Video capture not working in Mac OS Catalina (and later)

[grauwald]

Running the example file that comes with the Processing video library throws the following error:

libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException Could not run the sketch (Target VM failed to initialize). Make sure that you haven't set the maximum available memory too high. For more information, read revisions.txt and Help → Troubleshooting.

This issue is also reported here:

https://discourse.processing.org/t/did-macos-catalina-or-something-break-the-video-library/14699

There is some speculation in that thread that the library depends on 32bit compiled code which is no longer supported in Mac OS Catalina as Apple is now requiring applications be 64bit.

Resolving this issue is beyond my expertise but it would be awesome if Mac users could continue to use the video library without having to downgrade to older versions of OS X.

[grauwald]

Some further info on this for anyone willing and able to tackle it. As the Video library is built off GStreamer decided to take a look at that project directly and found a recent commit that adds support of Mac OS X Catalina:

GStreamer/cerbero@2c9fc16

Perhaps this is as simple as integrating this new build?

[suyashcjoshi]

I'm seeing the same problem, even simple Processing Video example Sketch is not working on Mac OS Catalina.

[suyashcjoshi]

Some further info on this for anyone willing and able to tackle it. As the Video library is built off GStreamer decided to take a look at that project directly and found a recent commit that adds support of Mac OS X Catalina:

GStreamer/cerbero@2c9fc16

Perhaps this is as simple as integrating this new build?

I tried to look but can't figure out where to make change in order to integrate the new build of cerbero.

[james628]

I am looking forward to catch this bug.
Please solve and release.
Thank you.

[grauwald]

@codeanticode it looks like you are the primary maintainer of this lib. Any chance Mac OS Catalina will be supported in the future?

[codeanticode]

@grauwald Definitely, this is a high-priority issue. I haven't installed Mac OS Catalina yet, so I'm curious if you have tried the latest beta, does it work with it?

[vdurnev]

@codeanticode I can confirm that with latest beta build video examples stat working again. There is another issue with samples - you have to pass camera name to Capture constructor). This code: video = new Capture(this, width, height); generates null pointer exception, but video = new Capture(this,320, 240, "FaceTime HD Camera"); works

[codeanticode]

@vdurnev this is great news, thanks a lot for testing! The other issue you mentioned has been fixed with this PR: #135

[larspai]

Super news. How does an ordinary user get access to this update? (No update available in install library menu...?)

[grauwald]

@codeanticode was able to successfully run the latest beta of v2 of the video library. Yay!!!

For those coming along trying to do this, had to do some command line to get OS X to give permissions to run the .dylib used by the lib. Based on this hackish solution here: Jackett/Jackett#5589 (comment)

Guessing the final release of this lib will be signed and verified so this security issue in Catalina won't be a problem.

[ihaveaccount]

v2 library works on catalina, thank you @codeanticode

How to install

• replace ~/Documents/processing/libraries/video with "video" folder from https://github.com/processing/processing-video/releases/tag/r6-v2.0-beta4
• open console, cd to ~/Documents/processing/libraries/video/library/macosx

$ xattr -p com.apple.quarantine libavcodec.58.35.100.dylib
it will return string like this:
0081;5dc1bfaa;Chrome;78F18F7D-3F71-4E55-8D58-BAB946AB4707

replace 0081 with 00c1 and copy string

then replace STRING in the following command with your string
$ xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "STRING" *.dylib
it will fix all libraries in this folder

then cd to gstreamer-1.0/ and run command again

[larspai]

Worked for me. Thanks!

[easytarget2000]

Thanks a lot, @ihaveaccount. That did the trick.
There were two parts that I struggled with for a second:

then replace STRING in the following command with your string
$ xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "STRING" *.dylib

Don't forget the quotation marks!

then cd to gstreamer-1.0/ and run command again

At first, I skipped over this part, as I thought it was talking about re-running the project at this point. gstreamer-1.0/, however, is a sub-dir of library/macosx/. You're supposed to run the xattr -w command in both directories.

It might have been my lack of reading comprehension, but I figured I'd share this as there will be many users in need of this solution over the next couple of days.

You want to run something like this:
$ cd ~/Documents/processing/libraries/video/library/macosx
$ xattr -p com.apple.quarantine libavcodec.58.35.100.dylib
$ xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "00c1;5dc1bfaa;Chrome;78F18F7D-3F71-4E55-8D58-BAB946AB4707" *.dylib
$ cd gstreamer-1.0
$ xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "00c1;5dc1bfaa;Chrome;78F18F7D-3F71-4E55-8D58-BAB946AB4707" *.dylib

Also, be aware that your Processing sketchbook might not be in ~/Documents/processing/, if you have configured the path yourself.