latest release not working/available on Win7 64 bit

[The Escapist]

only works in compatibility modem, has anybody created a 64 bit binary yet?

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

also, it's probably worth noting that -even in compat mode- the binary crashes in various places, such as when invoking the about dialog.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

also, syntax highlighting doesn't seem to be working in compat mode.

[Sridhar Ratnakumar (srid)]

I wonder how anyone can respond to this bug unless you elaborate on the "not working/available" part. For example, what is the error message you get when launching the app on Win7 64-bit?

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

Hi,
thanks for responding.

There is no error message, otherwise I would have surely posted it :-)
It's just not starting - once I change into compatibility mode (Win XP SP2), most things are working correctly, and the sim will start up like it does on Win or Linux.

[Sridhar Ratnakumar (srid)]

Do you see any error message when starting from the command line?

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

No, I don't - otherwise I would have also posted this. Sorry for omitting this piece of info - I explicitly tried this, especially given that I primarily use Linux, so I am used to seeing some errors only in the shell.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

The question actually seems to be if ANYBODY else has succeeded running the latest release on Win7/64 bit, I mean seriously: would it even make sense to EXPECT this to work flawlessly? Like I said, I have no problems at all using the program on Win XP or Linux. I am only seeing these issues with Windows 7 64 bit. So it would be interesting to see how many other people have succeeded running the standard 32 bit binary without problems on a 64 bit Windows based OS.

[Sridhar Ratnakumar (srid)]

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 1:34 PM, The Escapist <email address hidden> wrote:
> The question actually seems to be if ANYBODY else has succeeded running
> the latest release on Win7/64 bit

I have, and it works for me in Win7/64 bit. If you installed the
"gnusim8085-1.3.6-no-gtk-installer.exe" installer, you also need to
install GTK runtime from
http://gtk-win.sourceforge.net/home/index.php/en/Downloads (as linked
from the GNUSim8085 home page). I guess, in future, we should make the
installer include GTK runtime too.

BTW, Onkar, this is not mentioned in
http://gnusim8085.org/downloads.php .. and it should be.

[Sridhar Ratnakumar (srid)]

Could you tell me the version of GTK runtime you have installed? I just want to try reproducing this with the same setup as yours.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

program: gnusim8085-1.3.6-no-gtk-installer
GTK runtime: gtk2-runtime-2.22.0-2010-10-21-ash http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gtk-win/gtk2-runtime-2.22.0-2010-10-01-ash.exe?download

Obviously, the gtk runtime is installed - otherwise I would not even be able to run GNUSim8085 in compatibility mode.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

In addition to the GTK runtime, I also had to install iconv.dll from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/libiconv-1.9.1.dll.zip

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

Okay, the "iconv" issue is related to this:

2010-02-21: " Note that starting with this version, DLLs which are not direct dependencies of GTK+ (but used to be in the past) are not installed by default anymore. You can still install them by enabling the "Compatibility DLLs" checkbox during installation, or by using the /compatdlls=yes switch. Application packagers are reminded that they should distribute any DLL files their applications are linked with together with their applications, unless these DLLs are parts of gtk, glib, atk, pango or cairo."

The affected DLL files are: jpeg62.dll, libjpeg-7.dll, libtiff3.dll, libtiff-3.dll, libpng12.dll, libpng12-0.dll, iconv.dll.

http://gtk-win.sourceforge.net/home/index.php/en/Home

In other words: COMPATIBILITY DLLs must be checked for GNUSim8085
This is probably worth keeping in mind, especially if there really are plans to provide one comprehensive installer package.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

@Sridhar,
The point about downloading GTK+ installer separately is mentioned on downloads page in 'Notes' column.

@Escapist,
The issue about iconv.dll not being included is addressed in trunk. If you want I can provide a test binary from trunk. As to why it doesn't start in 64 bit mode, I have no idea. I don't have access to even simulated/virtual environment of Windows 7 (64-bit). The best I can do is post binaries from trunk and then you can try again.

By the way, 1.3.7 is overdue. I hope to release it this weekend.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

I don't have a working build environment on this machine, so I cannot build from sourcemyself at the moment.
But I'd be glad to test anything that you guys may come up with.

OTOH, Sridhar mentioned that he can successfully run everything on Win7 - so I am not sure where the culprit is here.
I should note that this is a fresh Win7 installtion, there isn't really a lot of other stuff installed at all...

Also, I have removed everything GNUSim8085/GTK related, including iconv.dll and re-installed everything from scratch, but I am still seeing the same issue.

My suggestion would be to add a bunch of printf/stderr instructions to the init code, so that we can see where things are broken here... The problem should occur before the GTK window is getting initialized, because there is NOTHING displayed at all.

Is there any sort of CLI logging system being used/supported in GNUSim8085?
That might be the easiest option, maybe just by setting a startup flag or environment variable, to get a more verbose log of what exactly is happening at startup.

I am pretty sure GTK has stuff for this sort of thing??

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

I am currently looking into main.c http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~gnusim8085-admins/gnusim8085/trunk/annotate/head%3A/src/main.c

It seems the whole initialization code doesn't check the return values of the functions called.
I guess that might be a worthwhile addition eventually.

Alternatively, if you could provide a binary with DEBUGGING symbols, I could run the binary in a debugger and see what's happening.

Otherwise I will need to look into this myself, it will take me about 1-2 weeks until I have access to a Win7 system where I can install a full build environment.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

Update: I just tried running GNUSim8085 in OllyDbg (64 bit) and it is showing an access violation while invoking code in libxml2, i.e. the issue is related to XML processing.

The stack dump contains references to "data\language2.rng"

Obviously, there are no debugging symbols available. So it's not too informative without spending lots of time reverse engineering the whole thing.

So what I tried is removing the file altogether, AND: the program works now, without problems so far.

So the problem is related to processing the "language2.rng" file.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

Our app does not read the languages2.rng file. This file is related to GtkSourceView's syntax highlighting mechanism. And we are using GtkSourceView APIs for enabling syntax highlighting.

I am wondering if the problem is with libxml2. Can you try replacing the libxml2.dll file in GNUSim8085 folder with latest version from ftp://ftp.zlatkovic.com/libxml/ and check if the problem is fixed. Meanwhile I will post binaries from trunk sometime today.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

Yes, I am aware that this is related to the syntax highlighting. As you may remember, I also reported that syntax highlighting wouldn't work for me previously, so I guess that COULD have been a good hint actually ;-)

I guess we should have pursued this some more :-)

I was actually considering to try exactly what you suggested: upgrading libxml ... and I just did that, and it turns out the problem is gone: the program starts up and syntax highlighting also works properly again.

So the problem really IS related libxml and Win7 ... I guess this should be forwarded to the libxml tracker?
OTOH, the issue is gone in the latest version - so never mind.

That's been some good troubleshooting folks!

Thanks for your support everybody ... off for more some testing now, but I won't delete the debugger yet ;-)

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

In summary, my suggestion is to include updated libxml binaries in the next release - especially given that Win7 is getting more and more common these days.

Besides, feel free to close this issue.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

I have created installers from trunk for testing purpose. They also contain latest libxml2. Please uninstall existing application and try these.
http://people.ubuntu.com/~onkarshinde/gnusim8085-1.3.7-with-gtk-installer.exe
http://people.ubuntu.com/~onkarshinde/gnusim8085-1.3.7-without-gtk-installer.exe

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

So far, I have only tried the 2nd download - and it's working nicely so far, no major problems as far as I can see.

There is one issue with the German translation of "Keypad", I am going to change it into "Instructions".
And the other issue is related to automatically saving each file to be assembled, this will obviously fail for the "read only" examples directory and all programs stored there. I have posted a follow up to the issue: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnusim8085/+bug/680426

Will do further testing and report back

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

another thing that I noticed is that it's taking between 3-6 seconds for the program to start up, while the previous version would be up and running directly after starting. Not sure why that is, but I can reliably reproduce this.

[The Escapist (wisd00m)]

Here's another small regression: after assembling a program, adding instructions via the keypad (e.g. DCX. LXI, CNZ, DCR, RST) halts the GUI for 2-4 seconds before the corresponding customization dialog appears.

This only happens ONCE after re-assembling, any subsequent invokations of the same dialog don't show this behavior, and the dialog is displayed promptly.

The program needs to be re-assembled and run for the behavior to occur again.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

The problem with latest libxml2 (2.7.7) is that if I use it I am not able to test the application using wine. So I think I will have to stay with a bit older version 2.7.6. I will create new installers with this version of libxml2 so that they can be tested in native Windows 7 environment.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

This issue should be fixed in latest version released now which you can download from https://gnusim8085.github.io/download
Even though Windows binary is still 32 build, I have tested the version on Windows 7 64 bit and it works as expected.