Could anyone tell me how to get the cyclone library working again on PD Vanilla/Windows 10? I've been using the Vanilla version happily with cyclone working for months now - yet suddenly today the cyclone library stopped loading. When I first started with Vanilla, I installed the library simply through 'find externals' and it was up and running, but now it keeps saying that "no writeable directory found". I mean...what on earth could have happened between last night and now?

Thanks for any help! I've searched through previous posts here on the same topic but none of the solutions seems very clear to me (I'm not too versed with the technical side of PD yet).

It seems that it installs automatically, or asks the user for a directory if the preferred is not found....... but you are not trying to install......
Or are you trying to re-install. Usually the files are written to the directory as read only. If you have a corruption in the Cyclone library and you are trying to overwrite it with Deken it will likely fail with that message...... so you might need to delete the files or change the attributes before re-installing.

David.

    if { "$installdir" == "" } {
        ## search the default paths
        set installdir [ ::deken::get_writable_dir $::sys_staticpath ]
    }
    if { "$installdir" == "" } {
        ## ask the user (and remember the decision)
        ::deken::prompt_installdir
        set installdir [ ::deken::get_writable_dir [list $::deken::installpath ] ]
    }
    if { "$installdir" == "" } {
        #::deken::clearpost
        ::deken::post "No writeable directory found in:" warn
        foreach p $::sys_staticpath { ::deken::post "\t- $p" warn }
        ::deken::post "Cannot download/install libraries!" warn
        return
    }```

Yes I tried to reinstall just to see if that could fix the problem. I deleted the library now and changed the attributes, yet the same error message appears when trying to reinstall.

The only way I can get the library loaded is by having it installed in the same folder as my current project, then manually specifying the path in the preferences each time I open pd (I can't understand why it can't save these startup settings, would make life easier). When the library was inside the pd extras folder, if I first opened any patch there, then all my own subsequent patches would load the library normally. But certainly not the practical way to go.

Great to hear that the startup settings should be permanent. My Vanilla has always been like this, and I recall some previous versions of extended didn't actually save those, that's why I thought it was the norm. (well curiously, now it does remember my audio settings, before I had to select my external audio card each time... I try not to get 'paranoid' but it's behaving in mysterious ways today indeed).

I thought about installing the pd again, but I read someone had already tried that without any success. Let's see...

You can right-click the folders in the registry and change permissions.... which should be a zero risk.
Open Regedit and find the key folders listed below and check their permissions.....
You might need to open regedit with admin permissions.
You could also try opening Pd with admin permissions and trying to install cyclone and set paths, but I think it is wish85.exe that accesses the registry.

Vanilla and Extended preferences are stored separately in the following locations (Windows 7)....

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Pd
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Pd-extended
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Pd
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Pd-extended

This one twice...... probably last known good, and?
HKEY_USERS..."long string" ... Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Pd(and Pd-extended)
The "long string" will be different to mine on your machine.

@LiamG The garbled paths can be corrected and saved again....... which usually solves the problem.
That seems to be particular to Vanilla.
David.

I removed the pd and installed it again, and this time it let me install the cyclone library (through 'find externals') into the pd/extra folder as I did the first time. But the problem still persists: it doesn't load the library, and it doesn't remember the startup settings... and I've checked that I have a full control of all pd folders, both as local user and administrator.

Btw. when you specify a library to be loaded in the preferences > startup dialog, is it enough to just write the name of the library or do you have to insert the full path?

cyclone is not a library file but a collection of pd objects, so to load them on startup, the path c://.../extra/cyclone has to be put in preferences > path, not in startup.

'loadlib1' assigned to cyclone

This seems wrong to me, just guessing. Have you deleted all entries in preferences > startup? Any error messages on startup?

The only error message on startup I get is "WARNING: Font family 'DejaVu Sans Mono' not found, using default (courier)".

Would you please try starting Pd by creating a shortcut, and then adding -stdpath to the end of the shortcut path to Pd, although I wonder if the value of -stdpath has been changed from "the path to -extra-".
You could also try adding -path "path to cyclone folder" to the shortcut......
David.

[declare -path c:/.../extra/cyclone]
[counter]

should also work after reopening the patch. So you wouldn't need to change all the objects.

Edit: In the help file of declare you can see that for windows paths it reads c:/something, so with a single slash, which i believe is correct, because it is consistent with what i read about how tcl handles paths. Could be worth to keep that in mind...

Another thing you could try is:

• open this patch: add_path3.pd and click on the bang
• Look at Preferences > Path...
• Restart Pd
• Look at Preferences > Path... again

In a working Pd installation it should have the entry 'test' in Preferences > Path... in the second and the last step.

But i suspect it doesn't work, as it basically does the same thing as the Preferences > Path... dialog. You could look in the registry if it added an entry 'test', which would mean that Pd can at least write to the registry.

-stdpath

Yes the read permissions are ok in the registry.

Hey, adding the -path "path to cyclone folder" to the shortcut did the trick! Now the objects in the cyclone folder are loading normally upon startup. Thanks so much for the advice! I just still wonder what caused the problem in the first place, and why Pd needs to be a sort of separately reminded of the externals... anyway I'm happy it works now.

With add_path3 it records the entry 'test' in the second step but doesn't show up after restarting. In the registry it has added 'test' to path1 though.