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Tracker 4.86 released post and replies

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Version 4.86 now available
Douglas Brown Avatar
Douglas Brown
449 Posts

Hello Tracker users,

Tracker 4.86 installers for Windows, Mac and Linux are now available from both the Tracker home page (http://www.cabrillo.edu/~dbrown/tracker/) and ComPADRE (http://www.opensourcephysics.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=7365).

This release features improved handling of HTML and PDF documents associated with a Tracker experiment (TRZ file). Typical documents include instructions, reports and other supporting materials. Users can easily access the documents from Tracker itself (Documents button near right end of toolbar) for display in the default browser or PDF viewer.

This change makes TRZ files better than ever--if you're not yet using them with your students and colleagues then please check them out!  TRZ files are easy to build (export), self-documenting (including thumbnail and metadata) and self-contained (video, data and supporting documents all in one file), so they're a perfect way to assign, share or turn in Tracker experiments for evaluation. Here's a video tutorial I made that shows you exactly how to export TRZ files: Saving and Sharing Tracker Experiments.

As always, thanks for your continued suggestions and feedback!  Doug


Replies to Version 4.86 now available

Re: Version 4.86 now available -
Ole Bjørn Kristensen
2 Posts

I downloaded and used Tracker a few months ago. BUT, now I just get an error message:

"The registry refers to a nonexistent JRE installation or the runtime is corrupted.."

I use other java programs that are running perfectly well. Do you have any sugestions as to what I might do to get Tracker running?
I already uninstalled the version of the program I had at the time and installed the most recent one, but the error message remained.



Re: Version 4.86 now available -
Thimios Papakyriakopoulos
3 Posts

I get the same error as user Kristensen at the above post. Have installed latest version of Tracker and Java.  I am using Windows 7 GR 64-bit.

I have attached a screenshot of the error.

Thank you for this excellent program!

 

 

 

Attached File: screenshot1.PNG



Re: Re: Version 4.86 now available -
Douglas Brown Avatar
Douglas Brown
449 Posts

Ole and Thimios, can you try running Tracker in a different Java VM? Do this: open the preferences dialog (Edit|Preferences), go to the Runtime tab, and look at the dropdown list in the Java Virtual Machine section. If you have a version of Java 7 or even Java 6 then give that a try.  Doug



Re: Re: Re: Version 4.86 now available -
Thimios Papakyriakopoulos
3 Posts

Doug,

You mean Edit>Preferences of Tracker menu? I can't do that because Tracker is not loading at all!

I have tried to run versions 4.86 and 4.85 from *.jar file but I get the same error.

I have removed Java 8 and installed Java 7 but Tracker is again not loading. I am starting to suspect that is a localization problem (I am running Windows 7 Greek)

I am attaching the log file that was created.

Attached File: hs_err_pid1884.zip



Re: Version 4.86 now available -
Douglas Brown Avatar
Douglas Brown
449 Posts

Sorry, Thimios, I should have realized! Please try a couple other things:

1. Can you launch Tracker by double-clicking the tracker.jar in Program Files (x86)/Tracker?

2. Iin a text editor, open the preferences file ".tracker.prefs" in your userhome (C:/Users/Doug on my Windows machine). It is hidden by default so you may have to get the OS to show hidden files. It should have a line like:

    <property name="java_vm" type="string">C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_31\jre</property>

If it does, try changing the path to point to a different Java VM like for example C:\Program Files\Java\jre7 if you have it installed.  Then try to start as usual. Any change?

 

I hope this helps :-)  Doug

> Re: Re: Re: Re: Version 4.86 now available > > Doug, > > You mean Edit>Preferences of Tracker menu? > I can't do that because Tracker is not loading at all > > > I have tried to run versions 4.86 and 4.85 from > *.jar file but I get the same error. > > I have removed > Java 8 and installed Java 7 but Tracker is again not > loading. I am starting to suspect that is a localization > problem (I am running Windows 7 Greek) > > I am attaching > the log file that was created.



Re: Re: Version 4.86 now available -
Thimios Papakyriakopoulos
3 Posts

1) Tracker isn't launching when executing the *.jar file

2) The ".tracker.prefs" file didn't have the line you suggested. I added the line to point at the Java directory of my machine but I again get the same error

3) I noticed that I have 2 Java folders on my machine, maybe from previous installations. I removed them all and reinstalled Java 7

4) This seems to be a fix because now I can run Tracker from the *.jar file and not from the .exe

Is there a difference between the two files?

Thanks again for your help Doug! Tracker is a wonderful program :)



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