwup in selecting the proper MP3 player. And you think I'm to blame because, without a copy of the code, or even flowcharts, I didn't fix Limewire's preference problem for them?

Kid, I CHARGE for fixing problems that other people can't find. It's how I've made my living for forty years. I've designed computer systems when DTL was the only logic family there was, but I've used TTL, ECL, and CMOS. I've also designed barcode scanners, map readers for the Defense Mapping Agency, and codebreakers for The National Security Agency. As far as I know, one of my communication processors is still installed on the presidential "Doomsday Jet," the 747 based airborne command post our president will use in the event of an attack. I started out writing programs in machine language, on the equipment I designed, because even assemblers weren't available. I've worked for RCA, Univac, and Burroughs, to name a few. My design projects have been for such companies as Dupont, Stanley Vidmar, Timex, and *****. If you're a navy pilot and have landed using the Glide Slope Indicator (an optical system used to tell the pilot that the plane is on the proper slope to touchdown), part of that is my design.

These days I'm retired, and rehabbing houses (which are almost as much fun to design)—so I'm not interested in hiring on as a consultant—but was damn good at what I did. So, if you work for Limewire don't bother trying slip the blame on me for your screw-up. I know better.

<<For older versions, try here [url]http://www9.limewire.com:82/download>>

The link doesn't work, with or without the WWW9

The 'leak' looks like it's an Apple java problem that only showed up since the last Apple update, the link works, I've used the same prefs since April, I haven't been called a kid since the 1950's, most of us who post are fellow users, the iTunes integration works well, and everyone who posted in this thread are not limewire employees. You're out of touch and out of line IMHO. SHow some appreciation, or get the Pro if you expect pro LimeWire support.

Building is fun (I've built two houses).

I'm renovating right now, but I'll get back to you later with more links or anything else I can find that might help.