patches gone

imagenero's picture

I just installed a new patch(FreeboardPatch) in Libray/Graphics/QuartzComposerPatches and found that all my other plugins are gone...Kineme and others... I still see and use them in Quartz, but they are gone from the folder. Two days ago I updated from MacOs 10.5.6 to 10.5.7 . Any ideas of where they go? Or if I need to place them again in the folder? I attached a picture with my current folder content.

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QC missing Patches.png
QC missing Patches.png24.5 KB

cwright's picture
Re: patches gone

There are 2 places where patches can go:

/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches/
 
~/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches/

It's impossible to tell which you're looking at from the picture, but I'm guessing most of your plugins are in one, and the picture is in the other.

cybero's picture
Re: patches gone

imaginero, your picture is of the System/Library/Graphics/ folder contents.

As previously advised by cwright you need to be installing to either

/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches/

or

~/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches/

If such a folder does not exist, you need to manually create and name a new folder for just that purpose.

It would seem that most of us have found managing our plugins is most easily done from our ~/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches/ home folder.

dust's picture
Re: patches gone

i use /library not ~/library i have only had an issue with kinemecore after an upgrade is there a reason your home directory is better than the hd root ? if i put my plugins in the home folder will a migration grab them or will i have to manually move them ?

cwright's picture
Re: patches gone

dust wrote:
is there a reason your home directory is better than the hd root ? if i put my plugins in the home folder will a migration grab them or will i have to manually move them?

User directory is better because a catastrophic disaster won't render the system unusable (in the worst-case, a plugin that crashes everything, HD root will affect all users, tanking finder endlessly for everyone, while user directory will only affect that single user, allowing another user to log in and fix things manually). Migration should copy them just as it would other user files, but I've not experimented to know for sure.

dust's picture
Re: patches gone

i think i will move my plugins, last year i had a disaster with qc. it was not system wide but inherently qc. i had checked that open last comp option in the prefs. if anybody reads this don't do it. somehow i managed to blow up my gpu with a qc file, which is apparently pretty easy to do the more i get into qc but it kept on wanting to open the crashed file which would crash my system every-time i opened qc. finally i trashed some preferences and got it back to normal. seeing that i am starting to dable in plugin creation its a good idea i think i move my files from the root hd to my home directory just incase another disaster happens. thanks chris.

imagenero's picture
Re: patches gone

As crazy as it sound, this morning all my patches where back in the System folder...(I didn´t turned off the computer because I was uploading stuff) I would normaly think it was my error if I hadn´t post the question here. Does this stuff happens to you guys also... I get stuff like this frequently in different apps.. I call them SPOOKS since they are bugs that you can not find again..only bother one time and then they are gone :$

I attached the image where my patches are back in place and the weird patches that where there in the last pict are gone...notice that the "freeboard patch" is gone...but still works on the QC app.

Any way, thanks for your answers. Just thought to share the rest of this little spook.

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QC Patches Back.png
QC Patches Back.png129.19 KB

cwright's picture
Re: patches gone

The freeboard patch isn't in that folder -- it's in /System/Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Patches. The only "bug" here is that you've confused the 3 paths (/System, /Library, ~/Library).

I really recommend moving the freeboard patch out of System, and into the folder where all the other plugins are located.

cybero's picture
Re: patches gone

Well, that can be the result of scripting exploits - hope not, also, wither the plugin icons, I can't help but wonder? Mmm, puzzling evidence indeed in some respects. have you also checked in your /Library as well as your ~/Library ?

I would certainly be thinking in terms of running some maintenance scripts - several freeware apps , one eponymously named Maintenance will do the job for you and might help clear up some , if not all, of your current problems.

dust's picture
Re: patches gone

your going to need to set up the permissions again for your plugins. when i upgraded to 10.5.7 or 8 whatever is the current somethings like this happened to me. the system maintence tools automates this process for you but you open up you terminal and chmod the plugins again i think the command is and someone linux guy or unix shell guy can correct me if im wrong but but you will want to do something like.

chmod +X /Library/Graphics/........ actually im not sue if its big X or little x both work i think. but seeing that plugins have some sort of executable functions you will need to reset your permissions for all users. just type in the terminal chmod +x space then drag all the plugins that look like folders not the kineme audio plugin to your terminal and hit enter this should do them all at once either that or drag them separately.

the strange thing when this happened to me is that all the plugins still worked ????

cwright's picture
Re: patches gone

dust wrote:
the strange thing when this happened to me is that all the plugins still worked ????

+x on a file makes it "executable" (though it'll fail to do anything useful if it's not really an executable -- an executable jpeg won't even get loaded as a process, for example).

+x on a folder means you can open it (see the contents). As in, essentially 100% of the folders on your mac are already +x.

When you're modifying permissions on plugins as described, you're +x'ing folders (plugins are bundles, which are folders, which contain resources including executables, but also lots of other stuff), which has no effect.

I've never needed to use chmod on leopard for QC development, and smokris and I do some spectacularly nasty stuff. On Tiger it was required to create the initial folder (iirc), but with leopard, it's in the user folder (~/Library), so you already have write permission.

verdict: chmod is only necessary if you're doing it wrong (almost certainly what too place to spawn this thread, by putting plugins in system folders...). Password authentication almost certainly means you're doing it wrong (same as previous). QC plugins on Leopard and Snow Leopard are supposed to be drag-and-drop, with no credentials/unix hackery necessary.

gtoledo3's picture
Re: patches gone

Chris is totally right on...

I had plugins and patches kind of split up in various locations, and also a couple of "doubles" where they were in two Graphics folders. Not good... moving everything to the User folder some months back was a good "cleaning" house, and made me realize I had Kinemecore "double loaded" as well.

I tend to think that things run better, though I can't really make that assessment scientifically since too many other things have also changed in my basic setup. The big plus is that it becomes amazingly easy to keep track of things if you keep a consistent approach.

Also, everyone that does any kind of updating/maintenance on different plugins or patches regularly should do themselves the favor of dragging their User Quartz Composer Plug-Ins, and Quartz Composer Patches onto "Places" in the Finder sidebar. It makes updates really quick, and you don't have to second guess where you put it or have any chance of getting mixed up on a tired late night update :)

Not to convolute things, but I do keep Image Units and FreeFrame plugin stuff at the /Library level, but everything else is in the User folder.

imagenero's picture
Re: patches gone

As usual...the spooks are only on my mind.. Once I new there where three Library (system/ Library ad ~/Library) I started the clean up. Now everything is in a new Graphics folder on my ~/Library. I moved all (qc realted) out of the System and Library folders. So I think I am good now..The only stuff left is that the icons look like folders and not like plugins..but the QC app will run fine like this so no worries. Thanks everyone for the clarifications and the useful tips.

gtoledo3's picture
Re: patches gone

One of my partitions is the exact same, with the plugins looking like folders... which, according to Chris at least, is NOT cause for panic, it's more of an idiosyncratic Finder thing than anything else. (I bet that the Kineme plugins that explicitly have a K on them still look like "plugins"....", and probably the v002 Rutt Etra as well, if you have any of those).

Anyway... out of curiosity, do you have Final Cut Express or Final Cut, and did you do the update awhile back? I correlate the update with making that happen on a particular system partition, but I haven't wanted to hassle with reproducing it ;)

fsk's picture
Re: patches gone

this is not really related to this problem but it could kind of go under the topic of gone patches. it happened a couple of times so far the last time with GLtools. all the patches looked like macro patches in the patch picker list. what i mean is, instead of the patch names it said "macro patch". they worked just fine after i pulled them into the editor. uninstalling and reinstalling the plugin fixed it.

hekxsa's picture
Re: patches gone

Thanks for heads-ups!

Exactly what preferences?

I've had that too. your advice about the 'open last comp option' is right on the money. I have encountered an even more peculiar phenomenon. My laptop running Leopard on opening qc starts insisting on locating a video-clip, and the systems locate-dialog won't work. (the strangest thing is that the clip is available, intact and in place) This could also be a general degradation of the system, since I have used this laptop to develop visuals for some time now.

cheers,

keep up the good work!

cjhekxsa