Remote Client Crashing
 

Hello all,

I am hosting a Server on a Windows 10 x64 VM, and it all seems to be working for the most part. One of the Minor issues being that if you create a character and try to connect to the world the client crashes, but once the client reloads you can get in with no issues.

The issue I am posting about today, unfortunately has no logs for backing it up. Basically what was happening, is that I was playing my EQ on the VM's host machine (VM has 16GB memory, Host has a total of 64GB) and a friend of mine was playing from outside of the local network. Everything seemed to be going fine, but then he suddenly crashed for no apparent reason. When he got the game to load up again we were able to play again for a bit but then it randomly crashed again within 20-30 minutes of connecting. We thought this was odd, but he tried to connect again. This time it kicked him out after his character had only moved a couple of feet.


The locations where he crashed: Once in Crescent Reach, just across the bridge to where the Bear Cubs and Puma Cubs are, while fighting 2 bears and a puma.

Once in Gloomingdeep (tutorialb) over by the ogre and troll scout while fighting a slave warden.


Once in Gloomingdeep at the initial spawn point (across from Aries in the camp)


As for the initial spawn point bit, Gloomingdeep makes us respawn at the starting point everytime a character logs into that zone
, so that's why he was there.


When I started looking at all the server windows, I noticed in the loginserver that it there was a couple of error complaints where the loginserver was complaining about bad allocation from client but I couldn't see anything else in any of the server windows that looked like an error.


Has anybody else had that issue? I noticed that the bad allocation error had been showing up for probably 1-2 hours worth of logs though.

Is there a fix for this error?


I will post the exact text from the loginserver next time it shows up, but for now, that is all that I have got. Please let me know if there is anything that I can provide that might help with troubleshooting this issue

Local Network Access now too
 

So my local network client has also decided to start crashing. I grabbed 2 of the debug logs (I dont know if that helps anyone or anything)
Log 1: Occured when I pressed tab to target myself
Log 1

Log 2: Occurred immediatly after I logged into the game
Log 2

When I log in with a different character, it looks like it is working perfectly fine. It never crashed when I logged in, and I can target myself.

The error that the loginserver keeps throwing at me is: "[Error] Error parsing message from client: bad allocation"

Any ideas on we can login and stay connected consistently?

I haven't seen that from the loginserver..but, it should be separate from world or zone server issues - even if it is related.


If you're able to get into the 'world' and play, there should be some logging occurring in the zone server.

Can you post a copy of your zone log showing client connects and disconnects?

You can/should redact any non-LAN or localhost ips, as well as any account-based infomation - other than the toon's name.

Thanks for replying Uleat,

I found the zone logs and uploaded them below (I also have some World logs there, Account Names modified and Local IP Address changed); I don't see any account names or IP's in the zone files however.

Zone Logs

Is there anything else that you will need me to upload? I am also open to letting someone remote into the VM if it would make it easier to help troubleshoot;

I can see where the world server is telling the zone server to spin-up..

..but, nothing about the actual client communicating with the zone server.


I have no experience with vms..but, someone with might chime in :)

Thanks for looking at those logs anyway Uleat;

As far as I understand the VM shouldn't be much different from running on its own dedicated computer, other than that some drivers are made by the VM provider instead of by the manufacturer. Im not sure though;

Like I had said though, I wouldn't have any issue letting you into the VM to check things that you might need or want to check

So, as an update to this;

I moved the server off the virtual machine and onto a physical machine and I am still having the same issue. I have also re-installed the EQ client twice but nothing is fixing the issue. What else could I try?

Also, my loginserver is still complaining about this "[Error] Error parsing message from client: bad allocation"; Is there anything anyone can suggest? Or assist me with or anything like that?

Does anyone have some idea that could help with this?

What clients are connecting?

Specifically, what versions are you using?

I remember seeing something like this in my setup a while back.

Hi Maze,

Both me and the friend are running the Secrets of Faydwer client, but we had had that issues with Titanium as well

Delete the character UI files in your client.

Thanks for the reply Cussar,

I have tried doing that, and also re-installed the client and it didn't make a difference for the character. It still wasn't able to login to the world. Is there more than one place where I would find the character UI files? I only deleted the ones from the root install folder for the client as well as all the character data that was stored in the userdata folder

I have the SoF install discs myself.

Make sure that the eqhost.txt in your client directory is pointing to port 5998 (for SoF and older clients.)

Hi Uleat,

I have the discs as well for SOF and that's the client that we are actively using to play, but im not sure what the eqhost would have to do with this in this case; I can login with other characters into my server, its just one specific character right now on my account, one on my friends account and there had been the login server bad allocation error (That doesn't appear to be happening right now, since running the server on an updated version and on a physical pc).

I have made sure the port is pointing to the right place, but I still cant get that one toon in

If you and your friend both, by coincidence, have only one toon that you can't login, then the problem is obviously in the
database, with those two characters. It could be a defective item in the character's inventory, or something happened to
create a bug in those particular toons. I had a toon once with a bad item and couldn't get it logged on worth crap, but I
just wiped the toon altogether in the database. Do those toons have items on them that are out of era for SoF ? (bags,etc)

I don't think that either of them do; I mean my character is using items that SoF recognizes as items; I mean I know that that doesn't mean much. There are no custom items on him. Friends toon is using purchased steel armor from the blacksmith in crescent reach, and then is holding whatever he may have picked up while playing in gloomingdeep. I will clear their inventories and see if that fixes anything, and get back to you on if that worked.

As a side note, my character that I am using to test custom items is having no issues what so ever, just the occasional icon that wont load

I am currently testing an inventory change on my test server.

I've done RoF2 and am testing Titanium now.

I can do SoF next to see if there are issues with the unmodified portions of the code.


The problem with multiple client support is that each one can have different requirements for the same system..

..and if things get modified in one area without being modified in another, issues like this can creep in.


Personally, I don't recall this issue back when I played exclusively on SoF..but, I have heard about this before (can't remember which client - probably from Maze_EQ :P )

Okay, I tried wiping out my characters inventory and then logging in. The second the PoK loaded, the client crashed again. Gave a could not read memory error. I deleted the character and loaded to character select, verified that the character was not there and then quit to server select. Went back to SQL and re-added the character. Logged into character select again verified that the character was there again and tried logging in again. Once again, the second that I loaded into PoK the client crashed. This time I never received an error message from the client about the crash. Thinking that PoK was the common denominator, I force changed his zone from the character_data table from PoK to Tutorialb and lowered his level from 75 to 10. Now he can login to the game again. The only issue with my theory is that my friends toon is marked as that the zone he is in is tutorialb already. I will see if clearing his inventory fixed his character, but I am suspecting that the issue lies within the level. His character is level 5, but for a brief period of time, I had boosted him to level 75 and then back to whatever level he was before I did that. All of this happened while in gloomingdeep where the level cap to be in the zone is something like 17.


I am going to test to see if manually adjusting the level from the database and logging in fixes the issue

It appears that the login issue had something to do with being too high of a level in gloomingdeep. I am not getting kicked out anymore when I login.

Just in case I am wrong, I will leave this thread alone and open so I can update as needed

I spoke too soon, the issue moved itself to the toon I was testing things with, at least on my account. Now that toon cant login to any zone without crashing the client. I will try adjusting his level and clearing/restoring his inventory to check though

I don't know what the issue is, but it seems like any of my characters who have had #level used on them is getting corrupted in some way.

The toon that started acting up after I fixed the first character had only used it once to boost his level to level 5 so I could test merchant and item required levels. I ended up having to clear his inventory as well and then restoring it and now he can log in again.

I am so confused as to what is happening right now. Any thoughts as to how I can prevent this "corruption" from passing around like this?

It honestly sounds like the DB is corrupted or its missing required updates to run correctly.

If you have nothing to lose I would wipe the DB reinstall it and re-run the world update to make sure its not the DB causing the problem (Which it usually is).

I can definitely try that tomorrow; do you think it will be safe to have Heidi generate sql scripts for the items that I have added and for the npcs/merchants I have created?

From what I can see, you're dealing with 2 possible issues - and possibly suffering dilemmas from a cross between the two.


First is custom items.

Items are very finicky if you don't know exactly what the field data represent and how the data is used.

- `fvnodrop` always causes the client to crash
- non-existent charm files cause the server to crash


Second is level.

When SoF support was added to the server, the max supported level was 65.

While people have pushed that higher themselves, and now that we support a higher level by default, that doesn't mean that
older clients are 'handled' correctly. Unless an issue is obvious(, or reported with enough info to find the cause,) older clients
tend to suffer...


I played using SoF last night on a human monk. I started in tutorialb and went to crescent afterwards (by way of poknowledge.)
I managed to get to level 18 without any issues.


On keeping your custom items, it's not hard to export them.


The actual issue may not be either of these..just a guess based on behavior.

I, personally, would like to see 1-2 of the clients be dropped from support..but, as long as we do support them,
they need to be functional.

Hi Uleat,

I just verified that the items I custom made don't have the FVNODROP flag enabled, and none of them are charms (I haven't made any of them yet), so I am definitely leaning towards that not being the issue;

I had also wondered about the level thing, but not in the sense of the level cap; just with being over leveled for a level capped zone; but in the instance of what appears to be happening right now my theory doesn't even hold up, since the character that started having the issues hadn't level up any more than 1 level by using the gm command.

As for the client support, I completely understand what you are saying; but I also hope that if there is clients that get dropped, that some way is made for people to still run their own servers, or logon to other peoples servers; especially since the only versions that are still technically available are the legacy clients (Titanium, SoF

Looking at the server having the issues, Im noticing that sometime in the night, the queryserver lost connection to the database on the local machine; I have seen that happen only ever twice but am not sure why.

In the meantime, I am going to take that server down, back up its database and then run the updates for it.

If you think of anything else I can try, please let me know.

Also; I installed a fresh database on another computer, and it is having issues letting me connect to it across the local network. I am going to keep fighting with it and let you guys know the results of attempting NightStriders
suggestion

I would review your server logs.

QS disco could be a zone crash or boot-up timeout (that message does appear in the logs.)

If your client does not start the 'loading' progress bar within one minute, you will likely be sent back to character select.

With a fresh install, no custom mods done to it, if it's all installed properly, the ONLY reason for not being able to connect
to it on the local network, is your main server config files need some attention. (eqemu_config.json and login.ini)
With a brand new fresh install and everything configured properly, for the most part, it starts, runs and works flawlessly.
One issue that has been addressed so many times, it's not even funny anymore, is in the login.ini (local_network = 192.168.x.)
On live, there was patches to fix the patches. Here, we need "guides to fix the guides". (subject to change without notice).


I had the same problem with the QS, but I really don't need it, so I just removed it from the startup. Other than that, my
lan server functions as it should, with no problems connecting to it. I've used most clients, without issues, except SoF. I've
never had a copy of that. I stick with RoF2 now. It's a smooth client.

Interesting note here...


Three nights ago I was testing my code changes with the Titanium client on my BOTS-enabled test server.

I traded a burlap shirt to one of my bots (in tutorialb) through the trade window and my actual client immediately crashed.

I logged back in, bot had the shirt, I didn't have a copy..so, I moved on marking it up to a possible issue in my code.

The next night I played a new toon through to level eighteen on SoF without issue. (I camped out as soon as I leveled.)

Last night, I decided to play on SoF again and all of a sudden, my first combat engagement crashed my client to desktop (using a small bot party.)


Oh, must be bots, right? No, now that toon can't get into world.

I thought it might be related to bot spells starting at level 18 (bard has one, shaman has four.)

So, I checked the client log..server logs weren't gonna really help unless it crashed or I had more solid evidence.

[Lost my server log from last night..had to recreate issue]

(I actually saw some particle errors in this client log at the same timestamp.)

Last night's crash on 'entering world' involved the client sending these packets, then the server sending them back..
..no other pertinent data was being sent during the crash time scope. (Both c and s events occurred at the same timestamp.)

I tested on SoD and didn't have any issues..only on SoF. (Couldn't test on directly on Titanium because it obviously doesn't have crescent...)

I deleted all of the buffs on the affected character and was able to get back into the game.


Are you seeing anything like this in your logs?

Hi Uleat,

After I had done some playing around with the characters, It seems to have mostly corrected itself at this time. My Client and my friends doesnt seem to be crashing anymore (Granted, I have done all the testing for my friend on my machine as he has been busy)

On the second post I made on this thread, i had linked the debug logs that i had got from the eq client when i was crashing constantly on my character though, if you wanted to compare the 2 sets of logs.

I dont remember if I had mentioned this earlier in terms of how I got my characters to be able to get it (My one character that had originally been having the issue, my friends character and my second character that appears to have inherited the issue from my first character); but when my second character started having that issue as well, I just created an insert statement containing their whole item inventory, deleted their item inventory and the re-inserted it and that toon hasnt had an issue since. It is definitely sounding like I have some corruption in my database, relating to the character inventory table.

Thanks Cussar,

I did eventually get that working the other day, I had missed entering the ip address in the chatserver/mailserver section of the configuration file (possibly other locations, but those were the 2 biggest ones I can remember right now). What is the purpose of the query server anyway?

I would hold off on 'destroying' your database for the moment - if you haven't done that yet.

I've been able to reliably recreate a crash on SoF and have a possible solution for that crash.

I'm not 100% sure that this is your problem..but, I imagine all servers are affected by this for SoF clients (and possibly Titanium ones - didn't test.)

I'll update it as soon as I can get it cleaned up and pushed. If you're using the pre-built binaries, you'll be out of luck until those get updated.

Sounds fair Uleat;

Question about updating then - If I am using Akkadius' auto installer, I know I will likely have to wait a while before i could get them myself if I keep trying to use that to update things.

Last time I tried using the server installer to update my database, it deleted my database and put a vanilla PEQ database in. Is that normal? Or did I run the wrong file for updating the DB?

ps. I had literally just made a backup of the computer the server was running on the night before, so i never actually lost my DB permanently.