Possible bug in The Farm

[amadan]

Hi there, twice I've played STK 0.7 on my OS X Leopard laptop, and twice the game has frozen whilst doing the first lap of The Farm. The second time I played, I went through the first grand prix and all was well. Then I tried the Farm challenge and again it froze.

Any ideas?

[Auria]

Hi,

this is weird did it freeze forever, or did it eventually crash? If it did crash, I would like to see the crash report that pops up after a crash on OSX

[amadan]

It froze for long enough that I had to force-reboot the computer. I couldn't CMD-Tab or Cmd-Q out of it...

[Auria]

Try playing in windowed mode, if you're not full screen then you can easily force quit STK - and get a crash report - next time this happens

[amadan]

Thanks for the advice! I tried it, but sadly it froze my entire system - it wouldn't sleep when I closed the lid, the cursor was locked on the spinny colour wheel then locked in one place, so I had to shut down again. I can play all the other available tracks, but The Farm is the one that won't work - around 13s is where it tends to crash.

Any other ideas, now that the crash report possibility is ruled out? Thanks for trying!

[Auria]

Well, as far as I know, you are the only person to whom this happens -.- Are you sure your system is ok? I have no idea, sorry

[asciimonster]

Well, unfortunately I'm also experiencing random crashes. There's no patter, or I'm just not seeing it. Usually on Windows 7 I can punch up the task manager and kill the programme, but once it complete took out explorer and had to do a hard reset.

[amadan]

I am sure my system's OK, yes. I've done everything I can so far. It is strange though that it is reproduceable - it is only about 13s into The Farm, each time.

Where else can I ask to get help on this particular problem? Is there anyone I can email?

[Auria]

Well, unfortunately I'm also experiencing random crashes. There's no patter, or I'm just not seeing it. Usually on Windows 7 I can punch up the task manager and kill the programme, but once it complete took out explorer and had to do a hard reset.

do you get any crash report, or perhaps the ability to launch a debugger when the crash occurs? Or perhaps launch STK directly from a debugger. We need to know where it crashes

[Auria]

I am sure my system's OK, yes. I've done everything I can so far. It is strange though that it is reproduceable - it is only about 13s into The Farm, each time.

Where else can I ask to get help on this particular problem? Is there anyone I can email?

On the SuperTuxKart side, I am a core dev, and the OSX "specialist", so I'm afraid there's little more you can get from STK

However, since the entire system is freezing, this should never happen, so you could try to contact Apple...

You could also search the logs in Console (from Utilities) and see if any crash report can be found there

[hiker]

I am sure my system's OK, yes. I've done everything I can so far. It is strange though that it is reproduceable - it is only about 13s into The Farm, each time.

Where else can I ask to get help on this particular problem? Is there anyone I can email?

On the SuperTuxKart side, I am a core dev, and the OSX "specialist", so I'm afraid there's little more you can get from STK

However, since the entire system is freezing, this should never happen, so you could try to contact Apple...

I agree with Auria. What os version are you running? Googling shows that there are apparently some known issues with 10.6.4, e.g.:
http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/mac-os- ... aft-2-etc/
http://appletoolbox.com/2010/07/mac-os- ... ing-guide/
Perhaps trying the work around mentioned there might help.

Cheers,
Joerg

[asciimonster]

do you get any crash report, or perhaps the ability to launch a debugger when the crash occurs? Or perhaps launch STK directly from a debugger. We need to know where it crashes

No, no message whatsoever. Is it possible to compile a windows installer with the debugging switch on?

I have no experience using a windows debugger, do you have a good link?

[amadan]

Hi there,

Just did it again and sure enough, as I turned that first major corner in The Farm it froze, this time with no cursor either! The Console just gives this:

03/01/2011 11:48:53 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] [FileManager] Data files will be fetched from: '/Users/Dave/Desktop/Games/SuperTuxKart.app/Contents/Resources/'
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] Irrlicht Engine version 1.7.2-beta
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:57:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_PPC
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] [FileManager] checking whether we are using an app bundle... yes
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] [IrrDriver] Creating NULL device
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] Irrlicht Engine version 1.7.2-beta
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:57:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_PPC
03/01/2011 11:48:54 [0x0-0x37037].net.sourceforge.supertuxkart[203] [IrrDriver] Trying OpenGL rendering.
03/01/2011 12:05:14 com.apple.launchctl.System[2] fsck_hfs: Volume is journaled. No checking performed.

11:49 was the crash point.

My system is 10.5.8 1.33GHz PPC G4 and all up-to-date.

[amadan]

Additional point:

I just tried playing again, but this time went across the field, avoiding the section of track altogether, and to my surprise I was able to get round 1 lap. Wondering if this meant the game was fixed, I then did the second lap on the track but unfortunately it froze again, right next to the horses. Could it be a problem with the track itself? Can I get another copy of The Farm to install please?

[Auria]

I doubt the file is corrupted, and even if this was the case it should not cause a kernel panic

Do you have a Nvidia graphics card? http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=104064 hints that the graphics card driver could cause kernel panics if not up to date

[asciimonster]

Yes I have a Nvidia G100. I also ran it on my mothers laptop... It has a lot less power, but it still runs smoother. Weird...

Ok I'll try to update the drivers to the latest (version 260.99 WHQL), see if that makes a difference. Maybe this is an issue between nvidia and irrlicht.

[asciimonster]

Installing the latest drivers really helped. All the choppiness in the game disappeared and the FPS increased big-time (where it was 2/12/41 it went to 10/28/53)

Did it help with the crashes?... No. I tried all the tracks and it crashed at some obscure position.

[amadan]

Sorry, I think this thread is diverging a bit here.

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 video card, which came with my iBook G4. Looking on the ATI/AMD site, I can't find anything for mac there.

[Auria]

Sorry, I think this thread is diverging a bit here.

Indeed, asciimonster you could try to run STK in a debugger and then create a new thread with the results

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 video card, which came with my iBook G4. Looking on the ATI/AMD site, I can't find anything for mac there.

The only thing I can think of then is to follow the steps at http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html ... sorry, the entire system freezing, even in windowed mode, is an OSX bug, not a STK bug (maybe STK does something that causes OSX to crash, but it's still a OSX crash)

[amadan]

Oh, OK. Well, thanks for your time...

Having done most of those, updated what I could I'm still getting the problem there, so I guess I'll just have to wait until the next version of STK comes out!

[asciimonster]

Indeed, asciimonster you could try to run STK in a debugger and then create a new thread with the results

I have no idea how to do that!
I have looked at several debuggers from Microsoft and alike, but the information is completely confusing... I have no idea if I'm downloading the right tools, and have no clue how to operate them. I hope you have a useful link for me else I'm stumped...

[hiker]

I have looked at several debuggers from Microsoft and alike, but the information is completely confusing... I have no idea if I'm downloading the right tools, and have no clue how to operate them. I hope you have a useful link for me else I'm stumped...

Just download Visual Studio Express C++ from Microsoft, e.g.:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downlo ... Visual-CPP
It comes with everything you need. This is a newer version than the one I am currently using, but I don't expect any problems (and I will hopefully be installing the latest version soon anyway).

Cheers,
Joerg

[asciimonster]

Just download Visual Studio Express C++ from Microsoft

OK that worked, but as I haven't figured out how to couple the sources the results don't mean much to me... I guess they are not of any use to you either.

Ok. Here's the information on the crash. First,

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

Invalid parameter passed to C runtime function.

comes up regularly in the log.

Next the call stack location (the wha? ) is :

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

msvcr90.dll!64ed1641()

And the disassembly gives:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

64ED163E  int         3 
64ED163F  int         3 
64ED1640  int         3 
=> 64ED1641  and         dword ptr ds:[64EFD7A0h],0 
64ED1648  ret 
64ED1649  int         3 
64ED164A  int         3 


[Auria]

asciimonster, first you should create a new topic, please don't hijack someone else's topic
second, please post the entire stack trace, not only the current location

[hiker]

Just download Visual Studio Express C++ from Microsoft

OK that worked, but as I haven't figured out how to couple the sources the results don't mean much to me... I guess they are not of any use to you either.

Hmm - is this a debug build? You should get more than just a hex address (select Projects, properties, then check the configuration manager).

Cheers,
Joerg