Been plagued with this blacking out. Am I unusual?

[T_N_Args]

For years, version after version of DT, I have been getting this erratic blacking out of all or parts of my photos in DT…randomly!

It isn’t occasional. It is pretty much every session. I am getting sick and tired of it.

If I open any one image in develop, it may look fine, or may be partly blacked out too, not even the same areas blacked out as in lighttable mode. There is no consistency to it.

I assume if everyone is suffering this as much as I am, the forum would be full of complaints?

I am on MacOS, and this has persisted over numerous OS versions.

Any thoughts? thanks

[pehar]

How much RAM ?
OpenCL activated ?
Any error messages if you start dt in debug mode from the command line ?

[T_N_Args]

Thanks for posting.

It’s a 16 GB 2020 Mac Mini M1 Silicon.

OpenCL is not my forte…but it’s long deprecated on MacOS?

These are my processing settings:-

Running “darktable -d all” in cli gives me this:-
darktable -d all.txt (495.6 KB)

[T_N_Args]

Sorry, I have now put the correct debug file in my post above. cheers

[Claes]

initial status of opencl enabled flag is OFF.

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

[David_Prescott]

the box to select open cl is not greyed out - can’t you check it? also i’m not a mac person but Mac computers that use OpenCL and OpenGL graphics – Apple Support (UK)

[mlaverdiere]

Hi,

I’m really not sure if it could be helpful, but if you haven’t try yet, maybe you could try to pre-generate the thumbnails for your collection in one run instead of letting darktable doing it slowly in the background.

To do so, you just have to run the darktable-generate-cache command in a terminal (on a mac, locate darktable in the application folder, then show the content of the package and then look in the MacOS folder) : darktable 3.8 user manual - darktable-generate-cache

Good luck!

[pehar]

Possibly you should set a memory limit for tiling. Actually you allow modules to request memory of unlimited size. Default is 1500 MB.
Did you try launching dt with an empty config folder and an empty cache? With all it’s default settings? Do the problems still exist in this case?
Can’t look into the logfile at the moment, back on my computer tomorrow.

[paperdigits (Mica)]

@pehar

Actually you allow modules to request memory of unlimited size. Default is 1500 MB.
Did you try launching dt with an empty config folder and an empty cache? With all it’s default settings? Do the problems still exist in this case?

Yes do this, the log doesn’t show us much.

[T_N_Args]

I can, but I guess you noticed that that list is archived and not updated for years, and certainly doesn’t include any Silicon Mac models?

Is it still useful to check it when OpenCL is fully deprecated by Apple? On a model of Mac that was released years later?

I will give it a go in the morning, but I am confused about why.

[T_N_Args]

I will try to learn how to do this tomorrow (launch with empty config and cache).

I take it from the responses so far that you guys have nice clean lighttable thumbnails? That would be nice to have.

I have had this problem for years.

I also have more crashing/hanging with DT 3.8 than prior versions. Hopefully it is also related to the settings you have been identifying.

Cheers

[David_Prescott]

oh i’m sorry i should have looked more closely at the list.

[priort (Todd Prior)]

@T_N_Args

I will try to learn how to do this tomorrow (launch with empty config and cache).

Use the --configdir command modifier and point it to a new directory…can be wherever you what it to be…

https://darktable-org.github.io/dtdocs/en/special-topics/program-invocation/darktable/

[T_N_Args]

OK I have turned on OpenCL and set tiling limit to 1500 MB of memory, restarted the Mac and…it is still there, but on first glance there is less of it? That’s promising. Unless it starts to build up the more I use it.

I will now see if I can do the empty launch.

Thanks so far guys.

[paperdigits (Mica)]

@T_N_Args

OK I have turned on OpenCL and set tiling limit to 1500 MB of memory, restarted the Mac and…it is still there, but on first glance there is less of it?

If you select a raw file that has a black thumbnail, go into darkroom mode, make a small change, then go back to light table, is the thumbnail still black?

[T_N_Args]

That worked.

In fact I am flicking through my recent collections now and not seeing the issue at all. Pretty pleased with this.

[paperdigits (Mica)]

You can try running /Applications/darktable.app/Contents/MacOS/darktable-generate-cache in a terminal, with darktable closed. That should regenerate your cache with the updated darktable settings.

[T_N_Args]

Thanks, all done, 100% of cache images completed. Collections load more quickly too.

Still not 100% gone, though. An example seen just now:-

[paperdigits (Mica)]

I wonder if deleting the cache first would help?

[pehar]

@T_N_Args

have nice clean lighttable thumbnails?

Yes, of course.

@T_N_Args

more crashing/hanging with DT 3.8 than prior versions

Frequent hangups or crashes of the application may also damage your database and/or config files.

@T_N_Args

Still not 100% gone

You told us that your issue exists for years. This means that you may have messed up a lot due to errors and crashes. To check if your basic installation of dt is ok and if it is working trouble-free with default settings, I would strongly recommend to launch dt with empty config (without your databases and settings) and a complete empty cache (see darktable 4.6 user manual - darktable , switches --configdir and --cachedir).
Then import and edit some images and look what happens.

@paperdigits

deleting the cache first would help?

Yes, I think so. That is why I recommend starting with an empty cache.