Xojo is failing to show controls in Linux

Getting Started
1

Hello all,

I just downloaded and purchased a Desktop license for Xojo last night. I was looking at it back in 2012 when it was RealBasic, and even developed a couple of apps with it. I am experiencing some very strange things while attempting to work through the book on introduction to programming with Xojo.

In the first step of performing the Hello World, I add a button to the main form of the program, and the main form disappears from view. I played around with it for a while and finally got it to re-appear, when I added a Bevel Button, and after I had added a Cancel and an OK button to no avail. The Bevel Button shows up on the form, but none of the other three buttons (HelloButton, OkButton, CancelButton) are visible, even when selected. In fact the resize handles show where it is and it’s size, but surround a blank gray area.

In my Windows 8.1 VirtualBox VM, I have no such issues. But the whole point is to be NOT using Windows… I’m looking to get rid of Windows, not rely on yet another version of it. (I’m already forced by my job to use Windows XP Pro to get my work done.)

Obviously, this makes Xojo unusuable unless I can get this resolved. I’m using PCLinuxOS, and the whole point of Xojo was to allow me to develop in Linux using a familiar interface and reasonably easy to transition to language, coming from VB6 back in the day.

Could this be a video driver issue? Is anyone else using Xojo in Linux having similar issues? This is the specs I have listed for Linux about my video card and driver:

Identification
Vendor: ?NVIDIA Corporation

Description: ?GF106GLM [Quadro 2000M]

Media class: ?VGA compatible controller

Connection
Bus: ?PCI Express

PCI domain: ?0

Bus PCI #: ?1

PCI device #: ?0

PCI function #: ?0

PCI revision: ?0xa1

Vendor ID: ?0x10de

Device ID: ?0x0dda

Sub vendor ID: ?0x17aa

Sub device ID: ?0x21d1

Misc
Module: ?Card:NVIDIA GeForce 400 series and later

Thanks for any help on this matter. I appreciate it.

2

Additional information the linux-y people will want:
Linux Distro and 32 or 64 bit

I’m not a linux-y person, I have come to convert you to the light side of Mac. We have cookies.

3

Do any of the Linux example programs work correctly? Are you experiencing these display issues in the IDE itself, or in a debug session? Are you running an i386 or x64 version of PCLinux OS. KDE or other window manager?

It could be a driver issue with the card but that wouldn’t be my first guess, especially if the unit is already stable. (PITA, but do you have a Radeon that you can throw in to test if needed?)

I haven’t had Xojo IDE on bare metal Linux boxen, but it works fine running remote debugging in an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS i386. Others have found that Mint is a very good platform for running the IDE. I only mention this because you might want to config a working install of the IDE on another distro and then figure out the diffs. (I’ve been meaning to to try this with Slackware, but so little time…)

4

You’ll be much happier if you use one of our supported linux flavors. Id suggest trying Mint with the Cinnamon UI.

5

[quote=127346:@Tanner Lee]Do any of the Linux example programs work correctly? Are you experiencing these display issues in the IDE itself, or in a debug session? Are you running an i386 or x64 version of PCLinux OS. KDE or other window manager?

It could be a driver issue with the card but that wouldn’t be my first guess, especially if the unit is already stable. (PITA, but do you have a Radeon that you can throw in to test if needed?)

I haven’t had Xojo IDE on bare metal Linux boxen, but it works fine running remote debugging in an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS i386. Others have found that Mint is a very good platform for running the IDE. I only mention this because you might want to config a working install of the IDE on another distro and then figure out the diffs. (I’ve been meaning to to try this with Slackware, but so little time…)[/quote]

The GroupBox example (randomly chosen controls example) does not display anything for the GroupBoxWindow while in the IDE. When I run it, the executable displays fine. The same is true for 8Queens. This is not a debug session. I am running a 64 bit version of KDE with a PEA kernel accessing 8 of 8 GB of RAM on a 512 GB SSD. I prefer KDE. I suspect a driver issue because since the last “Well you have to reinstall from scratch because we upgraded core functionality X, even though this is a rolling release distro”, I’ve been having some graphics issues. I’ve been more interested in getting work done than fixing them perfectly, so once I got the thing usable again I stopped trying, but these are the same settings I used before that last re-nstall of 2014.2, on the same computer.

I have basically built my business and workflow on PCLinuxOS, and every time I try to switch to something more well known, I hit walls that stop me from working for a variety of stupid and infuriating reasons. I suppose I can install Mint in a VB VM, though.

@ Tim Parnell, I actually had to use my business partner’s MacBook Pro for a while when my lappy died, and while I was able to work, I assure you… I did not enjoy using a Mac. :slight_smile:

Is the UI known to have issues on KDE? Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora? I’ve found that anything that runs on those, runs on PCLinuxOS.

Thanks, guys, for taking the time to read and reply.

6

Alright, I have attempted to adjust the video driver and had it fail to start the graphics server. So I took the opportunity to do a fresh install of PCLinuxOS, and while using the LiveDVD, I found and applied the correct video driver settings. That’s now been solved.

One thing I love about Linux is that I can have a persistent /home partition, so I have all the same files there, just an OS and software reinstall on my / partition. But now… Xojo’s executable does not start. At all.

System is fully up to date, and all software is re-installed. Rebooted just to be on the safe side.

Is there something I need to do? Is the license not accepted now or something? It would be awesome if I could just report that the issue was fixed by using the correct video driver, but I won’t know of course until the executable executes!

EDIT: Running the executable in the CLI gives me this message:

[quote][root@localhost xojo2014r2.1]# ./Xojo
Failed to find/load Framework library
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory[/quote]

No idea why that would change from last time, unless that’s something installed by Xojo? I have both GTK+ 2.0 and 3.0 installed…

and of course, no, I don’t run as root. I just wanted to make sure that was not part of the issue.

7

All 32 bit versions ?
Xojo is 32 bit only
See http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/System_requirements
esp the part where it says
On 64-bit Linux distributions, you will need to ensure the appropriate 32-bit compatibility libraries are installed in order to run Xojo or applications built with Xojo. One of these commands usually works for Ubuntu:

8

Hello Shannon.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble with Xojo on PCLinuxOS. I’ve heard really good things about it. I need to take it for a spin sometime.

To test out what OS you’re running, try running this code in the terminal:

uname -a

For me, it returns on my Linux 64bit PC:

[quote]Linux kevin-Samsun-Mint 3.13.0-24-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:11:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[/quote]

If you see the 64bit indicators, then follow the instructions to get the 32bit libraries installed on the System Requirements page that Norman referenced above. We’re waiting on the LLVM compiler before Xojo can get to 64bit. In the mean time, Xojo is still a great development tool on Linux, we just need to jump through some hoops for a short period of time.

If you get it working, please post back the steps needed to get Xojo working on PCLinuxOS. It will help the next person that needs the help.

9

One thing I have seen is folks running the IDE in a 32 bit distro in a VM on a 64 bit version of LInux
While that gets the IDE working you still have to have the 32 bit libs to run anything you produce

10

[quote]uname -a
Linux localhost 3.16.1-pclos1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 19 11:41:34 CDT 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux[/quote]

What I’m confused about is… why would it work from before this installation, when my previous installation was also a 64 bit? There is the oddity that previously I had to install a PAE kernel to get all 8 gigs of RAM to show, and this is not a PAE kernel and it works with all 8 gigs.

But… let’s get those libraries installed, and see what happens. Thanks again for your help and guidance, gentlemen.

Oh, almost forgot. PCLinuxOS is a very good distribution, and I use it because I almost never have to reinstall it unless I screwed something up that I don’t understand how to or don’t have the time to research how to fix myself. Its rolling release model works very well for update and upgrade, and it just gets the heck out of my way and lets me work 99.99% of the time. It also works with certain very specific conventions I must use in my business. Well worth a try. I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but I love it. I love that it just works, gets out of my way, and behaves. :slight_smile: Been using it exclusively since 2007, with occasional forays into the wild looking for something better. There have been some distros that impressed me with things PCLinuxOS doesn’t have or can’t do, but they couldn’t work with my business-imposed requirements. So here I am, happily chugging along. It took me a total of 30 minutes to reinstall the OS last night, perform all updates, and then install all the software I need from repositories and keep working when I borked the X server. Not sure how that compares with other Linux distros, but I’m sure it compares favorably to Windows, and possibly Mac. :slight_smile:

11

The old install may have had the 32 bit libs installed by default (hard to say)

12

So on the PCLinuxOS forums I found this:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,127348.15.html

Apparently, someone else has had the same issues. My solution, then, is a 32 but version of the OS in a VM, or simply using the Windows Version instead. So I guess I’ll go explore Mint now and compare that to a 32 but version of PCLinuxOS in a VM as well… :slight_smile: Once Xojo gets to 64 bits, I’m sure everything will be good.

13

I was contemplating that… I think perhaps I may have had 32 bit something installed, because why else would it need a PAE kernel on a 64 bit OS? My current install doesn’t have that… and PAE is for translation of 32 to 64 bit addressing. So perhaps there was some sort of mistake and I installed a 32 bit version thinking it was 64 bit. I don’t know. I do know this version is 64 bit for sure. :slight_smile:

14

I see I deleted my post explaining what happened. I thought I double posted.

As it turns out, someone else attempted to do what I was trying to do, and it is documented on the PCLinuxOS forum here:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,127348.0.html

My conclusion is that I will just have to install a 32 bit version of Linux in a VM and use that until the 64 bit version of Xojo comes out.

Much appreciated for all the help. :slight_smile: