BZ 3348: Mac crash when installed to non-default directory

[jetking]

FYI, I've already done the "replace the app with a fresh copy thing" (more than once) and I got this crash after having done so.

It's a brand new league (i.e., made in 10, not imported). I'm still on a 1.67 GHz Powerbook G4 with 1 GB of RAM, using Mac OS X 10.4.11 and OOTP 10.0.7.

After getting through spring training I poke around a bit and things were fine. But when I went League Menu -> Reports -> Top Players the game just plain crashed.

At this point I'm tempted to call the Mac version of the game wildly unstable. Anyone else out there using the Mac version should (a) think twice before migrating and (b) make damned sure they're backing up regularly if they are using OOTP 10. Also, I'd avoid importing any particularly meaningful leagues if you can.

Just so y'all know, I'm not angry or throwing any kind of attitude above. I just haven't been able to go more than 30 minutes or so without the game crashing. And that's with a very simple set up (16 teams total, 2 subleagues, reserve rosters/no minors, hidden players on, financials/scouting on). I shudder to think how a big and/or complicated league might behave. I'm not angry, just very frustrated.

I'll keep playing the game, of course, and I understand that Mac users are a smaller group and therefore somewhat less likely to see the limited OOTP resources dedicated to our problems. But I'd hope that between the licensing issues (I, too, have had the app tell me my license was no longer valid - I just unlicensed and relicensed, which seems to be the workaround) and the number of crashes reported that we'll at least see some attention paid.

I'm grateful to have OOTP for the Mac at all. I'd just like to see it not crash all the time.

[SteveP]

Sorry to hear that the simple solutions aren't working.

As I've said in other threads, I was the only mac user in the beta who had any notable problems, and my game has been quite stable for some time now.

One of the things I did during the beta was to completely erase everything OOTP from my computer and do a completely fresh re-install. However, in order to do that you have to be sure you get the hidden files. The user preferences and the config files are hidden, for example. If you aren't sure how to find the hidden files on your Mac (they are located relatively near to your game folder) post and I'll see if I can help you out -- it's certainly possible that one of those hidden files is the source of the problem.

Not sure why these things are happening on some Macs, but take heart -- there are certainly at least as many Windows users who are having similar problems. But apparently the overwhelming majority of users, but PC and Mac seem to getting by OK.

[jetking]

I'm not quite prepared to wipe all things OOTP from my machine just yet. I've got an online league that's not just switched to OOTP X (and I must admit, I'm now loathe for it to), so I need to hold on to 9 for a bit.

I shouldn't need much help with the hidden files (I'm a comfortable in the command line kind of guy), but hints on their location(s) would certainly be appreciated. Are they contained within the App .pkg? Or are they hiding in /Library/Application Support somewhere? Or someplace else that doesn't come to mind?

I'll take whatever help I can get, basically.

Thanks, Steve.

[SteveP]

No need to remove anything that's OOTP9 related. Also, I want to emphasize that this is just something to try -- I don't know if it will work, but it's a logical step.

The hidden files will likely be in a folder in your Home Folder. The folder is called Out of the Park Developments, and there will be subfolders, one for OOTP9 and one for OOTP10.

In theory, the uninstall program ought to take care of this for you, but my experience has been that this program doesn't work all that well. Don't know if that has been fixed yet, which is why I'm suggesting that you do this manually.

As I say, I've been able to get my OOTP application working very stable now, so there is reason to be optimistic.

[jasonditz]

I'm having an insane number of errors too. I'm about ready to give up on the whole thing.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by jasonditz

I'm having an insane number of errors too. I'm about ready to give up on the whole thing.

What do you mean by errors? Are you talking about something other than crashes?

[jetking]

Cool. I'll give this approach a try after the next crash. I'll report back once I've done it and how it goes.

Thanks again, Steve.

Originally Posted by SteveP

No need to remove anything that's OOTP9 related. Also, I want to emphasize that this is just something to try -- I don't know if it will work, but it's a logical step.

The hidden files will likely be in a folder in your Home Folder. The folder is called Out of the Park Developments, and there will be subfolders, one for OOTP9 and one for OOTP10.

In theory, the uninstall program ought to take care of this for you, but my experience has been that this program doesn't work all that well. Don't know if that has been fixed yet, which is why I'm suggesting that you do this manually.

As I say, I've been able to get my OOTP application working very stable now, so there is reason to be optimistic.

[jasonditz]

Originally Posted by SteveP

What do you mean by errors? Are you talking about something other than crashes?

Having to de-license and relicense each time I boot. Multiple crashes. Path errors, particularly with historical leagues. The game seems not to like being installed anyplace but the default location, and I don't have enough room on my primary drive.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by jasonditz

Having to de-license and relicense each time I boot. Multiple crashes. Path errors, particularly with historical leagues. The game seems not to like being installed anyplace but the default location, and I don't have enough room on my primary drive.

I haven't had any problems with using my own locations, though I haven't tried it on a secondary drive (possibly could explain the path errors, so you might want to report that specifically to see if anyone can help on that).

Have you tried the technique of replacing your OOTP application (not the whole game or folder, just the application -- you won't need to re-license). I recommend trying that because it is easy to do. If that doesn't work, you could consider doing a complete reinstall along the lines of the other posts in this thread. If none of that works, then you might need some more focused help. The game will run fine on a Mac, but until the guys can get more focus on this (there was nothing during beta that suggested any other than very rare problems), you may have to nursemaid your copy until you get there.

[jasonditz]

Originally Posted by SteveP

I haven't had any problems with using my own locations, though I haven't tried it on a secondary drive (possibly could explain the path errors, so you might want to report that specifically to see if anyone can help on that).

Have you tried the technique of replacing your OOTP application (not the whole game or folder, just the application -- you won't need to re-license). I recommend trying that because it is easy to do. If that doesn't work, you could consider doing a complete reinstall along the lines of the other posts in this thread. If none of that works, then you might need some more focused help. The game will run fine on a Mac, but until the guys can get more focus on this (there was nothing during beta that suggested any other than very rare problems), you may have to nursemaid your copy until you get there.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to give it a try on my next day off. Might just be something where I'll have to wait for a patch.

[battists]

It's been a while since we've heard back from jetking or jason. I know that the disappearing license issue has been resolved, but what is the latest on the overall stability of the application?

We're sorry that you guys are experiencing problems!

[jetking]

Hey there. I hadn't reported for a bit because things have been pretty darn stable since I implemented the license issue pre-patch fix thingy. I had one crash over the weekend - when interrupting the sim - but it didn't recur and didn't appear to replicable.

I'll be banging on the game again more nights this week and I'll post back if anything goes awry. And if I don't post back it'll be because things are going smoothly. But I'll still try to post then, too, since in these cases silence cna never be assumed to be good news

Thanks for checking up on us, battists!

[jasonditz]

I frankly just gave up after another full reinstall failed to fix any of my problems, and decided to wait for a patch of some sort.

[kev24fan]

My game is hit by the App. patch thing. It worked the first time but when I loaded the game up later it gave my the Licence invald deal again. I hate to have to replace it everytime I want to play the game. If I do not then I can only play in demo mode which stinks. So I will put this game in the file 13.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by kev24fan

My game is hit by the App. patch thing. It worked the first time but when I loaded the game up later it gave my the Licence invald deal again. I hate to have to replace it everytime I want to play the game. If I do not then I can only play in demo mode which stinks. So I will put this game in the file 13.

Have you installed the patch? Are you sure you installed it correctly (some people apparently installed in the wrong location)? You will be asked for your license # the first time to launch the game after installing the patch, but you should not have a problem with this after that.

[kev24fan]

Yes I installed the patch. It did ask for the license # and I entered it. After that it worked normal I had simmed up till mid August before I closed the game. The next time when I went to play the game it asked for the license # again. It went back to the demo for the 3rd time. I had put it in the only place where the file is located on my Mac. Which is the default location.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by kev24fan

Yes I installed the patch. It did ask for the license # and I entered it. After that it worked normal I had simmed up till mid August before I closed the game. The next time when I went to play the game it asked for the license # again. It went back to the demo for the 3rd time. I had put it in the only place where the file is located on my Mac. Which is the default location.

I probably should have asked my question differently. Are you sure you are running version 10.1.14? If you are, then you may have developed a specific bug for some reason. In that case, I'd suggest you find BZ 3120 in the Logged Issues forum, and add a post describing what you see. PISD Paul is the only one who could figure out what's happening (you may have to send him a file) and get it fixed. He keeps track of posts to that BZ.

[kev24fan]

Not sure what version the game was. I will have to try it 1 more time to find out what version I was running.

[kev24fan]

That may be the problem it say I am running Version 10.0.7

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by kev24fan

That may be the problem it say I am running Version 10.0.7

That's the source of the problem. You need to try to install the patch again. When you do the installation, specifically select your existing OOTP10 folder, so that the installer knows that is where the patch needs to go. You probably have some files somewhere else on your hard drive that the patch installer put there, instead of where they were supposed to go.