Ubuntu
tuxmath package

Ubuntu 8.10 Tuxmath goes to login screen

Asked by Chad Knefelkamp

I am another newbie to Ubuntu, so any help would be appreciated. I've have had Ubuntu 8.10 up and running since 3/6/09. Three days ago, out of the blue, when attempting to open TuxMath, the screen briefly goes black, closes all open applications, and then displays the login screen. I have the system setup up to automatically log in at boot and just enter the passwords for admin and network privledges. After the login screen comes up, I leave it blank and hit enter, and it brings up the normal desktop, as if it were a fresh boot. No applications are open and my network connection get reestablished.

I upgraded to OpenOffice 3.0 about a week before this issue started, and TuxMath was working fine. I have made no changes, other than recommended updates, at the time the issue started. I have tried removing TuxMath and reloading it several times and the issue is still present.

My son loves this app since it's much more fun than his school's flash cards. Any suggestions?

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Chad Knefelkamp
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Revision history for this message
Chad Knefelkamp (chadfarm) said : 		#1

I forgot to add that I went through and opened every other application and system menu option with no issues. Everything else works fine, except for Tuxmath.

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David Bruce (davidstuartbruce) said : 		#2

Hi Chad,

I'm tuxmath's primary developer.

This is really weird, because tuxmath is a user-space application that should not be able to trigger a system reboot, but I have to say that I used to encounter something similar a couple of years ago when tuxmath was started in fullscreen mode. Interestingly, it never happened when tuxmath was started in windowed mode (using "tuxmath -w" at the command line) and then switched to fullscreen with F10. I suspect there must be some underlying bug in SDL or Xorg that allows this to happen. The problem went away at some point on my Debian system without an explanation.

I think ubuntu 8.10 has tuxmath 1.6.3. You may want to try our latest release (1.7.2) from http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org, although you will need to build it from source as it has not gotten into Debian or Ubuntu yet. It is not hard to build, and I would be happy to help if you have any questions. The project email list is <email address hidden>, and questions from users are welcome.

For now, try "tuxmath -w" followed by F10 (if you want fullscreen) and see if it works for you.

Best,

David Bruce

Revision history for this message
Chad Knefelkamp (chadfarm) said : 		#3

Bruce,

I tried the "tuxmath -w" and had the exact same results. If you would be able to provide some guidance for building release 1.7.2, that would be great. Thanks.

Chad

Revision history for this message
David Bruce (davidstuartbruce) said : 		#4

Hi Chad,

> I tried the "tuxmath -w" and had the exact same results.

Meaning it triggers a reboot of your system, right?
btw, does it happen with tuxtype, tuxpaint, or any other SDL apps?

>  If you would
> be able to provide some guidance for building release 1.7.2, that would
> be great.  Thanks.

OK -

Before you start, remove the misbehaving tuxmath package using
Synaptic or aptitude/apt-get.

1. You need to set up your build system on ubuntu, which just means
installing a bunch of packages with Synaptic or with aptitude at the
command line:

sudo aptitude install gcc make libc6-dev libsdl1.o2-dev
libsdl-pango-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev

If there are any other required packages, it should be easy to search
for them with aptitude and install them.

2. Go to http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org, go to "File Releases" on
the right side, and then download the source, which is a file called
tuxmath_w_fonts-1.7.2.tar.gz

3. At the command line, go to the directory containing the above file
and unpack it with
tar xzf tux*gz

4. You should now have a directory tuxmath_w_fonts-1.7.2

5. cd into that directory.
6. now you can build tuxmath with:
./configure
make
sudo make install

7. tuxmath should now be installed under /usr/local

hth, and let me know if you have any problems

Best,
David Bruce

Revision history for this message
David Bruce (davidstuartbruce) said : 		#5

Typo correction:

sudo aptitude install gcc make libc6-dev libsdl1.2-dev
libsdl-pango-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev

Sorry!

David Bruce

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Caroline Ford (secretlondon) said : 		#6

I think the user is describing an X crash, rather than a system reboot. Software is quite capable of causing crashes in X, it may be buggy graphics drivers.

Revision history for this message
Chad Knefelkamp (chadfarm) said : 		#7

To all,

I was not able to correct the problem with any of the methods above, so I just upgraded to 9.04. I figured I'd let the release bake in a few months and then upgrade. So far, all existing applications are working, including TuxMath. Before the upgrade, I made sure all system updates were in place and TuxMath was installed but non-functional. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, but I think we can put this one to rest.

Chad