Just installed the very latest VLC.
However, every single time I load it, it says it needs to rebuild Font Cache, which is annoying and time delaying.
Did something go wrong with the new installer to cause this to happen?
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Not a very good solution for me (I can't even find the bleedin' %AppData folder in Win7, they hid it real good this time) but there it is.
If it makes anyone feel better, Josh's 1.1.0 has the same problem (needs to rebuild the font cache). Sure makes me feel better. Guess I'll just go back to 1.0.5 until 1.1.0 gets fixed.
I checked with VLC Forums. This is buy design apparently, it's supposed to rebuild the font cache when you try to play your first movie, and as long as you don't close the program it won't do it again, but if you close the program it removes that font cache file, and it'll have to do it all over again when you open it again. There is no command line switch to disable the cacheing of the fonts for VLC itself.
I'm finding that vlcportable may be what is deleting the cache-2 file. I suspended vlcportable.exe, and closed vlc. The file remained. I resumed vlcportable.exe and the file disappeared. but starting up vlcportable.exe is not putting this file back the way it should.
Is there some way to recompile the launcher so that it copies *.cache-2 from %appdata/vlc/ to the settings directory, then puts it back in place when I run the launcher again?
Then the launcher needs to cache that file somewhere, and place it where it needs to be before actually launching vlc.exe. Or, since VLC is actually open source, someone familiar with the language VLC is coded in, could fork it to be more portable friendly (another change, default the screenshots to jpeg (better for photos) and default the dir to \documents\pictures.). That's a lot of work but VLC doesn't pump updates like, say, Firefox...
See Forum Post:
https://portableapps.com/node/24035
I recompiled it after adding two lines to VLCPortable.nsi
It copys the *.cache-2 file to the Data/settings directory on exit. First run it builds the cache file when opening the first file, subsequent runs it uses the file it copied back in place, so it doesn't need to rebuild it.
I haven't had time to test this on separate computers yet. But it seems to be working just fine on my Vista 32 machine.
So what can we do?
And what is an alternative I can use until this gets fixed?
Simple, you go back to 1.0.5. I keep all releases from any software vendor archived on another hard disk (as in, not C) and I only remove them once the next version is archived, installed, and has proven itself. 1.1.0 has not proven itself, nor has it offered functionality I want and can't get in 1.0.5. So, I deleted the 1.1.0 installer, and reinstalled 1.0.5. Problem solved.
Or you can install 1.1.0 from VLC, since the problem is actually in the portable launcher, not VLC itself. Ironically, Josh's launcher has the exact same problem, and he had VLC Portable 1.1.0 out before John did, so it's not like he got the faulty launcher and swapped out the branding for his own. And I haven't checked any other portable packages. I like PAF, so I just went back to the "old" version.
The best version isn't always the latest version. It's the version that works the best for you. And 1.1.0 doesn't do anything 1.0.5 doesn't.
I just ended up using the source from the portableapps.com version of vlcportable 1.1.0, added the two lines to the vlcportable.nsi to copy the *-i686.cache-2 file back and forth, recompiled and it seems to work like it did in 1.0.5. If you can talk the developer of vlcportable into adding those two lines recompiling and repackaging, it should work like it used to.
You can go to: http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/VLC%20Media%20Player%...
And download the previous version: http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/VLC%20Media%20Player%...
Hope this helps.
Yes it sure helps... because this cache rebuild process is long and tedious...
Are they working on fixing this?
In the meantime I will run the OLDER VLC.
Between the suspicious rozena trojans and the annoying font cache hang up, your recommendation of tossing the 1.1.0 and reverting back to 1.0.5 is the most practical. SMPlayer is also another nice alternative option.
Fixed in 1.1.0 Rev 2
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I wish I could say it was fixed in *my* copy of 1.1.2 Rev 2...
Is there a problem with the download? (Sorry, didn't think this was necessarily worthy of a new thread.)
Indeed - problem fixed itself now.
-------------------
Sic semper tyrannosauro.
As discussed, it will still need to rebuild it on first run of 1.1.2 Rev 2. It will then save it between sessions (unless you pull the drive early or crash or have read-only enabled). If you see otherwise, please post a note in the support forums, not as comments on a news story.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Solution:
Open VLC player.
On Menu Bar:
Tools
Preferences
(at bottom - left side)
Show settings -- ALL
Open: Video
Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
Text rendering module - change this to "Dummy font renderer function"
Save
Exit
Re-open - done.
Progy will no longer look outside self for fonts
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?p=266666#p266666
Thanks for this hint, John!
It seems to be possible to create VLC Live CDs again using this setting (see here)!
Looking forward to VLCP 1.1.4.
The problem seems to be back with VLC 1.1.4.
For the folks packaging the app, *.cache-2 file that it needs to keep it from doing the rebuild is now a *.cache-3 file, this changed in vlc 1.1.3, and has carried through to 1.1.4, I've recompiled mine with this simple change and the one I have no longer gives me any problems.
I hope we'll get a Rev 2 or something to fix it.
The cache switched to cache-3 and the launcher now accomodates this in 1.1.4 Rev 2
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It works!
Thank you.
Is this going to break with every future release of VLC, when they switch to cache-4, cache-5... cache-n etc? Is this an issue that only effects the Portable Apps version so the VLC dev team doesn't worry about it? I wonder if there is anything us PortableAppers can do to facilitate a situation that means VLC won't break with every release.
But now that we know to look for it, we'll check it before each build and release. Whenever they do change the filename, both local and portable users will need to have the font cache rebuild (and the associated 2+ minute wait) on first launch after upgrade.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!