• Welcome to OS2World OLD-STATIC-BACKUP Forum.
 

News:

This is an old OS2World backup forum for reference only. IT IS READ ONLY!!!

If you need help with OS/2 - eComStation visit http://www.os2world.com/forum

Main Menu

Flash10 Preview not working here

Started by Pete, 2009.10.09, 21:18:53

Previous topic - Next topic

Pete

Hi All

There is a Flash10 Preview available from the eCS Software Subscription Betazone so thought I'd download it and give it a try.

The short report is:-

Don't bother, it does not work.


The longer report is:-

Flash10 Preview.

The Warpin Installer should check where PROGRAMS is set - I was not impressed to find the software wanted to install to the Non-Existent [BootDrive]:\PROGRAMS location. Checking the Warpin Script used for the installation confirms that this package expects to find PROGRAMS on the BootDrive: TARGET="?:\PROGRAMS\FLASH10"

Other than the above Installation seemed to go fine so I started my browser, Seamonkey - Mozilla/5.0 (OS/2; U; Warp 4.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1.4pre) Gecko/20090924 SeaMonkey/2.0pre

Result: Browser started and hung immediately, the mouse pointer disappeared and keyboard input was blocked. My only recourse was to press the system box Reset Button.

Overall I would say that Flash10 did a good job of crashing the system totally.

After the reboot I again tried to start the browser - and headed for another reboot.


Conclusion: Needs a bit more work... Maybe it will work on other systems/browser.


Regards

Pete

Pete

Hi All

A little later the thought occurred to me: Maybe Flash10 did not work due to the amount of "clutter" that Flash7 carries with it - the Warpin install only renames 3 of those files.

I cleared Flash7 files out of my Plugins directory completely and reinstalled Flash10.

No problem starting the browser so am prepared to guess that the browser was crashing and taking the system with it due to some confusion between Flash10 and the remaining Flash7 files. This is something else that the Warpin packagers may want to look into.

Off to youtube to see how Flash10 works...

I picked on this vid clip to use as my 1st test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm9X04AGkyw&feature=topvideos

Playback was going well - both sound and video; Flash7 often delivered either/or and failing that would crash - until I clicked on my Mail/News client to see what had just arrived in my Inbox. Goodbye Seamonkey - simply disappeared, crashed and exited.

I restarted Seamonkey and used the Restore Session to get back to the youtube vid to see if it would play all the way through *if* I behaved and did not move mouse/keyboard. It crashed prior to the above point in playback but did not close the browser - hung the system instead.

I rebooted for a further attempt with the same result - reboot required. I do have a sneaking suspicion that Flash10 and Uniaud do not "get on" as well as they should - could be the build of Uniaud in use here but as it is the only working Uniaud for this system - as when the system hangs during Flash10 playback audio becomes a long squawking noise.

Well, while playing Flash10 looks and sounds good. Sadly it is not worth the hassle of having it installed here though.

Regards

Pete

melf

As Pete say there is some hazzle with installation. Two of the packages had wrong install path - they pointed to a file instead of a directory and warpin refused to proceed. If these paths instead was changed to the plugin directory all proceeded well.

I had flash 5 and Warpin did not rename that dll , did it manually instead.

Then most of the flash sites worked very well. I don't have Petes problem with hangs and problems with mail client. I use Firefox and it crashes on this newspapers webb TV, http://www.gp.se/gptv , but so far no other place. For me this is a clear improvement of the unofficial flash 7.
/Mikael

DougB

I just tried it - thanks for pointing it out.

My experience is slightly different.

I agree that the WarpIn installer is sort of messed up (I never realized, that V:\FIREFOX\FIREFOX!L.EXE was a directory, that would need to be created to install plugins), but, if you override the defaults, and tell it to put stuff where it should be, it seems to install okay. It definitely should NOT simply assume that the boot drive contains a PROGRAMS directory. In fact, the eCS installer needs to be fixed, so it doesn't put it there either. I spend a LOT of time moving that stuff elsewhere (where I told it to put it in the first place). I also only use SET MOZILLA_HOME= which implies that it contains the plugins directory.

Anyway, back to the operation of FLASH 10. The first thing, that I tried it with, was a very simple FLASH picture. It worked.  Okay, on to bigger, and better (well, maybe not "better"), things. My initial attempt to access YouTube resulted in an immediate system hang. The mouse wouldn't even move. Reset button activated.

The next attempt, was back to the simple picture. It wouldn't display, but I also didn't get the message that I needed to download the FLASH player. Obviously, the crash caused something to not be saved. I re-installed, using the WarpIn installer. Now, the simple picture worked again. Okay, leave that page, and go back to it. The system froze, solid, as soon as it attempted to access the web site, never mind going to the page where the picture is.

Without doing any more, it is obvious that FLASH10, almost works properly, the first time you attempt to access any page that has FLASH content (I use FlashBlock, which seems to overcome the problem, until you try to play something). The second attempt will freeze the system. That may also include accessing a page that has more than one FLASH movie on it, that is not blocked by something like FlashBlock.

My system is an Asus M3A78-EM motherboard, with a quad core AMD Phenom processor, using eCS 2.0 RC7, SNAP 3.1.8, and UniAud 1.9.16. The picture, that worked, does not have sound, it is just a picture.

A worthy attempt, but I don't think it is appropriate to post something like that with instructions to NOT feedback problems (although I can understand why they wouldn't want feedback, since it doesn't really work anywhere near as good as what is implied in the README). Oh well, they will get feedback anyway, if they dare to read these comments.

Saijin_Naib

... My SSS just ran out. Can someone field me this?

Pete

Hi Doug

Quote from: DougB on 2009.10.09, 23:56:00
I just tried it - thanks for pointing it out.

My experience is slightly different.

I agree that the WarpIn installer is sort of messed up (I never realized, that V:\FIREFOX\FIREFOX!L.EXE was a directory, that would need to be created to install plugins), but, if you override the defaults, and tell it to put stuff where it should be, it seems to install okay. It definitely should NOT simply assume that the boot drive contains a PROGRAMS directory. In fact, the eCS installer needs to be fixed, so it doesn't put it there either. I spend a LOT of time moving that stuff elsewhere (where I told it to put it in the first place). I also only use SET MOZILLA_HOME= which implies that it contains the plugins directory.

..... snip


Could your rather strange directory name, V:\FIREFOX\FIREFOX!L.EXE, be the result of use of LIBPATHSTRICT somewhere in the way you start the browser? - the readme says soemthing about that causing problems. I ask because I did not see this particular silliness myself.

I guess maybe the Warpin Installer script involved may not check your MOZILLA_HOME to see if Plugins is located within that directory tree and that could have caused the problem.

Hopefully the next release of Flash10 will have most/all of the current installer "wrinkles" ironed out and actually work without crashing the system.


On a sidenote: The eCS Installer honours the path you supply for PROGRAMS - you get that directory listed in the config.sys file. The trouble is that all the apps installed at that time do not - they all have "hard coded" install paths!

I have had several years arguments with various eCS people about this. My view is probably the same as yours - Why the F**k ask a user to set the damned environment variable if all the bl**ding software then gets installed somewhere else? - excuse my frustrated-with-this-argument English.

I did however get Alex Taylor to see my point but my understanding at the moment is that some of the Installer will need rewriting to get that working. No timescale given; maybe eCS2.1 if we are lucky...


Regards

Pete

Saijin_Naib

2.1 is a joke right? How long did it take to go from 1.2mr to 2.0 RC7? Five years? We don't even have a GA release yet. Waiting until another 5 years or so to fix an installer issue is frigging retarded.

DougB

QuoteCould your rather strange directory name, V:\FIREFOX\FIREFOX!L.EXE, be the result of use of LIBPATHSTRICT somewhere in the way you start the browser?

No, because I don't use the "L" in the file name. I didn't notice that earlier, it is obviously another screw up (or assumption) in the installer, or, the eCS installer put that into the INI file, incorrectly. I never use the "L" with Firefox, only with any other Mozilla derivatives (which I rarely use). I just checked my INI file, and the "L" is not in that either. I have no idea where that may have come from.

QuoteI guess maybe the Warpin Installer script involved may not check your MOZILLA_HOME to see if Plugins is located within that directory tree and that could have caused the problem.

Apparently, that is correct. That does need to be fixed. At least the installer allows the proper locations to be entered, but someone who doesn't know how that all works, is going to have a problem.

QuoteOn a sidenote: The eCS Installer honours the path you supply for PROGRAMS - you get that directory listed in the config.sys file. The trouble is that all the apps installed at that time do not - they all have "hard coded" install paths!

The installer does NOT honour the path given for PROGRAMS. Neither does anything else (that I have seen), unless you change the default path in the WarpIn installer (which only applies after install, and only to programs installed by WarpIn). The path is placed in CONFIG.SYS, but I have yet to see anything honour it. That is a problem that really does need to be fixed. Of course, it also means that a user will need to be able to do a complete disk setup, so that the desired target will actually exist, before it attempts to use it.

QuoteI did however get Alex Taylor to see my point but my understanding at the moment is that some of the Installer will need rewriting to get that working.

I think that Alex has too many things to do, and no control, at all, over what the overall installer actually does. I can understand needing a rewrite, to make that work, but I do wish they would quit rewriting the parts that were working. RC7 is a major step backward, in more than one way. Unfortunately, it seems that there are either not enough people working on that stuff, or, there are too many. It also seems that a certain amount of quality control would help, but that is probably covered by those who try it out.

Saijin_Naib

If I am not mistaken, the !L is required to do the RUN!.exe magic to allow two different mozilla products to have DLLs in memory at once.

CDRWSel

Not working here, always crashes as soon a link has flash in it.    :( 
(regedit checked anf ok - only one instance of firefox running)

buca

#10
Hi, I tied this preview and installs fine, no problems for me.

I saw this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbLHqxG3QNg and compare with Windows and in our ECS/OS2 the video "shows flasing green color frames" than in windows don't shows.

May be a graphic driver issue or may be a flash issue?

Others works very well.

Dani

UPDATE!!! -------------

Sorry, I had a 64K colors configuration, changed it to a 16M colors works perfectly.

Thank to all

UPDATE AGAIN!!!

Testing so much. Same problem than CDRWSel says. Ending saw a falsh clicking on a link firefox hangs.

DougB

QuoteIf I am not mistaken, the !L is required to do the RUN!.exe magic to allow two different mozilla products to have DLLs in memory at once.

Not quite right. The "L" is required on all but one of the Mozilla derivatives. Apparently, a flaw in the logic allows that to work. Since there are a few potential reasons to not use LIBPATHSTRICT with Firefox, it is best to leave that one without the "L", and add it any others that you may wish to run concurrently. The details are in the docs for RUN!

DougB

I tried FLASH10 on my Thinkpad T43 (1871-W8M). It works great, with no problems so far (except the known installer problems). This machine is running eCS 2.0 Silver, with ACPI 3.16 (/SMP /APIC - no, it is not a multiple processor, but it works best with these parameters), FF 3.5.2, and UniAud 1.9.16.

I need to go back, and try FLASH10 in my quad core machine, using only one processor.

DougB

ALLRIGHT! Yes, FLASH10 works pretty good, with all but one CPU turned off. It did just quit  while playing some YouTube  movies, but it didn't kill the system. So, the major problems seem to be SMP related.

Anybody know what needs to be done to set FLASH10 to run in only one CPU, using EXECMODE.EXE? I just used MPCPUMON.EXE to turn off all but one CPU, but that isn't ideal.


buca

Yes, I tried the DougB suggestion and the links works this time.

Good! at this time. Waiting for the release.