Second Life Viewer

[kurtfreund786]

I have been using computers since the Sinclair and currently I am having the most bizarre and serious problems I've ever had. There are indications that the source of these problems is a recent Firestorm beta.

My current computers are an iMac and a Macbook Air running OS X 10.7 (Lion) and a PC running Windows 7. I also have an XP laptop on which I did not install Firestorm. I was entering Second Life on a regular basis using my Apple computers and, primarily, Phoenix Viewer and Cool VL Viewer. There were no problems. Then one day I started Phoenix and it said an update was available, so I installed Firestorm.

Firestorm worked a couple of times and I liked the interface. Then the first problem started to occur - I lost the ability to right-click. Restarting Firestorm fixed that for a short while, but then it recurred. Eventually I decided to continue without right-click capability as long as I was able to do so.

Shortly thereafter the second problem started - the pointer disappeared. Naturally, that made it almost impossible to continue. Yet the problems were just beginning. I was able to Cmd-Tab (OS X equivalent of Alt-Tab) out of Firestorm, but the pointer was still missing. I had to shut down the Mac using the power button. OS X came back up, but after several minutes (without restarting any viewer) the computer froze with the message: "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button until it turns off, then press the Power button again." 

After the second restart the computer ran okay, but since people were waiting for me to return to Second Life and I was leery of using my iMac, I decided to use my Air. Since I didn't suspect Firestorm as being the cause of the problems, I installed it on the Air. Very shortly thereafter I had the very same problems. At the time I assumed it was some kind of issue with Lion, so I pulled my HP laptop out of the closet. I installed and ran Firestorm on Windows 7 and within one hour I experienced three Blue Screens of Death.

By that time I did suspect Firestorm, so I went back to my iMac and started Cool VL Viewer, an older viewer that I had used many times. The same problems occurred in that viewer!

I decided that the safest course was to download and run SL Viewer 2. However, the problems occurred again.

My next attempt was to delete all OS X preference files related to SL viewers and try again to run SL Viewer 2. Even that did not work.

Currently, I have not figured out a way to get on Second Life again using either of my Apple computers. On my Windows 7 PC I was able to do some OS upgrades and I can run SL Viewer 2.

Please note that I have no hard evidence that Firestorm beta was the cause of these severe problems, but they did appear only after I had run Firestorm.

[Soho SpiritWeaver]

There are known problems with the graphics drivers in Lion. See this post on the Phoenix Wiki

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=mac_os_x_10.7_lion_problems&s[]=lion

I can access SL fine from my iMac using both the latest Firestorm Beta and Phoenix. I had to make the changes noted in the article above to get my MacBook Pro tp work. This also seems to affect the SL 2.x viewer but I am not sure.

HTH

PS> There are also some other problems reported with other applications, including Quicktime - the Apple Discussions board is full of issues

[Deej Kasshiki Member]

Firestorm runs just fine on my MacBook Pro but, I'm still using Snow Leopard. The problem as pointed out above is the fact that none of the v2 viewers (including the official LL version) are fully compatible with Lion. There's a sticky from Esbee Linden at the top of the SL Viewers forum page that mentions this.

[kurtfreund786]

Thank you -- hopefully that will be very useful. However, it does not explain the three BSDs in Windows 7.

I posted on the Apple board about troubles with Second Life and the moderators removed the post. They do, as you probably know, run that board with an iron hand. Knowing that, however, my post said nothing negative about Apple, so I guess they're a bit sensitive about the problems.

Thanks again.

[kurtfreund786]

The Phoenix wiki says that Macs with ATI cards seem to be running okay under Lion. Not so. My card is ATI Radeon HD 5670 512 MB.

[Serith Haefnir]

I have had no  issues with firestorm running mac OSX 10.7 at all. I have a 2007 imac, with a ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics card, I also have phoenix 1185 and SL 2.8.1 on my mac as well. They all run mostly ok (SL 2.8 does have the thing where the top menu bar and top part of the viewer window go black) so it might just be something with your computer because i am running nearly the same type of computer wih no issues. You might try talking to Phoenix/ Firestorm Support Group in world.

[kurtfreund786]

Well, I was able to run Firestorm for a couple of days before the S hit the F, so good luck.

As for the Phoenix/Firestorm Support Group in world, I'd love to talk to them if I could get in world.

I'm trying some different things: running Firestorm on my Windows 7 PC again to see if the BSDs return. I'm also going to try running Firestorm under Parallels, although I have no idea if that makes any sense.

[Serith Haefnir]

I have been using Firestorm since the public beta came out, and other intenal betas. I have had no majotr issues with OSX lion once i updated to it, and neither has the mac dev or any other mac beta testers I am aware of. You might try contacting them by email if you cant get inworld http://www.phoenixviewer.com/support

[Pussycat Catnap Member]

Can people using FIrestorm and Lion at least start IMs?

 EDIT: Looks like they, or at least I, can.

Firestorm ATM is the only v2 viewer that works for me chat wise.

[Dresden Ceriano Advisor]

Contact someone in the Phoenix/Firestorm Support group and since you have it all written out here, you might just want to point them to this thread.  Hopefully they can help get you back up and running again.

Good luck ...Dres