'Preview' Linux client alpha 1.13.0.8 available

You can grab this from the official preview download page.

As is usually the case, this preview needs to connect to the preview grid, not the main grid; you will have to start it with '--aditi' on the command-line.

Visible Linux changes in 1.13.0.2:
* New README-linux.txt
* Automated crash reporter (see README to activate)
* Fine-grained GL extension disabling for advanced troubleshooters (see README)

Visible Linux changes in 1.13.0.3:
* Preferences/logs/etc now live in ~/.secondlife by default

Visible Linux changes in 1.13.0.8:
* Fixed crash in Profile window

Updated the first post with a list of changes.

It insists on making me quit because a "newer client" exists. Using --siva doesn't help.

Will it ever be possible for people whose passwords were changed by Linden after October 16th to access this?

Yes, the preview-grid account database is rebuilt intermittantly.

And I was able to narrow my troubles down to one GL extension; extension "j".

I'm running on an IBM Thinkpad X60, with an Intel 945GM mobile graphics chipset. I'm running Ubuntu Edgy (6.10).

I can provide more info if that's required.

Thanks for the great data Spikeheel!

No problem, Tofu. I hope that the linux client can get a good speed boost soon - this laptop is almost twice as powerful as my other computer (also a laptop, a IBM T42), but the old T42 is faster in SL due to its Radeon 7500 and it's running Windows.

Rumor has it the Intel integrated chipset drivers for linux will be getting some very good speed/feature bumps soon. Hope that's true, as I can't afford to get a dedicated box with better graphics just for SL. Thanks for all the good work you've put into the client so far!

Hello,
I am trying this new 1.13.0.2 on a Debian 3.1 Sarge, but it always ask for download a new version and quits.
The 1.12.3.6 runs.
Did I make some misconfiguration?
Regards.

Try starting the script as ./secondlife --aditi.

This should get you onto the preview grid.

This is a preview grid viewer, so please make sure you run it like:

./secondlife --aditi

and see if that works.

Updated first post to reflect 1.13.0.3.

Woo hoo! Does that mean no more need to copy over settings and stuff to the new install? This is great news!

Right, once a ~/.secondlife is established anyway. Also, for those who care, the Second Life client install can now be made system-wide in a 'read only' area such as /opt/secondlife.

I'm quite interested in feedback about the README-linux.txt file too. Is it helpful? Is there anything obviously missing? I don't want to bloat the file to the point where people avoid reading it, but I want to cover the main FAQ-y problems and prerequisites.

woot!

The README is great info! You should display it to the user on the first run of a new version, so everyone knows it's there and at least skims it before trying to run SL.

I wonder if a section about the preview versions and the --grid switch would be too much information for the general README. Come to think of it, how hard would it be to spread the preview client with a built-in --aditi switch inside the ./secondlife script? It could be part of the packaging process

Is there a list of abcdefg-options available somewhere?

Otherwise, great work!

Thanks for the feedback.It'll probably happen - but I'm not going to add more complexity to the packaging process right now; we've recently moved away from me personally rolling the Linux client builds (which is awesome for all sorts of reasons) and I want to see this happen smoothly for a few releases in a row.
These will probably remain opaque for the sake of everyone's sanity.

Hi Tofu

This is what I found, with my crash on enabling Bump Mapped & Cloth.

#export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=abcdefghijklmno
export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=c
### WORKS, all options available and working ### export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=c
### WORKS, AGP greyed out, advanced features working ### export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=g
### WORKS, advanced options greyed out and not active ### export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=n
### WORKS, advanced options greyed out and not active ### export LL_GL_BLACKLIST=o

So my minimum list is just c, as shown above

My drivers etc are in my signature. By the way, an 6800 GTS is a 6800 GS AGP

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me

Do you want logs as well? Or snippets of logs?

Hello,
I now started 1.13.0.2 with --aditi as suggested.
It goes until a pop up shows "password resetted because of security..."
Then, quits.
What can I do?

Hi!I'm guessing that you didn't log on between the time of the big password reset a few months ago and the point when the test grid's database snapshot was last taken, so the test grid thinks you still need to change your password. I don't think there's any solution except to wait for a fresher database snapshot on the test grid (I'll prod some people about it).

Is it just me, or do we have 1.13.0.2 instead of 1.13.0.3?

I DID download 1.13.0.3, but it seems it is no longer up...

Yep, it's very confusing!
Could anybody update this information, please. I'm new to this here, and been looking around like mad for this 1.13.0.3 release without success. Running the 1.13.0.2 version gives me this "Download" thing. Well - my account was created 'after' the 16. Oct. anyway.
So here's my question: When is this next cyclic run over the DB, so I can also participate?

Regards,

Acmelabs

Tofu, a report for you.
Intel 3GHz P4-HT
NVidia 6600GT 256MB AGP8x
Fedora Core 6 fully patched
NVidia Driver 1.0-9629 with SideBandAddressing (SBA) and FastWrites (FW) enabled.
Xorg 7.1 with Compiz window manager enabled
SL Beta Client 1.13.0(5)

I was successful at logging into the preview grid with every GL setting enabled, 1600x1000 resolution, and all SL preferences maxed. Average fps like this was 6-10fps with 5-15% packet loss reported.

I uncommented the ESD and OSS variables to force ALSA, which my system uses.
I commented all of the GL variables according to the Problem 3 steps listed in the README.

Item 1:
The client detected my video card as 128MB, even tho it is 256MB and my BIOS AGP region is set to 256MB as well.

Item 2:
Streaming audio works, but dies out after a minute or so, even tho the control shows "its supposed to be playing".

Item 3:
May be due to packet loss, but animations like flying and such are laggy or don't as they normally do. For example, flying across Ahern to Morris, I was flying but never "tilted forward" I was flying standing straight up. This happens pretty consistently but not 100% of the time.

Item 4:
Also may be due to packet loss, but from time to time I see a weird screen redraw effect.
It looks like a handful of frames get lost, then the client redraws the next good frame from the center of my client window out to the edge. The effect is not consistent, and lasts less than a second.

Item 5:
Mouse over myself, name pops up. Move mouse off, name disappears.
Mouse over, right click myself, can navigate pie menu normally.
Click "Profile". Crash. Crash report sent. This is repeatable.

Looks like panel_avatar.xml may be the culprit:

2006-11-23T06:04:56Z WARNING: Error parsing xml error code: not well-formed on lne 1
2006-11-23T06:04:56Z WARNING: Parse failure - wrong number of top-level nodes xml.
2006-11-23T06:04:56Z WARNING: Problem reading UI description file: ~/SecondLife_i686_1_13_0_5_ADITI/skins/xui/en-us/panel_avatar.xml
2006-11-23T06:04:56Z WARNING: *** Caught signal 11

The stack trace log:

% more ~/.secondlife/logs/stack_trace.log 
0:      ELF(do_elfio_glibc_backtrace()+0x200) [0x97902c0]
1:      ELF(viewer_crash_callback()+0x15f) [0x979712f]
2:      ELF(signal_handlers(int)+0x1f2) [0x97843c2]
3:      [0xd8c420]
4:      ELF(LLPanel::childSetVisible(LLStringBase<char> const&, bool)+0xd) [0x999f7cd]
5:      ELF(LLPanelAvatar::setAvatarID(LLUUID const&, LLStringBase<char> const&, EOnlineStatus)+0xa6) [0x8b6bc76]
6:      ELF(LLFloaterAvatarInfo::loadAsset()+0x4c) [0x842ee2c]
7:      ELF(LLPreview::open()+0x51) [0x8e59d21]
8:      ELF(LLFloater::initFloaterXML(LLPointer<LLXMLNode>, LLView*, LLUICtrlFactory*, int)+0x993) [0x9964ae3]
9:      ELF(LLUICtrlFactory::buildFloater(LLFloater*, LLStringBase<char> const&, std::map<LLStringBase<char>, LLCallbackMap, std::le
ss<LLStringBase<char> >, std::allocator<std::pair<LLStringBase<char> const, LLCallbackMap> > > const*, int)+0x119) [0x9a30b49]
10:     ELF(LLFloaterAvatarInfo::LLFloaterAvatarInfo(std::string const&, LLRectBase<int> const&, LLUUID const&)+0x271) [0x842f3e1]
11:     ELF(LLFloaterAvatarInfo::showFromAvatar(LLViewerObject*)+0xde) [0x842f97e]
12:     ELF(LLShowAgentProfile::handleEvent(LLPointer<LLEvent>, LLSD const&)+0x93) [0x9364703]
13:     ELF(LLSimpleDispatcher::fireEvent(LLPointer<LLEvent>, LLSD)+0xd5) [0x9bd5225]
14:     ELF(LLEventDispatcher::fireEvent(LLPointer<LLEvent>, LLSD)+0x64) [0x9bd5e04]
15:     ELF(LLObservable::fireEvent(LLPointer<LLEvent>, LLSD)+0x48) [0x9bd6838]
16:     ELF(LLMenuItemCallGL::doIt()+0xff) [0x9996c4f]
17:     ELF(LLMenuItemGL::handleMouseUp(int, int, unsigned int)+0x2c) [0x998798c]
18:     ELF(LLPieMenu::handleMouseUp(int, int, unsigned int)+0xfe) [0x998738e]
19:     ELF(LLView::childrenHandleMouseUp(int, int, unsigned int)+0xa7) [0x9a3fb67]
20:     ELF(LLView::handleMouseUp(int, int, unsigned int)+0x1a) [0x9a3fe6a]
21:     ELF(LLView::childrenHandleMouseUp(int, int, unsigned int)+0xa7) [0x9a3fb67]
22:     ELF(LLView::handleMouseUp(int, int, unsigned int)+0x1a) [0x9a3fe6a]
23:     ELF(LLViewerWindow::handleMouseUp(LLWindow*, LLCoordGL, unsigned int)+0x258) [0x94f0808]
24:     ELF(LLWindowSDL::gatherInput()+0x886) [0x9811576]
25:     ELF(check_for_events()+0x43) [0x977b713]
26:     ELF(main_loop()+0x284) [0x9798034]
27:     ELF(main+0x24b4) [0x979f034]
28:     /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xdc) [0xefff2c]
29:     ELF(__gxx_personality_v0@@CXXABI_1.3+0x1f9) [0x8058e61]

There are 3 trash characters at the beginning of skins/xui/en-us/panel_avatar.xml
Meta-o, Meta-;, and Meta-?

Replaced those with spaces using hexedit. Right click > Profile works now.

Thats all for now.

Just wanted to say...