Troubleshooting eXtace

Last updated April 5th, 20:57 PM EST 2003

Q: It won't compile.

A: Check the output of the configure script. (see config.log) if necessary to see where it got hung up. Possible reasons why it may not compile are broken compiler (kinda rare), missing/old/broken libraries (most common) and missing/multiple sets of header files laying around. Email me the the errors it displayed, along with your config.log file generated by the "configure" script.

Q: The colors are all to hell. (scrambled).

A: You've found a bug, Email the following information: Linux/Unix distribution, Xserver type/version run "xdpyinfo", eXtace version, gtk version, gcc version, glibc version and anything else you think may be relevant.

Q: "configure" gives and error regarding "can't find "esd-config"" and bombs out.

A: This means the esound-devel package is NOT installed. It is required for the necessary headers and scripts to compile eXtace.

Q: It compiles and runs but I don't see anything...

A:> Nothing is being played thru ESD. eXtace can only display audio being played through esd (Esound). You can chaneg the settings in realtime under the "Misc Options" tag in the options panel (press the options button on the main eXtace display)

Q: I only see a partial display that looks "torn"

A: Another window is covering up part of the eXtace window. eXtace has double buffering (backing pixmap) disabled on a clean install, as on some systems (particulary with 4 megs or less of video ram) it can severely slow it down. Enabling backing pixmap allows the eXtace window to be partially obscured and still see the display as it emerges from under the window covering it, but in some cases can be slow, or increase CPU use significantly. It depends on many factors, primarily your video RAM amount, X version, and the resolution/color-depth you are running at. The more video ram you have the better in most cases. On my system using backing pixmap has no CPU impact (Nvidia TNT2 32 meg Xfree 4.0.1), but on my station at work, using backing pixmap makes eXtace almost unusable (ATI MAch64, 4Megs). Your mileage may vary. Video cards are cheap, and with NVIDIA's drivers its a worthwile upgrade, even for an "older model" (TNT2/geforce2, etc..)

Q: I'm sending data thru ESD and STILL can't get a display.

A: You have an OLD version of esd laying around. Remove all traces of the old version (version prior to 0.2.8 are broken with regards to eXtace). Reinstall esound and esound-devel (current version is 0.2.14 as of this writing) This is the main cause of the "I can't see anything" bug. (old/conflicting versions of esd, or the esd library laying around)

Q: The display is WAY out of sync with the sound coming out of my speakers.

A: Click on the options button and fiddle with the "Lag Factor". The lag factor value depends on the buffer size used by the application sending audio to the soundcard (or thru esd), and varies between soundcards and esound versions and the underlying audio drivers (ALSA/OSS).

Q: Why did you call is "eXtace" instead of something else?

A: I didn't name it originally since I am not the original author. eXtace was originally written by The Rasterman(think enlightenment) formerly of Redhat.com and Michael Fulbright a.k.a "Dr. Mike" (redhat.com). I rewrote most of the drawing code, added the fftw support, the autoconf support, control panels, and all the scaling code. I also recently completely rewroe the entire processing engine and buffering management code. I believe Raster wrote the cool "Stars" section (about button).

contact info: djandruczyk@yahoo.com
Networking and Systems Consultant