* FH v7.09 and Crossover v21.1 & reports

[Valkrider]

I am running the above configuration on my Mac laptop running Mojave. For the first time in a while (updated FH and Crossover since last run) I have tried running a report and FH is crashing on running the report. Has anyone else had similar problems?

Other FH functionality including Charts is working fine.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Which report, Colin?

[Valkrider]

So far I have tried Family Group Sheet and Descendants and both have failed.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Do any of the new (Lua) reports work? e.g Calendar or Place Report.

[tatewise]

Colin, do those reports have Rich Text URL?
The https://www.family-historian.co.uk/v7-updates say under Reports & Website Generation:
"If you export a report in Rich Text Format (RTF) any clickable links (e.g. web links) within the report (which aren’t clickable in a report context ordinarily), are now exported as clickable links in RTF."
Maybe something in the report display is using a feature to support the above behaviour that is not available in Crossover.

[Valkrider]

No same for them I have tried a few others and all generate the attached.

Fh error.png (17.17 KiB) Viewed 3341 times

[Valkrider]

Colin, do those reports have Rich Text URL?
The https://www.family-historian.co.uk/v7-updates say under Reports & Website Generation:
"If you export a report in Rich Text Format (RTF) any clickable links (e.g. web links) within the report (which aren’t clickable in a report context ordinarily), are now exported as clickable links in RTF."

Mike
It never gets as far as that the crash is on report generation.

[tatewise]

Yes, but maybe the on-screen report generation now includes new coding necessary to support the later RTF export of URL.

Can you try a report with no Rich Text URL.

[Valkrider]

It seems to be an FH issue and not a Crossover one. I still have FH v6 available in another bottle and all reports run fine in that.

[Valkrider]

Yes, but maybe the on-screen report generation now includes new coding necessary to support the later RTF export of URL.

Can you try a report with no Rich Text URL.

Mike

Give me a clue on which report to try please

[tatewise]

Any of the report types you have tried but ensure there are no Rich Text notes, etc, with weblink URL included.
i.e. Have not used the Rich Text edit window toolbar paperclip Add Web Link... option.

[Valkrider]

Any of the report types you have tried but ensure there are no Rich Text notes, etc, with weblink URL included.
i.e. Have not used the Rich Text edit window toolbar paperclip Add Web Link... option.

None of the reports have Rich Text notes that I have tried as I have not done any data updates using Rich Text in notes it is not a feature I use.

[tatewise]

OK, so that is not the cause. It was just an idea.
It is not just in Notes but also in Text From Source and a few other multi-line text fields.

[mjashby]

Colin,

I can't replicate your Mojave setup, but confirm that the same 'problem' occurs when using Mac OS 'Big Sur' and Crossover 21.1, i.e. Report production still works when using FH 6, but fails with the same error message you reported when using FH7.0.9.

Hadn't noticed this before, as I now mostly use a Windows 10 Virtual Machine or a Windows PC for full use of Family Historian.

Can only guess, but I presume that there is something 'new' in the programming approach Calico Pie has used in FH7 for report generation and also in supporting the additional the Rich Text features that the Wine interpreter can't cope with.

Mervyn

[Valkrider]

Mervyn

Thanks for that confirmation. I will raise it with CP even though they don't officially support Crossover.

[mjashby]

Colin,

I've just tested the FH7.0.9 Reports feature using a native Wine installation on Linux (Debian/MX Linux) and reports still appear to be working as normal, so the problem might have been introduced with the latest Crossover update and may need reporting to Codeweavers rather than Calico Pie.

Mervyn

[Valkrider]

Mervyn

Thanks for that info. Crossover uses a slightly earlier version of Wine than the Wine release version so that may be the issue but I will report it to Codeweavers too.

[Ruth]

Sorry if this is not the correct place to report this, just wanted to say I am also having the same problem as Colin. I am only using the trial version of Crossover and was thinking of purchasing. However, the reports do not work at all. The charts will display without problem. I also tried the reports on the sample FH database with the same result. I contacted Codeweavers and received the following.

Reply from Codeweavers support.

"Thanks for reaching out to us with your issue. Family Historian 7 has been reported as having a limited functionality within Crossover by our compatibility database. The user reports tend to say they have issues with displaying reports properly. We have a bug filed to our developers who are looking into, but the issue seems to be on the application developer end of things which limits what we are able to do. Unfortunately that means I don't have a work around for you at this moment or an easy fix."

I am a new Mac user on Mac Air M1, with both software programs on the latest version. Are there any other recommended ways of using FH on a. Mac?

[Valkrider]

Ruth

I have logged the issue with both Codeweavers and CP, so, unfortunately, we will have to wait for one / both to supply a fix.

I have not tried it yet but native Wine, which is using a later version than Crossover, may work. Also it may be worth giving PlayOnMac a try as that may use a later version of wine than Crossover does.

The only sure way to get FH working properly on a Mac is to use a Virtual Machine such as Virtual Box or Parallels.

[tatewise]

Colin forgot to mention that a Virtual Machine such as Virtual Box or Parallels requires a suitable Windows licence.
See Family Historian on Mac, Linux, iOS, Android etc and particularly Running Family Historian on a Virtual Machine.

[mjashby]

Some additional bits of info.:

For Mac M1 (and beyond) series computers the only virtualisation option currently working is Parallels which is a commercial (paid) product and requires an M1 (ARM) compatible versions of Windows/Linux as x86 based operating systems do not work on M1 processors which do not provide x86 system calls. Oracle's VirtualBox Development Team has stated that is working on an M1 compatible solution, which will presumably be available as 'freeware', but nothing is available yet. VMWare is probably in a similar situation. Apple no longer seems to be even remotely interested in providing a virtualisation option, beyond providing a 'compatibility layer' which allows x86 (64-bit only) MacOS software to run on the M series (ARM) chips. That will presumably remain until Apple decides to end support for the x86-based Mac computers still available.

Native Wine installations on Linux installations (whether hardware or virtual) do currently seem to work better than Crossover for running FH7, but there are still issues, i.e. RTF Tables do not work effectively but other RTF features and reports do seem to function 'normally' with up-to-date versions of Wine. Unfortunately the native version of Wine is not compatible with recent releases of MacOS because Apple has entirely removed the ability to run any 32-bit software/code so the work-around provided by the Crossover app (also used by some other developers) is required.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Do those issues need to be documented in the FHUG Knowledge Base for the benefit of less well informed users?

[mjashby]

Mike,

Happy to contribute anything I can provide for the Knowledge Base, but am not (currently) familiar with editing methods.

I will also add what I can to the recent Crossover problem reports and my own earlier feedback submitted to the Codeweavers development team this weekend. I have recently discovered that it seems to be possible to cut & paste table data between FH7 Tables and Spreadsheets (Excel/LibreOffice Calc/OnlyOffice)), but not between FH7 Tables and Tables created in RTF text documents. Not sure what, if any, the indications/implications of that are; and also need to do some more testing to ensure the results are consistent; and if the same is possible outside a 'real' Windows environment.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Use the Maintaining the KnowledgeBase forum to suggest changes, preferably with explicit new text and instructions to where it should be inserted.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Mervyn, it would be even better if you wanted an editors account on the kb and made your proposed changes yourself. Don't worry they would still be reviewed.