Does anyone happen to know if Pentair is going to release a version of Screenlogic Connect that will work with the lates MacOs update (Catalina)? The problem is that it needs to be a 64 bit app and it is only 32 until it receives an update. I can find one for windows but no luck on a Mac.
Pentair Screenlogic and Mac Catalina
- Thread starter goldmaes
- Start date
If software was originally designed to assume that an integer and a pointer to an integer are both 32bits, then you can have a lot of rewriting to do. Not always by the end software developer, but library developers as well. Catalina being 64bit only, has created a massive headache for everyone, not just Pentair...
the_sphynx
Well-known member
Gold,
I agree. Unfortunately Pentair isn't a software company. I do think it's interesting that when I look at ScreenLogic Connect's settings on my Mac as I type this, it really uses a port of Wine. Wine is like a way to layer Windows apps on top of Linux (or a Mac in this case). My gut tells me that "winetricks" is probably the culprit here. Most other software libraries listed are very popular libraries and I can almost guarantee that they have x64 branches.
Other interesting libraries are the libmpg123 which is typically used to compile/convert various video formats...not sure why that is used but you never know what the core code does.
Libraries that my Mac shows ScreenLogic Connect uses:
Other free software (or libraries from the software) included (with completely
unmodified source) are available at their respective websites.
cabextract - cabextract
freetype - http://freetype.sourceforge.net/
libjpeg - Independent JPEG Group
libmpg123 - mpg123, Fast MP3 Player for Linux and UNIX systems
libpng - LIBPNG
libsane - SANE - Scanner Access Now Easy
libtiff - LibTIFF - TIFF Library and Utilities
libxslt - libxslt
winetricks - Winetricks - WineHQ Wiki
I agree. Unfortunately Pentair isn't a software company. I do think it's interesting that when I look at ScreenLogic Connect's settings on my Mac as I type this, it really uses a port of Wine. Wine is like a way to layer Windows apps on top of Linux (or a Mac in this case). My gut tells me that "winetricks" is probably the culprit here. Most other software libraries listed are very popular libraries and I can almost guarantee that they have x64 branches.
Other interesting libraries are the libmpg123 which is typically used to compile/convert various video formats...not sure why that is used but you never know what the core code does.
Libraries that my Mac shows ScreenLogic Connect uses:
Other free software (or libraries from the software) included (with completely
unmodified source) are available at their respective websites.
cabextract - cabextract
freetype - http://freetype.sourceforge.net/
libjpeg - Independent JPEG Group
libmpg123 - mpg123, Fast MP3 Player for Linux and UNIX systems
libpng - LIBPNG
libsane - SANE - Scanner Access Now Easy
libtiff - LibTIFF - TIFF Library and Utilities
libxslt - libxslt
winetricks - Winetricks - WineHQ Wiki
Just lost the ability to run Screenlogic after the upgrade to Catalina, even after jumping through the new security hoop. Thanks for explaining why; the 64 bit requirement, it will never run. "Unfortunately Pentair isn't a software company", true that. But any company that enters the world of automation should snap-to and realize that they have become a software company. I suspect sometimes the old guard still thinks of IT as just another annoying expense. They don't dedicate the resources to hire top notch talent, or worse, outsource the project to the cheapest bidder with no one at the hiring company understanding the software development process.
Leik
Silver Supporter
I’ve been wondering the same thing and emailed Pentair and this is the exact response I received:
“Good morning, at this time technical support has not been given any ETA or news for this update. As you can imagine this is an extremely popular request, so I am going to forward it direct to our product managers. As techs here we have no idea when or if this is ever going to come out as of right now, so my personal protocol is to forward every inquiry over to the managers in hopes that it kick starts this at some point.
Technical Support Representative
Pentair
293 Wright Street
Delavan, Wi, 53115, US
1.800.831.71
So I would recommend that everyone who is effected should email too. If enough people complain, maybe they’ll resolve it.
“Good morning, at this time technical support has not been given any ETA or news for this update. As you can imagine this is an extremely popular request, so I am going to forward it direct to our product managers. As techs here we have no idea when or if this is ever going to come out as of right now, so my personal protocol is to forward every inquiry over to the managers in hopes that it kick starts this at some point.
Technical Support Representative
Pentair
293 Wright Street
Delavan, Wi, 53115, US
1.800.831.71
So I would recommend that everyone who is effected should email too. If enough people complain, maybe they’ll resolve it.
To the "massive headache for everyone" statement, I'll add that even HP has trouble with its Easy Scan application and HP is definitely capable of dealing with this issue.
LostBard
Member
This is EXACTLY the issue; and like you said, if they contract it out, it'll suck because the contracting company doesn't actually "understand" what they're building. Like a good person, I sent my nag email as well, but I wasn't near as nice as you might have been. Quite frankly, all MacOS developers have known for over a two years that Catalina was coming and was deprecating 32bit applications. It's not like this just "snuck up" on them.
As a developer, let me pull back even more of the curtain here. To expand on what @the_sphynx says above, the "MacOS" version of ScreenLogic 2 is not a native MacOS application. It is actually the Windows version that was being run in Wine, hence the inclusion of the winetricks library. This is why it always looked and behaved like a Windows application — it actually was. The MacOS version of Wine is currently not 64 bit and so won't run on MacOS Catalina for the reasons stated above. If you'd like to see the gnarly discussion about 64bit Wine on Catalina, there is a lively discussion going on.
I have a possible solution if you are willing to do some expermineting. Over Christmas I wrote an API & UI (with deployment scripts) that can talk to and control a ScreenLogic based on a base nodejs library by a guy called "Parnic".
It does come with some caveats:
- This is not a complete replacement for the ScreenLogic software on MacOS, as it can't do scheduling and it can't pull the history graphs (because the underlying library can't do those things), but it can do all the basic functions, i.e. turn pool/spa on or off, turn on heater and set setpoint, and modify lights.
- This is a website/api that will run on a server. If you have a NAS that supports Docker (like a Synology or Asustor), it will run on that. I have it running on my Asustor NAS in my house.
- The deployment scripts require Docker. I have tried to make deploying it as easy as possible.
- I'd appreciate people trying it out and giving me feedback!
- If you try it out and have problems, please PM me and I'll gladly help.
- I will gladly accept Pull Requests from anybody that wants to add features or knows Angular better than I do.
- I'm also working on a "native" running version of this based on Electron.
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So yah, still cannot run Screenlogic on a Mac. Amazing a multimillion dollar company can't afford to have one guy get this ported over. It's not like he is even writing a Mac specific app. Pathetic.
Very annoying. Thankfully I still have an old MacBook that I was able to fire up to update the brick and at least Screenlog runs on that laptop. Very frustrating I cannot use a modern iMac with Catalina to run ScreenLogic and this version of MacOS has been out for 7 months.
Sent an email to their tech support and got back a response that basically indicates they don't care I can use my phone. PLEASE take time to email or call them and ask them to get this updated, only if enough people complain will it get fixed.
burjoes
I recently discovered, that posting on their (Pentair's) facebook page, garners a fairly immediate response, if your efforts with Tech Support go nowhere.
Good luck,
r.
I emailed them in January and their response was that it wasn't a priority. I just posted to their FB page. I usually have the latest software and upgrades so going to 64bit wasn't something I was going to postpone. As someone above said, if they are going to be in the home automation space they need to support what they sell.
Based on How to get Wine working on Catalina? there's a couple of options for Pentair. Maybe they could create a 64-bit version of the app (for Windows) and use WINE 5, or work with CodeWeavers who developed CrossOver which can run Windows 32-bit apps and work out a licensing agreement.
I was forced yesterday to upgrade to the latest Catalina, which broke Screenlogic of course. Won't even launch.
Apparently PlayOnMac works on Catalina which might very well help with ScreenLogic. Worth a try I guess.
r.
Wonder if it will work on Big Sur which is scheduled to be released in September/October I believe?Home - PlayOnMac - Run your Windows applications on Mac easily!
PlayOnMac will allow you to play your favorite games on Mac easilywww.playonmac.com
r.
If my memory is correct, isn't there certain setups/configurations that cannot be done on the Screenlogic phone app? Like setting up or editing an existing Feature?
I was able to install the Windows version with PlayOnMac. Install the windows setup.exe using a 32bit wine from the play-on installer. Haven't been able to get the direct link to work yet, so I have to launch from within PlayOnMac, but the app does work well.
