Anyone else have problems with Ltspice crashing in wine?
I have a amd64 4800+ x2 machine with Redhat Rhel ws4 loaded on it. I loaded wine-0.9.2-1centos4winehq.i686.rpm which is supposed to be compatible:
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I then ran a test circuit in ltspice which creates a really large file. After about an hour, the machine crashed down to dirt. Worse, the kernel wouldn't boot (kernel panic messages for the next 5 boots). I booted an earlier kernel which worked for some reason, then the newer kernel recovered at the next boot. (Thank goodness . . .)
So what'd I do wrong? :-)
I'm thinking may be 64bit wine isn't as stable as 32bit wine? Should I load the 32bit instead?
Wrong wine version?
The file is Very large (gigs). Much larger than the ram or swap. Could this be the issue? More ram? Larger swap?
Lots of data makes the video card very slow. (pny nvidia fx700) Perhaps a larger agp aperture window would help?
Obviously I'm grabbing at straws on this. Any suggestions?
: Anyone else have problems with Ltspice crashing in wine?
I haven't used LTSpice under wine for a while, so I can't help you there. However, since you're a Linux guy and seem to be technically clueful, have you tried running your circuit using (Linux-native) ngspice instead? I'd be curious to see if you have the same (or different problems).
The one you want to try is ng-spice-rework-17, from:
Obviously, you have either a bad computer, or you have filled up an important file system. Try booting up using one of the Knoppix live CD's, and take a gander at the percentage utilization of your various file systems. I suspect that you will find the system with your /tmp file overfull.
Bad computer? Hmmm. It is a new motherboard and cpu. It otherwise seems fine. I have Smartspice and Smash loaded on it. These don't seem to crash it. So far. :-)
All the redhat programs work that are loaded with no issues. Maybe the computer just went bad now? Could be.
The disk is a new 74gig raptor. It has 12% disk usage. The /tmp directory is in the large partition with no quota. The previously created file was 10gig - nowhere near filling up the drive. I also have a 200gig drive for storage mounted and use that to keep the working drive fairly clean.
I tried running the same file just now. It ran for a few minutes, then the machine hung. I had to turn it off to get it to do anything. The same thing happened with the kernel. Wouldn't boot. It's checking the file system as I write this.
I'll unload and reload wine tomorrow to see if it got stomped somehow.
Try booting up using one of the Knoppix live CD's, and take a
How can the /tmp file be overfilled unless it has it's own partition?
Ha! Great sense of humor. Good to see on usenet. :-)
have you tried running your circuit using (Linux-native)
Thanks. I may try this, but I have 2 other simulators loaded on the machine I have no problems with. I can use them for comparison. But I may also download ngspice to try, thanks.
I'd really like to see a high quality open source gui developed. I tried a commercial one recently (Sandworks I think) and it wasn't quite there yet. It opened large files really well though.
The file itself runs like crazy on my windows machine. Absolutely no problems. So it's not the run file or the circuit.
It seems to be something about wine and ltspice so far. Reading the developer dialog on the net, the 686 version was apparently difficult. LTspice is 32 bits, so it may be happier with the 32 bit version of wine just yet. At least that's what I'm thinking at the moment. Hence the post.
You said that the kernel that was working now wouldn't boot. That implies that something that the kernel needs has been changed. Because you are running Linux, it is highly unlikely that your copy of the kernel, or the boot sector, or any other system files has been changed. That leaves only a few other choices. You could have a file system that is too large, you could have a log file that is too large.
I would recommend that you change your init files to open one of your serial ports as a login. That way, you can log onto your machine, and shut things down gracefully even when X has crashed. I have been using linux for about 10 years, and I have never had a crash that stopped the kernel from running. I always keep a login on one com port because I have had X crash in ways that disable my keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
ldg wrote: : On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:03:56 -0000, Stuart Brorson : wrote: : I'd really like to see a high quality open source gui developed. I : tried a commercial one recently (Sandworks I think) and it wasn't : quite there yet. It opened large files really well though.
There is a program called "gspiceui" -- g(EDA) SPICE U(ser) I(nterface) -- which acts as a front end to either ngspice or gnucap. It basically replaces the CLI you use to interact with the simulators with a graphical menu system. It isn't a schematic capture front-end like PSpice or LTSpice -- you need to have a SPICE netlist already created to use it. Of course, you can create your netlist using any tool desired, including other parts of the gEDA Suite. Here's a webpage describing gspiceui:
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It may or may not be what you want, but it does help some people who don't remember all the SPICE commands.
Yes, when wine crashes the kernel running at the time gets mushed and won't boot by itself. I have tried a half dozen times and it still won't boot.
Dropping to an earlier kernel, the machine does boot and runs normally.
For whatever reason, the original mushed kernel works fine on the very next boot - once another kernel has straightened things out.
:-)
Something seems wrong with wine now, however. Either that or I'm not using rpm correctly. If I do rpm -e it says that the version of wine is not loaded. If I do rpm -Uvh it says it's already loaded. I'm enjoying that a lot.
It works ok. Opens large files. It seemed somewhat cumbersome to use for analog. They want $3k a year rent on it - you never actually own the software. I didn't bite.
That proves that the kernel is just fine, and that the problem is in a file that remains, but is temporary. Probably a log file. Which one, I haven't a clue.
rpm is a pain sometimes.
Do a "man rpm", and notice that the -U,-i, and -f take "package file" as their arguments, and that -e takes "package name" as its argument.
Do an rpm -qi and it should tell you the package name.
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
I have repeated this a couple of times. I uninstall wine and delete the .wine directory, then re-install the 32 bit wine version and re-install ltspice.
[Linux administration is fun :-) It reminds me so much of playing with something we called a "Chinese finger puzzle" as a kid (a woven tube). You'd put your forefingers in it and couldn't get them out . ..]
32 bit wine gives this error when an ltspice run file is opened. It doesn't matter which file:
fixme:commdlg:GetFileName95 Flags 0x00800000 not yet implemented
When I run the file, it crashes and complains:
wine: Unhandled page fault on write access to 0x00000000 at address
Pretty close. Wine, however, isn't linux. It just runs under linux. Since it is an application that is playing catch up with winblows, it really hasn't a hope of getting everything right.
It really is pretty fun, but there's a pretty big learning curve at first. I've had to approach it as a hobby.
I used Unix at Hughes for several years (with Cadence) and liked it. The administration is where things get interesting though.
The directory structure has to be learned and there are key text files that control things in various directories. The gui's aren't as smart as windows yet for maintaining the system so you do have to do some hand editing occasionally to set new things set up. Like anything, it's simple after you learn it.
I liked windows 2000 fine, but really dislike xp and have been looking for a replacement for my engineering stuff. Linux seems like it will do what I want.
I've been following the articles on groklaw.com. It's really hard to use Microsoft products when you see their behavior from the open source perspective. I know it's just business, but the company really does come off as a bully at times. They seem to use their position as a monopoly to eliminate the competition.
I started out learning linux by installing Fedora, Xandros, and a few other distro's to see which I liked the best
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I finally bought Suse9.2 and sort of fell in love with it. Then I learned that several of the engineering programs I use were only supported on Redhat Rhel. Sooooo I bought the redhat.
I started with Redhat WS3, but it wouldn't drive my video card. Apparently this older, more stable version of Redhat doesn't have the latest Xfree86 drivers. So I loaded the Ndivia linux driver to get things operational. I never got the computer stable with this distro. At one point the Nvidia support people suggested that I should update my motherboard bios, which I did. I've done this many times without problems since I build my own computers, but this time the motherboard died. So I replaced it. I finally gave up on WS3. I sure learned a lot about linux administration with Ws3 though.
Soooo I loaded the Redhat WS4 version. This would drive the video card directly and the machine with the new motherboard is perfectly stable. I've moved most of my engineering software to the machine now and almost have it set up like I want it. I still have a few problems with Samba talking to the win2k machines, but the lan printer works and all the built-in peripherals on the motherboard are happy. Except sound. I'm still working on that. I may have to buy a supported sound card. Or I may just not have sound. :-)
Now you know why I liken the experience to the finger puzzle :-)
BTW, wine worked just fine on the Suse and Ltspice ran like gangbusters. Of course, that was on the other motherboard ...
I don't actually, but I think the 2.6 kernel was out. Since then I switched from a single processor to the dual x2 4800+, so I'm now using the smp kernel.
This reminds me of the old IBM lease the hardware, lease the software, lease the support, lease the development of your applications, and lease your applications of the system 360 days.
--
JosephKK
Gegen dummheit kampfen Die Gotter Selbst, vergebens.
--Shiller
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