Hack/fix for Win98/ME Update (COMMAND.COM hang)

[Seytra]

Onthor, yes, this is the correct file. You don\'t see the extension because windows deliberately hides them.
However, if you unzipped this file into the PS folder, then it must have prompted you to overwrite the files. If it didn\'t, you didn\'t extract to the correct folder, because if you extract correctly, the updater is updated, and the problem isn\'t there anymore, enabling you to update the game itself.
So my suggestion is to
1) check the date of the updater.zip file and see if it actually has been downloaded recently, and if not, use the updater again to get it, it will do that.
2) check if you extracted the files in the correct folder, possibly by extracting them to a different folder and then manually move them, to see if it prompts for overwriting.

If this fails, then you should remove the PS install and install it again, then immediately using the zip extraction method (let the updater get it first ), as it is less error-prone than is the manual retrieval of the files.

The glwin32.dll needs to be backed up and re-installed manually, however. (This might be a future feature for the updater: an option to tell it to not update glwin32.dll)

[Onthor]

Hey Seytra, thanks mate that worked.   I now have the current version of updater, but it is now doing the freeze thing as it tries to  download and install the updates. I tried to do as you suggested earlier in this thread when this happens, but I can\'t run updater in Auto mode. (Not even sure what that means.) I tried to do as you suggested in normal mode, but I couldn\'t see a way to access the files to do as you suggested. I tried doing what Dugatoar suggested by running command, but when I type what he suggests,  \"c:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift Crystal Blue\" in the command window,  I just get \"bad command\". Sorry for being a painful noob, but is there any more advice you or anyone can offer?

[Seytra]

You\'re welcome, Onthor. To run the updater in auto mode you need to open a command prompt (from the programs menu: MS-DOS prompt). In it, you enter:
c:
cd \"program files\\planeshift crystal blue\"
updater -auto

Now the updater is running in auto mode. To access the files, you need the explorer. Navigate to the PS folder (c:\\program files\\planeshift crystal blue). This is where you need to be to follow the instructions.

[Lord_Lucifer]

When will the server be up and running again?

[Onthor]

Hi Seytra. Mate I hate to say this, but I have no idea what this, your last post here, \" To run the updater in auto mode you need to open a command prompt (from the programs menu: MS-DOS prompt). In it, you enter:
c:
cd \"program filesplaneshift crystal blue\"
updater -auto \" means. I have spent all day trying to do this, but have failed. I run Me and it does not run Dos, but I still went looking for MS-DOS prompt in the programs menu, and I couldn\'t find it. When you say, \"cd \"program filesplaneshift crystal blue\" \", I don\'t know what the cd means. This is embarrassing to admit but I am lost. I know people will be thinking I am out of my depth, and more then likely I am, but I have played a couple of other MMORPG\'s. It is just that I have never had to be this technical to play them. So Seytra, if you could give it to me in Onthorish, that would be great.

[Seytra]

OK, maybe ME doesn\'t want you to have a DOS prompt (I run W98 so I\'m not that familiar with ME). But there is a way: use the \"execute\" command from the start menu. In it, enter \"command\" and then hit \"OK\". If this fails, try entering \"cmd\" and hit \"OK\". One of these should work.

Now up pops a black window, just like the dreaded hanging updater\'s window, with a difference: there will be a \"c:\\Windows>\" in it\'s upper left corner. That\'s the prompt, at which you can enter commands. This is where you type the stuff I wrote, in the exact sequence and spelling, except for one thing (I made a mistake there (it didn\'t matter because you didn\'t get to enter them, but still I\'m sorry)): There must be a backslash before the \"program files\", and the initial command \"c:\" can be omitted. Revised sequence:

cd \"\\program files\\planeshift crystal blue\"
updater -auto



The \" means that you need to push the key that you use to create line breaks, which is called \"ENTER\" key (as you \"enter\" commands with it).

\"cd\" is the command to Change Directories, and it is to be followed by what directory to change to. Enter each of these lines verbatim (including spaces ( ) and quotation marks (\"), they\'re important).

Theoretically, it would be possible to enter
\"c:\\program files\\planeshift crystal blue\\updater.exe -auto\"
directly into the \"execute\" window (including the quotation marks!), but I\'m not absolutely sure that it\'ll work correctly in all cases, so it\'s something you can try if the other approach fails.

You see, this hassle is there because PS is only in early development, and thus the main goals are to actually create and get to work everything, while user-friendliness and guidance isn\'t important, as the intended users are tech-savy people ATM (so now you\'re warned ;) ). Also, be prepared to be facing bugs, crashes, missing / incomplete things and lag, as you\'re essentially not playing a game, but testing a tech demo.

Edit: Update: the newer versions of the updater place the downloaded files in the \"updatertemp\" folder, which is inside the PS folder, rather than in the PS folder, at least partially. It also extracts the files there instead of copying the old versions there and extracting to the PS folder, so you know where to look for the files if they\'re not in the PS folder!

[W0NDER]

Thanks friend this is an excellent thread five star:D

[Keldrena]

Seytra: I did what you said, but updater says it can\'t write to a bunch of files.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Keldrena
Seytra: I did what you said, but updater says it can\'t write to a bunch of files.

That\'s not only expected, but required for my solution, and exactly what is referred to in this post (You will have come accross that already while reading this thread.). Anyway, good to see that you\'ve gotten that far! I hope you\'re at least somewhat familiar with using a file manager like the Explorer, because you\'ll need that to continue.

[Keldrena]

Where is download.tmp? I can\'t find it.
Thank you for all your help.

[W0NDER]

This is the most usefull thread ever

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Keldrena
Where is download.tmp? I can\'t find it.

It will be in either the planeshift directory itself (c:\\program files\\planeshift crystal blue\\download.tmp) or in the subdirectory \"updatertemp\" of the PS folder.
Furthermore, your explorer probably doesn\'t show the file extension, so it\'ll be labelled as \"download\" and cited as \"temporaty file\" or something along these lines. This is bad, because it\'ll prevent you from changing the extension, which is required for this to work.
Therefore, you need to go to the explorer View->Options and uncheck \"hide known file extensions\".

[Keldrena]

The file is not there. I checked twice. It\'s not in either folder.

[Seytra]

It will only be there while the updater is running. It is usable when, and only when the updater is waiting at the error message (\"cannot write to XYZ\").

[Keldrena]

The updater was open. I tried agian and it\'s still not there.