Fresh SpeakHere example app has error when recording audio in Simulator/Xcode

Question

I can't record audio using the SpeakHere example app from apple. When I run the app in Simulator from within Xcode, it starts up normally, but when I press the record button, the error "Thread 1: EXC_BREAKPOINT (code=EXC_I386_BPT, subcode=0x0)" occurs:

The log message about the missing root view controller at app startup is already there BEFORE the above error occurs and it is probably not connected to my problem.

I have downloaded the SpeakHere example project from the linked website (see top of this question), opened the fresh download in Xcode and directly started the app. I did not modify any setting and not any line of code. I've also searched on google and stackoverflow for this problem and didn't find a solution, although this problem must be very general.

I use Xcode Version 4.5.2 (4G2008a) and a MacBook Pro from late 2009 with Mac OS X 10.8.

I've also had a friend try this on his computer and he has the very same problem. He has the same OS and his XCode version is also 4.5.2.

I would now try older Xcode versions, but right now I don't like to download a few gigabytes for a trial'n'error approach on my connection.

Any help appreciated, including reports like "works for me with Xcode version ...". Thanks!

Answer 1

The problem occurs because in the method AQRecorder::StartRecord(CFStringRef inRecordFile), the function CFURLCreateWithString() fails and returns a pointer to nil. This is not detected and later on the code calls CFRelease() on this nil pointer, which causes the EXC_BREAKPOINT.

The purpose of the method CFURLCreateWithString() basically is to take a url string as input and return a pointer to a CFURL object as output. The problem here is that the input is not a url string. Instead, it's simply a path on the local file system without file:/ or the like as prefix. For this reason, this method fails.

The solution is to remove the not-working call to the method CFURLCreateWithString() and instead call a related method, namely CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(), which is prepared to take a local file system path and convert it to a CFURL:

In the method AQRecorder::StartRecord(CFStringRef inRecordFile), replace or comment out the line

url = CFURLCreateWithString(kCFAllocatorDefault, (CFStringRef)recordFile, NULL);

and insert

url = CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(kCFAllocatorDefault, (CFStringRef)recordFile, kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle, false);

at its place.