Spitzer Space Telescope Spot -- Spitzer Planning Observations Tool v16.3 (AIRE version 16.3.0) Known Bugs and Issues Last Updated: August 15, 2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Reporting Bugs ----------------------------------------------------------------- The known bugs and issues in version 16 of Spot are listed here. If you think you have found a bug, before reporting it please check this list, read the Release Notes, and the applicable sections of the Spot User's Guide and the Spitzer Observer's Manual. It may be a "feature" we already know about. If you have found a real bug then please do let us know by sending email to the Help Desk at help@spitzer.caltech.edu. Each time you run Spot it creates a file called 'spot-DATE_TIME.log'. If you report a bug to the Help Desk please include the log file. It can be found in the default directory created when you install the software. The default directories are: Solaris/Linux/Mac ~/.spot Windows 95,98,ME c:\spot Windows NT,2000,XP c: \Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\spot If you have found a real bug then please do let us know by sending email to the Help Desk at help@spitzer.caltech.edu. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Known Bugs/Features ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. 29 June 2007 Known Bugs/Features in the Current Version ----------------------------------------------------------------- - If you encounter difficulties installing Spitzer Pride on a 64-bit Linux machine, please see the note "For All Users" toward the bottom of the installation webpage for further instructions. - 'Open AORs and Targets' and 'Save AORs and Targets' details in dialog windows not lined up in the right columns for Windows machines. This is a Java bug. - Show All Moving Targets at a Date overlay does not work for all moving targets, especially slow moving ones. - Spitzer Bright Objects for AOR overlay may not be working for moving targets. - The Current Fixed Target overlay remains on the image, even after all the targets have been deleted. - Control-V does not open the "View Programs" option. (This is now Control-K.) - For Macs, neither APPLE-X (delete AOR) nor APPLE-C (copy AOR) work. For the former, use the Delete Selected AORs utility under the Edit menu. - When selecting multiple AORs in the Observations window using Shift+Left_Mouse_button, the multi-select feature only works in descending order in the AOR list. - When selecting multiple AORs in the Observations window using Control+Left_Mouse_button, all of the additional AORs selected after the first selected AOR must be below the first selected AOR in the AOR list. (This feature does not seem to work for Macs.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. 19 December 2006 Java version for Intel Macs ----------------------------------------------------------------- With Mac Software Updates, this may no longer be relevant. A user has informed us that the Java needed for non-Intel Macs at the website http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/java2se50release3.html is not appropriate for Intel Macs, when running Spot. The right Java can be found at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/j2se50release4intel.html. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. 14 January 2005 Coversheet prepend crashes in MacOS ----------------------------------------------------------------- Attempting to prepend the coversheet onto the proposal PDF file causes Spot to terminate abruptly. It is not clear whether or not the prepended PDF file is actually produced during this Spot crash. (Fortunately, the proposer is not required to submit the prepended PDF file to the SSC.) Impact: Major Workaround: None at the present time. This feature has been deactivated for Macs at the moment. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. 1 August 2005 Network Problem with Fedora Core 4 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This may still be a problem. When installing Spitzer Pride on a Linux machine running Fedora Core 4, the package installs correctly, and both Spot and Leopard run OK. But, the network status is perpetually "Net Down." Impact: Major Workaround: This problem may have gone away with Java version 1.5 for Spot (although this has not been tested). Although we are not quite yet supporting Fedora Core 4, a user provided us with a possible workaround that could do the trick. Apparently there's a conflict between Java expecting IPv4 sockets for the network, while fC4 provides IPv6 sockets. Changing one line in the Spot script (around line 17), from set jreJar = '-Dloader.jre.jarName=linux-jre.jar' to set jreJar = '-Dloader.jre.jarName=linux-jre.jar -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true' seems to solve the problem. The same change obviously works for Leopard, too. The suggestion was found at this site, http://www.jroller.com/page/dissonance/20050630#fedora_core_4_and_jdk . (The SSC does not endorse this solution, but if it works, go with it!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5. 19 September 2005 Installing Spot/Leopard under Fedora Core ----------------------------------------------------------------- This related to an older version of Spitzer Pride, but could still be a problem for Fedora Core. A user was having difficulty installing Spitzer Pride on a Linux machine, running under Fedora Core. The install script has a tar command in it, which seems to stymie the installation. You may see this error, for instance: ./Spitzer-pride15_0_5-linux.sh Unpacking... tail: cannot open `+25' for reading: No such file or directory Extracting... tar: This does not look like a tar archive tar: Skipping to next header tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors status from tar = 2 ABORTING INSTALLATION . Impact: Major. NOTE: This may or may not be an issue with the current version of Spitzer Pride. Please let us know if you happen to still encounter this error. Workaround: This same user figured out the following workaround. Delete all the extra "echo" commands in the install script, in order to restore the original line numbering. The install script should then work. The key change was to line 8, where the "tail" command is: old version: tail +25 $0 > $outname_tar new version: tail -n +25 $0 > $outname_tar It's not really clear why the "echo" commands make a difference, since they occur before the point where the tar command begins, and "tail" should count from the end of the file. The SSC may look into a more robust solution. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 6. 4 October 2005 Installing Spot/Leopard under Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger) ----------------------------------------------------------------- It is possible that, when one downloads the .dmg file for Spitzer Pride, the browser and/or download tool under 10.4 will attach a .txt suffix to the file, hence rendering it as an ascii file. This will make it impossible to unload the file and install Spitzer Pride. Impact: Major. Workaround: This problem may have gone away; please let us know if you still encounter this error. However, if it persists: In a terminal window, under Mac Unix, "mv" or rename the file to exclude the .txt suffix, i.e., mv Spitzer-pride16_0_3-mac.dmg.txt Spitzer-pride16_0_3-mac.dmg. The file will then appear as a disk image file icon, which you can then click on and unpack. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Old, old bugs that may have finally gone away.... ----------------------------------------------------------------- a) Visualization: Offset Cluster Target -- Array Mode When you visualize an offset cluster target where you have selected the array mode, the target (the TARGET, as in Overlay Target, not the AOR) will always be visualized as if the offsets are in celestial mode. The target doesn't know anything about when the AOR will be executed so the AOR orientation isn't reflected in the target overlay. This may no longer be a problem. b) Web proxy service doesn't work for NED This used to be a problem, but this only relates to downloading images from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) server. Users are instructed that port 10011 must be open or accessible. See the Spot Release Notes on firewalls. c) Problem entering observation date for AOR visualization A Spot user noticed that when visualizing an AOR in Spot he was unable to enter an observation date in the window. He clicked 'Cancel' and tried again to visualize the AOR and was able to enter a date/time. The source of this bug has not yet been found. Workaround: If Spot does not let you enter an observation date when visualizing an AOR, click on the Cancel button in the Select Observation Date window and try visualizing the AOR again. We have not heard of anyone recently encountering this bug. It likely no longer applies.