Upgrade to 6.0 — map editor crash?

[AndrewinKC]

I just recreated this problem about five minutes ago. Here is the configuration:

HP Laptop, quad-core processor, 6GB RAM, Windows 7 Professional, AT&T Internet Security Suite (rebranded McAfee).

Security Center 9.15
VirusScan 13.15
Personal Firewall 10.15
SiteAdvisor 2.8
EasyNetwork 3.15

Just installed XMetaL Author (downloaded today), disabled VirusScan, created a DITAMap, then tried to insert a topic; it crashes when it tries to insert the topic.

I would really like to see this issue resolved as I am holding off on purchasing two more licenses for my team until this is fixed. I would really like the WebHelp output capability.

Let me know if any further information would be helpful in getting this resolved.

Thanks,

AndrewinKC

Reply

[Derek Read]

I have tested the following two versions of McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (trial versions) and cannot reproduce this crash yet, so at least on my test machines simply having McAfee installed is not an obvious trigger for this issue. There are many settings in McAfee VirusScan so I selected all default installation options and left all run-time settings at their default values.

McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.7.0i
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5.0

In both cases I am running XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0.0.079 on Windows XP SP3 with all current recommended Windows updates installed.

I've tried the steps posted by cdybdahl here http://forums.xmetal.com/index.php/topic,526.msg1660.html#msg1660
as well as every other major test we have in our test case suite for testing the Map Editor.

At this point I think we're possibly looking at some other trigger for this. If it was a common issue (ie: it happens for everyone) I would expect to have been flooded with complaints, but that is currently not the case, so it does still seem to be something unique that is triggering the problem.

I'll see if I can get “AT&T Internet Security Suite” (reported by AndrewinKC). It might do something that McAfee VirusScan Enterprise does not.

However, it could also be something entirely different so if anyone has definitive information pointing to a reproducible cause please let me know.

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[cdybdahl]

At the risk of providing too much information, I ran a complete system profile using Belarc Advisor (use at your own risk — my corporate network switch saw one of its tests as malicious and shut down my LAN connection, resulting in some downtime for me). The results are attached; they are zipped because HTML attachments are not allowed on this forum.

If others could post their results (AndrewinKC?), perhaps they could be cross-referenced to determine what other common factors are present in our configurations. This file contains software license and login information, so be sure to remove that before posting.

I am very interested in seeing this issue resolved. It is preventing me from deploying 6.0 to any new users, and I cannot justify continuing a maintenance arrangement for a tool where I am stuck with an old (and eventually unsupported) version that is, in my opinion, well inferior to the excellent work being done on this product.

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[mmoulder]

When we run XMEE 6.0 on Windows 7 we don't see any problems, but with XP it sucks.

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[Su-Laine Yeo]

Mark, did the Windows 7 machine have a previous version of XMetaL on it before you installed 6.0?

From this thread, a recent support case, and some testing we've done in the past couple of days, there are a few arrows pointing in the direction of certain crashes being related to upgrading XMetaL from a previous version. We'll keep testing to narrow down the cause.

To any of you who've seen unusual amounts of crashing in XMetaL 6 on machines that had a previous version of XMetaL: If you have time to try the following procedure to completely uninstall and reinstall XMetaL, it would be really good to know if it solves the problem. Use this procedure: http://forums.xmetal.com/index.php?topic=67.0 AND also delete C:Program FilesCorelSharedXMetaLWriting Tools10.0 before installing XMetaL 6.0. 

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[Su-Laine Yeo]

Also to be on the safe side, back up and delete C:Documents and SettingsMy DocumentsCorel User Files before reinstalling XMetaL 6.0.

Has anyone seen an unusual amount of crashing using XMetaL 6.0 on a machine that has never had a previous version of XMetaL installed on it?

Reply

[Derek Read]

We now know of a potential crash that may be related to the various crashes people are seeing here.

If our suspicions are correct this only affects machines that had an older version of XMetaL Author (Essential or Enterprise) on it before installing XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0. We think that on such a machine older versions of DLLs used for spell checking were not updated by the 6.0 installer.

Removing these files manually and then forcing the 6.0 installer to restore them using “Repair” should hopefully address this problem.

1. On the machine with XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0 installed locate the following folder and delete it: C:Program FilesCorelSharedXMetaLWriting Tools10.0
This is the path for an English language version of Windows, if you have installed to another language version of Windows the C:Program Files portion may differ).

2. In the Windows Control Panel launch the “Add or Remove Programs” tool.

3. From the list of installed programs select “XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0” then click the “Change” button.

4. In the dialog that appears select the “Next” button, then select the “Repair” radio button, then click “Next”, then click “Install…” and allow the installer to complete.

We have had one confirmation from a client that this addressed crashes for them as well as an inability in some cases to launch the product.

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[gcrews]

would steps 2-4 also be acompilshed by running:
setup.exe /s /v”/qb /norestart ALLUSERS=1″

Reply

[Derek Read]

Best to test this on one or two machines before you start rolling out this fix to all users.

This does not work for me:
setup.exe /s /v"/qb /norestart ALLUSERS=1"

However, this does perform a repair for me:
msiexec.exe /f {FADC4112-2EFE-4456-85B4-4D28FFC717C6} /qn

If you have trouble with that omit the /qn directive and check the error raised by msiexec.exe

Alternatively, you can use something like this:
msiexec.exe /f "C:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsTempXMEE 6.0xmetalXMetaL Author Enterprise.msi" /qn

Note that msiexec.exe is the Windows Installer tool located in C:WindowsSystem32 so should not need a path to run.

Two requirements:
1. The files used to do the original installation must still be present (this is the same requirement if you wish to use the Repair feature via Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel). As they are typically unpacked to a Windows temp folder they may have been removed either by the user or by some other automated cleanup process.
2. If used, the path to XMetaL Author Enterprise.msi must be correct. In my example should be replaced with the user's account name, assuming this is where the original installer unpacked itself to. This entire path might be completely different in your installations.

Microsoft docs for msiexec.exe running on Windows XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/msiexec.mspx

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[Derek Read]

PS: How did I find the installer GUID used for this product (the one msiexec.exe accepts)?

Look in the registry here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall

Our products use a GUID to identify themselves in the Windows Installer database, so you need to click on all the GUID-like entries until you find one for XMetaL (or go to that key and search for “XMetaL” using Ctrl+F).

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[gcrews]

Hum ok, well it seemed to work on my system and replace the deleted files. The setup.exe and stuff have a modified date of 1/14/2010. I’m using the extracted files from the install instead of trying to use the add & remove msi and stuff.  We are still mainly on XMetaL 5.5 but getting ready to migrate to 6.0. I don’t see way  re running the install  would not  replace the files.

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[gcrews]

I still can get XMetaL 6.0 to crash after a fresh install. I did find some things that may help.

In the windows application log file it says:
“Faulting application xmetal60.exe, version 6.0.0.122, stamp 4b4ee45a, faulting module oleaut32.dll, version 5.1.2600.5512, stamp 4802a112, debug? 0, fault address 0x00004942.”
The interesting thing though is the event source it says “.NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting”
I looked into what dlls XMetaL has open and looks like some .net framework 2.0 stuff is open. I have 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 versions of the .net framework on my system. Perhaps having older versions of the .net framework on the system is causing the crashes?

Also trying to pinpoint the issue, I found slurry of reads to topicref.xft right before the crash. The topicref.xft file is 37,806 bytes and it looks like it crashed one I/O read away from the end of the file.  The Microsoft application error reporting application (dw20.exe) also opens a handle to just that XMetaL file when it runs.   

Hope that helps. Images atached showing log and stuff.

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[cdybdahl]

Removing the spell checking directory as Derek suggests above:
C:Program FilesCorelSharedXMetaLWriting Tools10.0

And then repairing the installation using Add/Remove Programs appears to have fixed the problem for me.

Thanks!

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[mmoulder]

Is anyone still seeing this issue? I have one writer on Windows 7 and using the latest build that is still crashing when editing a map file, but now also when she inserts a graphic.

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[duboisy]

We could not launch XMetaL 6.0 trial version ( 6.0.0.122) with a previoius 4.5 Author version installed. By following Derek's instructions, we also confirm it did fix that problem. hth

We now know of a potential crash that may be related to the various crashes people are seeing here.

If our suspicions are correct this only affects machines that had an older version of XMetaL Author (Essential or Enterprise) on it before installing XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0. We think that on such a machine older versions of DLLs used for spell checking were not updated by the 6.0 installer.

Removing these files manually and then forcing the 6.0 installer to restore them using “Repair” should hopefully address this problem.

1. On the machine with XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0 installed locate the following folder and delete it: C:Program FilesCorelSharedXMetaLWriting Tools10.0
This is the path for an English language version of Windows, if you have installed to another language version of Windows the C:Program Files portion may differ).

2. In the Windows Control Panel launch the “Add or Remove Programs” tool.

3. From the list of installed programs select “XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0” then click the “Change” button.

4. In the dialog that appears select the “Next” button, then select the “Repair” radio button, then click “Next”, then click “Install…” and allow the installer to complete.

We have had one confirmation from a client that this addressed crashes for them as well as an inability in some cases to launch the product.

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