SL Demands 32-bit on a 64-bit System?

[Lyssa Greymoon]

I downloaded the 64-bit SL installer on a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (Core i5, 64-bit Windows) & installed it. When I run it, SL tells me I need whatever version to login, then installs and runs the 32-bit version. What's going on here?

(For the people who are inevitably going to tell me not to run SL on that potato, I usually don't, thanks).

[Fionalein]

What 64 bit windows? Maybe one of your libraries is not 64 so SL must run in 32 bit mode.

[Lyssa Greymoon]

Windows 10 Pro. 

[Whirly Fizzle]

If your system has certain Intel graphics & is running Windows 10, you will only be able to run the 32bit versions of the viewer because Windows 10 isn't compatible with those Intel "cards".
The LL viewer launcher does a check to see if you have such a system & forces you onto the 32bit viewer if that's the case.
The only reason the 32bit viewer works on those systems is because it was built without the Windows 10 manifest.

In the top menu bar of the viewer, go to Help -> About Second Life, click the "Copy to clipboard" button & paste all your system information here.

 

[Lyssa Greymoon]

There was a video driver update on Intel's site, but it didn't help. The 64 bit viewer will start, give me the login screen, then insist I install the 32-bit viewer to login.

Second Life Release 6.3.0.529185 (32bit)
Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3320M CPU @ 2.60GHz (2594.1 MHz)
Memory: 7890 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Build 9200)
Graphics Card Vendor: Intel
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 10.18.10.5069
OpenGL Version: 4.0.0 - Build 10.18.10.5069

Window size: 1366x745
Font Size Adjustment: 96pt
UI Scaling: 1
Draw distance: 128m
Bandwidth: 3000kbit/s
LOD factor: 1.125
Render quality: 3
Advanced Lighting Model: Enabled
Texture memory: 512MB
VFS (cache) creation time: July 21 2019 17:50:25

J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.10.4
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.64
Dullahan: 1.1.1320 / CEF: 3.3626.1895.g7001d56 / Chromium: 72.0.3626.121
LibVLC Version: 2.2.8
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
July 22 2019 14:27:33

[cykarushb]

Ive been trying to replicate this one 2 different systems because ive been having other issues with SL on different windows versions, a Latitude E6410 and an ivy bridge era desktop with an i5 3470 and intel HD 4000 graphics, both trying Windows 10, 8.1 and 7 64 bit, all "professional" versions.

The only time where it happens is Windows 10, but on both HD 4000 and the first gen intel HD graphics that are on the latitude. On windows 7 and 8.1 it will run the 64 bit viewer fine. I tried a full clean installation of SL 64 bit, it asked for 32 bit before login, i tried a fresh install of Windows 10 instead of my kinda old ones, still asked for 32 bit.

8.1 didnt, but i imagine it has to be a related issue. I can only think its some kind of windows dependency that isnt there, it could be a dozen little things that are out of date, the wrong version, etc

Windows 7 is doing its own thing right now where its trying to get me to reinstall the entire game every time i want to start SL. 

Thinking that it might be something windows related, try running the windows update program to see if theres anything your installation is missing, maybe try something in iobits software library for finding misinstalled windows packages. They have a bunch of stuff that does things like that.

 

If anyone else is running ivy bridge with intel HD 4000 on windows 8/8.1 or 10 tell us if youre having a similar problem.

[Willow Wilder]

On 7/22/2019 at 6:32 PM, Lyssa Greymoon said:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3320M CPU @ 2.60GHz (2594.1 MHz)
Memory: 7890 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Build 9200)
Graphics Card Vendor: Intel
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 10.18.10.5069
OpenGL Version: 4.0.0 - Build 10.18.10.5069

As Whirly mentioned, this has been the case with Intel HD 2000 and 3000 for some time now. No driver support for the Win10 operating system. It may be this also now applies to Intel HD 2500 and 4000. See Supported Operating Systems for Intel® Graphics Products  last reviewed May 23, 2019 with a footnote for Intel HD 2500 and 4000 as the current drivers are not digitally signed. 

[Lyssa Greymoon]

Intel seems to be keeping the drivers updated, the last release was in May just a week before that compatibility list. The one piece of weirdness I've noticed in that system information is SL seems to think it's running under Windows 8 instead of Windows 10. I initially chalked that up to old code, but it seems to recognize Windows 10 correctly on other computers.

[Willow Wilder]

On 7/22/2019 at 12:38 PM, Whirly Fizzle said:

The only reason the 32bit viewer works on those systems is because it was built without the Windows 10 manifest.

 

2 hours ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

The one piece of weirdness I've noticed in that system information is SL seems to think it's running under Windows 8 instead of Windows 10.

Again, see above. 

If the devs hadn't come up with this clever workaround, those Intel GPUs would not have had access to SL at all for a few years now. It just doesn't work with the 64bit viewer. 

2 hours ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

Intel seems to be keeping the drivers updated, the last release was in May just a week before that compatibility list. 

I noticed that too, but something has changed recently. I haven't been able to find anything specific though for HD 2500 and HD 4000, other than they are not digitally signing the drivers, meaning Intel is offering driver updates, but not tested by MS. 

[Ansiri]

I have an Intel HD 4000 in my laptop, though it also has Nvidia GeForce GT 650M, not sure how they work together and what that means. It has Win8 and is 64bit. The newest versions of official SL viewers are not working, not even the 32bit, i also tried the Obsolete viewer and with it i'm able to get to log in, but after i click login pops a window that there's a newer version and i need to download it or quit SL. So i can't use it. I have in preferences that i download updates manually.

When trying to start SL with newer viewers i only get a black window. There is no menu bar or anything else, only black and i can quit them only by task manager.

 

I haven't tried all the existing viewers, but i had an old install package of Catznip version R12 and it works fine. Newest R12.2 is not working, i get the black window with it also.

[Whirly Fizzle]

@Lyssa Greymoon
Do you happen to know if you can run the 64bit version of Firestorm?
I think your card should actually be able to run a 64bit viewer.

If you can actually successfully run Firestorm 64bit, there's a way to cripple the LL viewer from forcing the 32bit on you. But lets see if you can run 64bit first.

[Whirly Fizzle]

3 hours ago, Ansiri said:

I have an Intel HD 4000 in my laptop, though it also has Nvidia GeForce GT 650M, not sure how they work together and what that means. It has Win8 and is 64bit. The newest versions of official SL viewers are not working, not even the 32bit, i also tried the Obsolete viewer and with it i'm able to get to log in, but after i click login pops a window that there's a newer version and i need to download it or quit SL. So i can't use it. I have in preferences that i download updates manually.

When trying to start SL with newer viewers i only get a black window. There is no menu bar or anything else, only black and i can quit them only by task manager.

 

I haven't tried all the existing viewers, but i had an old install package of Catznip version R12 and it works fine. Newest R12.2 is not working, i get the black window with it also.

From a viewer you can get to launch the login screen, go to the top menu bar, Help -> About Second Life / viewer name on a TPV, click the "Copy to clipboard" button & paste all your system information here.

[Lyssa Greymoon]

3 hours ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

Do you happen to know if you can run the 64bit version of Firestorm?
I think your card should actually be able to run a 64bit viewer.

If you can actually successfully run Firestorm 64bit, there's a way to cripple the LL viewer from forcing the 32bit on you. But lets see if you can run 64bit first.

Yes, runs fine.

[Ansiri]

3 hours ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

From a viewer you can get to launch the login screen, go to the top menu bar, Help -> About Second Life / viewer name on a TPV, click the "Copy to clipboard" button & paste all your system information here.

Here, from Obsolete and Catznip:

Second Life 3.7.28 (300847) Apr 13 2015 15:22:33 (Second Life Release)
Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz (2394.56 MHz)
Memory: 8078 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit  (Build 9200)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GT 650M/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 9.17.0010.2875
OpenGL Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 425.31

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.38.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1h zlib/1.2.8
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.0
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.31
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
Built with MSVC version 1600

Catznip:
Catznip R12 - Dec 31 2017 12:50:12 (64bit) (Catznip Release)
Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz (2394.56 MHz)
Memory: 8078 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 (Build 9200)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GT 650M/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 9.17.10.2875
OpenGL Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 425.31

Window size: 1858x1057
Font Size Adjustment: 96pt
UI Scaling: 1
Draw distance: 128m
Bandwidth: 500kbit/s
LOD factor: 1.125
Render quality: 4 / 7
Advanced Lighting Model: Enabled
Texture memory: 682MB
VFS (cache) creation time: July 15 2019 11:04:47

RestrainedLove API: (disabled)
J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG runtime: 1.5.2
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.61
Dullahan: 1.1.820 / CEF: 3.3071.1634.g9cc59c8 / Chrome: 59
LibVLC Version: 2.2.4
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
July 25 2019 14:13:03

[Whirly Fizzle]

@Lyssa Greymoon

A Linden saw this thread & filed a feature request on the JIRA
BUG-227398 - [Win] Investigate 64bit viewer support for Intel HD 2500 and 4000 with latest drivers

For now, you should be able to run the 64bit version on the LL viewer as follows:
Install the 64bit viewer from Downloads | Second Life
At the end of the install the viewer will launch & you'll see the download window downloading the 32bit viewer version.
Click the X on this download window - you'll have to X it several times before it gives up.  Then close the viewer.
Right click the desktop shortcut for the 64 viewer -> Properties.
Go to the Shortcut tab.
In the Target textbox, go to the end of the text & add a space , then add the text --channel NoUpdate
Apply & save the changes, then launch the viewer from the shortcut.

Does this work?

Be aware that adding that --channel will also block the auto-updates working until you remove that --channel NoUpdate text from the target path.

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by Whirly Fizzle

[Whirly Fizzle]

On 7/25/2019 at 4:08 PM, Ansiri said:

When trying to start SL with newer viewers i only get a black window. There is no menu bar or anything else, only black and i can quit them only by task manager.

@Ansiri

It sounds like you have an Optimus laptop.

If you right click the viewer shortcut, do you get the option "Run with graphics Processor..." and then a choice to run with the integrated Intel or the Nvidia card?
If so, can you try running the latest viewer choosing the intel card & then choosing the Nvidia card.
Do both options give you the black window?

Are you launching the viewer on a secondary monitor?

[Lyssa Greymoon]

1 hour ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

Does this work?

Be aware that adding that --channel will also block the auto-updates working until you remove that --channel NoUpdate text from the target path.

 

Yes, it does. Thank you very much!

[Whirly Fizzle]

20 minutes ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

Yes, it does. Thank you very much!

Great!

Until you remove that --channel text from the target path, keep an eye on Downloads | Second Life  to see if there is a viewer update because you will not be offered updates automatically now.