Can only see pointer, nothing else works :(

[Sadie Jones]

This is what I get, nightshade was working before but then one day it crashed and i can only see pointer, have tried un-installing and reinstalling but this doesnt work. My first guess was that it is something to do with my resolution on the MacBook Pro??

Last login: Sun Oct 30 16:29:33 on ttys000
Sadies-MacBook-Pro:~ malcolm$ /opt/local/bin/nightshade ; exit;
Warning: may be not all fields of the class 'ObjectRecord' were described

[ Nightshade 11.7.1 - Community Edition
[ Copyright (C) 2003-2011 Digitalis Education Solutions, Inc. et al.
[ Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Faien Chereau et al.
[ http://NightshadeSoftware.org

LOCALE DIRECTORY: /opt/local/share/locale
CONFIG DIR: /Users/malcolm/.nightshade/
Attempting to use an existing older config file.
Attempting to use an existing older config file.
Attempting to use an existing older config file.
Application locale is en
Localizing TUI for locale: en
Read distortion configuration
Desktop: fisheye
Initializing Fonts.
Creating Earth orbit...

Adding Moon to Earth binary orbit.
(solar system loaded)
Loading star data...
Loading stars_0_0v0_1.cat: 0_0v0_1; stars: 4963
Loading stars_1_0v0_1.cat: 1_0v0_1; stars: 21598
Loading stars_2_0v0_1.cat: 2_0v0_1; stars: 150394
Loading stars_3_1v0_0.cat: 3_1v0_0; stars: 427291
finished, max_geodesic_level: 3
Loading NGC data... (0 items loaded [0 dropped])
Loading NGC name data...( 0 names loaded)
Loading Nebula Textures...(118 textures loaded)
Loading location: "Seattle", on Earth (landscape is: "forest")
Loading Constellation boundary data...(782 segments loaded)
Loading star names from /opt/local/share/nightshade/data/sky_cultures/western-color/star_names.fab
WARNING : Can't find the configuration key "viewing:flag_precession_circle", default 0 value returned
WARNING : Can't find the configuration key "viewing:flag_circumpolar_circle", default 0 value returned
Loading Cities data...(2069 cities loaded)
Lens 1 has projector configuration options.
Localizing TUI for locale: en
Unable to read script directory/opt/local/share/nightshade/data/scripts/internal/scripts/
logout

[Trystan (trystan)]

That's a new one for me. I assume you've also tried completely shutting down the computer and restarting?

[Rob Spearman (rob-digitaliseducation)]

Try deleting your Nightshade config.ini file so that you start fresh
with a clean configuration.

Rob

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

New here.

Got exactly same thing. Nightshade worked initially then two days later long startup with just a black screen and a cursor. No menu, no control keys no nothing.

Windows 7, 64 bit processor.

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

only find:
 default_config

remove it => nothing but black (and a cursor) {ie: same as before}

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

2 reboots
clean registry
remove reinstall program x2
=> blackness,

must be
   ! DARK MATTER ?!!!

(could be a bug, though)

[Rob Spearman (rob-digitaliseducation)]

Did you already try deleting your config.ini file manually?

Did you make any changes to your computer between when it worked and when it stopped working?

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

There is no config.ini file to be found, only a config_default.

Looked in Library, Windows/users etc as well as program files (x86) . . .

No changes in computer made. But another behavior suggests glitch is in the startup:

Just now redid steps and that associated left upper corner cursor sucking is not totally right. It did that on two retries but now I see that it picks a point whereever the mouse was sitting when the wait icon goes off. Mouse after 15 seconds or so will suddeny dart to that locus. Move the cursor anywhere else and then just do nothing .........zip back to that spot.

Move it elsewhere, wait . . . . . . . . . . .zip=> back to same point again. Even when you collapse the window to an 'inactive' sleeping (supposedly) icon on the task bar that cursor sucking continues. That is, while looking at the desktop with nightshade in sleep mode and not visible at all, the abnormal behavior of the cursor persists.

When you kill the program the cursor normalizes. Looks like a spawned process is not returning home and that process is one that looks at the cursor position. You are not getting a full startup. The flash screen image with program logo etc is NOT seen.

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

Also see my bug comment on the Stellarium comparison (just logged a minute or so ago) for further evidence that a startup bug was there even when the program seemed to be working. Menu contgent was missing if Stellarium comparison is valid. I think probably so as I couldn't find expected commands in the menu that was visible. Stuff that - I think - ought to be there.

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

My guess : Mismatch of data read menu entries to menu structure allotments... that would launch the computer into a vortex...
?

[Trystan (trystan)]

One thing I can tell you for certain is the problem has nothing to do with the menus. Nightshade was forked from Stellarium long ago. Over time, Stellarium moved to Qt for the user interface layer and put more panels and buttons in the view. Even as we re-write Nightshade, this is not a model we plan to follow. So this difference is by design.

On a Windows box the config.ini is down in the active user's application data directory. It's a pain to find through the file explorer, but there's a link to it in the start menu; use that to find it and then try deleting it.

[Rob Spearman (rob-digitaliseducation)]

Search for config.ini using your operating system search feature. Then delete it.

Your comparison to Stellarium is not valid, so we have to assume it worked fine until it didn't.

[Roy Nuzzo (roy-nuzzo)]

My last config.sys alteration was in 2010. So no config.sys alterations could possibly be what soured it.

Also what I was saying about Stellarium is that there are some sensible commands there that you would think would be in Nightshate as well (not even implying that there is code is in common).

For example No interface for initiating scripts. The 'm' key press does zero. The startup is not completing. Some process is getting spawned and not returning but persisting. I only mentioned menus as an EXAMPLE of a startup process of allotting so many across and so many down structure for whatever gets put there and if the data count (labels for menu etc) is off, then the program can hang exactly like that. Could be something else. But that something is before the NightShade logo pops up.

Also it seems that the mouse polling remains active. So a loop (without a case match or interrupt to exit) that looks at the mouse on the fly by seems to be going strong. Whatever it is it takes a system command from TaskManager to shut it down.

[Rob Spearman (rob-digitaliseducation)]

Did you delete your config.ini file? That is the best bet for getting things working again. You may have accidentally saved a bad resolution.