MECH / MIAE 215 Mini Course Troubleshooting Guide

This guide covers typical problems students have with the mini-course.  Please look at it carefully before asking any questions.

1) Some students have problems with the audio in the mp4 video files.  Note that there is no audio in the Lesson #1 files except the “codelite_mac_install_more.mp4” file.  Also note that you need to select “Save Link As …” first in order to download the mp4 files.  Then you can open them with VLC.  For the rar file above containing all the videos, you need to first expand the rar file before opening the videos with VLC.  If the sound still doesn’t work after my suggestions, I have included the following rar file with improved audio compatibility.  If it doesn’t work then consider trying some other video player.  5KPlayer (Mac/Windows), KMPlayer (Windows), and MPlayerX (Mac) are the best alternatives.

http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~bwgordon/new_audio_videos_avi.rar

2) A small number of students have trouble installing some of the software such as CodeLite on Windows.  In that case, I recommend upgrading your operating system (especially if you are running Windows 8/8.1) to Windows 10.  This change has worked for most students.  Even if things are working with Windows 8/8.1 you are better off upgrading to Windows 10 since Windows 8/8.1 are buggy.  Windows 7 is OK, but Windows 10 is still a significant improvement.

3) A small number of students have problems executing / running CodeLite programs from the menu (especially on the Mac) even though CodeLite works.  In that case, try running the “unix executable” file inside the workspace / project folder (make your CodeLite workspace on the desktop so you can find it easily).  You might have to look in some subfolder to find it.  Then double click on the executable to run your program.  It should make a window that says “hello world” somewhere inside it.

If the suggestion above doesn’t work you may need to install the OSX command line tools.  The following video shows how to solve this problem.

http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~bwgordon/codelite_mac_install_more.mp4

Note: the new version of CodeLite has the infamous “plus button” I’m referring to at time 5:12 in the above video.  Use that plus button to add the compiler.

4) When using CodeLite with Parallels Desktop you can’t put the CodeLite workspace / project folder for C++ programs on the Mac desktop or in any Mac folders.  It has to be in a Windows folder otherwise the following error will occur “UNC paths are not supported”.

Try making the CodeLite workspace / project in a folder on the windows c:\ drive.  Use windows explorer and right click and make new folder.  Make a folder there named my_codelite.  Then run CodeLite and make a workspace / project in that folder. You might also try just copying / dragging an existing workspace folder to the c: drive in windows explorer.