Product Documentation
Virtuoso Studio Known Problems and Solutions
Product Version IC23.1, November 2023

Known Problems and Solutions in Virtuoso Studio Design Environment

This document describes the known issues with Virtuoso Studio Design Environment and suggests the workarounds for these issues. Each issue is identified by a Cadence Change Request (CCR) number.

Unless otherwise stated, the issues described in this document were identified in IC23.1 or an earlier release. For a list of the issues that were fixed in this release, check the README file at downloads.cadence.com.

Related Topics

Virtuoso Studio Design Environment

Virtuoso Studio Design Environment What’s New

CCR 2809626: Displaying non-modal dbox "deDBox", title "Problem with cds.lib file” when creating a new cellview

Description: An error message related to cds.lib occurs when the user creates a new cellview and ddUpdateLibList() was cancelled by the geiUpateLibListTrigger() trigger function.

Solution:Close the cellviews specified by the geDBox using File - Close Data. Also, do not delete libraries from cds.lib when there are open cellviews from the specified libraries.

CCR 2725740: dbus processes keep running after the Innovus job is done with version 22.10

Description: The dbus-launch and dbus-daemon processes keep running after closing the program and need to be ended manually.

Solution: This issue occurs when the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS or CDS_QT_ENABLE_DBUS_AUTOLAUNCH is enabled in the environment. To resolve the issue, disable these shell environment variables.

Problem: Virtuoso exits abruptly when it is launched in the foreground and the terminal closes.

Description: When Virtuoso is launched from a terminal in the foreground, and the terminal is closed, the Virtuoso session exits without warning and the output of commands that write to STDOUT or STDERR in the parent shell are lost.

Solution: Ensure that you launch the Virtuoso session in the background. Additionally, ensure that outputs are directed to log files, which you can access later. Alternatively, you can use the Linux screen or bg commands. For information on how to start Virtuoso, see the Starting Cadence Software section of the Virtuoso Design Environment User Guide.

CCR 1420213: Detect and warn when XRender is missing

Description: The RENDER extension on the X server is required for proper font rendering and drawing operations. If the current display does not have the RENDER extension, this will result in poor font appearance and sub-optimal drawing performance.

Solution: You can use the following command to check if a particular display has the RENDER extension:

xdpyinfo [-d <DISPLAY>] | grep RENDER

If RENDER is present, this should print RENDER; if it is absent, nothing will be printed.

To resolve this situation, enable the RENDER extension in the X server configuration and restart the X server.

For more information, see the Setting Fonts using the .cdsinit File section of the Virtuoso Design Environment User Guide.

CCR 2259415: Graphic area of session window is destroyed under EoD

Description: Graphic and session window gets damaged in the EoD session.

Solution: This issue occurs when you use the old version of EoD. You need to use the latest version of the EoD server.

CCR 1059421: Viewfile window does not show the end of the file

Description: In a viewfile window, the vertical scrollbar does not reach the bottom of the window, which gives an appearance that more information is expected.

Solution: There is no workaround available.

CCR 944227: Bitmap and JPEG format limitation

Description: Bitmap and JPEG formats are not allowed to set a transparent background. Therefore, you cannot perform operations like exporting an image from VSE with a transparent background in the bitmap or JPEG format.

Workaround: For a transparent background. use the PNG format instead of bitmap and JPEG.

CCR 874983: Images from Copy to Clipboard, Through Export Image, Cannot Be Pasted in OpenOffice

Description: The File – Export Image option in VSE and VLS can successfully copy an image to X window’s clipboard, but that image cannot then be reliably pasted into all versions of OpenOffice.

Solution: This issue impacts a range of applications, not just Virtuoso. We recommend that you use a later version of OpenOffice. For example, OpenOffice 3.2.0 has been tested to work as expected.

CCR 874983: Images from Copy to Clipboard, Through Export Image, Cannot Be Pasted in OpenOffice

Description: The File – Export Image option in VSE and VLS can successfully copy an image to X window’s clipboard, but that image cannot then be reliably pasted into all versions of OpenOffice.

Solution: This issue impacts a range of applications, not just Virtuoso. We recommend that you use a later version of OpenOffice. For example, OpenOffice 3.2.0 has been tested to work as expected.

CCR 856322: CDS_LOAD_ENV and csfLookupConfig interaction results in confusing behavior

Description: Setting both CDS_LOAD_ENV and csfLookupConfig (to load .cdsenv) are incompatible and may result in an unintended load order for .cdsenv files.

Solution: Specify either CDS_LOAD_ENV or csfLookupConfig to customize .cdsenv loading order.

CCR 840571: Session management can cause bad exits from Virtuoso

Description: Use of session management can result in forced exits from Virtuoso that result in crashes.

Solution: Unset the environment variable SESSION_MANAGER:

csh: unsetenv SESSION_MANAGER
sh: SESSION_MANAGER=

CCR 608762: Torn off or floating pop-up menus are tied to the CIW for visibility and will not show up if CIW is iconified

Description: In any Virtuoso graphics editor, when you right-mouse-button (RMB) click the design canvas, you will get a context sensitive pop-up menu. This pop-up menu can be made to float, also known as “torn off”, by clicking on the "----" line at the top of the menu.

You may assume that the visibility of a floating pop-up menu will follow that of the graphics editor. In other words, if you iconify the graphics editor, the pop-up menu should be iconified along with that editor. This is not however the case, rather, the visibility of the floating pop-up menu is tied to the visibility of the CIW. The worst case scenario would occur if you have the CIW iconified. A pop-up menu made to float when CIW is iconified will not appear, and you may be confused about its correct operation.

Solution: True to ensure that the CIW is not iconified.

CCR 368282: libelf warning messages on SUSE results

Description: IC61X fails to start on a SuSE 9 based Linux OS due to different libelf shared library versions.

The libelf shared library versions on SLES 9 are different than on RHEL 2.1/3.0, and the libXm shared library versions on SLES 9 are different than on RHEL 2.1. An error message similar to the following appears in this situation.

*Error_Message:

install path/tools.lnx86/dfII/bin/32bit/icfb.exe: error while loading shared libraries:libelf.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Solution: To correct this situation, do the following.

  1. Ensure the following are installed on your machine.
    libelf.so.0 in /usr/lib64
    libXm.so.3 in /usr/X11R6/lib
  2. Check that the following links (created at installation) are present on your machine.
    install path/tools.lnx86/lib/64bit/SuSE/libelf.so.1 links to "/usr/lib64/libelf.so.0"
    install path/tools.lnx86/lib/SuSE/libXm.so.2 links to "/usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.so.3"
  3. Add the following information to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.
    install path/tools.lnx86/lib/64bit/SuSE (for running 64bit executables)

install path/tools.lnx86/lib/SuSE
(for running 32bit executables)

CCR 98747: Should XScale magnify irregular view names

Description: XScale and other DFII applications do not understand file system mapped directory names. Mapped library, view, and cell directory names can contain hexadecimal numbers, used to represent the special characters in the user name. For example, the original user-supplied name “layout.placed” is understood correctly, but the mapped file system equivalent name “layout#2eplaced” is not understood.

Solution: For library, cell, and view directory names, you need to enter the original user-supplied name, not the mapped file system name. This applies to graphical user interface forms, the command line in the Command Interpreter Window, and code.

CCR 98568: OA: XScale can not magnify multipart paths

Description: XScale does not work well for multipart paths (MPPs). Currently, XScale successfully scales the master path, but not subparts.

Solution: Do not use XScale on MPPs that have subparts. If you must change the size of an MPP that has subparts, you can use the rodUnNameShape function to convert the MPP into regular shapes, and then use XScale on the resulting shapes. However, you cannot convert the shapes back into an MPP.

  1. Restart the IC61X executable. The software starts and a warning appears stating the version information is not available. This warning can be ignored – the software is now working as intended.
    install path/lnx86/pink/tools/dfII/bin/32bit/icfb.exe: 
install path/lnx86/pink/tools/lib/SuSE/libelf.so.1: 
no version information available 
(required by install path/lnx86/pink/tools/lib/libvirtuos_sh.so)

CCR 2777422: Health Monitor is listing unknown processes

Description: In the Health Monitor form, the Process ID field is also listing non-Virtuoso processes.

Solution: The Health Monitor form lists all the child processes of Virtuoso because they might affect the performance of Virtuoso.

For example, the libSelect process is the Library Selector (also known as the Library Browser) appears in the Process ID listing when you click Browser on the Virtuoso form. This application is different from the Library Manager (libManager) process.

To check all the active child processes,

Additional information:

CCR 2828597: Issue when following subsequent links between manuals in Doc Assistant’s Offline mode

Description: If you follow a cross-reference link from one product manual to another, in Doc Assistant’s Offline mode, subsequent link selections within that manual will not work.

Workaround: If possible, switch to Online mode. Otherwise, if restricted to Offline mode, click Back on the page where links are not working to open the previous page. Click the product manual name in the breadcrumbs and select the required topic from the Topic of Contents.

General Issues

Problem: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) error

Description: If you start different desktops from the same display (whether it is a local or remote display, or a VNC server), you might see the following error:

Qt Warning: X Error: BadWindow (invalid Window parameter) 3
Major opcode: 20 (X_GetProperty)
Resource id:  0x2000090

For example, if you start KDE on your VNC server, exit it, then start CDE or GNOME on the same VNC server, you might see this error.

Solution: Exit the X server or kill the VNC server and reconfigure it to use a different desktop before or during login or before starting another VNC server.

In general, if you want to change your desktop and ensure that Virtuoso applications correctly identify it, log out of your X session (if you are using VNC, kill the VNC server), and modify the startup script and properties to ensure that the correct desktop is run when the server is started. If you start the server with one desktop/window manager, then switch to another without exiting the X server or killing and restarting the VNC server, some properties for the first desktop/window manager may still remain attached to the display and cause errors in the Qt initialization logic that checks to see which window manager is running.


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