Is 8.0 really buggy?

[SimonH]

Anyone else found their FLX crashing on a regular basis since installing 8.0? We have 2 here and I used our spare at the beginning of the year on an external show after it had returned from the repair guy and loaded 8.0 on to it. During plotting the desk froze on numerous occassions especially when programming the moving lights.

My main desk in the venue continued to run 7.13 with no problems at all including using the movers once they returned.

2 weeks ago, having forgotten about the desk crashes I installed 8.0 onto the main desk and we've had half a dozen freezing/crashing issues. Swapped over to the spare desk and the same so have now dialled both back to 7.14 and will see how that goes.

No-one left at Zero to report it to or who seems to care so looks like I'll be losing all the upgrades that came with 8.0

[Davidmk]

I was setting up a basic showfile for a new client's venue from scratch a bit back and installed v8 before starting. I had a crash in programming and while I couldn't be sure it wouldn't have happened with the old version (I've had crashes with v7.14.3) I regressed the desk and started again. Since then I haven't dared try v8 again. Only rational if you consider how bad it looks if you are working in a professional venue, spurning their house desk, and have to restart your own mid show.

Back in the day, when I had a day job in IT, the rule was never install an even numbered release. The even numbered ones (and that especially includes .0 ones) tend to have new features, the odd ones have the bug fixes to the even ones. Maybe that's a still a good rule to follow

 

[SimonH]

Glad it's not just me. It all felt very rushed getting it out before Jon left and usually by now we'd be at least a half dozen releases on as the bugs were ironed out.

fingers crossed that the regression brings back some stability.

[Davidmk]

4 hours ago, SimonH said:

half dozen releases on as the bugs were ironed out

Yes but the crucial bit is the bugs were ironed out.

[scottydog75]

I've just had my FLX (running ZerOS 8.0) back from a 2 week hire and had no end of complaints regarding regular crashes  I advised them to downgrade, but they were nervous to do so with a busy show schedule.

I've also had a couple crashes during programming sessions, fortunately never when running a show. I wonder if it has something to do with the programmer?

[Archie D]

Perhaps the crashes within programming are related to something memory-wise within ZerOS 8.0?

1 hour ago, scottydog75 said:

I wonder if it has something to do with the programmer?

You may be right there.

I don't have a FLX myself, but as @SimonH mentioned, the desks running 8.0 crashed especially when programming moving lights, which usually handle more parameters than regular LED stuff and of course dimmers.
I'm not entirely sure, but could the issue be related to where as you are programming a LX state, the data for parameters are held in some sort of temporary memory system (aka you know where in the output window, all the intensity values are red when not recorded/saved anywhere yet), and once recorded it never gets cleared from that internal memory as it usually should (due to the fact there is no reason to hold what you are currently programming, as it has been recorded) leading to the desk overloading itself to the point where the memory becomes full and eventually resulting in a crash. Obviously, once a reboot is performed, that temporary memory is cleared and all is well until the memory builds up again.

Just a thought and a theory.

[Charlie Newman]

I've stayed away from it for now, but more recently I've noticed the desk will start freezing after about 4-6h of programming unless I restart it which isn't entirely ideal.

[SimonH]

Well that was an interesting week. I down graded to 7.14 as this was the last one with the library that had some of my kit but it was still freezing.

Programmed a show with ~250 cues and only 4 movers and it froze again 10 mins before doors only this time it never recovered and even after a reboot it is frozen.

Put my spare in and it loaded the show ok after a reboot to recognise the artnet node.

Probably going to look at the ION route.

[Archie D]

7 hours ago, SimonH said:

but it was still freezing

Is it possible that this was caused (even though you downgraded to a previous version than 8.0.0) by the show file being an 8.0.0 show file (e.g. you created the show file while on v8.0.0) instead of a show file of the version you downgraded to? I'm not entirely sure but could it possibly be the case?

[Phil Kiernan]

We've been having the same problem. Sent the file to Vari-Lite and we have eventually got this reply.

'The crash in ZerOS 8.0.0.8 is referencing a palette that doesn't exist.

This will be fixed in the next software release, for now I would try to avoid doing it.

(Specifically, typing POSITION 26 ENTER.)'

[kgallen]

1 hour ago, Phil Kiernan said:

This will be fixed in the next software release, 

@Phil Kiernan are these your words of from Vari-lite?

ie is this the firmest suggestion yet there will be at least one more ZerOS release?