Zone crashes

number6 · #1 01-16-2007, 07:55 PM

On my private server (The Village) I have a player with a character that crashes the zone as soon as it plays, and I believe it is the same issue as reported by http://www.projecteq.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2055

If I restore the character to a backup, it is able to play as normal so there is something in the character data in the DB that is causing zones to crash. I am not able to see anything pertaining to this in the log files. I am about to increase debugging levels and try to track this problem down but I wanted to post this issue here now in case anyone else has seen it - and of course, if there's a fix already it'd save me a lot of work.

If anyone wants a DB dump of the character to try and reproduce on their own server I'll be happy to oblige, send me a PM. I'm running with the latest version 944 but it also exhibits the same problem on 942.

Paul.

number6 · #2 01-17-2007, 12:49 AM

I have a lot more info now after testing. If I remove all buffs from the character causing the problem, then they are OK after that. The problem is occurring for one player only and it now appears that after the initial titanium install, he accidentally patched. He then reisntalled Titanium *over the top* of the patched install. My current theory is that this has broken something so that the client is sending bogus profile packet data to the server, which is being duly written out to the blob, and later on is crashing the server.

I've asked the player to do a fresh install and see if the problem re-occurs. In the meantime I hacked together a really quick and dirty php script to allow players to fix it for themselves. This allows you to debuff any character on the server so it's not something you'd use for a public server but the code might be useful to someone. I can't seem to post the script here - perhaps the PHP code is upsetting the forum code here - but send me an IM if you want it.

Regards

Paul.

John Adams · #3 01-17-2007, 02:07 AM

You are correct. You absolutely canNOT uninstall and reinstall without wiping out the existing Everquest (or titanium) directory. Residual files could very well cause a problem if the client "sees" them and chooses on it's own to use them.

The only safe way to recover from a patched Titanium is uninstall, delete dir completely, then reinstall, and do not patch.

number6 · #4 01-17-2007, 08:14 PM

Well, here's an update: the player did a fresh install but still managed to trigger the problem last night. He was fighting with his bard in tutorialb and had a "sicken" dot on him. The problem occurred when the mob that had cast sicken died. My hack to clear buffs on his character has got him up and running again. I am starting to wonder whether there's some problem with debuffs/dots on a player from time to time when the aggressor is no longer in zone.

I'm trying to work through the code that would be called to handle the dot.

Paul.

**cavedude** · #5 01-18-2007, 03:35 AM

It is definitely a code issue, because zone crashes and it does it with my 0.6.2 client and my freshly installed Titanium client. This bug is killing us over at PEQ. We are working on it, but have yet to find a solution.

number6 · #6 01-18-2007, 07:24 PM

I've sent Cavedude my php hack. The problem is still happening on my server. The main issue with debugging this is that I can't seem to get anything meaningful in the logs and I'm finding the spell/buffs code a bit of a labyrinth. I'm a bit rusty on this; can anyone advise a way to get a core dump from the zone executable so I can see where it crashed via gdb, or am I talking too old technology (been a while). I'm not getting core files anywhere.

Paul.