Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support => Topic started by: BirdofPrey on January 17, 2015, 08:42:54 pm
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OK, by this point, the installer is beginning to annoy me for all the bugs I keep having to clean up after it (already mentioned earlier that it never bothered to update my FS:P install some time back but can't post the log file since it was overwritten some time ago as far as I am aware).
It's giving me problems again. I was doing some housekeeping and wanted to straight up reinstall FS:O since there's some old stuff I never use in there, along with old versions of stuff and extra files nothing uses anymore, so I figured I would just straight up do a resinstall from scratch. The FS:2 install went fine, but the FS:O installer won't hear of it. According to it I still have MVP 2014 and both blue planets, but the mod folders for all of that is gone. I DID tell it to reinstall FS:P and ST:R and it can't even do that right.
The basic cutscenes weren't downloaded nor were the reworked command briefings, so I had to run the installer again, which seemed to work, but that's a problem I have seen a couple times before, each time with different files.
Anyway, why does the installer think I have some stuff already installed (it didn't change my registry did it? I thought I exterminated all the Freespace files I had. I am further confised since it only thinks I till have SOME of the old stuff, but not all of the old stuff), and is there a way to force it to install the MVPs without installing other mods and campaigns I am not playing at the moment or reinstalling FSPort? (there's an option to rerun installation on ALL, but I didn't see anywhere to choose what to reinstall, under custom install the MVPs are greyed out since it claims they are already installed)
[attachment kidnapped by pirates]
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I don't know if this is recommended behavior or not, but when I had a similar issue while reinstalling BP, I deleted C:\Users\[my profile]\fsoinstaller.properties and everything worked great the next time I ran the installer.
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Ah. See I KNEW there had to be some sort of settings file somewhere, I just couldn't find it.
That seems to have worked, though the radar icons for mvp 3612 didn't work (said it couldn't download it, but somehow I still found and empty VP with that name) and I had to manual install. Let's make sure it runs. . .
edit: appears to run just fine.
Also when WXLauncher complained I didn't have FSO 3.6.18 I finally realized why MVP 1014 has been fighting me so much since they came out: The installer never bothered to install a 3.7.x version. Now that I have 3.7.2 it doesn't throw me any errors
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You know, the 3.7.x versions are in the Installer; you just have to select them. :p
But the deal with the mods "already installed" seems to be pretty common. I will try to redesign the installer to use a different method of detecting whether the mod is installed, as opposed to saving it in a config file.
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You rock, Goober! I am still just amazed and glad that there is a working installer again!
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You know, the 3.7.x versions are in the Installer; you just have to select them. :p
I know, I have them installed now. When I update that stuff is already pre-checked; I think the installer just had a hiccup. It also did that to me with FSPort leaving me at version 3.3.
I was a bit miffed having to manually download a dozen files.
But the deal with the mods "already installed" seems to be pretty common. I will try to redesign the installer to use a different method of detecting whether the mod is installed, as opposed to saving it in a config file.
Good to know it's not just me being an idiot (again)
Well in this case, I think the problem wasn't the checking of the config file as it was that when I told it to rerun installation on already installed mods, it didn't actually do that (iirc. it said already up to date and skipped them).
That said if you are doing an update, I would like to be able to uncheck mods so exclude some things from the reinstall everything option.
On a side note, how does it handle mirrors? I have had it occasionally give me a failure and when I read the logs I got the impression there was a connection failure (I attached logs for a couple files that had that problem). So far, though it's been a transient error and has affected a different file each time.
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I don't know if this is recommended behavior or not, but when I had a similar issue while reinstalling BP, I deleted C:\Users\[my profile]\fsoinstaller.properties and everything worked great the next time I ran the installer.
Hey BirdofPrey, I thank you for creating this thread (or, I guess for dealing with all these problems) because now I know about fsoinstaller.properties. So, I thank you too, deathspeed - for posting this reply! I mean, I'm sure a time is coming for me where I will have to delete this file for a reinstall, and so this is going to save me the headache of searching through the Registry. :) Yeah, my first thought was that you needed to delete some entries out of the Registry. I'm embarrassed. lol
So yeah, I hope this makes you feel a little bit better for having to deal with these problems because this is benefiting at least one other person that I know of - ME! :)
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On a side note, how does it handle mirrors? I have had it occasionally give me a failure and when I read the logs I got the impression there was a connection failure (I attached logs for a couple files that had that problem). So far, though it's been a transient error and has affected a different file each time.
It will try every mirror listed until it either downloads the file or runs out of mirrors. If an error is encountered on one mirror but another one works, it will still log the error for record-keeping purposes. But you only have to worry if a problem is indicated on the "finished installing" page.
And yes, sometimes mirrors will go down momentarily or otherwise experience transient errors. It might be due to your connection or the host's connection. Either way, the Installer can't help you with that.
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You're welcome, twocables, but I can't take credit for coming up with the idea. I read it somewhere, I think in the installer release thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87537.0). Glad it helped!
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Apparently I did not entirely fix the launcher problem I had.
Ran it to update FS:P and ST:R Once again, it didn't show that they were out of date though it did show the new VPs so I chose rerun installation on already installed mods.
Now it's installing blue planet.
Which I still didn't have.
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Ran it to update FS:P and ST:R Once again, it didn't show that they were out of date though it did show the new VPs so I chose rerun installation on already installed mods.
It doesn't show that a mod is out of date on the list of which mods to install; the mod will remain grayed out and force-checked. Once you actually click "install", if there's an update, then it will install it.
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Considering what it's done to me in the past, I am not sure I trust it to actually do that.
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Considering what it's done to me in the past, I am not sure I trust it to actually do that.
There's no need to trust it; just run it, hit "install", and see if it updates anything. If it doesn't, you can do whatever you were going to do anyway.
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I don't trust it because sometimes it DOESN'T actually update something.
On a side note ran it today to install a mod. Now it thinks I DON'T have a bunch of stuff I just downloaded a few days ago
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I don't trust it because sometimes it DOESN'T actually update something.
On a side note ran it today to install a mod. Now it thinks I DON'T have a bunch of stuff I just downloaded a few days ago
Weird. So, these are things that you used the installer to download but it doesn't "remember" that you used the installer to download them?
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Yeah. I already mentioned it installed Blue planet for me without me asking which it doesn't say I have, but it also didn't register me as having most of the VPs, and only had half of Port and ST:R auto-checked.
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Yeah. I already mentioned it installed Blue planet for me without me asking which it doesn't say I have, but it also didn't register me as having most of the VPs, and only had half of Port and ST:R auto-checked.
I have a few questions:
When it installed Blue Planet on you, did you select "Basic", "Complete", or "Custom"?
When you say that it doesn't say that you have Blue Planet and that it doesn't show that you have most of the VPs (and what do you mean by "most of the VPs"?), what do you mean? Can you provide more details?
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and only had half of Port and ST:R auto-checked.
FSPort and ST:R updated recently, adding many new options to the installer; all those unchecked options were probably unchecked because they're new.
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No this was AFTER I had installed those.
It was mostly the recently updated FS:P stuff that was checked (one or two items were missing), but the main MVPs and Blue Planet (which got installed when I updated Port) were unchecked.
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It almost sounds like your fsoinstaller.properties file got damaged somehow...
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Maybe. Don't know how, though.
Still, I think me and the installer need to start seeing different people since we just don't seem to get along.
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Try posting your FSO Installer logs directory. Maybe a problem will reveal itself.
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The WHOLE Thing?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cc5impgywtugews/logs.zip?dl=0
Most of January seems to be missing. I assume the logs overwrite themselves.
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Well, it does show that you experienced a bunch of errors due to either connection failures or corrupted downloads. Spotty internet connection?
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Seems to depend on the day and time. I have cable internet which is a shared connection.
I do seem to have more problems with the HLP site than most others for some reason, though I haven't bothered to check where the download mirror are.
I always seem to fail to download a file (always different usually just one or two), but I don;t know what that has to do with the installer being mistaken as to what's actually installed. I could see it missing the single file I had to manually install, but not half of the MVPs
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It almost sounds like your fsoinstaller.properties file got damaged somehow...
BirdofPrey: if this is the case, then I think all you would need to do is delete fsoinstaller.properties. It's located in C:\Users\You. If you're afraid to delete it, then move it to a different folder for now.
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Well, it does show that you experienced a bunch of errors due to either connection failures or corrupted downloads. Spotty internet connection?
Seems to depend on the day and time. I have cable internet which is a shared connection.
I do seem to have more problems with the HLP site than most others for some reason, though I haven't bothered to check where the download mirror are.
I always seem to fail to download a file (always different usually just one or two), but I don;t know what that has to do with the installer being mistaken as to what's actually installed. I could see it missing the single file I had to manually install, but not half of the MVPs
I used to have this problem; using a Free Download Manager helped (be sure to go advanced and uncheck that you don't want any toolbars etc). But the Installer is a download manager... hmm. Maybe your cable modem is going, I've seen that when a shoddy or failing modem is going, it needs to be restarted a lot when downloading at max capacity for extended {more than 5-10 mins} periods. You could try logging in to it and restarting it right before downloading. And/or have the Installer download one mod, restart the modem or wait a while, have it download the next, etc.
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I did get a new router (from the ISP) a couple months ago to replace the one I bought myself that was horridly out of date that had less throughput.
Cox's infrastructure is a bit dodgy at times. During some parts of the day a tracert will show packets lost to the void.
That said, again, as I mentioned I don't know where the download mirrors themselves are, but I have seen a number of 500 errors from the hard-light.net site over the past weeks (though some of errors were masked by your host's "view cached copy or try again for a live site" page).
I think it's a combination of issues on both ends to tell the truth.
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I did get a new router (from the ISP) a couple months ago to replace the one I bought myself that was horridly out of date that had less throughput.
Cox's infrastructure is a bit dodgy at times. During some parts of the day a tracert will show packets lost to the void.
That said, again, as I mentioned I don't know where the download mirrors themselves are, but I have seen a number of 500 errors from the hard-light.net site over the past weeks (though some of errors were masked by your host's "view cached copy or try again for a live site" page).
I think it's a combination of issues on both ends to tell the truth.
I'm not having any problems, and I'm not seeing anyone else on here reporting problems either, and I'm here every single day several times per day. So, based on that and based on what you said here, I'd say that it's either all on Cox's end, or it could have something to do with the cables that are in your walls - or it could be a combination of both. For example: a few years ago, I had to have Comcast come out because I suddenly began having some serious connectivity issues. I had intermittent connectivity, and when it WAS connected, it was slow and weak (lots of packet loss and very high ping). In addition, during those brief times of being connected, our digital phone signal was choppy. This was the result of the severe packet loss.
So, as I said, I had to have Comcast come out. The tech who came out did some tests and discovered that the cabling in my walls was the old RG-59 that was installed back in the late '80s when we had Cable TV installed. They said the reason why I was experiencing problems was Comcast did some upgrades at the "home office", and that resulted in my RG-59 no longer being good enough to handle the new signal. So, the tech ran a very long RG-6 cable (the new standard) directly from the outside wall all the way to my cable modem/phone modem thing (some Arris-brand unit). The outside wall connection is where the "Drop Cable" comes in. The Drop Cable is the cable that connects directly to the house. I think that he even had to replace that one too. Oh yeah, he also gave us a Subscriber Amplifier which helps boost the signal. It gets installed inside the home right where the Drop comes in.
Now, you might think that running a really long cable was a sloppy and lazy solution and that the cable was an eyesore (ugly to look at). Fortunately, not only was I close enough to where the Drop comes in that it was no big deal, but we also had the ability to hide the entire length of the cable! If you're wondering about the cabling for our TV, we were fortunate enough that we already had RG-6 over there because it was a newer installation due to no longer having our TV in the old spot where the RG-59 was (the original installation from the '80s). So, it worked out pretty well!
Anyway, so yeah, I truly believe that the issue you're having is either all on Cox's end, or it's all on your end, or maybe a little bit of both. There's even the possibility that something outside needs to be upgraded as well, such as your Tap (but this shouldn't cost you anything since it's their equipment). It's not really YOUR tap, but you are using a part of it. Each tap contains a number of ports (they're identical to the stubby "jack" that comes out of your wall), and your Drop is connected to one of those ports. If the tap is old and outdated or if it is no longer functioning properly, then it could be the source of all of your problems as well - provided that you have nothing but RG-6 or better (including the cables in your home that you can replace yourself - you don't want any bottlenecks). There are other things outside that could be the source of the problem, but fortunately, if it's a problem with something outside then you shouldn't have to give them any money to fix it because it's all THEIR equipment. I don't know if this includes the Drop though. I would think that Drop replacements require the subscriber to pay for it, but I'm not really sure. Either way, I'm about 99.99% sure it's not on HLP's end (I'm always afraid of being wrong, so I refuse to say that I'm 100% sure even though I actually am).
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If you get 500 errors with "nginx-cloudflare" or a "view cached copy or try again for a live site" page and others can reach HLP just fine, then it might be a CloudFlare issue.
Connection timeouts and similar errors are more likely your ISP's fault.
That said, next to none of the downloads are on HLP's server. Most downloads are hosted on fsmods.net.
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Cloudflare is occasionally dodgey on any and all sites when connection from anywhere as far as my experience goes.
Also it's not my drop that has issues.
I will admit the house cabling may need an upgrade (I could use some coax to more than just 2 rooms), but they upgraded the last mile infrastructure recently including the taps and drops. Besides, I sometimes have issues at work, so it can't be JUST my house (though I believe they have the same ISP at work albeit a business connection)
When a route trace shows a problem it's generally dropped packets and latency spikes in the middle, and occasionally it ends up retrying the cloudflare server multiple times.
I've pretty much never had a problem with directly downloading any files from anywhere, so never really need download managers. It seems to be just the installer that has trouble with that. That said, I am not sure what failed downloads have to do with the installer not recognizing files that did download on future runs of the program.
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Cloudflare is occasionally dodgey on any and all sites when connection from anywhere as far as my experience goes.
Also it's not my drop that has issues.
I will admit the house cabling may need an upgrade (I could use some coax to more than just 2 rooms), but they upgraded the last mile infrastructure recently including the taps and drops. Besides, I sometimes have issues at work, so it can't be JUST my house (though I believe they have the same ISP at work albeit a business connection)
When a route trace shows a problem it's generally dropped packets and latency spikes in the middle, and occasionally it ends up retrying the cloudflare server multiple times.
I've pretty much never had a problem with directly downloading any files from anywhere, so never really need download managers. It seems to be just the installer that has trouble with that. That said, I am not sure what failed downloads have to do with the installer not recognizing files that did download on future runs of the program.
Oh, then I know something you can try. Disable IPv6. Here's how (at least in Windows 7):
1. Open the Network and Sharing Center control panel applet. An extremely fast way to open it is to open the Start Menu (use your keyboard!), type "network a", and then press Enter. However, if "Network and Sharing Center" doesn't come up and get automatically selected when typing "network a" into the Start Menu, then just keep typing "network and sharing center" until it does.
2. In the left-hand pane, click "Change adapter settings"
3. Double-click your adapter
4. In the new little window that comes up, click "Properties"
5. Untick Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)
6. Click OK
7. Try the installer and also try any problematic websites again.
If this doesn't fix it, then this wasn't the culprit. However it just might be since Cox recently did some upgrades.
However, even if this DOESN'T fix it, you might notice that disabling IPv6 makes everything seem slightly snappier (quicker to respond). This is explained here: http://www.howtogeek.com/195062/no-disabling-ipv6-probably-wont-speed-up-your-internet-connection/
Here's the explanation (I edited it a little bit to be a little easier to read):
So, there's a myth that having IPv6 enabled slows down your Internet connection. This is not true. What's really happening is, when you connect to a website, your computer will search for an IPv6 address first. If or when it finds out that it's not available, it's as if it goes, "Oh, ok, forget that" and then switches over to looking for an IPv4 address. Disabling IPv6 will force your computer to look up IPv4 addresses immediately, thereby eliminating those little delays.
I've had IPv6 disabled for a VERY long time now, and I have absolutely zero issues on the internet. IPv4 will still be around for years to come.
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Even though I do not have IPv6 connectivity, I encountered problems after I had disabled it, problems which were resolved once I re-enabled IPv6. This was long enough ago that I have forgotten what problems I had. But it proved the point that disabling IPv6 can cause problems even if you have no IPv6 connectivity.
But there is an alternative to disabling IPv6; make IPv4 preferred over IPv6. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 for details and particularly "Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies". This way you avoid potential problems in disabling IPv6, but gain all the advantages. Unless of course you actually have IPv6 connectivity, in which case you shouldn't touch IPv6 settings.
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Even though I do not have IPv6 connectivity, I encountered problems after I had disabled it, problems which were resolved once I re-enabled IPv6. This was long enough ago that I have forgotten what problems I had. But it proved the point that disabling IPv6 can cause problems even if you have no IPv6 connectivity.
But there is an alternative to disabling IPv6; make IPv4 preferred over IPv6. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 for details and particularly "Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies". This way you avoid potential problems in disabling IPv6, but gain all the advantages. Unless of course you actually have IPv6 connectivity, in which case you shouldn't touch IPv6 settings.
It looks like I need a Microsoft account to view that, and I have to be honest: I really don't want to have to sign up for one just so I can see a Knowledge Base article. Just a year or two ago, these could be freely viewed without an account.
So, I Googled "Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies" and found a few different ways I could do it. One of them didn't work at all, but one works exactly as advertised. It involves adding a DWORD value to the registry and restarting (logging off isn't good enough for this change to the registry to take effect). So, now I have IPv6 enabled, but my computer is looking for an IPv4 address first even though IPv6 is enabled! The only surefire way I can confirm this is by simply checking my e-mail. I use Outlook 2003, and I had to disable IPv6 just so I could keep using it. With IPv6 enabled, I couldn't check my e-mail at all. Without being able to confirm whether this is working by simply checking my e-mail in Outlook 2003, I'd have to carefully observe the responsiveness of my internet performance. That wouldn't be anywhere near as easy. lol