Please note: Viewers play a minor part in voice functionality. The bulk of voice support is given by the external application called SLVoice, which is made by the SL voice provider, Vivox. Voice failures are almost always due to one of the following reasons:

• Your ISP is throttling or blocking the voice service;
• failure of the Vivox service;
• voice issues on the region you are on;
• voice being throttled by bandwidth set incorrectly - please check it by following the instructions here;
• voice hardware (mic, headset) not configured correctly in your operating system settings;
• voice hardware not configured correctly in the viewer;
• another application has your voice hardware in use (example, Skype);
• your anti virus software has “mangled” the voice application; see here.
• your firewall is blocking slvoice. Add slvoice to your firewall's exclusion/allow list.

Since 4.7.9, voice has not always connected to the voice servers. This is due to some coding issues that we inherited from the official SL viewer and that code's interaction with the latest voice files. The issue is documented on LL's Jira. A workaround is to disable and then re-enable voice. But if you're presented with the voice connection failure message that tells you “Voice communications will not be available”, you may need to disable voice and then relog before voice will try to reconnect.

It has been observed that a majority of voice connection issues happen when the viewer tries to connect to voice during the login process. The workaround is to disable voice before you log out, and then only enable it after logging in when you need it. You can toggle Voice from the Media Controls at the top of the viewer (not enabled by default for Vintage or Latency skins) by hovering over the speaker icon and then checking or unchecking the last checkbox, or by going to Preferences ⇒ Sound & Media ⇒ Voice and checking or unchecking the top option.

Due to the many different versions of each operating system (Windows, linux distros, Mac OSx's), it is very difficult to give specifics for each one. Nonetheless, make sure that your operating system is correctly configured for voice: that voice is going to your headset (or speakers, as you prefer), and that your mic is enabled and configured.

• Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds. Find the Voice Chat slider and make sure it is not all to the left. Try increasing the volume.
• Make sure that Voice chat is enabled on that preferences tab.
• go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Click on Audio Device Settings. For Input and Output, use the dropdowns to select your voice devices (headset, microphone, whatever you use). It is best not to leave these at Default.
• Close Preferences and locate the Mic button on the button bar. Click the Lock checkbox then the actual button, and try speaking (hopefully, you went to Voice Echo Canyon so you can test).

If voice still does not work, then continue working through this page.

If you find that voice cuts in and out, particularly right after a TP, and at the same time, you notice that things are not rezzing in for you very well (avatars, objects, etc), then the likely cause is that your router is being “overwhelmed” with texture transfers. So reboot your router/modem, and then your computer, and see if the problem is solved.

You can also try adjusting your bandwidth as explained here.

If that does not help, then proceed with the section below.

Chances are good that the problem lies with the SL servers or the voice provider, Vivox. Still, there are things you can try:

• Open Preferences, and go to Sound & Media → Voice, and click Reset (circular arrow).

• Shut down all applications that use, or can use, voice - like Skype, etc. Then relog.

• What sometimes helps to get voice working is disabling voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice, hitting Ok, waiting a minute and then enabling voice and click Ok. When these methods fail (assuming voice usually works for you) it is usually the Vivox voice servers that are the problem.

• If this does not work at your current location, go to a region where other people are able to use voice at this time. One possibility is Firestorm Social, but any region where voice is known to be functioning is fine. Disable voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Relog, using the last location selection on your login screen. Wait a couple of minutes. Reenable voice. Wait another couple of minutes (in other words, give the connection time to be established). If voice comes on, then the problem may have been the region you were in before. Was voice disabled there? If not, a region restart might solve the problem.

• Go to Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection and reduce your bandwidth setting to 500 (if it is not already set there). Repeat the above step to toggle voice off and back on. See here for more information on setting your bandwidth properly, but bear in mind that lower levels than those calculated there may be necessary for troubleshooting purposes.

• Log out of the viewer, then check Task Manager (or equivalent) and see if SLVoice is still running. If so, kill the process, restart the viewer and see if voice connects.

• Try a relog, or even a reboot of the computer.

• Sometimes device settings can reset, so check in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, to be sure that the input and output are set correctly.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Does your headset/microphone work outside of SL? ie when using Skype, Yahoo or MSN

• Does your headset/microphone work in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings?

• Is your voice chat volume turned up and not muted?

• Is the SLVoice.exe (simply SLVoice on Mac) that is in the Firestorm folder in the exceptions/allowed list for your firewall? If your firewall is turned off, turn it on and add the SLVoice.exe (or SLVoice) anyway.

• Check the bandwidth you are actually getting and what you have set in Preferences → Network & Files → Connection. Please refer to this page for specifics.

• Go to top menu, Advanced → Debug Settings, and in the window that opens, type: Cmdlinedisablevoice - then ensure this is set to FALSE. (Use Crtl-Alt-D to enable the Advanced menu, if it isn't.)

Some have issues with voice on Firestorm - specifically, “stuttering”, or SLVoice crashing when you unplug a USB device. The only work-around currently is to swap out the voice files.

• Method One:
  To this end, download this file; save it to your hard drive. Make sure you do not have Firestorm running. Then extract the files to your Firestorm install folder. (For Firestorm 32-bit viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm on 32 bit Windows, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Firestorm on Windows 64-bit. For Firestorm 64-bit Viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm.) When prompted, allow the replacement of existing files.

• Method 2 - Firestorm 4.7.3 Only:
  Download Firestorm 4.6.9 from here. If you current have FS 64-bit, get FS 4.6.9 32-bit - and vice versa. Go into your “computer” and find the the 4.6.9 Version Firestorm you downloaded.
  Copy the files below and replace them in your 4.7.3 Firestorm install folder:
  ca-bundle.crt
  ortp.dll
  SLVoice.exe
  vivoxoal.dll
  vivoxplatform.dll
  vivoxsdk.dll

Try disabling compatibility mode, if enabled:

• Locate your desktop shortcut for Firestorm
• Right click on the icon and select Properties
• Select the Compatibility tab
• Find “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” if it is set then disable this
• Make sure “Run as Administrator” is enabled (if this is greyed out, then you're probably already running as administrator, so you can ignore this step).
• Click Apply.
• Now log back into the viewer, and see if voice works (do you have the white dot over your head?). If not, go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice and disable voice; wait a few moments, then re-enable. ¹⁾

On Windows 7, if you find yourself being able to talk but not hear what others say, then a possible solution is to use the sound drivers from Vista. (This needs further confirmation.)

Check that slvoice.exe is not muted in the speaker/headphones icon (located in the notification area) → mixer.

Every linux distro is different; and each distro may have more than one window manager to further complicate things. So tips can't be “absolute”; you will need to experiment and see what works for you. The following have been suggested by some as effective. But first….

In the Firestorm install directory, there's a text file (originally from LL) with tips on getting voice to work in linux. If you haven't read that, then you can try to see if it helps.

• Make sure you have ALSA and/or FMODEX available. FMODEX is supplied with Firestorm, normally. If you look at Help → About Firestorm, you should see a line that resembles this:
  Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.11.753 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: PulseAudio Software
  If that says “none” then you have no audio driver available to Firestorm and need to install one.

• Edit the firestorm shell script and remove the #. That will force LL to use FMOD rather than ALSA. Some say this is how to get voice working.

#export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x

• Some swear that the problem is PulseAudio, so you can try to remove that from your system. Be warned, however, that this could cause more problems than it solves. Make sure you remove only Pulse and not half the OS.
• Be sure to have the correct devices select in Firestorm for voice:
  
  Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings (button) … input and output may not work if left at default; they may need to go to a specific device like “ALSA Capture on [device name]”.

Below are results for selected linux distros, based on input from Phoenix and Firestorm users. This will be updated as more information becomes available.

• ubuntu 16.04 64 bit + FS64: The following command installs a few 32-bit libs and voice works after. Maybe you need fewer 32-bit libs but that needs further investigation.
  Apparently, arch requires these as well - or some of them - though the exact lib name may be different.

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio:i386 libidn11:i386 libuuid1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

• A new option in Firestorm 4.7.9 is a debug setting, FSLinuxEnableWin32VoiceProxy, which when enabled will cause Firestorm to launch the Windows version of SLVoice.exe via WINE. To use this, you need to ensure that WINE is installed; install WINE with your package manager. An existing WINE profile/prefix is not needed, but will be used if present. Depending on your system, it may take several seconds before voice comes up.
  NOTES:
  * If you disable voice and then re-enable too quickly, WINE may not successfully restart and voice may fail to re-enable. If you get the warning that there was a problem connecting, you will need to relog before voice will re-enable. Thirty seconds between disable and enable should be enough.
  * There is a known related issue here
  * To speed up the initial loading of voice, use

  wine-preloader $HOME/path/to/firestorm/bin/win32/SLVoice.exe

  before launching Firestorm

If you are unable to connect to voice and you are also having problems with teleporting and/or loading your friends list, perhaps along with other things, then see the “Mac-specific” section of this page for instructions and more explanation.

Some Mountain Lion users experience a problem with voice output, while input works fine (that is, you can hear but you can't speak). To fix this, open the voice preferences for your viewer (Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice in Firestorm). Click the device settings button and select “built-in microph” as the audio input device and click OK. Reopen Preferences and go back to the device settings button to ensure you're getting sound in on the mic.

Click on the color boxes to choose custom colors different types of chat text. Most are self-explanatory:

• My text
• Others
• Objects - objects using llSay to chat
• Friends
• Linden - LL employees
• Muted
• System - Messages from LL
• Errors
• Objects IMs - objects using llInstantMessage to chat (the chat shows in local chat, not an IM window)
• Owner - objects using llOwnerSay to chat
• URLs - Color used for the domain part of a URL
• URL Query part: Color used for the path/query component of a URL.
• Direct - objects using llRegionSayTo to chat
• Chat Headers Colors to use if chat headers are enabled - or rather, when V1-style headers are disabled in Preferences→ Chat -> Chat Windows:
  • Avatars
  • Objects
• Beyond chat range diminish factor: The factor used to fade the chat as the speaker's distance increases.
• Color IM/Group chat distinctly in console: Enable this if you want to set a different color for IM and group chat displayed in chat console (console is the lower left area of the screen, where local chat is shown).

You can color name tags separately, as follows:

• My tag
• Friends
• Muted
• Linden Lab
• Match - if someone's display name matches their user name, this color will be used.
• Mismatch - if a person's display name is different from the user name, use this color.

• Color user names distinctly: If you enable this, you get another color box, which allows you to select a color for user names; display names will then use one of the colors above.
• Color friend name tags distinctly: Apply the color setting above to friends.

• Color (box): Here you can select the background color to be used for name tags.
  • Name Tag/Bubble Chat/Console Opacity: The farther left the slider, the more transparent the floater will be.
  • Name tag Z-Offset: Allows you to adjust the height of your name tag above your avatar. Handy for non human avatars, from tinies to large dragons, so the name isn't embedded in the avatar, or floating way above.
• Show distance in name tag: If enabled, avatar distance from you is shown in the name tag.
• Color name tags based on distance: If enabled, several mode color boxes are revealed, allowing you to select colors to be used to indicate how far people are from you (see this LL wiki page):
  • Chat range - 20m
  • Whisper range - 10m
  • Shout - 100m
  • Beyond shout range

• Background Opacity: Allows you to change the minimap background opacity.
• Pick Radius: Here, you can vary the color, opacity and size of the “pick circle”, which is displayed under the mouse crosshair cursor.
• Minimap dots: Select colors to use for people visible on the minimap:
  • Me
  • Others
  • Friends
  • Linden Lab
  • Muted

• Display rings on the mini map indicating the say and shout chat ranges: Adds a ring on the minimap that shows local chat range. This reveals two color selectors, to set colors for:
  • Chat range
  • Shout range

Note: Other options concerning minimap are found under Preferences→ Move & View -> Map & Minimap.

Various other color options, as follows:

• Selection effects (particle beam)
• Script Dialog F/B: Foreground and background colors for script dialog windows.
• Floating Window Opacity: The farther left the slider, the more transparent the floater will be.
• Console Opacity: Similar to above, but for chat console (the lower left area of the screen, where local chat is displayed).
• Preferences Search Highlight Color: Color to uses to highlight search results.

• Always show script dialogs always on opaque background: If enabled, dialog windows generated by scripts will always have a fully opaque background.
• Always show group notices always on opaque background: If enabled, group notice popups will always have a fully opaque background.
• Override pie menu background color and opacity: Allows you to customize the color, opacity and Fade out of the pie menu. (The pie menu is enabled in Preferences→ User Interface -> General.)

So you find yourself suddenly missing a window, perhaps inventory, or chat, or the edit window… How to find it?

• Close all other windows, to make sure it isn't hiding under one of them.

• Hide the chat bar: Preferences→ Chat -> Typing→ Autohide main chatbar to see if the window is under there.

• Compress all the buttons on the bottom toolbar to the right.
  Alternately, drag the toolbar buttons from their present location onto another toolbar;
  (Reminder: there are three available toolbars: bottom of the screen, right side, and left side. Buttons are dragged by left clicking, holding the left mouse button down, and dragging.)

• Go to Preferences→ User Interface → 2D Overlay, and lower the UI Scaling slider. The default setting is 1.0. You may find that setting it lower, temporarily, will reveal the missing window. If you find the missing window, move it to the center of the screen, then reset UI Scaling to 1.0 or your preferred value.

• Try to ensure that the missing window is closed. Then open Debug Settings via the Advanced menu (press Ctrl-Alt-D to enable Advanced, if it isn't already). Then locate the pair values for the default window position, for the window that is “missing”. Consult the table below for the names of these settings. Set both values to 0 (zero), then relog.

Should none of these work, then you will have to wipe settings, as explained on this page.

This page covers login problems which fit the following description:

• You are unable to log in properly without having to clear cache fully before doing so.
  It should never be necessary to clear cache before logging in, so if you have to do this, something is wrong. Some find that if they don't clear cache each time, they get logged out within seconds of logging in, or perhaps they are ruthed or a cloud every time, or even that they crash shortly after log in.

• You are able to log in but find yourself under water (all you can see is a blue screen) at coordinates 10, 10, 10.
  If you log in to an all blue screen, check your location, see if you are near the SIM corner, at 10, 10, 10. If so, your issue can hopefully be solved by one of the suggestions given here.

• If you have more than one account, only one is affected.

In some cases, you will see that there is an error in loading one or more gestures. If you do, make careful note of which ones, then find them and deactivate them - or better, delete them. If there is no such message, then please read on.

One possibility is that your inventory cache has become corrupted. If this is the case, then deleting it should solve the problem once and for all - assuming it doesn't become corrupted again at some future date.

• Locate your cache folder. You will probably need to do this manually, if you are unable to log in. Use a file manager (like Windows Explorer for Windows system, Dolphin, or some such) to locate the cache folder. In its default location, the cache folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Default cache locations are:
  • Firestorm Viewer:
    • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\Firestorm\Cache
    • Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm\Cache
    • Windows 7: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm\Cache
    • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firestorm
    • linux: ~/.firestorm/cache
• In this folder, locate the files named data.db2.x.* and index.db2.x.* (where * is a digit: 0, 1, 2, etc; you may have more than one of each type of file)
• Delete all files that match these two names.
• Log back into SL, to a quiet region (try the Phoenix Firestorm Support parcel or a Linden water region such as aich or hatton). Allow your inventory to repopulate fully.

If your issue was a case of a corrupt inventory cache, then subsequent log ins should work normally. If however, your next log in fails as before, then your will need to locate the problem item in your inventory and eliminate it. So try the solutions described below, one at a time, until (hopeffuly) one of them fixes the problem.

This can be caused by an issue called having a “flat inventory.” If you have folders with a lot of items in them, the viewer can stall trying to create the “inventory view” (inventory folder structure in memory). The solution is simple, but tedious: you will have to create more folders (or subfolders) and sort your inventory such that no one folder has too many items in it. Ideally, aim for under 1000 items per folder.

Alternatively, because this is not a viewer-specific problem, Linden Lab can also help you deflatten your inventory if you file a support ticket with them. Just make sure to log in on the official Second Life viewertwice (once to fill the inventory cache and a second time to confirm that you're experiencing the issue on their viewer) before contacting Linden Lab.

There have been cases where people have ended up with a mass of duplicated calling cards in inventory, so many that they end up preventing successful log in. So try the following:

• Start the viewer and try to log in.
• If you are able to log in, open your inventory window, find the Calling Cards folder, and delete all of them, then empty trash.
• Now log out, then restart the viewer, and log in.

Hopefully, this will solve the problem. If not, then read the next section.

Should the above method not give a permanent fix, then you should try to deactivate all your active gestures. Yes, all of them. At the bottom of the Inventory window, click the gear icon, and select Show Filters. Click the None button, then check Gestures. Then type (Active) in the search field at the top of the Inventory window.

The above will list all your currently active gestures. Select them, then right click and select Deactivate. Double check that all gestures are deactivated by bringing up the gesture picker at the bottom of the screen; it should show none active.

Now relog and see if you still have issues logging in.

If this solves the problem, the next step is trying to find the bad gesture(s). The best way to do this is with a “divide and conquer” approach. It is not difficult, but it can be long and tedious, depending on how many active gestures you had. Using filters to show only gestures will make this somewhat easier.

• The idea is to attack the collection of gestures by halves: activate half, deactivate the rest, then relog.
• If you can log in ok, then the problem gesture(s) are in the deactivated half. If instead you have problems logging in, then the bad gesture(s) are in the ones currently active.
• Having identified which half has the problem gestures, again, split this remaining group of gestures in half: activate half, deactivate half, then repeat as before.
• Continue this way, dividing in half each time, until you have narrowed down to the one (or more) problem gestures - which you should at least leave inactive, but preferably simply delete outright.

One final rare case is similar to the above but involves landmarks rather than gestures.

In this case, it is recommended that you box up all of your landmarks, then delete the originals from inventory, then empty trash (saving the boxed copies). See if this allows for a normal login.

If so, then you can use the “divide and conquer” method above to find the problem landmark(s).

This page explains some of the more common reasons for log in failure, and what you can do about it. For information on other kinds of log in problems, refer to this page and this page.

NOTE: Before doing anything else, check the Second Life Grid Status page to see if there are any known issues reported. If so, that might explain the issues you are having.

At times, when attempting to log in, you will get a message like “Unable to connect to simulator”. Unfortunately, this message can be the result of several different things. This page covers some of the more common - and more rare - cases when this might occur.

• Your Internet Connection is Down Check whether you are able to connect to the 'net using a web browser; try to use it to visit a known website. If that fails, then the first thing to try is to unplug your modem/router for at least a full minute, then once plugged back in, allow then to go through startup, after which reboot your computer. If after this you are still unable to connect to the Internet with a web browser, you will probably need to contact your ISP to have your connection checked.

• Your Router and/or Modem has Problems Repeat the same things as above.

• Your Firewall is Preventing the Connection Try disabling your firewall software completely and then try to log in again. If you are successful, then you need to allow the viewer access through the firewall. Some tips on how to do that are here.

• Buildup of Open Notifications It is possible for a buildup of too many notifications to cause Firestorm to disconnect during or shortly after login. If you experience such disconnections repeatedly on Firestorm, then follow the instructions under “Firestorm Logs Out During Login” here.

• Domain Name Server (DNS) Issues Users of Firestorm may get “Unable to connect to simulator”, or a message specifically saying that there are issues with the DNS. In that case refer to this page for how to proceed.

• Region is Down It is possible that the region you are trying to log into is down. So try again but select a different region name at the log in screen. Some regions you can try: Hippo Hollow, Aich, Hatton, Pooley.

• Group Tag Preventing Login There are cases when your active group tag will prevent log in - most usually when the tag contains unicode characters (though there have been isolated cases where even standard Latin characters have prevented log in as well). If this happens, you can attempt to log in using a text based viewer such as Radegast or MetaBolt, and change your active group in that viewer (preferably to None), log out and then log in with your usual viewer.
  Should that not be an option, you will need to find a way to get word in-world, to the group owner, and have them either edit the group title tag or, should that not be an option, eject you from the group.
  If that too is not a viable option, then the only other recourse is to file a support ticket with LL and have them change your active group.
  This is a server issue, and is reported in this LL JIRA.

This error occurs when the viewer is not getting an acknowledgement from the server. See above for how to deal with connection issues.

This usually happens when you attempt to log in immediately after a crash. When you crash out of SL, the servers do not “realize” it immediately. This is part because it might simply be a case of a brief loss of connection, so SL allows for that. In fact, if anyone is near where you were at the time of a crash, they will continue to see your avatar for several minutes.

When you attempt to log back in, SL sees this, and starts to shut down the session that was running when you crashes. People will see your avatar vanish at this point.

So if you get the above message, wait for a minute before trying to log in again.

When things are running normally, you should never have to clear cache in order to log in. If you experience either of the following problems when logging in without clearing cache…

• You disconnect from Second Life as soon as you log in, with the View IMs/Quit message; or
• You are able to log in but find yourself under water (all you can see is a blue screen) at coordinates 10, 10, 10 (if you log in to an all blue screen, check your location, see if you are near the SIM corner, at 10, 10, 10).

…then refer to this page. Both problems have the same root and thus the set of solutions.

Please note: Viewers play a minor part in voice functionality. The bulk of voice support is given by the external application called SLVoice, which is made by the SL voice provider, Vivox. Voice failures are almost always due to one of the following reasons:

• Your ISP is throttling or blocking the voice service;
• failure of the Vivox service;
• voice issues on the region you are on;
• voice being throttled by bandwidth set incorrectly - please check it by following the instructions here;
• voice hardware (mic, headset) not configured correctly in your operating system settings;
• voice hardware not configured correctly in the viewer;
• another application has your voice hardware in use (example, Skype);
• your anti virus software has “mangled” the voice application; see here.
• your firewall is blocking slvoice. Add slvoice to your firewall's exclusion/allow list.

Since 4.7.9, voice has not always connected to the voice servers. This is due to some coding issues that we inherited from the official SL viewer and that code's interaction with the latest voice files. The issue is documented on LL's Jira. A workaround is to disable and then re-enable voice. But if you're presented with the voice connection failure message that tells you “Voice communications will not be available”, you may need to disable voice and then relog before voice will try to reconnect.

Most voice connection issues happen when the viewer tries to connect to voice during the login process. The workaround is to disable voice before you log out, and then only enable it after logging in when you need it. You can toggle Voice from the Media Controls at the top of the viewer (not enabled by default for Vintage or Latency skins) by hovering over the speaker icon and then checking or unchecking the last checkbox, or by going to Preferences ⇒ Sound & Media ⇒ Voice and checking or unchecking the top option.

Due to the many different versions of each operating system (Windows, linux distros, Mac OSx's), it is very difficult to give specifics for each one. Nonetheless, make sure that your operating system is correctly configured for voice: that voice is going to your headset (or speakers, as you prefer), and that your mic is enabled and configured.

• Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds. Find the Voice Chat slider and make sure it is not all to the left. Try increasing the volume.
• Make sure that Voice chat is enabled on that preferences tab.
• go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Click on Audio Device Settings. For Input and Output, use the dropdowns to select your voice devices (headset, microphone, whatever you use). It is best not to leave these at Default.
• Close Preferences and locate the Mic button on the button bar. Click the Lock checkbox then the actual button, and try speaking (hopefully, you went to Voice Echo Canyon so you can test).

If voice still does not work, then continue working through this page.

If you find that voice cuts in and out, particularly right after a TP, and at the same time, you notice that things are not rezzing in for you very well (avatars, objects, etc), then the likely cause is that your router is being “overwhelmed” with texture transfers. So reboot your router/modem, and then your computer, and see if the problem is solved.

You can also try adjusting your bandwidth as explained here.

If that does not help, then proceed with the section below.

Chances are good that the problem lies with the SL servers or the voice provider, Vivox. Still, there are things you can try:

• Open Preferences, and go to Sound & Media → Voice, and click Reset (circular arrow).

• Shut down all applications that use, or can use, voice - like Skype, etc. Then relog.

• What sometimes helps to get voice working is disabling voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice, hitting Ok, waiting a minute and then enabling voice and click Ok. When these methods fail (assuming voice usually works for you) it is usually the Vivox voice servers that are the problem.

• If this does not work at your current location, go to a region where other people are able to use voice at this time. One possibility is Firestorm Social, but any region where voice is known to be functioning is fine. Disable voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Relog, using the last location selection on your login screen. Wait a couple of minutes. Reenable voice. Wait another couple of minutes (in other words, give the connection time to be established). If voice comes on, then the problem may have been the region you were in before. Was voice disabled there? If not, a region restart might solve the problem.

• Go to Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection and reduce your bandwidth setting to 500 (if it is not already set there). Repeat the above step to toggle voice off and back on. See here for more information on setting your bandwidth properly, but bear in mind that lower levels than those calculated there may be necessary for troubleshooting purposes.

• Log out of the viewer, then check Task Manager (or equivalent) and see if SLVoice is still running. If so, kill the process, restart the viewer and see if voice connects.

• Try a relog, or even a reboot of the computer.

• Sometimes device settings can reset, so check in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, to be sure that the input and output are set correctly.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Does your headset/microphone work outside of SL? ie when using Skype, Yahoo or MSN

• Does your headset/microphone work in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings?

• Is your voice chat volume turned up and not muted?

• Is the SLVoice.exe (simply SLVoice on Mac) that is in the Firestorm folder in the exceptions/allowed list for your firewall? If your firewall is turned off, turn it on and add the SLVoice.exe (or SLVoice) anyway.

• Check the bandwidth you are actually getting and what you have set in Preferences → Network & Files → Connection. Please refer to this page for specifics.

• Go to top menu, Advanced → Debug Settings, and in the window that opens, type: Cmdlinedisablevoice - then ensure this is set to FALSE. (Use Crtl-Alt-D to enable the Advanced menu, if it isn't.)

Some have issues with voice on Firestorm - specifically, “stuttering”, or SLVoice crashing when you unplug a USB device. The only work-around currently is to swap out the voice files.

• To this end, download this file; save it to your hard drive. Make sure you do not have Firestorm running. Then extract the files to your Firestorm install folder. (For Firestorm 32-bit viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm on 32 bit Windows, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Firestorm on Windows 64-bit. For Firestorm 64-bit Viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm.) When prompted, allow the replacement of existing files.

Try disabling compatibility mode, if enabled:

• Locate your desktop shortcut for Firestorm
• Right click on the icon and select Properties
• Select the Compatibility tab
• Find “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” if it is set then disable this
• Make sure “Run as Administrator” is enabled (if this is greyed out, then you're probably already running as administrator, so you can ignore this step).
• Click Apply.
• Now log back into the viewer, and see if voice works (do you have the white dot over your head?). If not, go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice and disable voice; wait a few moments, then re-enable. ¹⁾

On Windows 7, if you find yourself being able to talk but not hear what others say, then a possible solution is to use the sound drivers from Vista. (This needs further confirmation.)

Check that slvoice.exe is not muted in the speaker/headphones icon (located in the notification area) → mixer.

Every linux distro is different; and each distro may have more than one window manager to further complicate things. So tips can't be “absolute”; you will need to experiment and see what works for you. The following have been suggested by some as effective. But first….

In the Firestorm install directory, there's a text file (originally from LL) with tips on getting voice to work in linux. If you haven't read that, then you can try to see if it helps.

• Make sure you have ALSA and/or FMODEX available. FMODEX is supplied with Firestorm, normally. If you look at Help → About Firestorm, you should see a line that resembles this:
  Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.11.753 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: PulseAudio Software
  If that says “none” then you have no audio driver available to Firestorm and need to install one.

• Edit the firestorm shell script and remove the #. That will force LL to use FMOD rather than ALSA. Some say this is how to get voice working.

#export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x

• Some swear that the problem is PulseAudio, so you can try to remove that from your system. Be warned, however, that this could cause more problems than it solves. Make sure you remove only Pulse and not half the OS.
• Be sure to have the correct devices select in Firestorm for voice:
  
  Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings (button) … input and output may not work if left at default; they may need to go to a specific device like “ALSA Capture on [device name]”.

Below are results for selected linux distros, based on input from Phoenix and Firestorm users. This will be updated as more information becomes available.

• ubuntu 16.04 64 bit + FS64: The following command installs a few 32-bit libs and voice works after. Maybe you need fewer 32-bit libs but that needs further investigation.
  Apparently, arch requires these as well - or some of them - though the exact lib name may be different.

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio:i386 libidn11:i386 libuuid1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

• A new option in Firestorm 4.7.9 is a debug setting, FSLinuxEnableWin32VoiceProxy, which when enabled will cause Firestorm to launch the Windows version of SLVoice.exe via WINE. To use this, you need to ensure that WINE is installed; install WINE with your package manager. An existing WINE profile/prefix is not needed, but will be used if present. Depending on your system, it may take several seconds before voice comes up.
  NOTES:
  * If you disable voice and then re-enable too quickly, WINE may not successfully restart and voice may fail to re-enable. If you get the warning that there was a problem connecting, you will need to relog before voice will re-enable. Thirty seconds between disable and enable should be enough.
  * There is a known related issue here
  * To speed up the initial loading of voice, use

  wine-preloader $HOME/path/to/firestorm/bin/win32/SLVoice.exe

  before launching Firestorm

If you are unable to connect to voice and you are also having problems with teleporting and/or loading your friends list, perhaps along with other things, then see the “Mac-specific” section of this page for instructions and more explanation.

Some Mountain Lion users experience a problem with voice output, while input works fine (that is, you can hear but you can't speak). To fix this, open the voice preferences for your viewer (Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice in Firestorm). Click the device settings button and select “built-in microph” as the audio input device and click OK. Reopen Preferences and go back to the device settings button to ensure you're getting sound in on the mic.

This page shows all changes since the 4.7.9.50527 Release.
If you are updating from an earlier version then 4.7.9, see HERE for previous release notes.

For a summary of all the major new features and improvements in this release, please
see Inara Pey's Firestorm 5.0.1 blog post.

• Visual Outfit Browser
  Ever think how nice it would be to see the different outfits you have collected in your inventory?
  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple thumbnail that you can easily see and select and change into?
  Well, now you can with the Visual Outfit Browser!
  
  You can now do all of the above with the ease of a customized snapshot tool found in your appearance floater.
  Simply open the Appearance floater (CTRL+O) and under the Outfit Gallery tab, you’ll find default thumbnails (currently coat hanger icons).
  You want to change into those outfits, pose, and then right click on the thumbnail and choose “Take a Snapshot.” It’s that easy!
  It does cost the usual L$10 per upload which is standard for all textures uploaded. But hey, can you really put a price on awesome?
  
  See Inara Pey's Visual Outfit Browser review HERE
  
  Pavel Productengine, Mnikolenko ProductEngine

• Project VLC
  Apple recently announced that they are no longer supporting QuickTime for Windows and most importantly, will not be providing security updates going forwards.
  If you are using Windows and still have Quicktime installed, you should uninstall it immediately - QuickTime for Windows: “uninstall today”
  Older viewers use QuickTime to play back media types like MP3 MPEG-4 and of course MOV.
  Project VLC replaces the QuickTime media plugin for the Windows and Linux versions of the viewer with one based on LibVLC.
  The Mac viewer is unchanged since Apple will continue to support QuickTime there.
  Eventually, as part of the update to 64 bit versions of the viewers, the Mac viewer will also be updated to use LibVLC (QuickTime APIs are Carbon and not available as 64bit).
  
  Callum Linden, Ruslan Product Engine, Andrey ProductEngine, contributions from Nicky Dasmijn (Firestorm Viewer)

• The viewer is now DPI aware on Windows 8.1+
  This fixes the problems with tiny font size & user interface size on high resolution monitors on Windows 8.1 and above.
  UI Scaling will now be automatically set to the correct value for the system at viewer launch
  Also raised the maximum UI Scaling setting to 2.0 for Windows 7, 2.5 for Windows 8.1 and 4.5 for Windows 10
  
  Andreyk Productengine, contributions from Ansariel Hiller (Firestorm Viewer)

• Lots and lots of Maintenance fixes
  Too many to list them all here.
  See the full change log for details.
  Highlighted fixes are listed below.
  Rider Linden, Coyot Linden, Nat Linden, Oz Linden, Mnikolenko ProductEngine, Andrey ProductEngine, contributions from Ansariel Hiller (Firestorm Viewer)
  

• Improvements to make the region “Object Bonus” setting safer
  This improvement was requested in BUG-11913
  Mnikolenko ProductEngine

• Added the server timestamp to Help → About floater
  Andrey ProductEngine

• Add a new alert to viewer to warn if too much inventory is in coalesced objects
  Andrey ProductEngine

• PERMISSION_DEBIT notification now defaults to Deny This change is to help prevent accidental granting of debit permissions
  Andrey Productengine

• Fixed editing marketplace listings before inventory has fully fetched causing listings to be unlisted.
  This fixes BUG-11804
  Andrey Productengine

• Fixed resetting scripts via the build menu no longer works on many scripted objects
  This fixes BUG-20086
  Andrey Productengine

• Fixed incorrect radius calculation in the viewer
  For details about this bug see Beq Janu's blog post - Bug hunting - Fixing an ancient LOD issue
  This fixes STORM-2138 and FIRE-20192
  Andrey ProductEngine, contributions from Beq Janus (Firestorm Viewer)

• Fixed crash when uploading a mesh if Include skin weights checkbox is clicked before the preview appears
  Mnikolenko Productengine

• Fixed Developer > Show Info > Show Render Info not reporting accurate vertex counts for Selected Objects
  This fixes BUG-40727
  Mnikolenko Productengine

• Fixed viewer crash when attempting to block an experience from the permissions request dialog.
  This fixes BUG-40762 and FIRE-20262
  Mnikolenko Productengine

• Merge up to Linden Lab viewer 5.0.0 codebase
  Firestorm 5.0.1 is fully merged up to the 5.0.0 Linden codebase, plus some cherry picked fixes from upstream.
  Ansariel Hiller

• Updated CEF for Windows & Linux
  Enabled 64 bit CEF for Windows x64.
  The plugins will be built as native 64 bit plugins now (no quicktime)
  Nicky Dasmijn

• Updated SLPlugin for 64-bit OS X
  Tonya Souther

• Updated llceflib for OS X
  Tonya Souther

• RLVa restrictions are now sortable
  Top menu bar → RLVa → Restrictions
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed gth and flr commands circumventing RLVa restrictions
  This fixes FIRE-20115
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed the toggle-loop when trying to join a new group under @setgroup=n restriction
  Ansariel Hiller

• Prevented warnings about invalid UUIDs caused by invalid RLV commands produced by MoDesign Collar (and maybe others as well)
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed RLVa setenv=n not blocking use of the sunmoonposition slider
  This fixes FIRE-20142
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed @shownames cheat on Nearby Radar
  This fixes FIRE-20179
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed @shownames=n might be circumvented via nearby chat history if other avatar is using a display name
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed invalid XUI in RLVa console floater
  Ansariel Hiller

• Fixed some RLVa strings
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded Google Noto font
  Preferences → User Interface → Fonts → Noto
  Tonya Souther

• Translation updates and improvements
  German - Ansariel Hiller
  Polish - PanteraPolnocy
  Japanese - Hiroshi Kumaki

• Flickr upload improvements
  
  • Fixed direct snapshot upload to Flickr sometimes uploading multiple copies.
    This fixes FIRE-20026
    
  • Increased the timeout for Flickr upload to 10 minutes
  • Flickr uploader now checks std:string.max_size() when before appending image data to avoid buffer overrun
    This fixes FIRE-20094
    Beq Janus, Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed mesh upload failing from a folder with Unicode characters in the name
  This fixes FIRE-19806 and BUG-37632
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTImprovements to the LSL Preprocessor
  
  • Made the “Preprocessed” text window of LSL preprocessor not editable.
  • Show line and column on “Preprocessed” tab.
  • Properly disable unvailable (context) menu items and buttons in the button bar.
  • Perform actions of (context) menu items and button bar buttons on the active tab (if action is available) instead of always on the possibly hidden editor tab.
  • Search/Replace and Goto Line floaters work on the active tab instead of always on the possibly hidden editor tab
    
    Preferences → Firestorm → Build 1 → Enable LSL Preprocessor
    Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed clicking on a link in a script dialog opening it as a SLURL instead of launching a web browser
  This fixes FIRE-20054
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTRemoved the confusing voice connect failure message link
  This fixes FIRE-19759
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed sound alert not playing on teleport offer
  This fixes FIRE-19836
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTThe custom payment message is now also sent inworld with the payment instead of only being visible in transaction history
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTIncreased the character limit for keywords to 20480
  This was requested in FIRE-20222
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTChanged the keyword alert sound setting to per-account to match all other keyword alert settings
  Also disabled key alert settings in preferences until logged in because they are now a per account setting
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed “Manage Block / Mute list” button in Preference not working if setting 'Disable automatic opening of block list' is enabled
  This fixes FIRE-19780
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed highlighted text in Nearby Conversations floater being deselected upon agent or group uri name loading
  This fixes FIRE-20214
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed Contact Set aliases not displaying on first post
  This fixes FIRE-20329
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTSort order and column widths of the region tracker now persist between sessions
  This was requested in FIRE-20025
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed place details window keeping 'Loading…' estate information
  This fixes FIRE-19799 and BUG-40831
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded a “Copy URI” to menu choices when right clicking a group name
  This was requested in FIRE-20146
  Comm → Groups → Right click a group → Copy SLURL to clipboard
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed clicking a group uri not putting focus on an already open and maximized group profile
  This fixes FIRE-20024
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed the rezplat command always rezzing under agent group, not under land group if “Always rez object under the land group if possible” is enabled
  This fixes FIRE-4804
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWNew “Avatar Render Settings” feature
  Avatar Render Settings lists all avatars you have chosen to fully render or never render.
  Right-clicking on one or multiple avatars opens a context menu which allows direct changing of the setting.
  This feature was requested in FIRE-19798
  
  World → Avatar Render Settings
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDExperimental fix for ghosted attachments after teleport or region crossing
  For some reason, during a TP/region crossing, the viewer might receive a “kill object” message from the region, which will then mess up the Current Outfit Folder (COF) and maybe even the scripts in the attachment as well.
  The idea now is: whenever the avatar is in the process of a TP/region crossing, ignore any messages of killing attached objects.
  This works quite well for Teleports.
  For region crossings it needs some working around insufficient information if a region crossing has been successful or failed and might eventually lead into a situation of stuck attachments in some situations.
  Rebaking (CTRL+ALT+R) or changing outfits should unstick them.
  Debug setting FSExperimentalLostAttachmentsFix enables the fix (enabled by default).
  Debug setting FSExperimentalLostAttachmentsFixReport will report to nearby chat if a kill object message was received during TP or region crossing and also show for which object, so it allows checking if those attachments are still there and working (disabled by default).
  This should fix the majority of cases of FIRE-12004 and BUG-7761.
  Server side changes are needed to fully fix this bug
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed Disable Random Avatar Eye Movements not working after TP or region crossing
  This fixes FIRE-19723
  Preferences → Firestorm → Avatar → Disable Random Avatar Eye Movements
  Kadah Coba

• FIXEDFixed incorrect position of own avatar attachments when in mouselook
  This fixes FIRE-10574 and BUG-1408
  Contribution from Adeon Writer

• FIXEDFixed DebugAvatarAppearanceMessage incorrectly reporting all avatars received COF version as -1
  This fixes FIRE-19851 and BUG-37637
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEW Added an option to log auto-accepted inventory to nearby chat
  When enabled the item name and sender will print in nearby chat
  This feature was requested in FIRE-19540
  Preferences → Privacy → General → Log automatically accepted inventory items to Nearby chat
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed your own avatar's calling card duplicating when clearing cache
  This fixes FIRE-19737
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed adding clothing via double-click allows wearing more than one physics layer
  This fixes FIRE-20280
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed selecting and wearing multiple body parts only wears one of them
  This fixes FIRE-16794
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded an FPS meter in the status bar
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded seconds to theclock in the status bar
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTCleaned up the status bar layout
  • Improved width calculation for volume icons in status bar (including the padding between them).
  • Fixed mis-aligned panels, wrong panel widths and Lightshare icon missing in Starlight skins.
  • Fixed localization of time label
  • Fixed positioning of menu search box in status bar
  • Added “Show Parcel Permissions” to the status bar context menu
  • Added “Show Coordinates” option to status bar context menu
  • Disabled “Show Search Bar” if “Show Navigation and Search Bar” is disabled
    Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded a refresh button in the texture preview window
  This was requested in FIRE-20150
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWCTRL-F will now focus the local search editor of a window if available
  This feature can be disabled by setting the debug setting FSSelectLocalSearchEditorOnShortcut to FALSE
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdd CEF and VLC version to system information
  Help → About Firestorm
  Nicky Dasmijn

• IMPROVEMENTAdded digit group separators to the avatar complexity notification
  This improvement was requested in FIRE-19958
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDDisabled “Show Simulator Version” in context menu if “Show Location” is disabled
  Also added the missing status indicator option.
  Also added missing media controls option to the status bar context menu and fixed some wording issues
  This fixes EFIRE-19770
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed inconsistent behavior of shortcuts for appearance and teleport history sidepanel floaters when minimized compared to normal floaters
  This fixes FIRE-20053
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed the taskbar icon flashing on Windows when the viewer gains focus
  Also fixed an edge case where it sometimes wouldn't flash
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed focus not being set on the textbox when opening web search
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTFixed inconsistent wording for ad-hoc conferences in Preferences
  This fixes FIRE-20075
  Mister Acacia, Whirly Fizzle

• NEWAdded a separate fast timer for the texture fetch thread
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTImproved Asset Blacklist
  
  • Temporarily blocked objects are now shown in the blacklist floater so they can be removed.
    
  • Fixed the crash when leaving an area where many objects were blacklisted.
    
  • Added an option to re-render temporary derendered objects after teleport or after end of session/manual re-rendering via the asset blacklist floater.
    Preferences → Move & View → View → Re-Render temporary derendered objects after teleport.
    
  • Added “Clear Temporary” button to clear all temporary derendered objects to the blacklist floater.
    
    World → Asset Blacklist
    Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTChanged Graphics Presets from a per-account to a global setting
  This change fixes the problem filed at FIRE-19810 and also allows enabling of managing presets while not being logged in.
  Note that because of this change, already created presets either have to be re-created or need to be manually copied from the per-account settings folder to the global user_settings folder after you update to Firestorm 5.0.1.
  
  Preferences → Graphics → General → Presets.
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded RenderWaterRefResolution (Water Reflection Resolution) setting to graphic presets
  This was requested in FIRE-20238
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded an option to restore debit permission default to allow
  Linden Lab recently changed the PERMISSION_DEBIT notification defaults to Deny.
  This change is to help prevent accidental granting of debit permissions
  However for SLSGO accounts (Skill Gaming Operators), this severely slowed down their workflow so this change was made optional.
  This was requested in FIRE-20064
  Advanced → Show Debug Settings → FSPermissionDebitDefaultDeny
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed various Parcel Windlight edge cases
  
  • Fixed Parcel windlight might be overridden by region environment settings if region caps and region environment settings arrive after parcel properties
  • haveParcelOverride() needs to check for > -1
  • Fixed the case of TPing into a region with no “RegionOverride” parameter, default (non-custom) region WL and a default parcel WL defined
    This fixes FIRE-19972
    
  • Fixed Windlight settings not getting properly applied after teleport in certain cases
    This fixes FIRE-6563
    
  • Use region water WL settings if no parcel WL water settings have been defined
    
  • Fixed Region Windlight not getting applied if zoned parcel windlight without default sky is defined and region windlight settings arrive late
    
  • Parcel Windlight crossfading option is totally broken and has been removed for now
    Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed broken Render Metadata→LOD information This fixes FIRE-20191 and STORM-2139
  Developer→ Render Metadata → LOD Info
  Beq Janus

• FIXEDFixed “Notify me when I am charged for an upload” still notifies you when disabled
  This fixes FIRE-19819
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed server release notes not getting fetched in Help/About Firestorm
  This fixes FIRE-19760 and BUG-37598
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed typing not stopping after using Cmd Line tph within the same region as the home location
  This fixes FIRE-7273
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed OpenSim Motto Of The Day showing on SL Beta grid
  Ansariel Hiller

• IMPROVEMENTChanged the ReportBugURL and other JIRA URLs to https
  Ansariel Hiller, Nicky Dasmijn

• IMPROVEMENTFSStaticEyes can now be changed via QuickPrefs
  This fixes FIRE-20310
  Ansariel Hiller

• NEWAdded support for OS X 10.12 SDK
  Tonya Souther

• FIXEDFixed the viewer log getting spammed with experience requests from other grids
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDCleaned up various log spam
  Liny Odell

• REMOVEDQuicktime on Windows is finally dead
  
  • Removed HAVE_QUICKTIME_3P cmake option
  • Removed –quicktime from autobuild.xml
    Nicky Dasmijn

• REMOVEDRemoved the code for MOAP media filtering that has been unusable for 5 years
  Explanation for why this was removed is given on FIRE-920
  Ansariel Hiller

• Many MANY crash fixes and general performance improvements
  Big thanks to everyone who submitted their crash reports last release
  Nicky Dasmijn

• CRASH FIXFixed a crash during script recompilation
  Ansariel Hiller

• CRASH FIXFixed crash when setting a local texture from a path containing non-standard characters
  This fixes FIRE-19855 and BUG-37689
  Nicky Dasmijn

• CRASH FIXFixed a crash when using the Align tool
  This fixes FIRE-15548
  Ansariel Hiller

• CRASH FIXFixed crash when many objects are blacklisted on the region
  This fixes FIRE-14265
  Ansariel Hiller

• CRASH FIXFixed NextLoginLocation sometimes causing a crash at login
  This fixes FIRE-20112
  Nicky Dasmijn

• CRASH FIXFixed a rare crash in LLAgent:sendAnimationRequests()
  Henri Beauchamp (CoolVL Viewer)

• CRASH FIXFixed a crash when resetting scripts
  This fixes FIRE-20242
  Ansariel Hiller

• CRASH FIXFixed a potential crash in FSConsoleUtils:ProcessInstantMessage()
  Ansariel Hiller

• CRASH FIXFixed a crash during login when status bar media controls are hidden
  Kadah Coba

• CRASH FIXFixed a crash in LSL preprocessor lazy lists
  This fixes FIRE-4804
  Sei Lisa

• CRASH FIXFixed a startup crash in LLStatusBar
  Ansariel Hiller

• PERFORMANCEFixed bringing an IM window with a large number of unread messages into focus might lead to a viewer disconnect
  This fixes FIRE-20193
  Ansariel Hiller

• PERFORMANCEBetter viewer performance around many avatars
  The sheer amount of calls into LLVOAvatar::getJoint get very costly in complex scenes. This is due to a string being used as index. Change the index to U32 for faster access.
  Nicky Dasmijn

• PERFORMANCEViewer logout should now be faster
  Fixing the 10 seconds shutdown delay on Windows by properly handling the voice connector shutdown
  Ansariel Hiller

• PERFORMANCEMinor performance improvement in FSConsoleUtils
  Ansariel Hiller

• PERFORMANCEFixed possible memory leak when replacing links in inventory
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed setting Home location failing in OpenSim after Coroutines update
  This fixes FIRE-19894
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDFixed legacy search results list items not being selectable under certain circumstances in Inworldz
  This fixes FIRE-19912
  Ansariel Hiller

• FIXEDRestored the original LLMessageSystem HTTP options for OpenSim - 0 retries and 60 seconds timeout
  Ansariel Hiller

51251/52150 - 899

These classes are based on our official Firestorm release and are conducted in voice and text except when otherwise noted. There's no need to talk, but you may want to be able to hear. We also usually have help available to answer questions in text. This schedule is subject to change.

Note that it is best if you are on Firestorm for the classes.

Locations are indicated in the far right column as follows:

• FS: Firestorm Support region classroom, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Ghost%20Town/24/11/4000
• JU: Junkyard University, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Junkyard%20Blues%20South/68/124/22

Class times and days change regularly. Classes may be held any day of the week, with start times from 8am to 7pm SLT. Nonetheless, if the class times are still inconvenient you may prefer to watch recorded versions of some of these classes on YouTube.

*All times SLT*

This issue is the result of recent updates of Win10, specifically KB3176938, KB3189866, KB3193494 and KB3194496.

Many users have reported that updating their graphics drivers has fixed the problem:

• If you use nVidia graphics, try updating your drivers to at least Nvidia 373.06 released October 6, 2016.
• AMD/ATI users can try updating to at least driver 16.10.1.

Should you not be able to upgrade the driver, read on.

• To uninstall these Windows updates, go to Programs & features > view updates > click and uninstall. Please be advised that uninstalling any update marked as a security update is done at your own risk.
• To keep windows from downloading the update again download this tool and run it to “hide” the update: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930?utm_source=twitter#bookmark-1607.
• Note: “Hiding” one update will not prevent other, later updates. The FPS problem may return as other updates are installed and until Microsoft fixes this issue.

Please refer to this LL JIRA and this FS JIRA page for details and other suggestions.

If you suddenly sound like a man (and you aren't), or your friend suddenly sounds like a demon (and isn't), or you are hearing other forms of distorted voice, try this:

1. Right click the Speakers icon on your system tray and select Recording Devices.
2. Right click the Microphone and select Properties.
3. Switch to the Advanced tab.
4. Under Default Format drop down menu, select: 2 channel, 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD quality).
5. Untick “Enable Audio Enhancements”
6. Press OK and OK.
7. Relog if needed.

If you suddenly find that sounds do not play, things like button sounds or in-world object sounds, the possible cause is your default output format. Try this:

1. Right click the Speakers icon on your system tray and select Playback Devices.
2. Right click the Speakers (or your chosen audio output) and select Properties.
3. Switch to the Advanced tab.
4. Under Default Format drop down menu, select: 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD quality).
5. Click Apply and OK.
6. Relog if needed.

If some characters now display as boxes, you will need to reinstall Windows font packs. Some of the more common font packs are Chinese, Japanese and Korean, though if you installed those and still see boxes, you will want to ask the person using those characters to tell you what language (or symbol set) they are so that you can install the appropriate font pack.

1. Log out of Firestorm.
2. Go to the Windows Start menu and choose Settings.
3. In the window that opens, click in the search field at the top right and type in “language”
4. Select Add a language from the search results.
5. Click the + Add a language option and select the language from the list. The contents of the window scrolls left and right.
6. Back in the Add a language section, click the newly added language and choose Options.
7. Click the top Download button. The language will download and install, and it may take some time.
8. Repeat this for each language pack you wish to install.
9. Now log into Firestorm, you should see the missing characters correctly rendered.

Error 0xc000007b when launching 64 bit Firestorm:

Try following these steps to get the Firestorm installer to reinstall the Visual C++ redistributables that come packaged with it:

1. First make sure you have the Firestorm installer handy in a place where you can easily access it when you get to the step where it's needed below. (You can download it from here, or from here if you need an older version than the current release.)
2. Go to the Windows Start Menu and choose Settings.
3. In the window that opens, click on “System Display, notifications, apps, power.”
4. In the next window go down to “Apps & features.”
5. Scroll down to the entry for “Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable.” Click on it and choose “Uninstall” (the list won't necessarily update to show that it is uninstalled, but it is).
6. Click on “Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable” and once again choose “Uninstall.”
7. Close that window.
8. Re-run the Firstorm installer. The installer window will now say “Modify Setup” (since FS is already installed) and will give you 3 options: “Repair”, “Uninstall” and “Close.” Click on “Repair.” Firestorm will reinstall the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributables that it ships with.
9. Restart your computer. You should be able to launch Firestorm without getting the error message now.

If you start experiencing graphics issues after a Win10 update, such as driver crashes, or simply very poor performance, the first thing to try is a full computer reboot.

If that doesn't help, reinstall your graphics card driver from the card maker's website, not from Windows. That is, from nVidia, AMD, or Intel.

If you have Intel HD graphics, refer to this page.

The most common cause for this is a non-default DPI value, or screen scaling. Refer to this page for tips on setting DPI/scaling to default.

Some Windows 10 users have experienced difficulty installing current versions of Apple's Quicktime software on their systems. Version 7.7.6 of Quicktime has been confirmed to install correctly on Windows 10 systems. You can download version 7.7.6 from the link below:

Quicktime 7.7.6 (link will take you to the 7.7.6 download page on Apple's website)

**Unfortunately the above link seems to no longer be valid as a source for Quicktime 7.7.6, as such the recommended alternative to allow playback of media streams that were previously handled by Quicktime is to upgrade to a newer version of Firestorm (version 5.0.1.52150 or newer), as these newer versions of Firestorm no longer depend on Quicktime to handle stream playback.

First try increasing Preferences → User Interface → 2D Overlay → UI Scaling. Another possibility is Preferencess → User Interface → Font → Font size adjustment.

Some Windows 10 updates change the machine ID used to create login credentials, resulting in Firestorm reporting “Failed to Decode Login Credentials”. The best way to deal with this is to wipe the stored credentials file, as explained here. Naturally, you will then have to retype the user name and password for all your accounts, when first logging in after deleting the credentials file.

If you start experiencing graphics issues after a Win10 update, such as driver crashes, or simply very poor performance, the first thing to try is a full computer reboot.

If that doesn't help, reinstall your graphics card driver from the card maker's website, not from Windows. That is, from nVidia, AMD, or Intel.

If you have Intel HD 2000 or 3000 graphics, refer to this page.

If your laptop has an Intel CPU and also has either an AMD or Nvidia graphics system, it may have the ability to switch between the Integrated Intel graphics or power savings, or the AMD/Nvidia for performance. But sometimes Firestorm isn't automatically configured to use the high performance graphics.

You can confirm this issue by looking at Help → About Firestorm and checking the name of the graphics card listed. If it says Intel, please follow the steps on this page.

This mysterious flashing problem has been reported numerous times now and after some investigation we believe we finally have a repro for what's causing the issue. We do not yet know the specifics of exactly which systems are affected.

Typically the issue arises when Worn Rigged Mesh is in view and has at least one texture containing alpha and set to alpha blend mode. Alpha masking and emissive mask do not reproduce the problem.

We have also verified that this reproduces using the Official LL Viewer.

The Following Table shows which systems and drivers we have tested and whether they reproduce the Flashing Issue.

The Driver Version linked in the above table (DRIVER VERSION: 15.40.14.64.4352 & 15.40.14.32.4352) Has not reproduced the issue for us and is the Driver we recommend that you download direct from Intel.

If you receive the following Message when installing the Intel Driver:

This is an indication that you have an OEM Driver installed by the manufacturer. This Leaves you with two options:

• Check the website (or contact support) of your specific PC manufacturer and check for updates.
• Uninstall the OEM Driver and install the Intel Driver direct from Intel. This method is carried out At Your Own Risk

If decide to wait fro an update from your computer manufacturer, or are simply uncertain about removing an installed driver, the following steps may help to make things more tolerable for you until your drivers are updated.

• If ALM is disabled the flashing will always reproduce unless Hardware skinning is disabled.
• If ALM is enabled the flashing will only reproduce when the avatar wearing the alpha blended rigged mesh is standing in Linden water.
  • If Hardware Skinning is disabled, the flashing stops in this case too.

Note: If you install the recommended driver above and still experience issues please read the related jira FIRE-17290 and add your details to the comments. Instructions for using the Jira can be found HERE

There are griefing objects that can be rezzed on a region; anyone who goes there will have their HUDs and all other scripted attachments put into a non-running state. For instance: a HUD for a mesh body, and all the mesh body parts you are wearing, may be broken at the same time.

You might also have been affected by what appears to be a server-side bug: BUG-41379.

Below are things you can try to get the HUDs working again. First of all, relog then test the HUD(s) again. That may be enough. If not, read on.

Things to try:

• Check for location issues:
  • Make sure you are in a region that has scripts enabled.
  • Go to other regions and test the HUDs there. This will rule out technical problems with the original region.
  • If you have RLV enabled, disable it (Preferences → Firestorm, top option), relog, then try again.

Stay in a script-enabled region to do all of the following:

• Attempt to get scripts running:
  • Try removing and reattaching the HUDs.
  • If the HUDs are modifiable, try resetting them or setting their scripts to running: Inventory, right-click the item → Edit, and while it is in Edit, go to Build menu → Scripts → Reset Scripts, or Build menu → Scripts→ Set Scripts to Running).

• Identify broken HUDs:
  • Try removing all the HUDs and testing them one at a time: test each one, then remove it, then test another.
  • If you have original copies of the HUDs, try detaching the ones you are currently wearing and using a fresh copy from the original.
  • If a HUD is no-mod and you can't get it to start running again, and you don't have another copy, you will need to request a new copy from the creator.
  • Note: If the non-working HUDs are for your mesh body parts (or other scripted attachments), you probably will need to use fresh copies of the HUDS and the body parts – every part, from scratch.

• Check for interference:
  • Look in Inventory > Current Outfit folder, and see if you are wearing any HUDs you were not aware of. (Note: HUDS do not necessarily have “HUD” in the name.) This could include temporary “Experience” HUDS that you may not be aware were attached.¹⁾
  • Check that HUDs are not overlapping each other on the screen (and so preventing you from clicking).

• Check for issues with attachment points:
  • If any HUDs are sharing the same HUD attachment point, try moving them to separate HUD attachment points:
    Inventory → Right-click → Detach from Yourself, then Inventory → Right-click → Attach to HUD, and choose an unused point.
  • Even if they are not sharing attachment points, try moving them to different attachment points.

• Test basic functionality:
  1. Rez a fresh cube
  2. Add the default script to it
  3. Take it into inventory
  4. Attach it to a HUD point
  5. Touch the HUD and see if there is script output in Local chat.

For instructions for Phoenix, please refer here.

Some anti-virus programs will incorrectly flag a viewer - or necessary components of a viewer - as a virus or threat. They may remove the suspected part completely, rendering all or part of the viewer non-functional. There is nothing we can do about this. However, it should be possible for you to tell your anti-virus that the viewer is safe; you will need to whitelist the viewer program as well as some components.

The following is a list of anti-virus software and how to whitelist. Naturally we cannot provide instructions for all existing anti-virus software, and the information here may be outdated. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you consult the software manual for the specific program you use, for accurate and up to date information.

Here are the steps to follow to reinstall and whitelist a viewer in such as way that the anti-virus program doesn't “mangle” the viewer yet again:

1. Uninstall the viewer normally.
2. Disable the anti-virus software completely (in a few cases, this requires rebooting to make sure that the AV is not running anymore).
3. Reinstall the viewer, but make sure you do not install it back to the default folder suggested; install to a new folder. This step is vital.
4. In your anti-virus program, whitelist the following, per the instructions below (or better, consult the manual for your anti-virus software):
   • the viewer install folder
     • inside this, the viewer itself (firestorm.exe), slplugin.exe, slvoice.exe and llceflib_host.exe (for FS 4.7.7 and later).
   • the viewer cache folder
     • In its default location, the folder is hidden on most OSs. To find it, you will need to show hidden folders. Now you need to locate the cache folder:
       • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\Firestorm
       • Windows Vista/7/8/10: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Firestorm
       • Mac: /Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Caches/Firestorm
5. Run the viewer to ensure that it is working correctly; do a test of search and voice to ensure that both work, checking that the respective plugins get loaded. Log out of the viewer.
6. Re-enable your anti-virus software and run the viewer again, repeating the tests above.

• Open the Avast User Interface
• Click Real-time shields
• Click File system shield
• Click Expert Settings
• Click Exclusions
• Click Add
• Click Browse and navigate to the Firestorm install folder
• Click OK
• Repeat for the Firestorm cache folder
• Click OK all the way out

• Open the AVG user interface.
• Click Tools→Advance Settings.
• Resident Shield→Exceptions.
• The Add the program (or file, directory) you wish to be excluded from scans.

Please refer to this page.

(derrived from https://community.f-secure.com/t5/Security-for-PC/How-do-I-exclude-a-file-or/ta-p/15398)

• Open Computer Security.
• On the main page of Computer Security, click Settings.
• Select Computer Security > Virus and spyware scanning.
• Select Other settings > Manual scanning.
• Click the Exclude files from the scan link. The Exclude from scanning dialog is displayed.
• Select the Objects tab.
• Select the Exclude objects (files, folders…) check box.
• Click Add.
• Navigate to and select the Firestorm install folder
• Click Add again
• Navigate to and select the Firestorm cache folder
• Click OK to close the Exclude from scanning dialog.

If Gatekeeper prevents you from opening Firestorm, there is a simple workaround: See “How to open an app from a unidentified developer and exempt it from Gatekeeper” on this page. Once you have allowed Firestorm to open via this method, Gatekeeper will not flag it on subsequent launches (until you reinstall Firestorm again).

For a longer-term method, please visit here for a tutorial on whitelisting using the Gatekeeper software.

In order to create an exclusion rule:

• Open application settings window.
• Select Protection on the left.
• Click the Trusted Zone button in the Exclusions block.
• Go to the tab Exclusion rules and click Add.
• Select an exclusion type in the Properties field: Object and/or Threat type.
  • Object
    Click select object and choose a file, folder or a mask to exclude.
  • Select a Component in the corresponding field. The rule will apply to the selected component.
  • Threat type. Click enter threat type to select a file, folder or a mask to exclude.

Rules can apply to the following protection components:

• Virus scan,
• File Anti-Virus,
• Mail Anti-Virus (Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Workstations 6.0.4.x only),
• Proactive Defense (Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Workstations 6.0.4.x only),
• Web Anti-Virus (Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Workstations 6.0.4.x only).

A scan if a disk or folder containing excluded objects scans the entire disk/folder except the excluded objects. Yet you can force scan excluded objects from the contextual menu (by right-clicking).

Also you can create an exclusion rule from within a report window:

• Right-click the report object you want excluded.
• Choose the option Add to Trusted Zone.

An Exclusion rule window will open. Make sure that you are satisfied with the new exclusion rule settings. Object name and threat type fields are assigned automatically on the basis of the report data. Click OK to create the rule.

For Win 10 (possibly also Windows 8.x):

• Open Settings and in the search field at the top right enter defender
• Click the Windows Defender Settings option.
• Exclude the cache
  • Click Add an Exclusion
  • Click Exclude a folder
  • Click in the address bar and type %LOCALAPPDATA% and press Enter
  • Click the Firestorm folder
  • Click the Exclude this folder button
  • Repeat this if you have more than one Firestorm folder (64-bit and 32-bit, for example)
• Exclude the viewer executables
  • Click the Exclude a .exe, .com or .scr process button
  • Navigate to C:\Program Files\Firestorm-Release64
  • Click Firestorm-bin
  • Click the Exclude This file button
  • Repeat this for SLPlugin and SLVoice - and llceflib_host (for FS 4.7.7 and later).
  • Repeat this for 32-bit Firestorm ( C:\Program Files (x86) )

Add exclusion to Auto-Protect and Risk scan

• Start Norton 360.
• Click Settings.
• Click Antivirus Protection.
• On the Scans and Risks tab, under Exclusion/Low Risks, click Configure next to Scan Exclusions.
• Under Scan Exclusions, click Add.
• Browse and select the disk drive or folder or file you would like to exclude and click OK. If you want to include subfolders within the folder, check Include Subfolders.
• Under Auto-Protect Exclusions, click Add.
• Browse and select the disk drive or folder or file you would like to exclude and click OK. If you want to include subfolders within the folder, check Include Subfolders.
• Click Apply > OK.
• Click Apply > Close

Norton Internet Security includes a feature called Download Intelligence. This works such that the user community reports downloads as good or bad. While this may be very helpful, it can also be unfairly detrimental to programs, especially when they are updated as they are then treated as totally new.

Therefore, if you use Download Intelligence, you are urged to disable it before attempting to download any of our viewers, in order to avoid them being incorrectly reported as infected with a virus. Refer to this page for instructions.

• Click on the “Antivirus” section of the UI.
• Click on “Advanced Settings” (bottom of the panel current version)
• Click on “Exclusions” tab
• Choose “Add”, then navigate to your Firestorm installation folder and put a check in the box to the left of slplugin.exe (and llceflib_host.exe for FS 4.7.7 and later), and everything else you want to exclude. Once you've checked something, the “exclude” button at the bottom of the panel is enabled. Click it when you've finished checking off everything you want to exclude.
• Click “OK” at the bottom of the “Exclusions” tab.

See this page for additional Panda tips for whitelisting files and folders: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads/docs/product/help/is/2012/en/709.htm The page is out of date but the methods may still work.

• Right click PC Tools icon in taskbar → Open
• Go to Settings → Global action list
• Click “Add”, choose “File” & browse to your Firestorm installation folder & choose slplugin.exe - and llceflib_host.exe (for FS 4.7.7 and later).
• This will add the plugin(s) to the global whitelist.

To date (August 2015), there is no way to whitelist the entire cache folder in WebRoot. Therefore WebRoot may continue to cause severe problems including slow rezzing and viewer freezing.

If you test with WebRoot off and find your SL experience greatly improved, the only suggestion we have is to choose another antivirus program.

Some more more info on Webroot and the problems it has been known to cause, see this page.

For additional information:

• https://community.webroot.com/t5/Webroot-for-Business/how-to-set-file-and-folder-exclusions-in-the-webroot-console/td-p/189775
• https://community.webroot.com/t5/Webroot-SecureAnywhere-Antivirus/How-to-exclude-a-folder-from-being-scanned-in-the-latest-WSA-AV/td-p/78063

For an introduction to the basics of troubleshooting, please refer to this page.

Phoenix has some video tutorials on YouTube; you may want to visit and bookmark the Phoenix Viewer channel.

• Firestorm 64-bit

• Updating the viewer

• Crashing During Install or Startup

• Crashing While Running Firestorm

• Login Failures

• Texture Discarded Due to Insufficent Memory

• Graphics Glitches and Crashes

• How to Manually Clear Cache

• Clearing settings manually

• Full Clean Install of Firestorm

• Media Related

• Web Feed Items (Search, Web Profiles, or Destinations) Don't Work, Remain Black

• Voice Related

• Bridge Issues

• Camera is Pointing Wrong

• Friends/Groups Detached from Conversations

• Nearby Chat Detached from Conversations

• Firestorm Locks Up on "Initializing VFS"

• Hands Flickering

• I Can't See Worn Mesh

• I Cannot Log in Unless I Clear Cache First

• Clicking on a SLURL Doesn't Activate Firestorm

• AO Folder issues

• Finding a Missing Window

• My Friends List is Empty!

• The Viewer Seems to Freeze Every So Often

• How do I Get Rid of all this Debug Stuff?

• Issues Related to Shadows

• Large Flexi Prims, Like Tree Fronds, Vanish

• Objects Vanish

• Small Prims Vanish Even when Quite Close

• Making WindLight Setting Persist after Teleport

• How do I Derender/Re-render things?

• Restore to Last Position - Workaround

• My avatar won't move

• My saved outfit is empty

• My HUDs Aren't Working

• Attachments Detach then Reattach at Login

• Current Outfit Folder Corruption

• My feet are in the ground, or I'm floating

• I Am Missing Inventory

• Rezzed Items Have Vanished

• Help! I'm Wearing my Entire Inventory!

• Failed to Find Item in Database

• Fixing Avatar Issues - Cloud, Ruth, Clothing not rezzing

• I Can't Log In Because It Says I am Already Logged In

• Persistent Typing Animation

• Stuck Inventory Folders Work-Around

• I am Stuck Running

• Why Does Teleport Fail so Much?

• Worn Attachment not Showing as Worn in Inventory

• HTTP Inventory Issues

• Determining Optimal Bandwidth Setting

• HTTP Fetching Issues

• I See Everything Grey

• Why am I so Laggy?

• ATI Graphics Issues

• Intel Graphics Issues

• Nvidia Graphics Issues

• Everything is Black

• I See Things Like Stars in the Sky

• My CPU is Always at 100%

• Laptop Dual Graphic Card Issues

• Crashing While Editing or Wearing Mesh

• Edit Rotation Guides Missing

• Problems Navigating in Mouselook

• Firestorm Won't Open on my Secondary Monitor

• Windows 10 Issues

• Webroot and SL Viewers

• Viewer Not Responding - Vista/Win7 64-Bit

• "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error in Windows

• I Get a User Account Control (Security) Pop-up

• Frame Load Interrupted by Policy Change

• Copy/Paste No Longer Works

• Clicking on a Link in Firestorm Causes a Crash

• Error Importing itdownload.dll

• Failed to Decode Login Credentials

• Firestorm Flagged as a Virus or Malware

• No Mouse Cursor - Vorpx Incompatibility

• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Problems

• Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks Problems

• Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite

• Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan

• Mac Sierra (10.12) Issues

• Crash on Upload

• Linux: Left Mouse Button Stops Working

• Alt-Click Not Working on Ubuntu

• Linux: Wrong Browser being opened

• 32-bit Firestorm on 64-bit Linux

• How to Minimize Firestorm when Running Fullscreen in Linux

• Screen Tearing with Ubuntu 14.04 (or derived, like Mint 17)

• I Can't Sit on Things

• Chat Lag

• "Couldn't convert the image to jpeg2000"

• Deleting Stored Passwords

• DNS Fail when Trying to Log in

• How to Get Inventory Back

• Inventory Contents Fail to Load

• Logging in at 10,10,10

• The "ExDepart Virus"

• Offline Instant Messages not delivered to email

• Web Profiles Not Displaying Properly

Several people have reported having the problem of the contents of an object never loading in the Edit window. One specific cause has been isolated: ByteFence Anti-Malware. If you have this program installed (and please note that it may have come pre-installed on your computer, or bundled with some other product), then try uninstalling it. See this page for instructions.

If you do not use this product, then one thing to check is whether you are being affected by region lag. So try going to a known low lag region where build is allowed, such as here, and see whether the issue persists there. If object contents load normally there, then the region you were working in before, likely has high lag, or issues of some other kind and may need restarting.

Otherwise, you may have connection-related problems. For that, try rebooting your network hardware (router and/or modem), then your computer. Other tips may be found here.

Several people have reported having the problem of the contents of an object never loading in the Edit window. One specific cause has been isolated: ByteFence Anti-Malware. If you have this program installed (and please note that it may have come pre-installed on your computer, or bundled with some other product), then try uninstalling it. See this page for instructions.

If you do not use this product, then one thing to check is whether you are being affected by region lag. So try going to a known low lag region where build is allowed, such as here, and see whether the issue persists there. If object contents load normally there, then the region you were working in before, likely has high lag, or issues of some other kind and may need restarting.

Otherwise, you may have connection-related problems. For that, try rebooting your network hardware (router and/or modem), then your computer. Other tips may be found here.

Please note: Viewers play a minor part in voice functionality. The bulk of voice support is given by the external application called SLVoice, which is made by the SL voice provider, Vivox. Voice failures are almost always due to one of the following reasons:

• Your ISP is throttling or blocking the voice service;
• failure of the Vivox service;
• voice issues on the region you are on;
• voice being throttled by bandwidth set incorrectly - please check it by following the instructions here;
• voice hardware (mic, headset) not configured correctly in your operating system settings;
• voice hardware not configured correctly in the viewer;
• another application has your voice hardware in use (example, Skype);
• your anti virus software has “mangled” the voice application; see steps on this page: here.
• your firewall is blocking slvoice. Add slvoice to your firewall's exclusion/allow list.

Since 4.7.9, voice has not always connected to the voice servers. This is due to some coding issues that we inherited from the official SL viewer and that code's interaction with the latest voice files. The issue is documented on LL's Jira. A workaround is to disable and then re-enable voice. But if you're presented with the voice connection failure message that tells you “Voice communications will not be available”, you may need to disable voice and then relog before voice will try to reconnect.

Most voice connection issues happen when the viewer tries to connect to voice during the login process. The workaround is to disable voice before you log out, and then only enable it after logging in when you need it. You can toggle Voice from the Media Controls at the top of the viewer (not enabled by default for Vintage or Latency skins) by hovering over the speaker icon and then checking or unchecking the last checkbox, or by going to Preferences ⇒ Sound & Media ⇒ Voice and checking or unchecking the top option.

Due to the many different versions of each operating system (Windows, linux distros, Mac OSx's), it is very difficult to give specifics for each one. Nonetheless, make sure that your operating system is correctly configured for voice: that voice is going to your headset (or speakers, as you prefer), and that your mic is enabled and configured.

• Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds. Find the Voice Chat slider and make sure it is not all to the left. Try increasing the volume.
• Make sure that Voice chat is enabled on that preferences tab.
• go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Click on Audio Device Settings. For Input and Output, use the dropdowns to select your voice devices (headset, microphone, whatever you use). It is best not to leave these at Default.
• Close Preferences and locate the Mic button on the button bar. Click the Lock checkbox then the actual button, and try speaking (hopefully, you went to Voice Echo Canyon so you can test).

If voice still does not work, then continue working through this page.

If you find that voice cuts in and out, particularly right after a TP, and at the same time, you notice that things are not rezzing in for you very well (avatars, objects, etc), then the likely cause is that your router is being “overwhelmed” with texture transfers. So reboot your router/modem, and then your computer, and see if the problem is solved.

You can also try adjusting your bandwidth as explained here.

If that does not help, then proceed with the section below.

Chances are good that the problem lies with the SL servers or the voice provider, Vivox. Still, there are things you can try:

• Open Preferences, and go to Sound & Media → Voice, and click Reset (circular arrow).

• Shut down all applications that use, or can use, voice - like Skype, etc. Then relog.

• What sometimes helps to get voice working is disabling voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice, hitting Ok, waiting a minute and then enabling voice and click Ok. When these methods fail (assuming voice usually works for you) it is usually the Vivox voice servers that are the problem.

• If this does not work at your current location, go to a region where other people are able to use voice at this time. One possibility is Firestorm Social, but any region where voice is known to be functioning is fine. Disable voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Relog, using the last location selection on your login screen. Wait a couple of minutes. Reenable voice. Wait another couple of minutes (in other words, give the connection time to be established). If voice comes on, then the problem may have been the region you were in before. Was voice disabled there? If not, a region restart might solve the problem.

• Go to Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection and reduce your bandwidth setting to 500 (if it is not already set there). Repeat the above step to toggle voice off and back on. See here for more information on setting your bandwidth properly, but bear in mind that lower levels than those calculated there may be necessary for troubleshooting purposes.

• Log out of the viewer, then check Task Manager (or equivalent) and see if SLVoice is still running. If so, kill the process, restart the viewer and see if voice connects.

• Try a relog, or even a reboot of the computer.

• Sometimes device settings can reset, so check in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, to be sure that the input and output are set correctly.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Does your headset/microphone work outside of SL? ie when using Skype, Yahoo or MSN

• Does your headset/microphone work in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings?

• Is your voice chat volume turned up and not muted?

• Is the SLVoice.exe (simply SLVoice on Mac) that is in the Firestorm folder in the exceptions/allowed list for your firewall? If your firewall is turned off, turn it on and add the SLVoice.exe (or SLVoice) anyway.

• Check the bandwidth you are actually getting and what you have set in Preferences → Network & Files → Connection. Please refer to this page for specifics.

• Go to top menu, Advanced → Debug Settings, and in the window that opens, type: Cmdlinedisablevoice - then ensure this is set to FALSE. (Use Crtl-Alt-D to enable the Advanced menu, if it isn't.)

Some have issues with voice on Firestorm - specifically, “stuttering”, or SLVoice crashing when you unplug a USB device. The only work-around currently is to swap out the voice files.

• To this end, download this file; save it to your hard drive. Make sure you do not have Firestorm running. Then extract the files to your Firestorm install folder. (For Firestorm 32-bit viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm on 32 bit Windows, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Firestorm on Windows 64-bit. For Firestorm 64-bit Viewer, this is typically located at C:\Program Files\Firestorm.) When prompted, allow the replacement of existing files.

Try disabling compatibility mode, if enabled:

• Locate your desktop shortcut for Firestorm
• Right click on the icon and select Properties
• Select the Compatibility tab
• Find “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” if it is set then disable this
• Make sure “Run as Administrator” is enabled (if this is greyed out, then you're probably already running as administrator, so you can ignore this step).
• Click Apply.
• Now log back into the viewer, and see if voice works (do you have the white dot over your head?). If not, go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice and disable voice; wait a few moments, then re-enable. ¹⁾

On Windows 7, if you find yourself being able to talk but not hear what others say, then a possible solution is to use the sound drivers from Vista. (This needs further confirmation.)

Check that slvoice.exe is not muted in the speaker/headphones icon (located in the notification area) → mixer.

Every linux distro is different; and each distro may have more than one window manager to further complicate things. So tips can't be “absolute”; you will need to experiment and see what works for you. The following have been suggested by some as effective. But first….

In the Firestorm install directory, there's a text file (originally from LL) with tips on getting voice to work in linux. If you haven't read that, then you can try to see if it helps.

• Make sure you have ALSA and/or FMODEX available. FMODEX is supplied with Firestorm, normally. If you look at Help → About Firestorm, you should see a line that resembles this:
  Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.11.753 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: PulseAudio Software
  If that says “none” then you have no audio driver available to Firestorm and need to install one.

• Edit the firestorm shell script and remove the #. That will force LL to use FMOD rather than ALSA. Some say this is how to get voice working.

#export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x

• Some swear that the problem is PulseAudio, so you can try to remove that from your system. Be warned, however, that this could cause more problems than it solves. Make sure you remove only Pulse and not half the OS.
• Be sure to have the correct devices select in Firestorm for voice:
  
  Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings (button) … input and output may not work if left at default; they may need to go to a specific device like “ALSA Capture on [device name]”.

Below are results for selected linux distros, based on input from Phoenix and Firestorm users. This will be updated as more information becomes available.

• ubuntu 16.04 64 bit + FS64: The following command installs a few 32-bit libs and voice works after. Maybe you need fewer 32-bit libs but that needs further investigation.
  Apparently, arch requires these as well - or some of them - though the exact lib name may be different.

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio:i386 libidn11:i386 libuuid1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

• A new option in Firestorm 4.7.9 is a debug setting, FSLinuxEnableWin32VoiceProxy, which when enabled will cause Firestorm to launch the Windows version of SLVoice.exe via WINE. To use this, you need to ensure that WINE is installed; install WINE with your package manager. An existing WINE profile/prefix is not needed, but will be used if present. Depending on your system, it may take several seconds before voice comes up.
  NOTES:
  * If you disable voice and then re-enable too quickly, WINE may not successfully restart and voice may fail to re-enable. If you get the warning that there was a problem connecting, you will need to relog before voice will re-enable. Thirty seconds between disable and enable should be enough.
  * There is a known related issue here
  * To speed up the initial loading of voice, use

  wine-preloader $HOME/path/to/firestorm/bin/win32/SLVoice.exe

  before launching Firestorm

If you are unable to connect to voice and you are also having problems with teleporting and/or loading your friends list, perhaps along with other things, then see the “Mac-specific” section of this page for instructions and more explanation.

Some Mountain Lion users experience a problem with voice output, while input works fine (that is, you can hear but you can't speak). To fix this, open the voice preferences for your viewer (Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice in Firestorm). Click the device settings button and select “built-in microph” as the audio input device and click OK. Reopen Preferences and go back to the device settings button to ensure you're getting sound in on the mic.

If things around you remain grey for a long time, or objects take a long time to pop into position, this is essentially because the data has not yet been sent to your viewer. There are a number of possible causes, and solutions or at least work-arounds:

• If you have Webroot SecureAnywhere antivirus installed, refer to this page.

• Power down your router and/or modem. This generally means unplugging it from the power source. Leave them disconnected for at least a full minute before reconnecting. Wait for them to complete the power up sequence, then reboot your computer.

• Teleport out, then back in.

• The region is badly lagged (many avatars present, too many scripts running, etc.) and so the region server is using all its time processing and has very little time left over to deliver textures and other data to you. The best way to cope with this is to reduce the demand you make; in other words, reduce your draw distance, even to 12m or less, and wait until textures and objects have loaded before you increase it again.

• You are experiencing packet loss or, more generally, have a poor network connection. Or your bandwidth slider may be set too high. Bring up the stats bar with Shift-Ctrl-1 and check Packet Loss and Ping Sim. Ideally, packet loss should be 0.0%, and Ping Sim under 200ms.

• Determine optimal bandwidth: refer here.

• You can also try to have less textures draw all at once by reducing draw distance when you teleport. You can do this manually, or make use of the built in Progressive Draw Distance function.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Another possibility is that DNS look-up is failing. Try changing DNS to google; see this page for details.

• Some other program on your computer might be interfering with your viewer's connection to SL, like a firewall or anti-virus. Try disabling them temporarily, to see if things improve. If they do, you have isolated the problem. Whitelisting the viewer and cache folder would probably help.

• It has been reported that on Windows, the Aero background theme will also lead to textures refusing the rez, due to how much memory this feature consumes. Uninstalling that should help.

Presents detailed information about the performance of your computer and the Second Life world.

Displays basic information about your Second Life performance. Click on the word Basic to hide or display this panel.

• FPS: The number of times per second your computer is redrawing(or refreshing) what's on the screen. Higher numbers are better. A framerate between 15-30 frames per second (FPS) is about as smooth as broadcast television.
• Bandwidth: How much data is being transferred between your computer and the Second Life world. This number varies wildly depending on what bandwidth settings you've used, where you are inworld, what's going on, and whether you're still loading some things (objects/textures/etc) that are in your field of view. If bandwidth is 0kbps, something may be wrong (you may be partially disconnected).
• Packet Loss: The amount of data being lost as it travels between your computer and the server. Any nonzero packet loss is bad; packetloss above 10% is very bad. Packet loss might be caused by a dying server (in which case everyone in the region would be experiencing it), a bad connection between you and Second Life (possibly a bad router between your ISP and Second Life, or congestion at your ISP), or problems on your local network (wireless networking, or internet security or firewall software on your computer).
• Ping Sim: How long it takes data to go from your computer to the region you're currently in. This is largely dependent on your connection to the Internet.

Displays lots of nitty-gritty details about your Second Life performance. Most of these details are less useful than Basic or Simulator. Click on the word Advanced to hide or display this panel.

Displays information related to drawing the Second Life world.

• KTris Drawn: (per frame) Computer-generated 3D objects are built out of triangles (the basic geometric shape). This is a count of the number of triangles, or “tris”, in each frame of the current scene.
• KTris Drawn: (per second) This is a count of the number of triangles (“tris”) drawn every second.
• Total Objs: The number of objects currently in view, which includes:
  • Prims
  • Avatars
  • Terrain patches
  • Trees
  • Particle groups
  • Water patches
• New Objs: The number of objects being downloaded per second.

Detailed information on the textures currently in use. Click on the word Texture to hide or display this panel.

• Count: The number of unique textures loaded by the viewer.
• Raw Count: The number of textures loaded by the viewer that have been paged out (exist in application memory and not driver memory).
• GL Mem: The amount of driver memory consumed by textures.
• Formatted Mem:
• Raw Mem: The amount of application memory consumed by textures.
• Bound Mem: The memory size of all textures bound for rendering per frame.

Displays statistics for the region (simulator) you're currently in. Click on the word Simulator to hide or display this panel.

NOTE: an “agent” is either a user in a given region (a “main agent”) or a user in a neighboring region (a “child agent”). Any user who can see objects inside a simulator region increases the load on that simulator. The nominal values below are for simulators running on a single simulator per CPU. On other simulators (such as water simulators), these number will be different.

• Time Dilation: The physics simulation rate relative to realtime. 1.0 means that the simulator is running at full speed; 0.5 means that physics are running at half-speed.
• Sim FPS: The simulator frame rate. This should now always be the same as the physics frame rate: 45.0 when things are running well.
• Physics FPS: The frame rate at which the physics engine is running. This should normally be at or near 45.0.
• Agent Updates/Sec: The rate at which agents on this simulator are being updated. Normally 20 updates a second, this will decrease if the simulator has a large number of agents on it.
• Main Agents: The number of agents (users) who are on this simulator.
• Child Agents: The number of agents who are not on this simulator, but can see it.
• Objects: The total number of primitives on the simulator. This value does not include primitives being worn as attachments.
• Active Objects: The number of objects containing active scripts on the simulator. This value does not include scripts inside attachments, unless the attachment wearer is sitting on a scripted object.
• Active Scripts: The number of running scripts that are currently on the simulator, including scripts attached to agents and objects.
• Script Perf: Number of LSL opcodes being executed a second by the simulator. Note that this is the number of ACTUAL instructions executed in the last second, not the theoretical maximum opcodes/second. If your simulator is not running very many scripts, this number will be low even if performance is good.
• Packets In: UDP packets being received by the simulator.
• Packets Out: UDP packets being sent by the simulator.
• Pending Downloads: Number of asset downloads to the simulator that are pending. If this is greater than 1, this means that you may see delays in viewing notecards or scripts, and rezzing objects.
• Pending Uploads: Number of current uploads of asset data pending. If this number is non-zero, this means that there may be performance issues when attempting to teleport.
• Total Unacked Bytes: The size of the reliable packet data sitting on the server waiting to be acknowledged. A large number may indicate a thin pipe or other possible problems between the viewer and the sim.

The following are the different times listed in the Time section of the Statistics bar. Click Time to hide or display this panel.

• Total Frame Time: The sum of all time values listed below it, this measures how much time it takes the simulator to run everything that the simulator is trying to do each frame.
  • < 22 ms: The simulator is healthy, everything is running as fast as it can, and more scripts can be added without reducing the performance of individual scripts.
  • approx. 22 ms: The simulator is healthy, but there are probably a lot of scripts and agents on the simulator, meaning that script execution is being slowed down in order to maintain the simulator frame rate.
  • > 22 ms: The simulator is experiencing severe load, either due to physics or a large number of agents, such that even by slowing down script execution it is impossible to compensate. The simulator frame rate has been reduced as a result.
• Net Time: The amount of time spent responding to incoming network data.
• Sim Time (Physics): The amount of time that frame spent running physics simulations. In general, this should be less than 5 milliseconds.
• Sim Time (Other): The amount of time that frame spent running other simulations (agent movement, weather simulation, etc.)
• Agent Time: The amount of time spent updating and transmitting object data to the agents.
• Images Time: The amount of time spent updating and transmitting image data to the agents.
• Script Time: The amount of time spent running scripts.
• Spare Time: The amount of time that is available or unused.

From http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewerhelp:Statistics

There are different kinds of problems with missing inventory that can take place; those that are controllable at the viewer or computer end are generally reversible. Problems caused by the Second Life asset server are not always fixable.

If items that you rezzed out in-world are missing, then refer to this page instead.

• If the number of items appears correct, but not everything is showing, reset your inventory filters. On most viewer skins, this means clicking the Gear menu at the bottom of your inventory and selecting “Reset Filters.” On Vintage skin (this is what you're using if you logged in with Phoenix Mode) or Ansastorm skin, click Inventory → Reset Filters in the inventory menu.

• If you are looking for Marketplace items using Inventory search, and they are not showing, ensure that you have the Received items folder shown in inventory, rather than as a button: Preferences → User Interface → Interface Windows → Show the Received Items folder in normal inventory. Or, click the Received button to see what items are in there.

• If a system folder is missing, you may have opted to hide empty system folders: Preferences → User Interface → Interface Windows → Hide empty system folders from inventory

• In your inventory, type letters into the search filter. It doesn't matter what letters; the purpose is to prod the search into finding more items. If the fetch stalls again, pick a different letter.

• For any/all folders that appear to be missing inventory, try creating a new item, of the appropriate type, in the folder. So for example, if you appear to be missing things in the Clothing folder, right-click the folder name → New Clothes → New Shirt. Then relog.

• Try clearing your inventory cache.
  • On recent versions of Firestorm, open Preferences -> Network & Files -> Directories, then click the Clear Inventory Cache button, then relog.
  • On older versions, you will have to clear inventory cache manually, as follows:
    • Go to Preferences → Network & Files; beside Cache Location, click on Open. A window opens showing the contexts of the cache folder.
    • Leave that window open, and log out of Firestorm.
    • Make sure the folder is set to show file extensions.
    • Locate the file whose name ends in .inv.gz, and delete that file.
    • Log back in - preferably to one of the locations given above: at the log in screen, you can select log in location; type in one of the region names indicated above.
  • Additional notes: If clearing inventory cache does not fix the problem the first time you try it, then it probably won't work on additional attempts, so don't keep doing it (though multiple relogs without cache clears may help).

If your inventory is still not loading fully, then the issue may be a network or connection problem. General suggestions for problems that may be connection-related are:

• If you are on a wireless connection and are able to wire it in, do so.

• Reboot your router/modem, leaving it unplugged and unpowered for a minimum of two minutes before powering it back up again.
  • If you have access to a different connection, try connecting your computer to it temporarily.

• If the inventory is still not fetching all the way, view our page on bandwidth and speedtests to make sure your bandwidth is set optimally in the viewer. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, we have found that lower bandwidth settings usually allow for more reliable inventory loading than higher settings.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Please download the official SL viewer, install it, log in on it and see if the items show up there. If they do, then the problem is probably either loading or caching in Firestorm, and you can follow the set of suggestions below under “Advanced Method: Inventory Copy from SL Viewer.” If the items don't show up in any viewer, then there is a good chance they're missing from the asset server, which means the problem may not be fixable.
  

Back on Firestorm, if your inventory count still looks lower than it should be or stalls in the middle of fetching items, then:

• If the above steps have not worked for you, continue on to the next step:

Start by finding your avatar key while logged into Firestorm or another viewer that displays it - see the figure to the right; the UUID is highlighted in green.

It is a string of letters and numbers that appears in your legacy-style profile, though the exact location will vary because different skin options display it differently. If you use web profiles, you will need to switch into the legacy profile to find it. (In Firestorm, this is in Preferences -> User Interface -> Interface Windows→ Use web profiles by default.) You can return to the web profile style afterward. When you find your key, just copy it down somewhere.

Now you will need the latest release version of the SL viewer, so if you don't have it installed yet, download and install it. Then, log into the SL Viewer and get your inventory loaded in that viewer. This might work with any other viewer, as well, but the SL Viewer is the only one we've tested with. Once your inventory is loaded there, log out.

Locate your Second Life cache folder and your Firestorm cache folder on your hard drive. Our clearing cache page will help you locate where that is (just replace “Firestorm” with “SecondLife” in the path name. Don't clear either cache! Just use the paths shown to find the folders.

Note: You must be LOGGED OUT of both viewers before doing the next step.

In the Second Life cache folder, find the file named with your avatar key and ending in “inv.gz”. Drop or copy this file into your Firestorm cache folder. Allow it to replace the one there.

Log into Firestorm and check to see if your inventory is there.

Avoid clearing cache or you may need to do this process again.

Please note: Under normal circumstances, you should not share cache between viewers because it can cause other weird problems. This suggestion should not be read as an indication that setting your cache in different viewers to the same place would be useful. It won't be.

For additional ideas, also refer to the Second Life wiki page on Inventory Loss.