Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 07-06-2004
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CaravelNet access has been often unavailable for the past few days on my computer; I can bring it back by requesting a new key, but it does not last for long. Yesterday around 1600 GMT, my requested key also took a couple of hours to reach me, so there might be something wrong with the server. I have already changed keys twice, and CaravelNet is again not working on my computer, so it doesn't look like a temporary glitch.

However, it seems more likely than the problem is on my end. I switched to Linux a few days ago, so the two problems may be related (more accurately, I'm using the latest stable release of Ubuntu, which is itself based on the Debian distribution). Could there be a problem here? It seems that DROD doesn't even bother to check for CaravelNet, and denies me access almost right after the game has started.

My DROD.err file doesn't display any related problem, though a .dat might have got corrupted (I'm somewhat worried about the last two entries). I'm posting the whole of the file (a dozen of lines or so) at the bottom of this post. On a somewhat unrelated note, Ctrl-V doesn't work for me in DROD, so I had to enter my CaravelNet keys by hand; all it seems to be doing is clear whatever was there before.

drod.err:
*** FIRST LOG IN SESSION 1/9/06 9:39PM ***

Internet warning 28: Operation too slow. Less than 1 bytes/sec transfered the last 10 seconds
Internet warning 28: Operation too slow. Less than 1 bytes/sec transfered the last 10 seconds
*** 1/9/06 10:06PM ***

Internet warning 28: Connection time-out
*** 1/9/06 10:09PM ***

Internet warning 28: Connection time-out
*** 1/9/06 10:55PM ***

Assertion error in line 2149 of ../../DRODLib/DbRooms.cpp: "!this->pMonsterSquares[ARRAYINDEX(pMonster->wX,pMonster->wY)]"

*** 1/9/06 11:20PM ***

Assertion error in line 2149 of ../../DRODLib/DbRooms.cpp: "!this->pMonsterSquares[ARRAYINDEX(pMonster->wX,pMonster->wY)]"

---

[Last edited by Alneyan at 01-13-2006 03:16 PM]

ErikH2000
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There is a known issue where if the network disconnects in the middle of an operation, you'll lose your CaravelNet key and need a new one. This gives wireless people in particular a lot of grief. It also sounds like you might have been having some trouble with your network, which might not have anything to do with your configuration, but be the fault of your hosting provider or any point in the connection between your computer and Caravel's server. The "operation too slow" and "timeout" messages are consistent with this.

We recently made a fix for the "lose key when connection drops" bug. When the next patch comes out, this might solve it for you. But also look for any networking problems that can be solved on your computer, particularly if you see errors or slowness in other internet apps.

The ctrl-V thing sounds like a bug, but maybe one of the other guys will have ideas. What a pain to have to type in the keys! Ugh.

Sending CaravelNet keys: Our server is generally pretty fast sending mail messages out. There aren't any queues beyond our SMTP service and normally when there is slowness it isn't because our server is waiting to send it out. If you are in a truthfinding mood, the next time you are waiting a long time for a key, go to a fairly reliable web-based e-mail account like Yahoo or GMail and send a test message to the same e-mail account you have on file with CaravelNet. If your test message comes to your inbox well before the CaravelNet key, then it's pretty certain that our server is to blame. Otherwise, it's more likely that your mail server is the culprit.

And if you had the 3 hour wait around the first of January, then actually... that probably was our server being slow.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Alneyan
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There's a problem with the network theory, though: I got two keys to become corrupt after the entries in the log, on the 12 and the 13, respectively. So, such a problem would only seem to account for one of the corrupt keys.

Now that I thought a little bit more about the dates, the last messages on the log followed a computer crash, when I had to restart manually, so I'm getting quite a bit worried about them. Do they sound potentially worrisome to you, or is the lack of any further trouble (and entry) enough to dismiss them?

I'll probably get another key and see what happens, or when it stops working (if I can figure that out). Thanks for your answer!

ErikH2000
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Alneyan wrote:
There's a problem with the network theory, though: I got two keys to become corrupt after the entries in the log, on the 12 and the 13, respectively. So, such a problem would only seem to account for one of the corrupt keys.

There's different reasons why keys go bad. The network thing is one of them. If DROD closes in any way that is not initiated from inside the game, i.e. a computer crash or a command to kill the process, then that can do it too. If anybody else has your login or CaravelNet key, then simultaneous use messes up keys. And I suppose it's possible that it's none of these things, and there's a bug left for us to fix somewhere too.

Now that I thought a little bit more about the dates, the last messages on the log followed a computer crash, when I had to restart manually, so I'm getting quite a bit worried about them.

Your whole computer crashing? Yeah, that's not good. If the crash happened while DROD was running, then you'd lose the key.

Do they sound potentially worrisome to you, or is the lack of any further trouble (and entry) enough to dismiss them?

Well, losing a CaravelNet key is a small problem compared to other things that can happen with the crash. With DROD, your data files can become corrupted. You can always reinstall DROD if you need to, but your game progress, holds, and other settings can't be replaced unless you have backup. Exporting your player and authored holds periodically is a good idea.

I don't know enough about Linux and your system to troubleshoot the cause of the crash. It seems unlikely to me that DROD would crash the whole system unless there were a problem with drivers/hardware config. Now DROD crashing just itself is a less surprising event.

I'll probably get another key and see what happens, or when it stops working (if I can figure that out).

Sure. Back at least back up your DROD data by exporting player and holds that you authored.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 07-06-2004
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What I'm really worried about is that my keys stop working because of something on my computer, rather than a temporary problem somewhere, though I suspect it *can* be Murphy's Law. I will see for sure if everything is still working correctly in 24 hours. If so... well, I suppose it *was* plain coincidence, especially as it appears I am the only one having any problem with CaravelNet right now.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened before the second and third keys went bad, and nobody else is using CaravelNet; something bad *did* happen with the first key, but that one being corrupt was expected. I have rebooted my computer and it still works fine, so it isn't linked to a bug with my session, or to closing and opening DROD.

Some more information that I just found out about a while ago: my ISP has changed its configuration a while ago, and I now use a static IP (it was a dynamic IP before). I still have a daily disconnection though, as is common here. Since none of my keys have lasted for more than 24 hours, there might be a problem here. It's unlikely, of course. I'll see that tomorrow after my connection has gone up and down.

The crash in question wasn't actually a crash, so to speak: it was more like a user being silly, and unplugging a non-USB keyboard while playing DROD in fullscreen mode. That was the reason for my manual restart, as I couldn't figure out how to shut down the computer while being in fullscreen mode. I have never seen DROD crash itself, let alone a whole system, so DROD is pretty much innocent.

My other theory for "something interfering with working CaravelNet keys" is thus that DROD .data files have become corrupted as a result of said crash. If another key suddenly stops working, I'll reinstall the game from scratch... while using my backup .player file, of course (that's the most important file on my computer). I got another entry in my err file today:

*** FIRST LOG IN SESSION 1/13/06 4:46PM ***

Assertion error in line 1256 of ../../FrontEndLib/Sound.cpp: "(UINT)nUseChannel < CHANNEL_COUNT"

Assertion error in line 1256 of ../../FrontEndLib/Sound.cpp: "(UINT)nUseChannel < CHANNEL_COUNT"

No other application used sound at the time of this error. Beyond that... well, I can't say whether this error and the other Assertion error bear any relevant to the whole matter.


Thanks for your help, Erik (I was about to call you Chris. I hope you don't mind, John). You might wish to wait until tomorrow before replying to this thread again, in case everything is back to its pristine state. Of course, if the new log message reminds you of "Please stand by while system auto-destructs"... *Shrugs*

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2580
Registered: 04-12-2003
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For the CTRL-V problem, make sure that you use CTRL-C to copy text from the email (select-copy uses a different clipboard buffer and isn't supported by DROD atm), and that you don't close the email window before pasting the key into DROD (closing the app that you copy from in X will lose its clipboard content, unless you use a clipboard manager -- I know KDE has one, Gnome used to have one, but I don't know if that's still available). If you already do this and it still doesn't work, can you try copying things within DROD (using CTRL-C and CTRL-V in various textboxes) and let me know if that works ?

- Gerry

---

[Last edited by trick at 01-14-2006 12:16 AM : clipboard managers]

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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Okay, I managed to blast away a key because of a hold download that failed. The interesting part is that it did not create any entry in the log file. So, the Internet error seems the most likely now, as such errors will not necessarily produce a log entry.

Trick => I use Ctrl-C in my mail program (and keep the program around), and Ctrl-V in DROD; Ctrl-C works in the mail program, as evidenced by using other programs, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and Ctrl-X do not work at all in DROD, and won't produce anything outside the game; the only effect of Ctrl-V inside DROD is that it removes what was previously there. Being in windowed mode or fullscreen does not seem to change anything.

Do you think the problem could be linked to Gnome? If so, I will try getting KDE up and running, and see if it helps. I'm not wedded to either GUI yet, so I can probably manage a switch between them. Thanks for your help!

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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The clipboard code uses X directly, so it doesn't matter which Window Manager you use.

Now, since the clipboard doesn't work at all in DROD, I'm guessing loading of the X11 library fails. Could you do a search for libX11.so on your system (it's usually in /usr/lib or /usr/X11R6/lib), and see if the path it's in is listed in /etc/ld.so.conf ? If it's not, your distro is buggy and you'll have to fix it: As root, add the path and then run ldconfig. You should be able to do all this from the GUI, but I find the terminal is quicker :

$ locate libX11.so
/usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
/usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6.2
/usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so
If locate doesn't work, use this in stead:
$ find /usr -name libX11.so
/usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so
$ cat /etc/ld.so.conf
/usr/local/lib
/usr/lib
$ su
Password:
# echo /usr/X11R6/lib >>/etc/ld.so.conf
# cat /etc/ld.so.conf
/usr/local/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
# ldconfig
# exit
$ hooray
-bash: hooray: command not found

Let me know if this makes things work, or if the path was already present in /etc/ld.so.conf, or if libX11.so doesn't exist.

- Gerry

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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I had no /etc/ld.so.conf file, as the relevant package was not installed (I have the file now). I am also lacking a libX11.so file, though I have the two other files.

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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Er, okay. In that case you need to be root again, cd to the directory where libX11.so.6 was found, and create a symlink to libX11.so.6 from libX11.so, like this:

# ln -s libX11.so.6 libX11.so

Hm, maybe I should tell DROD to look for libX11.so.6 in stead of libX11.so .. *patches*

Sorry for the inconvenience

- Gerry

---

[Last edited by trick at 01-14-2006 01:13 PM]

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 07-06-2004
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Thanks! Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V are now back online, and kicking.

It's not much of an inconvenience, really... well, after my mind has registered that the 1 in the keys are actually ones and not lambdas. I can type in a working key in twenty seconds or so now.

Beef Row
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 471
Registered: 12-28-2005
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I'm having either the same problem or very similar, but with a few additional quirks. I'm on a trial membership, not full if that makes a diffrence in any of the following (its good till Jan 31st, so its not just a matter of expiration)

1st key: dead. This is the only one with relevant messages in drod.err...
*** FIRST LOG IN SESSION 1/1/06 7:22AM ***
Internet warning 28: connect() timed out!
*** FIRST LOG IN SESSION 1/1/06 7:27AM ***
Internet warning 7: couldn't connect to host
*** FIRST LOG IN SESSION 1/2/06 6:23AM ***
Internet warning 7: couldn't connect to host

No relevant messages since then nor any crashes or network problems that I know of:

2nd + 3rd keys: These keys worked once, then began exhibiting unusual behavior.

A). When first connecting they would display the red X... however repasting EITHER of them would cause DROD to display the check as if it was connected properly. This would last until I exited or went into the change settings menu, then it would be the X again until I repasted.

B). When these keys appeared to be connected, I could view the list of Holds to download, but not download any... it would display 'downloading hold', then after a few seconds this would vanish, and the progress bar (with no progress on it) would be the only thing displayed

4th key: After requesting the 4th key, the 2nd and 3rd keys stopped these behaviors and are just dead. The fourth key worked for maybe an hour or two, then took on behavior B). After exiting, restarting and repasting, this key is dead.

5th key: Seems to be working for the moment. But I just tested it now, that may not last.





____________________________
"Now I will repeatedly apply the happy-face rule"

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 07-06-2004
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It's likely the same problem, ie a network-related problem that makes keys go invalid.

For what it's worth, I also experienced the half-working key behaviour, though I had dismissed it as being a "key that has been broken but still display some things, as DROD hasn't registered it isn't working yet".

Well, good luck to you! My own key has been working for nearly 24 hours, so I might be out of the woods. *Crosses fingers real hard*

ErikH2000
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I'm curious if anyone else can reproduce this bug. My first thought is that there is something corrupted in Wallu's installation.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Beef Row
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ErikH2000 wrote:
I'm curious if anyone else can reproduce this bug. My first thought is that there is something corrupted in Wallu's installation.

-Erik

Reproduced. After redownloading MetDROiD Prime (the download itself actually succeeds but doesn't install since it finds nothing new) CaravelNet still displayed the green check, but lost connectivity (tested by completing a room then checking for level demos.. it found none on CaravelNet, nor did it submit mine) but after going into change settings the key displayed the Red X. Alright, I think that puts me on key 7 now. I lost count.

____________________________
"Now I will repeatedly apply the happy-face rule"

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
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Beef Row, you are the hero for Tuesday.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Schik
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I have fixed these two holds so they update correctly (if they need updated at all).

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
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Registered: 07-06-2004
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I can also confirm Wallu's report, and I did the same thing myself at least twice (though I wouldn't have figured this bug was linked to my disappearing keys). So, that's two more of my CaravelNet keys going down the drain that are now accounted for (and probably all of them), and my problem has now been smitten.