Extensis User-to-User Forums

I noticed that since 10.5.2 my stacks are delayed big time when I try to open them in Fan or Grid... Linotye FontExplorer is known to cause such a problem, but I think Suitcase Fusion has some related problems as well

In my console Log, I've got "tons" of these messages:

19/02/08 9:18:22 AM Suitcase Fusion[9911] *** Break on _NSLockError() to debug.
19/02/08 9:18:22 AM Suitcase Fusion[9911] *** -[NSConditionLock unlock]: lock (<NSConditionLock: 0x1a6f14e0> '(null)') unlocked from thread which did not lock it

Anybody has the same kind of problem or explanations? Running latest version of Suitcase Fusion

Yes, I have seen the same thing since upgrading to 10.5.2. I sent a copy to Extensis support but they don't seem to know what is happening.

Have you any clue as to what is happening? Are you by any chance using ClamXav as your anti-virus program?

Heh. I was getting the stacks delay, as well. Then found the console messages. After relaunching Fusion, I no longer get this delay, but those error messages still crop up in the console ? about 60 of them each time I click on the stack.

regards,
MAJ

I've have the same thing happening -- many many instances of this error when suitcase is running.

Mar 17 11:05:47 lucky11 Suitcase Fusion[512]: *** -[NSConditionLock unlock]: lock (<NSConditionLock: 0x5bc3600> '(null)') unlocked from thread which did not lock it
Mar 17 11:05:47 lucky11 Suitcase Fusion[512]: *** Break on _NSLockError() to debug.

Enough to keep my single CPU G4 powerbook locked up for minutes at a time. Bogus.

I'm not seeing any log entries like this on my systems. You may want to submit a support incident so that Technical Support can look into this further. If you do, please include a link to this thread so that we are aware of it.

Also, under Suitcase Fusion > Preferences > Activation, is Auto-Activate Fonts enabled? If so, does changing that setting affect the log entries?

I had some time today to do some "testing" as I had noticed that under my admin account, these messages were not showing up, whereas under my day-to-day account they were. I started by doing a holding down the shift key was I logged in thereby preventing any Login Items from loading. I then loaded Fusion and opened the Console log. After that I started launching my applications that normally launched at startup - ClamXav Sentry, iCal, Mail. So far nothing showed up in the Console log. Then I launched NetNewsWire and I started to see the error messages in the log. So, can anyone else verify this?

Carl, I sent a message to Technical Support about these error messages and basically got back a "Huh, you must be doing something wrong".

munstbejones, what was the case number? It should be in the subject of the email reply. Also, again, when you're seeing the console message, do you have global auto-activation enabled in Suitcase? If so, does changing that setting affect the log entries?

Carl, the case number was 1784847 and yes I do have auto-activate turned on. It seems to have no effect. In NetNewsWire preferences, I have all fonts set to Lucida Grande.

I have to add that maybe it is NOT NetNewsWire that is causing the problem. I stopped NNW from launching at start up and the error messages are still showing up in the console log.

I looked over the case notes for 1784847, and didn't see any mention of Finder stacks. Just because an application logs information to the console does not mean it's necessarily related to a problem. Also, I should note that there was at least one issue in the past where a rogue application made unusual requests to the font system. This was quite a while ago. The situation was that a particular build of iChat kept making font requests, which Suitcase had to acknowledge. It was fixed in a minor update to iChat, and it wasn't a recent issue. My point is that you should test with global auto-activation turned off. In fact, it is now off by default in Fusion. Many graphic designers are relying on precise plug-in based auto-activation in InDesign, Illustrator and Quark, and don't really want another application to be turning on fonts. I'm not saying that any of this is necessarily what is happening here. It's just something to test.

I don't recall having an issue with Finder stacks, just the console logs and the "tons" of messages being logged. Not just one or two or three, but in the 30's, 40's and 50's. I have turned off auto-activate but am still seeing the same messages. As I listed before, I have iCal, NetNewsWire, Mail, ClamXav Sentry, and Default Folder running all the time.

I did a bit more research on the specific meaning of the error message. The logged console messages are coming from a part of the application that is multithreaded. "Threading" is just a fancy way of saying that the program is designed to perform more than one task at a given time. In an application like Suitcase, this may be to keep the user interface responsive while other tasks are being performed in the background.

NSConditionLock pertains to a situation where one execution thread "locks" another until a specific condition is met. As I understand it, this could be to tell a thread to wait until some specific task is complete. The message displayed, if correct, is indicating that a thread was locked by one thread, but then unlocked by another. Is this a problem? After looking at some of Apple's developer documentation, I'm not sure. Apple recommends that the locking thread be the same that does the unlocking. However, this in it self isn't necessarily a failure, and I don't think this warning was logged in previous versions of Mac OS. It's possible that this warning could be logged in an application that is perfectly functional.

I've looked at the console logs on my own Macs, and don't see this message at all.

So, here are a couple of important questions: Are you definitely using version 12.1.7? Also, was this an upgrade from a previous version of Suitcase? Are you using a PowerPC based processor or Intel?

My system is a G4 PPC running 10.5.2. I "believe" that it was not until the update to 10.5.2 that these console messages started to appear. I re-applied the 12.1.7 update just incase. Not sure what you are asking about upgrade from a previous version of Suitcase. I originally purchased Fusion as an upgrade to Font Reserve and applied all the updates from .1 to .7. When I installed Leopard I did a clean install so Fusion was installed initially from the CD.

Update: With some help my co-workers (Thanks Jeff and Jay), I was able to find a specific condition that causes the messages to be logged. If I click on a fan or grid type stack in the Finder, Suitcase Fusion (12.1.7) will log these messages. I'm not seeing any difference in terms of a delay when Suitcase is active, but this definitely causes the messages to occur. Strangely, it does not occur with a list based stack. This will still happen if auto-activation is disabled. I'm going to do a bit more research, and then I'll post back what I can find out.