Pleco for Android 2.4.5 Bug Report Thread

[aiwen]

I tried to update Pleco on my PRS-T2, the update went well and the application could be started for the first time. But when I tried to kill the application and re-start, it crashed. Also a restart of Android did not help.

That's odd... could you send me the crash log? Run it again so that it crashes, then run the free "aLogcat" utility (APK available here) and send us the unfiltered output.

What is really a pity is that even a downgrade to 2.3.8 is not possible because the additional (purchased) dictionaries are probably not compatible between these versions. After the downgrade, only Pleco and the User dictionary are available.

Delete them all in Add-ons / Installed, kill / reopen Pleco, and then re-download them - the old versions are still available if you're running 2.3.

A downgrade is now possible with re-downloading the dictionaries. I did not thought of this obvious possibility... Thanks.

I have some more information on the problem of 2.4.5 on Sony PRS-T2 (see attached logfile generated by "aLogcat"). When trying to re-install 2.4.5 again, it worked well first, even after killing the application. But when I restarted Android, Pleco did not start any more. Hope you find something in the log...

 

[mikelove]

I have some more information on the problem of 2.4.5 on Sony PRS-T2 (see attached logfile generated by "aLogcat"). When trying to re-install 2.4.5 again, it worked well first, even after killing the application. But when I restarted Android, Pleco did not start any more. Hope you find something in the log...

I'm afraid there's nothing about a Pleco crash in this log - any chance it might have been filtered? Could you try running aLogcat, going back / running Pleco to get it to crash, then going back into aLogcat and capturing all of that output?

 

[aiwen]

I have some more information on the problem of 2.4.5 on Sony PRS-T2 (see attached logfile generated by "aLogcat"). When trying to re-install 2.4.5 again, it worked well first, even after killing the application. But when I restarted Android, Pleco did not start any more. Hope you find something in the log...

I'm afraid there's nothing about a Pleco crash in this log - any chance it might have been filtered? Could you try running aLogcat, going back / running Pleco to get it to crash, then going back into aLogcat and capturing all of that output?

It seems that I have found a clue about isolating the cause of the problem. I tried again to downgrade to 2.3.8 and reinstall Pleco 2.4.5, but this time I deleted "ABC Chinese-English dictionary" before the installation. Without the add-on module "ABC CE", to restart Android is no problem any more. You may find a similar log, without crash this time. By this, you may compare the case with/without crash. The difference are the following entries:

[ 01-19 15:36:30.299 2761:0xac9 E/HAL ]
load: module=/system/lib/hw/gralloc.imx5x.so
Cannot load library: alloc_mem_region[847]: OOPS: 1949 cannot map library 'gralloc.imx5x.so'. no vspace available.
[ 01-19 15:36:30.299 2761:0xac9 E/GraphicBufferMapper ]
FATAL: can't find the gralloc module
[ 01-19 15:36:31.409 2077:0x834 E/imx5x.gralloc ]
[unregister] handle 0x4277b8 still locked (state=40000001)

Maybe the term "crash" is not quite correct since Pleco does not even start. The problem happens during startup. First I though it might be related with lacking memory, so I killed all other applications. But this had no influence at all.

I will now also try to install "ABC CE" again and I'm pretty sure, Pleco will not start.

 

[mikelove]

It seems that I have found a clue about isolating the cause of the problem. I tried again to downgrade to 2.3.8 and reinstall Pleco 2.4.5, but this time I deleted "ABC Chinese-English dictionary" before the installation. Without the add-on module "ABC CE", to restart Android is no problem any more. You may find a similar log, without crash this time. By this, you may compare the case with/without crash. The difference are the following entries:

It looks from these like your device is running low on virtual memory space when trying to load Pleco's data files - neither version should come anywhere close to using up all of that space on most Android devices, but 2.4's data files are a bit larger than 2.3's, so if for whatever reason 2.3 was close to pushing over the limit on yours then 2.4 might well have exceeded it.

Anyway, since it's not feasible for us to shrink the data files again, I'm afraid all I can suggest in your case is that you keep using 2.3. (in general, this would seem to be another good argument for dropping support for Android 2.x/3.x altogether and limiting Pleco to devices with Android 4 in our next major update, since as our app gets ever more ambitious it's likely that the number of devices exhibiting this sort of behavior will increase)

 

[ckatt]

In portrait mode i am unable to display both the flash card and the audio button. if one is checked in the settings it works ok, but if both are checked i only get the flash cards button. same goes for the history button(not that i use it) if the flash card or audio button if showing. and i cant make the qick input or scroll buttons display either. also the show definition option dosent seem to change anything if checked or not. im not sure which version this started in as i haven't played with these options for a while.

 

[mikelove]

In portrait mode i am unable to display both the flash card and the audio button. if one is checked in the settings it works ok, but if both are checked i only get the flash cards button. same goes for the history button(not that i use it) if the flash card or audio button if showing. and i cant make the qick input or scroll buttons display either. also the show definition option dosent seem to change anything if checked or not. im not sure which version this started in as i haven't played with these options for a while.

That's probably because Pleco has decided that your device's screen is too small for that - the quick input buttons won't appear if the search results box is too narrow for them (do you have it positioned on the left / right side of the screen?), and flash and audio generally can't both be squeezed in at the top without obliterating the search box altogether.

 

[ckatt]

That's probably because Pleco has decided that your device's screen is too small for that - the quick input buttons won't appear if the search results box is too narrow for them (do you have it positioned on the left / right side of the screen?), and flash and audio generally can't both be squeezed in at the top without obliterating the search box altogether.

ah I get, in the past i had tried this and with the reduced text size in the input box I got only 1 or 2 characters to show. but with the keyboard open i cant play audio or add a flash card so the the input box is bigger. Still i can see why you would want restrict the buttons on the top. What about an option for the audio button to be placed elsewhere, maybe in the definition like the audio button for example sentences.

 

[mikelove]

ah I get, in the past i had tried this and with the reduced text size in the input box I got only 1 or 2 characters to show. but with the keyboard open i cant play audio or add a flash card so the the input box is bigger. Still i can see why you would want restrict the buttons on the top. What about an option for the audio button to be placed elsewhere, maybe in the definition like the audio button for example sentences.

Certainly possible - waiting on the new type design for that.

 

[ticlo]

In dictionary interface, when long-pressing the + sign (add flashcard) and selecting "Delete flashcard", oftentimes the flashcard does not delete

 

[mikelove]

In dictionary interface, when long-pressing the + sign (add flashcard) and selecting "Delete flashcard", oftentimes the flashcard does not delete

Do you have a lot of duplicated flashcards?

 

[LantauMan]

I still have issues with very slow startup on my LG Optimus One P500, running stock Android 2.2.1. If the phone has not been in use for awhile, then I start Pleco, it takes anywhere from 5 to over 10 seconds to start. After that, Pleco is very fast to respond. If I exit Pleco (not force-close, just click the phone's Home button) and then tap on the Pleco icon again a few minutes later, instant startup. The slow startup only occurs after the phone has not been in use for a while and the screen has totally blacked out. Pleco is never force-closed.

I note activity showing in the 3G icon during those long startups for Pleco, implying that data is being sent and received. Is Pleco verifying my license each time, or checking for updates, and thus causing the delays?

Note that none of this ever happened prior to 2.4.x Startups were always generally fast, less than 2 seconds.

 

[mikelove]

I still have issues with very slow startup on my LG Optimus One P500, running stock Android 2.2.1. If the phone has not been in use for awhile, then I start Pleco, it takes anywhere from 5 to over 10 seconds to start. After that, Pleco is very fast to respond. If I exit Pleco (not force-close, just click the phone's Home button) and then tap on the Pleco icon again a few minutes later, instant startup. The slow startup only occurs after the phone has not been in use for a while and the screen has totally blacked out. Pleco is never force-closed.

I note activity showing in the 3G icon during those long startups for Pleco, implying that data is being sent and received. Is Pleco verifying my license each time, or checking for updates, and thus causing the delays?

There's no startup license verification, but it's possible there might be a problem with the update checker, or with the system attempting to update its built-in database files. Go into Settings / General - is there an option at the bottom of the screen to update the built-in databases? If so, tap on that. If not, turn off the option for weekly database file update checks (also at the bottom of Settings / General) and see if that helps matters.

 

[LantauMan]

I still have issues with very slow startup on my LG Optimus One P500, running stock Android 2.2.1. If the phone has not been in use for awhile, then I start Pleco, it takes anywhere from 5 to over 10 seconds to start. After that, Pleco is very fast to respond. If I exit Pleco (not force-close, just click the phone's Home button) and then tap on the Pleco icon again a few minutes later, instant startup. The slow startup only occurs after the phone has not been in use for a while and the screen has totally blacked out. Pleco is never force-closed.

I note activity showing in the 3G icon during those long startups for Pleco, implying that data is being sent and received. Is Pleco verifying my license each time, or checking for updates, and thus causing the delays?

There's no startup license verification, but it's possible there might be a problem with the update checker, or with the system attempting to update its built-in database files. Go into Settings / General - is there an option at the bottom of the screen to update the built-in databases? If so, tap on that. If not, turn off the option for weekly database file update checks (also at the bottom of Settings / General) and see if that helps matters.

There is no option displayed for "update built-in databases" and the weekly update option has always been off since I started using 2.4.5, but the problem persists. Just started up Pleco for the first time today, the data signal in the 3G icon lit up a few times, and Pleco took a relatively "short" 6 seconds to load. So it seems it's still checking something online.

Also, considering how infrequently the add-ons are updated, is it necessary at all to do weekly checks for updates (or any checks at all)?

 

[mikelove]

There is no option displayed for "update built-in databases" and the weekly update option has always been off since I started using 2.4.5, but the problem persists. Just started up Pleco for the first time today, the data signal in the 3G icon lit up a few times, and Pleco took a relatively "short" 6 seconds to load. So it seems it's still checking something online.

Could you double-check the Android/data/com.pleco.chinesesystem/files/bmodules/ folder and make sure the folder inside of that is named "8"?

If so, it may be flickering that indicator without connecting - there's definitely nothing else in our code that would cause a network connection if those two options are turned off, so unless your phone has some sort of automated check it runs whenever it starts up any app, I'm not sure why it would be going online.

Could you please try one of these possibilities:

a) Delete as many add-ons as you can stand to (in the Installed tab in Add-ons), then test how long it takes Pleco to do a cold startup and see if it's any faster.

b) Rename Android/data/com.pleco.chinesesystem to something temporary, then reopen Pleco and let it download its basic data files again, then test how long it takes to do a cold startup with just those files. (you can rename the folder back after that to bring back your previously downloaded files)

Also, considering how infrequently the add-ons are updated, is it necessary at all to do weekly checks for updates (or any checks at all)?

It also checks for app updates if you're using a non-Google-Play version of our app, and once we've got iOS and Android synced up we plan to update CC-CEDICT a good bit more frequently.

 

[jiacheng]

It seems that the text size for the definition field is not getting saved when the databse is backed up. If you save and restore from DB on another device, the definition font size gets reset.

 

[skripp]

Have you tried Settings -> Flashcards -> Compact database ?

This did wonders for my startup time (6-10 seconds down to less than 1).

I still have issues with very slow startup on my LG Optimus One P500, running stock Android 2.2.1. If the phone has not been in use for awhile, then I start Pleco, it takes anywhere from 5 to over 10 seconds to start. After that, Pleco is very fast to respond. If I exit Pleco (not force-close, just click the phone's Home button) and then tap on the Pleco icon again a few minutes later, instant startup. The slow startup only occurs after the phone has not been in use for a while and the screen has totally blacked out. Pleco is never force-closed.

I note activity showing in the 3G icon during those long startups for Pleco, implying that data is being sent and received. Is Pleco verifying my license each time, or checking for updates, and thus causing the delays?

There's no startup license verification, but it's possible there might be a problem with the update checker, or with the system attempting to update its built-in database files. Go into Settings / General - is there an option at the bottom of the screen to update the built-in databases? If so, tap on that. If not, turn off the option for weekly database file update checks (also at the bottom of Settings / General) and see if that helps matters.

There is no option displayed for "update built-in databases" and the weekly update option has always been off since I started using 2.4.5, but the problem persists. Just started up Pleco for the first time today, the data signal in the 3G icon lit up a few times, and Pleco took a relatively "short" 6 seconds to load. So it seems it's still checking something online.

Also, considering how infrequently the add-ons are updated, is it necessary at all to do weekly checks for updates (or any checks at all)?

 

[mikelove]

It seems that the text size for the definition field is not getting saved when the databse is backed up. If you save and restore from DB on another device, the definition font size gets reset.

That's actually by design - a lot of users know how to back up / restore their databases but don't know how to adjust font sizes, and the default font sizes are different on different device screen sizes. So in order to pre-empt a whole bunch of tablet users writing us to complain that the fonts in flashcards are too small (or that the fonts are too big after moving them from their tablet to their smartphone) we reset the font sizes when you restore a backup - an ugly fix, but a necessary one, going by the vast quantity of email we received on this subject during the few months that we were offering flashcards on iPhone / iPad without doing it.

We eventually plan to add separate versions of this and a few other settings depending on the current device form factor - not sure whether we'll have two for smartphones / tablets, or three for smartphones / small tablets / large tablets, or four for smartphones / "phablets" (Galaxy Note) / small tablets / large tablets, but this way you'll be able to have different font size settings for different devices in the same database. Not sure when that'll be ready, though.

Have you tried Settings -> Flashcards -> Compact database ?

This did wonders for my startup time (6-10 seconds down to less than 1).

Excellent suggestion.

 

[grahambond]

Hi - hope this is the right forum for this comment.

I discovered a bug this morning in the new (Android 2.4.5) Flashcard system. When you go back to a card that has previously been reviewed within the same session (something I sometimes do when I realise that I have been overly generous/mean in the way that I had marked myself in my self-assessment) and try and change the card score, rather than REPLACING the old score, it seems that the new mark you give to yourself is merely ADDED to the flashcard history. Moreover, no change is made to the flashcard score.

By way of an example, say I had reviewed a card a total of 10 times and had given myself a 四 on the most recent test, then, after thinking upon it, went back and decided I should have awarded a 五, no only would the card score NOT change, the flashcard will now show that I have reviewed the card 11 times. If I then decided the mark should be a 六, again, no change will be made to the card score, but the flashcard history will show I have reviewed the card 12 times now (with the most recent scores being 六，五，and 四.

I hope that makes sense - and that this bug can be sorted out!

BTW, I have noticed that the Flashcard system has begun crashing with reasonable regularity again. This used to happen a lot in a previous version but seemed to have been eliminated in the most recent version before this latest update. However, since the update, I am back to the bad old days, with my flashcard sessions crashing, usually after 40-50 cards have displayed. I should make clear this crash happens ONLY in a specific kind of flashcard session where I am reviewing a large number (say more than 100 cards) in a Eng-Chinese self-assessed writing test (ie. I am looking at an English translation and I am trying to write in Chinese the correct characters). Any ideas on this?

 

[ticlo]

In dictionary interface, when long-pressing the + sign (add flashcard) and selecting "Delete flashcard", oftentimes the flashcard does not delete

Do you have a lot of duplicated flashcards?

I have a few, but not that many

 

[mikelove]

I discovered a bug this morning in the new (Android 2.4.5) Flashcard system. When you go back to a card that has previously been reviewed within the same session (something I sometimes do when I realise that I have been overly generous/mean in the way that I had marked myself in my self-assessment) and try and change the card score, rather than REPLACING the old score, it seems that the new mark you give to yourself is merely ADDED to the flashcard history. Moreover, no change is made to the flashcard score.

Are you doing this through the "undo" command, or by some other means? You need to use "undo" in order for it to reverse the old score - "change score" works differently.

If you are using "undo," though, is there any chance this card might have appeared more than once in the same session? Are you "undo"ing after advancing to a future card and then backtracking, or are you "undo"ing on the same card after you've marked it correct / incorrect but not yet advanced to the next card?

BTW, I have noticed that the Flashcard system has begun crashing with reasonable regularity again. This used to happen a lot in a previous version but seemed to have been eliminated in the most recent version before this latest update. However, since the update, I am back to the bad old days, with my flashcard sessions crashing, usually after 40-50 cards have displayed. I should make clear this crash happens ONLY in a specific kind of flashcard session where I am reviewing a large number (say more than 100 cards) in a Eng-Chinese self-assessed writing test (ie. I am looking at an English translation and I am trying to write in Chinese the correct characters). Any ideas on this?

Not sure, we've made only minimal changes to flashcards the last few bug fix updates... could you please download the free utility aLogcat, run it (with no filter) after the next time Pleco crashes and send us the log output? That might shed some light on this.

I have a few, but not that many

OK, we'll see if we can come up with any explanation on our end - thanks.