Scribe crashing under Ubuntu 8.10

[paul.berk@verizon.net]

I've been using Express Scribe for probably 5 years now under Windows XP--I can't overstate how fortunate I feel to have had the benefit of this program. Now I'm embarking on a gradual migration to Linux, and am hoping to run Scribe that way without resorting to Wine or a VM.

 

However, even though I seem to be installing the program successfully under Ubuntu 8.10, it crashes as soon as I begin to do any typing with it. The program closes itself, then when I re-start it, I see a reporting error message that Express Scribe has crashed with an abnormal exception. From there I can report the failure, but (1) that report screen stays open after I've sent the report, and (2) the Express Scribe window behind it will not become active. The only way forward then is to force a quit. Reopening the program after that, the same error reporting screen and dormant Express Scribe window appear, and those are locked and can only be dismissed by forcing a quit.

 

Reinstalling Scribe gets the program working, but it crashes again when I start to use it.

 

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Fortunately my Windows XP version continues to work perfectly.

 

Thanks in advance,

paulb

brooklyn

[davidgould]

I had a similar problem. I totally confused myself by successfully running the wine version, then (magically, I at first thought) the native version started to work.

 

It looks like the problem is that scribe switches to the root user (uid = 0) and makes files under your HOME directory owned as root. Then you run it as yourself and it can't get at them, so it crashes (failing to send the error message in the meantime as it had all locked up).

 

The fix was to change the ownership of all files under $HOME/.nch using sudo (or su if you don't use sudo) and, for good measure, make them group writable. Put your username:group in the chown command (mine comes out as david:david; ubuntu gives you a group named after your user by default). If you aren't sure, type ls -l at a bash prompt (eg in konsole or xterm): the user and group are the first bits after the read-write-execute bits. (Sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs here; not sure how far with linux you've got).

 

sudo chown -R username:group $HOME/.nch
chmod -R og+rw $HOME/.nch

 

While the linux native version is working tolerably well for me (I'm not a professional, I'm just doing some transcriptions for my wife) it looks as though there are some rough edges and some poorly-thought out issues to do with use of root.

 

I also treated myself to one of the recommended footpedals which skips 5 seconds FORWARDS when it restarts, which is less than helpful. That, I expect, is another issue.

 

EDIT: riddle me this, it isn't the footpedal, it's the (also new) spectra USB headset. If I use the default sound device (an old SBLive!), the 5 seconds skip goes away; if I use the Spectra headset, the ES counter skips ahead each time I take my foot off the pedal to stop playback.