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MuBu installation in Windows

MuBu
#1

I’m very interested in MuBu’s possibilities for using singing to drive other processes and work with scores, but before I get there, I need to get it working properly.

When I open one of the examples in the MuBu examples folder, I get a Windows error message to say Max.exe cannot locate a component - pthreadVC2.dll
On searching, I can find this file in two places; one in Common Files/Apple/Apple Applications Support and the other in Max 6.1/support

The Apple applications support appears to be part of the Quicktime installation which is required for Jitter, so there may be conflicts between the two versions of pthreadVC2.dll. I have tried swapping the versions and disabling them (by changing the name) with a reboot between each intervention. I either get the error message, or Max hangs while trying to open the example.

I ran the .exe from the IRCAM shop download, and it’s unpacked a number of files into my Cycling 74/Max 6.1 folder - mostly it appears in a sub-folder ‘packages’. I’ve installed the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 redistributable (to correct the lack of MSVCP120.dll) and added file paths for ‘Max 6.1/packages’ and ‘Max 6.1/support’ to the file preferences under options in Max. I’ve no reason to believe that there was a problem unpacking the files (I assume that’s all the MuBu .exe did).

I’m running Max 6.1 on Windows XP SP3. The system is not generally problematic, and there is no antivirus running, just Windows firewall.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thank you. Regards, Chris.

#2

Hi Chris,
it’s strange…
I’v just tested the last mubu windows release on your same system (XP SP3) and all works well here.

As you said, the mubu installer copy files in two locations:

  • patches & externals in Max6.1/packages/MuBuForMax/
  • pthreadVC2.dll & libsndfile-1.dll in Max6.1/support

locations by default in Max file path.

You have the same problem with the Max6.1 Runtime?
Try to open a simple mubu help patch with the runtime and tell us if you have the same error.

Best Regards

#3

Hi Borghesi,

Many thanks for your helpful suggestions.

I tried opening the help files in Max6.1 Runtime as well as Max, and neithew worked correctly, giving the same errors. However, I have fixed a lot of this by uninstalling earlier versions of MS Visual C++ redistributable package, reinstalling MSVCPP redistributable 2013, and reinstalling the MuBu package.

I can open a lot of items now, but there are still problems:
I can open, and seem to be able to use, all of the help files except for mubu.process. If I try to open mubu.process help patch, or either of the example patches, Max hangs (or maybe it will open eventually, but it’s not looking good).

Do you think the mubu.process and example patch problems are related?

The above work is on my desktop (so the situation is identical on two separate installations, on different partitions), and I would ultimately like to run it on my laptop, which has a similar setup. The laptop gives KERNEL32.dll errors when I try to open help files, so I shall try upgrading XPSP2 to SP3 before I make further judgements.

Best wishes, Chris.

#4

Hi Borghesi,

The MuBu installation is 95% there now, and I think the problem area is narrowed down. I have three installations on two computeres and they all behave identically. For any other XP users reading this - it looks like you can only have the 2013 VC++ redistributable (no earlier versions) on the system, and you must have SP3.

I cannot open the mubu.process help and the two example patches: Max hangs in all cases (not responding in Task Manager).

It is important to note that I can create a mubu.process object in a new Max patcher, and presumably do things with it, so the problem doesn’t seem to be with the object. Now I’m keen to see what’s in its help file :wink:

Best wishes, Chris.

#5

Hi Chris,
thank you for your very usefull test. I will add the two system requirements in the readme.
Unfortunately Mubu is compiled and tested only on Windows 7 platform, where it works.
The problems you encountered with mubu.process help and examples, are probably not related to an installation problem,
but are true bugs that need a debugging session (I will try, but I’ve to find/install a XP machine, so I don’t know
when I could do that).

Best
Riccardo

ps: Maybe you can open these patches if you disable loadbang/loadmess?

#6

Hi Riccardo,

Thanks for giving this your attention! I tried opening the files with ctrl+shift to disable loadbang and loadmess, but that didn’t make any difference.
I also had a look at the text versions of opening and non-opening files from MuBu and a self-created patch. There were minor differences, but nothing obvious. I tried to disrupt the opening process by inserting an extra comma in the patch text, and the only conclusion I can draw is that Max parses the text all the way to the end without creating an error in the Max window (the only error being for the extra comma).

Would a screen shot of the mubu.process help patcher be helpful to me? Or are there lots of abstractions?

Regards, Chris.

#7

Hi Chris,
I’m working to fix the problems on XP, I’m not far to finish (patches with mubu.process open and work, but I’ve still a crash at close).
I hope to make a new release (working on XP and Windows 7 ) today or beginning of next week.

Best
Riccardo

#8

Hi Chris,
I’ve just added a new mubu Windows release (1.7.4), which should fix your problems.
Tell me if it works well for you.

Best
Riccardo

#9

Hi Riccardo,

Many thanks for your help with this. It seems to have fixed the problem, although there is a minor note of caution. I can now open the example files and mubu.process help on two of the three installations, one on the laptop XP pro, the other on one of the desktop XP home. For some reason, it’s not working on the remaining XP home system: it will take me a while to see if I can find a significant difference between the two systems, but otherwise, it works, and I can move on with it.

Are there any links showing how others have used it?

Best wishes, Chris.