2.8.3 wont work and if 2.8.2 crashes nothing works

[Z-Man]

So, one question is, how does the program determine where the var directory is?

It's basically hardcoded to APPDATA/Armagetron/var. However, there is one override, and I suspect that's what is causing problems: The game data is looked for in the directory the game was installed to. Information about that comes from parsing the command line. If the game data can't be found, but is instead in the current directory, THEN the user data directory is set to the current directory and the var directory is set with it. It's supposed to be only activated while debugging, because usually the data will be found. It should be found. I'll push up a version with yet more debug information as soon as I get it built (14 hours?).

Another possibility would be that the Shortcuts are generated wronly. Could you all send the contents of the property page of the desktop shortcut? Right-click on it and select "Properties" for that.

I installed XP Home in a virtual machine yesterday to test this stuff myself. Unfortunately, everything worked.

[Angel]

New builds and instructions can be found here:
http://forums.armagetronad.net/viewtopi ... 7454#37454
Please test.

hi again, i downloaded both builds just in case, the strangest thing happened, with both of them. I installed one, clicked to start, nothing happened, no error, no game just nothing, i checked my system process just in case it was running in the background, but it wasn't, the same happened with the other one, sorry.

[Z-Man]

Your_mom reported the same behavior. He also said that the Recording shortcut in the start menu did work. I don't have a clue yet why.

[the pig]

The server is still not finding those alphas. I just got it built under codeblocks/gcc, so I'll figure it out and let you know. Build takes 2.5 minutes for me

EDIT: In the properties page, it has "C:\Program Files\Armagetron Advanced\armagetronad.exe" for the target and "C:\Program Files\Armagetron Advanced" for the start dir. Seems pretty standard.

EDIT: The problem doesn't happen when I build the beta 4 version myself. I must be doing something wrong. I CVS checked out the beta 4 branch... One odd thing is that the official beta 4 I got from source forge has the beta 4 version string in the top level menu. Mine says beta 1. If I look at CVS latest, it also says beta 1 in config_ide.h. So what I'm building with is different than what was in the official binary. I verified I did get the beta 4 version out of CVS...

[klax]

Sorry for being late answering... My new job is really time consuming and I barely have time for personal life during working days sniff

Today I've tested all these versions in XP Professional with an administrator account and a new created limited account. All tests OK. I really don't know what's happening here!! It seems goblins have returned between us hehe

I've done some tests with a limited account:
* C:\Program Files\Armagetron Advanced
If you don't have write access here stdout and stderr are not created and any error is thrown (tested)

* C:\Documents and Dettings\username\Application Data\Armagetron\var
Here is the new var dir. Of course here you will have write access because it's your account folder.

I fear I can't help here because I don't have this error at all :S

[Z-Man]

EDIT: The problem doesn't happen when I build the beta 4 version myself.

Wouldn't that rather mean that *I* am doing something wrong? It's a shame anyway, I was looking forward to a remote debug session over IRC.
Oh, did you build a full installer and install the game? Running from the dist directory would be like running it from the command line or one of the other configurations that did work for you, so it's not surprising if that works.

About the version: it's just the version identifier. For official builds, a unix script takes the CVS tag and replaces the fake with the real version string. It should, however, just say "CVS" in b0_2_8 latest. Did I forget to commit that?

Hmm, aabeta is working fine for me...

[klax]

About the version: it's just the version identifier. For official builds, a unix script takes the CVS tag and replaces the fake with the real version string. It should, however, just say "CVS" in b0_2_8 latest. Did I forget to commit that?

It seems that he is checking v0_2_8_beta4 tag from cvs and that modification was later done in b0_2_8 branch:

v0_2_8_beta4 tag:
http://cvs.sf.net/viewcvs.py/armagetron ... iew=markup

b0_2_8 branch:
http://cvs.sf.net/viewcvs.py/armagetron ... iew=markup

[Z-Man]

Thanks, Klax. And don't feel bad if you don't have time to take care of this.

Angel, Your_mom, pig: Here is a specially annoying version just for you. I added debug messageboxes all over the place. For me, they basically read:

Code: Select all

changing APPDATA to ...
changing MYPICTURES to ...
Start!
Analyzing command line.
Executable: <P>/armagetronad.exe, CWD: <P>
Executable path: <P>/armagetronad.exe
Testing existence of file <P>/... : good.
Data path <P> is good.
Testing existence of file <P>/... : good.
Configuration path <P> is good.
Initializing player data.
Loading configuration.
Making directory <APPDATA>/Armagetron/var

<APPDATA> would be the path to your user configuration (C:\Applications and Settings\...), <P> the installation path.

Please test and report deviations from this order (especially messages that read "bad!"). I'd also like to know the CWD (working directory, should be the directory you installed to). The files stderr.txt and stdout.txt will be found there. All the values of ... are important if something goes wrong.

Test procedure: take an installation of beta4 or the last alpha, open the directory you installed it to, unzip the attached archive into it. Start AA via the desktop shortcut the installation made, and with whatever method that worked for you on the last test versions. Thanks in advance.

Oh, I found a small anomaly in the installer. If you start AA the first time directly through it, the working directory will be set to the var subdirectory of the installation directory which was previously created. It should not matter, the program should not do anything special when called from there, but you never know.

[the pig]

Ok ran that. I only get one debug box:

Message from in E:\Development\AADevel\0_2_8\alpha_20051125_vc6\armagetronad\src\tools\tDirectories.cpp:296 :
Changing APPDATA to C:\Documents and Settings\Pig\Application Data

At the end of that line, there is an ASCII square. Not sure if that was planned or part of the problem.

So, from Klax's post, should I be using the b0_2_8 branch to build the latest?

EDIT: Built from b0_2_8. Still can't get it to happen... For both the v0_2_8_beta4 version and this one, I just copied the exe from the dist to my previous beta4 installation directory. I used the program menu short cut that fails with the beta4 one, and no issues with any that I compile.

[Your_mom]

Ok ran that. I only get one debug box:

Message from in E:\Development\AADevel\0_2_8\alpha_20051125_vc6\armagetronad\src\tools\tDirectories.cpp:296 :
Changing APPDATA to C:\Documents and Settings\Pig\Application Data

At the end of that line, there is an ASCII square. Not sure if that was planned or part of the problem.

same here

[Z-Man]

Excellent! Yes, the square probably is the root of the problem. The cause is now localized in a certain function. I'll see if I can find it now.

Edit: found something I'll upload a new test exe later.

[Z-Man]

I fixed an memory overwrite error in windows only code. Had it been in system independent code, valgrind would have found it. Here's an updated build, to be treated the same way as the last.

[Your_mom]

I fixed an memory overwrite error in windows only code. Had it been in system independent code, valgrind would have found it. Here's an updated build, to be treated the same way as the last.

After all the pop ups it loads up normally, gj z-man

[Angel]

hi again

ok i downloaded both 2.8_beta4 versions for windows from sourceforge, neither would work for me, but after i replaced the exe's with the one zman asked me to download, both versions work fine, after all the beginning pop up windows boxes, everything loads and the game plays.
I hope i used the correct versions to add the exe too, if not please let me know and i will try again

[the pig]

Great, that works! Thanks for finding this bug z-man.

Just one question to satisfy my curiosity. What branch would I have had to check out from CVS to build the beta 4 version that had the bug? Neither of the branches I tried (v0_2_8_beta4 and b0_2_8) reproduced the problem.