Panic while starting Zone servers with Perl quests

[Liem]

I was trying to use perl quest as the 5.2 server crashes with .qst files, and i've installed ActivePERL and tried installing IO::Scalar, but still I get a panic while I try to start the Zone server... anyone have any idea how to fix this?

[SaguratuS]

Liem, i've been having the same problems with a custom build - I'll let you know if I can figure a way around this.

-- Copy and paste this into a new test.pl file, and do: "perl test.pl" from the command line to verify that you have Scalar working correctly

[Liem]

copy and paste what?

[SaguratuS]

sorry, had to post it from the comp which had it on it.

    ### use 5.005;
    use IO::Scalar;
    $data = "My message:\n";

    ### Open a handle on a string, and append to it:
    $SH = new IO::Scalar \$data;
    $SH->print("Hello");       
    $SH->print(", world!\nBye now!\n");  
    print "The string is now: ", $data, "\n";

    ### Open a handle on a string, read it line-by-line, then close it:
    $SH = new IO::Scalar \$data;
    while (defined($_ = $SH->getline)) { 
	print "Got line: $_";
    }
    $SH->close;

    ### Open a handle on a string, and slurp in all the lines:
    $SH = new IO::Scalar \$data;
    print "All lines:\n", $SH->getlines; 

    ### Get the current position (either of two ways):
    $pos = $SH->getpos;         
    $offset = $SH->tell;  

    ### Set the current position (either of two ways):
    $SH->setpos($pos);        
    $SH->seek($offset, 0);

    ### Open an anonymous temporary scalar:
    $SH = new IO::Scalar;
    $SH->print("Hi there!");
    print "I printed: ", ${$SH->sref}, "\n";      ### get at value

[SaguratuS]

Hmm, looks like even the prebuilt exe returns the panic, odd

[Liem]

should "install IO:Scalar" work??
I couldn't run the test you posted, and now I'm trying to reinstall ActivePerl as I fu*ked alot around with \lib to try to get scalar to work

[SaguratuS]

install IO::Scalar must work correctly and return "install_finished", if not, you probably haven't set your nmake directory - do so by configuring perl correctly with "o config"

[Liem]

Ok, i got scalar to work.... but I still get the panic :(
Thanks for your help on getting scalar to work, any luck with getting the zone server up?

[Eglin]

Originally Posted by SaguratuS

sorry, had to post it from the comp which had it on it.

    ### use 5.005;
    use IO::Scalar;
    $data = "My message:\n";

    ### Open a handle on a string, and append to it:
 ...

ack!

perl -MIO::Scalar -e "print 'AOK'"

should be all you need.

[SaguratuS]

haha, you have to type that in though, mine you just have to double click =)

besides, all i did was copy/paste a demo script into a file from the build's readme.

[Eglin]

Originally Posted by SaguratuS

Hmm, looks like even the prebuilt exe returns the panic, odd

If the problem is indeed related to your Perl install, then of course the binary will also fail. Try compiling with #EMBPERL but not #EMBPERL_PLUGIN, and see if that works for you, please?

Also, you guys need to be a whole lot more specific about these errors if you want to get good help. You got a panic? Which panic? Which perl version are you using? How did you verify your IO::Scalar installation? At what point are you getting errors? What OS? What is your path set to? etc...

[Liem]

This is the output if I try to start a zone server:

[Status] CURRENT_ZONE_VERSION: EQEMu 0.5.2
[Status] Loading Variables
[Status] Loading zone names
[Status] Loading items
[Status] EMuShareMem loaded
[Status] Loading npcs
[Status] Loading NPCTypes from database...
[Status] Loading npc faction lists
[Status] Loading NPC Faction Lists from database...
[Status] Loading loot tables
[Status] Loading Loot tables from database...
[Status] Loading doors
[Status] Loading Doors from database...
[Status] FileLoadSPDat() Loading spells from spells_us.txt
[Status] FileLoadSPDat() spells loaded: 4294
[Status] Loading guilds
[Status] Loading factions
[Status] Loading corpse timers
[Status] Loading what ever is left
[Status] Loading commands
[Status] 150 commands loaded
[Status] Loading embedded perl
panic: top_env

I'm using ActivePerl-5.6.1.635-MSWin32-x86 on a Windows 2003 Server, I veryfied the Scalar install by executing the test.pl SaguratusS posted, and my path look like this:

Path=C:\Perl\bin\;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C :\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\php4\php;C:\Program Files\cvsnt

EDIT: I just cleaned up my PATH

[SaguratuS]

using perl 5.8 on xp and windows server 2003, scalar is installed and verified via script I posted earlier.

zone.exe dies regardless if EMBPERL_PLUGIN is defined with panic: top_env

Just tried it with 0.5.3DR1, same result.

Edit:
Perl 5.8-latest was installed using all defaults, same with the installation of scalar via install IO::Scalar (except for the location of nmake.exe).

the panic: top_env was reproduced on both the 2003 and xp box, and so far I've done the following while compiling:
added the embparser h/c++ and embperl h/c++
added \perl\lib\core to include dir
added perl58.lib to compilation
standard preprocessor define of EMBPERL
compiled using the release configuration.

[Eglin]

You get the same error when you compile without #def EMBPERL_PLUGIN ?

Based on the fact that the last thing you see prior to the error is the 'loading embperl' msg, I think that we can say pretty safely that you are dying inside of Embperl::Embperl(). This should be pretty easy to debug, if you're up to the task. Embperl isn't dependent upon eqemu, so you can include it in a standalone program, if you need. Either way, you should be able to determine where it is dying pretty easily.

I can't really do it for you, since I can't reproduce your problem.

I've got to say, though, that I have a sneaking suspicion that your IO::Scalar isn't installed properly. This error is too weird for it to have a plethera of causes.

[SaguratuS]

I'm working on debugging it now, meanwhile scalar checks out correctly, and the install is done exactly how I said before:
install perl 5.8, all defaults
hit enter on all config defaults except for location of nmake.exe
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install IO::Scalar
Install finishes successfully
run zone.exe, same panic error
copy compiled scalar modules to perl/site and perl/lib directories
same zone.exe panic error