General instability (Windows)

Software darktable
1

I find Darktable to be quite unstable in general. For example:

  • relatively frequent, random crashes after using it for a little while (memory leaks + fail to check allocs?). I just had one in lighttable mode when looking at a previews with zoom in and focus detection (Ctrl+W), right after processing a couple of photos.
  • wavelet decomposition in the retouch module: displays incorrectly the decomposition levels after using it for a little while, doesn’t display the retouch correctly, forcing me to quit / relaunch darktable several times during the processing of one photo.

System:

  • Darktable 5.0.1 (I think; I didn’t find the About menu or anything with the version in the program since its UI is completely unconventional)
  • PC: i7 10700K with 16 GB RAM, RTX 3070 with 8 GB RAM
  • OS: Windows 10 x64 22H2
  • NVIDIA driver 566.07

Other info:

  • I have no custom scripts.
  • I mostly process 24 Mpixel NEF raw images without any other program using a lot of memory (I have a good reserve of swap anyway, which I’ve never seen being used).
  • I’m rarely using the high quality processing in general, and I wasn’t using it when those issues occurred.

Is there a way to enable crash logs? I didn’t find any option for that in the menus (except the Lua installation scripts, which are irrelevant here). If there is one, I might be able to send more useful information to fix those issues.

2

Those two points in the faq will tell you:

#faq-windows-bugs and #faq-windows-logs

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3

If you are using retouch and creating a lot of corrections I think you can split the edit to a second instance and if I recall that can help

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4
  • Darktable 5.0.1 (I think; I didn’t find the About menu or anything with the version in the program since its UI is completely unconventional)

dt version number is displayed in the banner when starting and after, under the darktable logo and name on the upper left corner of the window when running

Is there a way to enable crash logs?

Yes, I can’t really say what under windows you have to do, but under Linux, you open a terminal and run dt typing:

darktable -d all

Then you get a full log of what’s going on until it crashes.

On my side, I don’t remember when dt crashed for the last time, but I’m not using the windows version, sorry.

5

You may refer to this page of dt documentation for debug mode.

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6

If I remember correctly I had those display problem in retouch both with the 1st or a further instance of the retouch module.

I’ll have to see if there’s any information regarding that module in the log. I’m afraid it’ll be harder to pinpoint.

7

Thanks, I finally saw it by switching the upper part of the display (it was collapsed when I first looked). :slight_smile:

It’s indeed 5.0.1, so the latest version.

8

Would you post here a NEF and the associated XMP in order to see if the issue is reproductible on another system?

9

It’s random, so I can’t even reproduce it on my side.

10

OK.

Did you have a look at the github for dt? Maybe you could open a new one, if your case hasn’t been identified yet?

11

I did. I’m always running it with the debug flag, now, so next time it does something funny, I’ll be able to report it.