Basic Troubleshooting class material.
We will cover some of the basic methods and resources available to help you start to figure out where your problems might originate.This class is based on Firestorm but can apply to all viewers.
****Basic Troubleshooting*****
We all have the occasional problem with our viewer and need to get them "fixed" so we can get back to using our viewer, not fussing with it. This usually requires some amount of troubleshooting.
Troubleshooting is not always simple. In fact, most times it's a slow process as you eliminate one possibility after another until you find the root of the problem.
Sure, you could contact us in the Phoenix/Firestorm Viewer Support group for help, but then you have to deal with chat lag in there. Plus we'll start by asking you to do most of this stuff anyway!
So here are a number of things that you can do to start working on the problem on your own. If nothing else, you can determine what the problem is not.
****Show your work
If you make a change, especially if you're troubleshooting or just tinkering, write down what changes you've made. This is important if you're making a change to debug settings; if you don't remember what you changed, how do you change it back?
By clearing your settings. So save yourself some headache and jot down the changes you make, so you can put them back if you need to.
****RELOG, REBOOT, RESET
First thing to try in almost every case is a relog. It can clear most every temporary glitch, and most glitches are temporary.
If the problem is related to your location, teleport to a different one.
We have some space at Hippo Hollow you can use when you need a reliable location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hippo%20Hollow/57/185/51
Or to find an empty water sim, open up your World Map (the bottom bar icon, or Ctrl-M, or World menu > World Map), type in Moses, Sulu, or another of your choice and click Find (or just press Enter), then click Teleport.
Even simpler, if you have the Navigation bar enabled, type in the region name and you will teleport right away
After you teleported, wait a minute or three. Give the systems time to complete the teleport and settle into the new sim. If after, say, three minutes the problem persists, then relog there.
If you still have the problem at this point, reboot the entire computer and try again. Some temporary glitches are held there, too.
If that didn't help, another thing that sometimes needs a reset is your router/modem. This is especially true when your packet loss is high (more on that later).
When you reset your router/modem, remove power completely. Unplug it, and leave it unplugged for several minutes.
I know that seems like a long time to some of us, but it's necessary so that your ISP will reset their side of your connection.
So, unplug it, then get up, go grab yourself a drink, or play fetch with your heffalump, or grab the mail, or read the funnies. Then come back to your router or modem and turn it back on. You may as well reboot the PC, too.
So relog, reboot, reset. Let this be your mantra.
****CACHE: TO CLEAR OR NOT TO CLEAR
I'm sure you've all heard someone mention four seemingly magical words to you when you had a problem. You know what I'm talking about: "clear cache and relog." I think at one time or another we've all said it.
I'm going to give you four new magic words of advice:
Don't clear your cache !!!!
Or to be more accurate: Be picky about why and when you clear your cache. Clearing cache doesn't fix everything. In fact, it doesn't fix nearly as many problems as you might think.
And doing it when it's unnecessary has its drawbacks, including slower initial rez times and excess bandwidth being pulled, which contributes to sim lag.
In a nutshell, "clear your cache" is something we'll recommend ONLY if the problem appears to be texture- or inventory-related. A full cache is almost always better than an empty one.
And if you're comfortable working in your filesystem, you can clear just those parts of the cache you need to clear: inventory cache for inventory problems and texture cache for texture problems.
You can find your cache folder by going to Preferences and then the Network & Cache tab.
Click the "Open" button alongside the path to your cache files location. In there you'll see some files ending with .inv.gz -- these are your inventory cache files -- and you'll see the texture cache folder.
You may see other files while the viewer is open: .dsf files are the sound cache. They're cleared when you log off.
So those are the DOs of cache-clearing. Here are some DON'Ts.
DON'T clear cache as a matter of routine maintenance. If there isn't something actually wrong with your cache, then this does nothing beneficial.
What that does is tax the sim while all your textures and inventory are re-fetched from the server.
DON'T clear it for problems unrelated to the cache. It won't help for:
- teleport problems
- upload problems
- movement or communication problems
- most kinds of lag
- most kinds of crashes
- a vast majority of bake fails
What problems does clearing your cache solve? It can help solve inventory problems and it can help solve texture problems.
There are some exceptions (e.g., crashes related to textures), but in many cases, other causes are more likely, and clearing cache doesn't have to be the first measure.
Let's discuss how to find out more information about particular issues you might be having.
****THINGS TO LOOK FOR
Here we're going to talk about how to use certain tools that can inform you of what's going on in your viewer and your computer.
***IN THE VIEWER
Cumulative packet loss shows a percentage of data that is lost, or failing to be delivered. It's in Help menu > About Firestorm, on the bottom line of the first section. It looks like: "Packets Lost: 760/302154 (0.3%)."
Data is constantly being sent from the viewer to the server and vice versa. This data is sent in chunks called Packets.
Each packet is checked to make sure it's complete and correct. If it isn't, a replacement is requested. Re-sending data adds to overall network delays.
High packet loss is a very good indicator that you are having network issues.
What is high packet loss? Well, in an ideal world, one packet lost is too much. But in reality, we like to see numbers under 1% if you've been online for a long time, under 5% if you've very recently logged in.
Resetting your router, wiring up if you're wireless or lowering your bandwidth setting can all help reduce packet loss.
The Statistics Bar (Ctrl-Shift-1) is another good troubleshooting tool. It has tons of information about your inworld environment; the only trick is knowing what to look for. Let's look at a few:
In the Basic section:
FPS > Frames per second. The higher the number here, the better, although most people will not notice any real difference over 20. A movie at the theater is 24 FPS, your TV is 25 or 30.
Rendering quality is the primary influence on FPS. Lower settings will almost always correspond to higher performance speed.
Packet Loss > This shows the realtime packet loss. Lower is better, and infrequent spikes may be expected. If it stays high for a long period of time you will experience lower performance.
For some things, looking at realtime packet loss will be useful, like watching for lag when you do something or go somewhere; for checking your overall network performance, cumulative packet loss is more useful.
Ping Sim > The lower the number, the better. This is the time it takes for information to travel between you and the server.
NOTE: your RL location can make a difference here, but your overall network quality anywhere along the line from your computer to the SL server can cause high ping times.
What is a high ping time? Typically over 250ms is outside the "good" range, 400ms is starting to get too high. And keep in mind: 250ms is a quarter of a second. Several lifetimes to a packet of data.
Here;s a tip: If you're experiencing wildly high ping times, ask others nearby if they are as well. If no one is nearby, ask a friend, or ask folks from the group to come by.
If you all see high ping times, tis a server issue.
In the "Simulator" section:
Time Dilation > This is a ratio of simulator script time compared to real time. Simply put, it's how much script execution could be done in a single frame of time.
A reading of 1 means all scripts in the queue do everything they needed to do in that one frame; a reading of .5 means it takes two frames to do the same script work.
Sim FPS > The simulator frame rate. This should now always be the same as the physics frame rate -- 45.0 when things are running well.
Physics FPS > The frame rate at which the physics engine is running. This should normally be at or near 45.0.
Pending Downloads > This is the number of downloads from the asset server to the simulator that are pending. If this is greater than 1 you may see delays in viewing notecards or scripts, and in rezzing objects.
Pending Uploads > This is the number of uploads from the simulator to the asset server that are pending. If this is greater than zero there may be performance issues when attempting to teleport.
There is one more thing that you can look at way down near the bottom in the Time section.
Spare Time, if this is sitting at 0 then the sim is either at or past the limit of what it can actually handle.
More information on the statistics bar is available at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Statistics_Bar_Guide
***WHERE TO LOOK ON YOUR COMPUTER
The Windows Task Manager, Mac Activity Monitor or Linux System Monitor, among others, can show you what processes are active on your computer as well as how much memory is being used.
There are several applications available that can help you with troubleshooting as well, but you will need varying degrees of technical knowledge to use them.
I'm going to mention Windows programs, but there are equivalent programs for Mac and Linux. Look in your First Aid kit for the Basic Troubleshooting Useful Links notecard.
Net Limiter can be used to monitor your computer's bandwidth and what is using it.
LogViewer Pro can show you viewer logs in a more-readable format. It doesn't interpret the logs, just makes them pretty
Wireshark can help you diagnose network issues at a painfully detailed level.
These are just examples. There are lots of different tools available out there.
Another good thing to keep in mind about hard-to-diagnose problems: even if the viewer is the only thing being troublesome, that doesn't mean it's the source of the trouble.
For instance, we've had several users with issues whom we could not help, despite our best efforts. Each of these folks ended up completely reformatting their hard drives and starting off with a fresh install of their OS.
After that, most of them found that the viewer ran just fine.
Coincidence?
Well, consider that MOST people with infected PCs don't know they're infected, and an infected PC will have issues.
It's estimated that 32% of the computers with AV protection are infected. (from http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1224 ). This is old data, but not invalid.
****ANTIVIRUSES AND FIREWALLS
Even though they do good work, antiviruses and firewalls can end up being responsible for certain issues, most commonly concerning voice, media and Search.
We have had many reports of issues like SLPlugin being flagged as "suspicious" and/or being misidentified as a virus. Antiviruses may quarantine or even delete files.
And Firewalls have been known to block SLVoice from running.
In both cases you can manually add the affected files as exceptions. How to do that depends on the particular Antivirus and firewall you're use using.
If you're not sure how to go about this, check your program's documentation. Search engines are your friends.
Also worth mentioning is that your antivirus may not only stop some things from working but can also affect your performance.
One of our users discovered that his antivirus program was scanning DLL program events as they occurred, which severely affected his framerate.
By adding the Firestorm, SLPlugin and SLVoice executables to his AVs exclusion list for that scan, his framerate returned to normal.
Fortunately, this person knew enough to be able to figure out the source of the problem, and was brave enough to fiddle with settings. It takes some doing to dig in deep. Don't be afraid to fumble around. Just remember to document your work.
****IS IT JUST ME?
How do you know whether the problems you're having are your viewer, your network or the servers? Well, we've touched on some tools and tips for checking the viewer and the network, now let's look at ways to check the servers.
***SECOND LIFE GRID STATUS
It often helps to check the Second Life Grid Status page to see if what's happening to you is affecting the rest of the grid.
You can go to the Help menu -> Check grid status, or open http://status.secondlifegrid.net/ in your web browser.
Of course, you might have noticed the issue before the status page is updated, so it doesn't hurt to check back.
You can also use the SL-RSS HUD that will check frequently and pop up an alert if something changes on the page. It's free on Marketplace.
***TRACKING "KNOWN" ISSUES
If an issue has affected a number of people, then chances are it's either been documented on our wiki or our JIRA or on Linden Lab's jira.
This can be true regardless of the source of the problem, so troubleshooting should include searching for previous reports.
**WIKI
So you've heard we have a wiki, right?
The Phoenix/Firestorm wiki is updated constantly and provides loads of documentation on issues and their fixes, or workarounds, as they arise.
On Firestorm the F1 key on most keyboards will take you straight to the wiki main page.
Here are some important wiki links:
Firestorm main: http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=start
Firestorm troubleshooting: http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=firestorm_troubleshooting
Phoenix main: http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=phoenix_viewer_documentation
Phoenix troubleshooting: http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=troubleshooting_and_quick_fixes
Use these links if you want to browse the list of available pages. This is useful if you have a problem but you aren't sure what it's called.
In the top right of every page is a Search bar. Use this to find pages based off clues or symptoms. Details matter, type in cloud and you might find lots of unhelpful pages, but type in ruthed and you would see pages about bake failure.
The more time you spend poking around, the more familiar you'll become with it. So browse it when you don't need it, skim a page or two a day, and in no time you'll be abe to find what you are looking for.
And here's a secret: even if you don't absorb all the info when you first read it, and who does, it might ring a bell when you have a problem.
You'll be able to say, "That sounds familiar! I think that was on the wiki!" and you'll have a better sense of where to find it.
As for when you do have a problem and you're searching the wiki for help, when you find the relevant pages there might be several suggested solutions.
Be sure to read each one carefully; sometimes there might be small differences in what is recommended compared to what you've tried. And these small differences can mean a lot!
For instance, did you know there's a big difference between "Replace" and "Wear" when you're trying to de-ruth yourself? Or between a crash-to-desktop and a forced logout? It's on the wiki.
**JIRA
Both Linden Lab and Phoenix/Firestorm use a web-based issue tracker called the JIRA for reporting and working on bugs and other matters. LL calls theirs a bug tracker because they try to keep support issues in a different system.
The JIRA can seem intimidating and hard to navigate if you're not accustomed to it, especially LL's because of its size. It's frickin' ginormous.
But if you take a deep breath and just dive in, you may find a wealth of helpful info.
Phoenix/Firestorm JIRA: http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/
Linden Lab JIRA: http://jira.secondlife.com/
Like the wiki, but even more so, spending time looking around can go a long way in helping you get used to it. And when you're used to it, you can more easily find things.
Also like the wiki there's a search field at the top right. Put your search terms there and all the jira issues mentioning those terms will be listed. You can also get more search options by going to Issues menu> Search for Issues.
When your search results come up, they're sorted by relevance, at least what the program thinks is relvance. Clicking on the column headers like "Key," "Created," or "Updated", helps you find the most recent issues.
In each issue, or ticket if you will, look for helpful information in:
- Summary, which is te title of the issue
- Description, which is a basic rundown of the issue. In some cases, it might include steps to reproduce a bug.
- Comments, which may include responses from team members and/or other people with the same issue. Solutions or workarounds may be provided here. Add your own, if you have a solution, or more information about the problem.
Note that support jiras can only be viewed by the person creating it and the Phoenix/Firestorm team members. This is necessary to protect our users' privacy.
Also note: If you've never accessed the JIRA, you'll need to create an account. Please used your SL name, not your RL name. We can't use your RL information.
**WIKI + JIRA
We even have a wiki pages that can help you find currently relevant JIRAs:
http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=hot_ll_jira_issues
This page is updated regularly with lists of currently common issues and direct links to their JIRAs.
Well, that's it. I hope it wasn't too painful. Hopefully you now feel better equipped to tackle issues that come up, or at least get more information, so that you can quickly return to enjoying your SL!
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