Troubleshooting

On Mac, the program doesn’t run, it is considered “damaged and can’t be opened”

This is “normal”, because the app is not signed (it would require a 99$/y Apple Developer account which I’m not ready to purchase). You must tell the system the app is all right. Open the command line, locate “ArkosTracker3.app” in the unzipped package, and type:

xattr -cr ArkosTracker3.app

Then double-click on the app again using the Finder. If anyone know a better way, please let me know!

On Linux, the program crashes right from the start with a stack trace

You might be missing some dependencies. You can try:

ldd ./ArkosTracker3

to find the culprit, if you are Linux-savvy enough. If not:

On Mint 20.1, these dependencies might be missing (install one, then run the software, then install the next one if it doesn’t work):

sudo apt-get -y install libx11-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libfreetype6-dev
sudo apt-get -y install g++

Arkos Tracker requires all the following dependencies. You might already have most of them, so it shouldn’t be needed to install all of them! If in doubt, there shouldn’t be any problem if you install them all.

sudo apt-get -y install libfreetype6-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libx11-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libxinerama-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libxrandr-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libxcursor-dev
sudo apt-get -y install mesa-common-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get -y install freeglut3-dev
sudo apt-get -y install libxcomposite-dev
sudo apt-get -y install g++

Another possibility is described by kalantaj in the forum (thanks!):

According to the stacktrace, such as:

…

/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0x153c0) [0x7f580246c3c0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLX.so.0(+0xa679) [0x7f5801d58679]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGLX.so.0(glXChooseVisual+0x17) [0x7f5801d51917]

…

Go to Synaptic (“sudo synaptic” in command line), enter the name of the library that is shown in the stacktrace and that is probably missing (libGLX for example) and install the missing packages.

On Linux, no file picker shows when I want to load/save a song or instrument!

Some Linux desktops don’t have one (Manjaro or XFCE). Please install kdialog or zenith, and their file picker will be automatically used.

On Linux, loading/saving a file shows a custom file chooser. Can’t I use the one from my OS, which I like?

Yes, it should be default, but some Linux desktops don’t have one (Manjaro or XFCE for example). Please install kdialog or zenith, and their file picker will be automatically used.

On Linux, serial communication doesn’t work, I’m sure the set-up is correct!

The serial port may be read-only. You can make it read-write using such command:.

sudo chmod 666 "port name"

The port is usually something like “dev/ttyUSB0”, but you can get this list in the Serial setup.

I have a high latency on Windows, there is one second between pressing a key and hearing the sound!

This is related to your sound card and/or its drivers. Three possibilities:

  • In AT3, go to File>Setup>Audio interfaces, and decrease the “Audio buffer size” as much as possible.
  • If it doesn’t work, try changing the audio device type at the top of the same window.
  • Still not better? You will have to install a low-latency driver. A good sound card should allow ASIO (you should have seen it in the audio device type), but if not, install the ASIO4All drivers. Don’t worry, it’s harmless. Once it is done, don’t forget to select this driver still in the audio device type list.

Exporting in binary fails!

Please make sure your export address is not too high! Your music may be too big, so the embedded assembler (Rasm) failed to compile it, because you’ve gone past &FFFF. Z80 binary export can only target a 16 bits memory range!

The music doesn’t sound the same on the hardware!

Make sure you have selected the correct PSG frequency in the Song Properties, as well as the right PSG (AY/YM)!

The player crashed/doesn’t work properly

Before sending me the music for me to test (mandatory!), please check that:

  • The stack is in a safe location.
  • You used the right player with the right song. Using the AKG player with a non-AKG generated song will crash, obviously.
  • To be on the safe side, make a test without the player configuration files.
  • To be on the safe side, make a test with the RAM player, not the ROM player, if possible.
  • If you were using Disark, try to make a test without, and only use Rasm and a non-relocatable binary of the player.
  • Remove the use of sound effects, if you were using some.
  • Did you use the right player configuration files? If you don’t, the player will crash indeed. When using the player configuration feature, the player is tailored to a specific song(s), so using the same player with another song will surely crash!
  • According to your system, do the interruptions need to be disabled when calling the player (shouldn’t be necessary, but do it just to test)?
  • Does the system of your OS require some registers to be saved? If yes, then do so (for example, on CPC, the system (SYSTEM, I said) interruption handler requires BC’ and AF’ to be saved).
  • Please bear in mind that the players, most of the time, modify ALL the registers, including IX, IY, and the auxiliary ones! Save them if needed!  Save them all if using the player in an interruption handler!

The app crashed!

This is unlikely. Really. However, logs may have been saved. Please copy and paste them to me. They should be found, depending on your platform, on these locations:

  • On Windows: c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ArkosTracker3\crashlog.txt
  • On Linux: home/<username>/.config/ArkosTracker3/crashlog.txt
  • On Mac: ~/Library/Logs/ArkosTracker3/crashlog.txt