Update List bug

[Yenaphe]

Hi everyone,

first post here so I hope i won't make any mistakes.

I've installed and configured Gameex without major issues, but I'm always having an "Update List" message each time I go into mame list for the first time of the gameex session. i've triple checked, i've disabled it, and checked in the gameex.ini file to be sure it was properly updated by the configuration app.

This is really annoying. I've searched the forum but aint found any answers. Is it a bug, or am I missing something obvious ?

thx

Yen

[Brian Hoffman]

Hi everyone,

first post here so I hope i won't make any mistakes.

I've installed and configured Gameex without major issues, but I'm always having an "Update List" message each time I go into mame list for the first time of the gameex session. i've triple checked, i've disabled it, and checked in the gameex.ini file to be sure it was properly updated by the configuration app.

This is really annoying. I've searched the forum but aint found any answers. Is it a bug, or am I missing something obvious ?

thx

Yen

Have you pressed the space button, To back out of that, close and restart gameex

[Tempest]

I think Brian meant {BackSpace}.

[Yenaphe]

I think Brian meant {BackSpace}.

Yes I did try that, but it didn't do anything. And it's only on Mame that it's asking me everytime to update game list, not on Supernes or genesis.

I also tried to put back the pref to true, and then back to false, without any kind of success.

I did the last list update with mame.exe and then configured the mame emu to be mamep.exe (but if I update list with mamep, all the neogeo roms disapear.

[bkenobi]

I seem to remember that some people have gotten into a somewhat endless loop where GameEx always asks for an update. I can't remember the resolution, though. You could try posting your log to see if anything pops out as obviously in error. The only other thing that I can think of is perhaps deleting the files that GameEx is generating during the update. Oh, and perhaps you could specify what version of MAME you are using.

[Yenaphe]

I seem to remember that some people have gotten into a somewhat endless loop where GameEx always asks for an update. I can't remember the resolution, though. You could try posting your log to see if anything pops out as obviously in error. The only other thing that I can think of is perhaps deleting the files that GameEx is generating during the update. Oh, and perhaps you could specify what version of MAME you are using.

I'm using mame plus (mamep.exe) version 0.135.3.0, and see in attached file my log.txt and my GameEx.ini (renamed in .txt to be able to upload it here).

I've updated once again the list in the hope that at some point it would stop asking, but it's still asking everytime.

log.txt

GameEx.ini.txt

[bkenobi]

Hmmm, I don't see where it's updating the list. Perhaps you just didn't include that part.

Anyway, I see that you are using an alternative build of MAME. While this should be fine, you might try using a standard build to eliminate that as a possible problem. Go grab the vanilla build and try it:

Current build: http://mamedev.org/release.html

Older builds: http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

If it works, we are a step closer. If not, then we know the build isn't the issue.

[Yenaphe]

Hmmm, I don't see where it's updating the list. Perhaps you just didn't include that part.

Anyway, I see that you are using an alternative build of MAME. While this should be fine, you might try using a standard build to eliminate that as a possible problem. Go grab the vanilla build and try it:

Current build: http://mamedev.org/release.html

Older builds: http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

If it works, we are a step closer. If not, then we know the build isn't the issue.

Ok, so here is what i've done:

1) Downloaded version 0.136 of mame and mameplus.

2) Installed mame over the former mame version

3) Changed the Mame Basic settings in GameEx to point to mame.exe

4) Launched Gameex, updated the list as requested, exited, rebooted.

5) Launched Gameex, and the update poppuped once again.

6) Exited Gameex, renamed any file related to the game list to force the list creation from start.

7) Launched Gameex, list is now empty, updated the list, exited, rebooted.

8) Launched Gameex, update list poppuped again.

9) Changed the Mame Basic setting in Gameex to point to mamep.exe (after installation of the latest version in synch with 0.136)

10) redone step 4 to 8, same result.

Gameex is still asking me to update the list after all this. Really strange.

[bkenobi]

I wish I could remember what the resolution was last time this came up. Perhaps you could try reinstalling GameEx in the same location it's currently located. This won't affect any of your settings, but a backup is never a bad idea. If something is corrupted in the GameEx files somewhere, this should help correct that.

[Yenaphe]

Ok, so I backuped the Gameex directory, uninstalled the application, downloaded the latest version, removed the leftover folders in gameex directory, and reinstalled Gameex (selecting english as language instead of french).

I've redone entirely the configuration, and guess what: same bug. Every first time i go to a mame game directory, it popups me to know if I want to update.

So i've replaced my new pref with the old ones to check, but same results. I even reinstalled once more Gameex on top of this to be sure.

Could it be because i'm running Windows/.net in french ?

[Yenaphe]

Ok, so i've made several more attemps to make this work still without success.

Now, how I can I contact support to get other ideas of stuff to test, and to investigate more in depth this issue ?

I've been a software engeener, so I don't fear to install beta version, special verbose / logging version, changing stuff in system files & so on. If we can finally nail down the bug so we can fix it, i'll be more than happy, even if I take the long and difficult road.

[Tempest]

All I can think of is that for some reason the file isn't being updated, Maybe it's set to read only, or you need permission?

I don't know if that will help, but it's all I've got.

[Raitsa]

I am having the very same problem as Yenaphe: GameEx wants to update the gamelist every time i start GameEx.

I have to be fast to & ready to hit backspace button to cancel the update.

Not liking this behaviour...

[Tempest]

Why don't both of you post your most recent logs, and your GameEx.ini files, and I'll see if I can find something in common.

[Raitsa]

Here is my log and .ini:

log.txt

GameEx-ini.rar

[Yenaphe]

Why don't both of you post your most recent logs, and your GameEx.ini files, and I'll see if I can find something in common.

Already uploaded those files in a preview post, but here are the actual files.

Read only was my first guess too but it was not that sadly. I even checked if this exact parapmeter was properly set in it, and it's the case.

You'll also notice that I use mamep.exe (Mame Plus!) but I got the exact same problem with the official Mame builds.

Hope that helps.

GameEx.ini.txt

log.txt

[bkenobi]

If I remember correctly (which is highly suspect), GameEx stores the flag for updating in the registry. Is it possible that you don't have permission to change that flag for some reason? If it were a file, you could manually change the value and set the file to read-only to verify that it's working. Dunno

[Tempest]

I did take a look at the files. Nothing jumps out at me, but it's difficult to do a comparison, since Yenaphe has removed all of the comments from his GameEx.ini. I use PSPad as my editor, which has a file comparison tool, but it has a hard time with the GameEx.ini files, since they are very different without the comments.

[Yenaphe]

I did take a look at the files. Nothing jumps out at me, but it's difficult to do a comparison, since Yenaphe has removed all of the comments from his GameEx.ini. I use PSPad as my editor, which has a file comparison tool, but it has a hard time with the GameEx.ini files, since they are very different without the comments.

Hum, that's weird. I don't remember removing any comments from my GameEx.ini file. I usually keep them.

Going to explore that registry option. I'm admin on my PC so the app should be allowed to modify it (and there is no UAC on XP).

EDIT:

had a look at the regestry. In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/GameEx, I have 8 parameters:

db_Upgrade1 = 1

InstallLocation = my gameex Install path

Key = my licence key

MinAnimate (empty)

TileWallpaper (empty)

Uninstalled (empty)

User = my email adress

Wallpaper (empty)

I also have 2 folders, Emulators and LCD.

So I started by playing around with the db_Upgrade1 value, switching 1 to 0, then 1 to 2 without success. Then I deleted the value, without success, but checking back in the registry showed that GameEx replaced the empty value with 1.

Then I deleted the db_Upgrade1 regestry entry, no succes, and GameEx recreated it with default value of 1 (same if I rename the regestry entry).

So, now I know that GameEx can access and modify the regestry entry, but changing this particular parameter (the only one with a name somehow relevant to the bug) didn't do anything.

Then I looked back in the GameEx.ini file and I was surprised to see that the last modification date was updated everytime I launch GameEx.

I followed the idea of locking the file to read only, and guess what... it worked. Now that GameEx can't modify the .ini the updateList popup doesn't popup anymore.

If I remove the read only attribute, the bug is back.

[bkenobi]

Well, this is good info. I'm not sure why GameEx is trying to update, but we now know that it indeed thinks something has changed and so it wants to update. Now we just need to figure out why GameEx thinks it needs to perform the update!

Here's a thought:

1) Install GameEx to a new location with default settings.

2) Then create a new folder and install MAME with default settings.

3) Check to see if you still need to update every time.

This will put you in the default state so if it still needs to update, we can consider machine configuration stuff and not GameEx/MAME stuff.

[Yenaphe]

Hi Ben,

sorry for the delay, but I had time to run some tests:

If I install Gameex on the same machine, but in another directoy, I got the same bug.

If I install Gameex on another machine, in any directory, I don't have the bug.

Maybe something related to my local machine, but what ?

[Tempest]

Permissions?