Bug in 4.9.3 - changed font and now I can't change it back

[Sol]

Subsurface 4.9.3 

Mac OS Mojave

So under the General tab in Preferences, there's a dropdown that lets you change the font. Only problem is, once you do that, all the data in other fields gets squished to the point where it's impossible to read -- and you can't change the font back either. Kind of stupid to raise this question here, but can't think of anywhere else to try. 

Screencaps attached.

[Dirk Hohndel]

So the screen shots don't seem to show what you are describing... the fonts are... odd, but definitely readable.

What am I missing?

/D

[Sol Chrom]

Hi Dirk, and thanks for getting back to me. 

I've outlined the problem on each screen in red. 

On the main screen, that field is where I enter detailed notes about the dive. There should be several lines of text, but all I see is a line of smudgy black scribbled right across the top; it makes me think the lines of text have been compressed and are now displayed right on top of each other. Whatever line spacing there was has disappeared.

On the general screen in Preferences, where there's supposed to be a dropdown menu allowing me to select from dozens of fonts? There was when I switched from Arial to Gotham. Now there isn't, no matter how many times I click the blue arrow to the right.

Even clicking on "Reset all settings to their default value" does nothing.

Sol

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[Dirk Hohndel]

I see that. My point is that in the first screen shot you seem to show working preferences dialog - so I don't understand why you say "I can't change it back".

Admittedly, the ability to change the font is something that we should really just remove. This was important way back in the early days where we had issues with consistency of the default fonts that were picked - but I can't even remember the last time we had a user issue that was triggered by the default font.

So maybe the correct answer should be "we'll remove the ability to change fonts".

/D

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[Sol Chrom]

Hi Dirk. I can get into the Preferences dialogue -- I just can't access the dropdown menu allowing me to change fonts any more. Everything was fine until I switched from Arial to Gotham. Now the dropdown menu doesn't appear any more, so I'm stuck in Gotham. I suspect the other problem stems from that as well.

Should have left it alone. I know.

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[Dirk Hohndel]

OK, so you are on a Mac based on the screenshots.

I have tried changing fonts on my Mac and this works fairly well (but I don't appear to have a 'Gotham' font).

And of course that statement doesn't help you at all.

So here's the hard-core way to fix the problem.

quit Subsurface

in a Terminal window, run

plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist

in order to convert the plist file to be readable text and then open that file in an editor. For me that would be 

vim ~/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist

but any editor will do.

In the editor find the lines that look like this:

        <key>Display.divelist_font</key>

        <string>something Gotham something</string>

        <key>Display.font_size</key>

        <real>11</real>

and delete all four lines.

Now of course comes the even more annoying part. Because macOS helpfully caches the preferences, you may have edited the file, but that's NOT the preferences that the app will get handed.

The easiest way around this is (no kidding) to kill the 'defaults server'. But careful, there are several of these daemons running, you need to kill the one running with your userid

So run this in your terminal:

killall -u `whoami` cfprefsd

Now when you start Subsurface again you should be back to the default font.

Easy, right? 

:-)

/D

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[Sol Chrom]

Sorry to say, I didn't get too far -- there aren't any files on my computer corresponding to the ones described in your message.

Here's an alternative, though -- I've synced all my data to the cloud, so maybe if I deleted Subsurface from my computer and then re-installed -- would that work? 

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[Dirk Hohndel]

If you are on a Mac, then you definitely should have those files. If you are on a different OS, please let me know.

And of course there is always the option to simply reset all of your preferences (that option is, of course, in the preferences).

/D

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[Sol Chrom]

MacOS Mojave, 10.14.6.

I've run searches for .plist files and anything with 'subsurface' in the file name. No luck.

I've gone through Library/Preferences line by line. Nope. 

Is there somewhere else I should be looking?

Nothing happens when I click on "Reset all settings to their default values," either.

Is it possible that the application might have been corrupted? In that case, would my idea of deleting and re-installing it be worth considering?

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[Dirk Hohndel]

I'll create a custom binary for you tomorrow that resets the font.

/D

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From my phone

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Feb 18, 2020, at 7:52 PM, Sol Chrom <sol....@gmail.com> wrote:

MacOS Mojave, 10.14.6.

I've run searches for .plist files and anything with 'subsurface' in the file name. No luck.

That makes no sense. It has to be there - that's how macOS stores preferences.

What's the output of (run in a Terminal window)

find ~/Library/Preferences -name \*hohndel\*

(for historical reasons, we still have my name in the preferences... something to eventually fix)

I've gone through Library/Preferences line by line. Nope. 

Is there somewhere else I should be looking?

I have never heard of macOS saving the user preferences anywhere else.

Nothing happens when I click on "Reset all settings to their default values," either.

As I was looking into what went wrong to give you a custom binary, I realized the bug in the 'reset' functionality.

After you hit reset, quit Subsurface and start it again. Now you should be back to the default font.

I have tested this several times on various Macs, including one running macOS 10.14.6

If this doesn't work, then the issue is outside of Subsurface (i.e. your OS preferences setup is somehow hosed)

Is it possible that the application might have been corrupted? In that case, would my idea of deleting and re-installing it be worth considering?

I cannot imagine a use case where re-installing would help. We don't reset the preferences at install time.

/D

[Sol Chrom]

Also, as you can see, there's no Library subdirectory under Users/solchrom.

 

There is a McIntosh HD/System/Library/Preferences subdir, but this is all that's in it.

When I search the entire HD for "hohndel," this is the only thing that comes up.

Sol

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[Dirk Hohndel]

Admittedly I am easily confused, but somehow I think you lost me...

This is from your screen shot. So you do have the file that I asked about...

But anyway, did you see that I also pointed out that resetting the preferences, quitting Subsurface and re-starting Subsurface should fix your problem?

/D

[Sol Chrom]

That screenshot is my attempt to enter the string you sent in the Terminal window. Nothing happens.

Resetting preferences doesn't accomplish anything either, unfortunately.

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[Sol Chrom]

Latest attempt to use the Terminal program as you directed. "Permission denied" is a new development.

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[Dirk Hohndel]

No it does not.
It shows that the find command finds the file exactly where I said it was.

/D

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From my phone

[Dirk Hohndel]

You are not following the steps that I gave you.
Of course you cannot execute that file.

You need to go back to the message earlier in the thread where I give you exactly the commands to run.

/D

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From my phone

[Sol Chrom]

I don't understand. Here's a screenshot of my Terminal window, showing that I ran the commands exactly as you typed them 

And here's a series of screenshots of the Library/Preferences subdir in my Finder window. The file I'm looking for -- /Users/solchrom/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist -- isn't there.

Am I looking in the wrong place? Am I leaving out something glaringly obvious?

Here's what happens when I search the entire computer for "hohndel"

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[Dhaval Giani]

Sol,

As Dirk mentioned, you are not following the steps he asked you to follow.

First quit subsurface (You will need to click on Subsurface menu on the top left of your screen and choose the option to exit).

Then, in the terminal window, run
plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist

(You missed the step above)

Then,
open -a TextEdit ~/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist

Delete the lines he mentions,
--

In the editor find the lines that look like this:

        <key>Display.divelist_font</key>
        <string>something Gotham something</string>
        <key>Display.font_size</key>
        <real>11</real>

and delete all four lines.

---

Save this file in the same place.

Finally,  run

killall -u `whoami` cfprefsd

and start Subsurface, and hopefully it is all fixed.

You need to follow the steps exactly, if you go out of order, then things won't work as expected.

Thanks!
Dhaval

[Dirk Hohndel]

Than you Dhaval - I really appreciate the help!

One thing I noticed in one of the screen shots... Sol mistyped one of the lines, missing out on the '~' HOME dir indicator. Maybe this will make it easier for him:

plutil -convert xml1 /Users/solchrom/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist

open -a TextEdit /Users/solchrom/Library/Preferences/org.hohndel.subsurface.Subsurface.plist

Sol, please just cut-and-paste these two lines above. And then, after you deleted the four lines in the .plist file, run

killall -u `whoami` cfprefsd

/D

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[Sol Chrom]

Awesome! Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate it more than you know -- Subsurface has been my backup while I've gone through three computers. I was using proprietary software for the Mares Icon and now the Shearwater Perdix, but they don't talk to each other. And while I was using a Suunto Zoop Novo, I couldn't get the Suunto software to work at all, so finally I said "screw this" and used Subsurface instead. It's the only thing that's allowed me to maintain a consistent and comprehensive log of all my dives.

Remind me never to mess around with the fonts again. It seems like such an elementary thing to get all screwed up over.

Thanks again.

Sol

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