Pack and Go

Jetman

Hi guys,

I am running RS on many computers at my university. The computers do not have administrative rights because we do not want students to install all kind of crap on the computers. The C drive on those students accounts are not accessible either. So I want them to use their USB disk. When I say not accessible I do not know exactly what the IT guys do. I know I can select the RobotWare on the C drive with RS. Maybe it's just read only, I am not sure.

They usually copy the zip file on their disk and when using the Unpack and work option, they also select their USB disk for the destination the system and station will install.

When I do that it works for the most part (unzip, restore and start the controler) but as soon as the controller is up and running (the second I see it becomes green) RobotStudio closes without any warning or error message.

When I do that with the administrative rights then it works fine.This bug happen on any computer I try so it's easy to reproduce it.

If I try to give them the station file and the System directory instead, without going through Pack And Go, it does the same thing.

I have found a workaround that might help find a solution to this problem.

Assuming they have the System directory on their USB disk, wheter they manually copied it there or used the Unpack and Work to install it, when I open this system using the Existing System option then it will work normally and open. From there, after it has worked once, I can then open the station and point out to the system and it will work.

That's the only way I can make it work for now. It has to be opened as an Existing System first, not as a station pointing to a system.

Any idea?  Oh and I am running 5.10 xxx.147 on XP with all the latest Windoze updates.

 

P.S. Another thing, when I get an error message in RobotStudio, for whatever reason, is says that an error logs has been created in the C:............#/$% (a path so far down that Indiana Jones itselfs with unlimited resources wouldn't be able to find it).

I have tried to manually find that files it creates but part of the path is hidden and unaccessible. Is there a way to have that file created in a more accessible place like maybe C:program filesABB industrial ItRobotStudio? Or is that a Windoze thing?

Thanks,

Jet

Jetman

A tiny bit of extra juicy information,

When one station has been successfully open, using the above technique (open an Existing System first or bust), I just found out that I can open any other station normally on that computer afterwards. (If I use the same student account)

But, if I change accounts, then even the station and system that were previously working on the same USB disk won't work with that new account unless I do the workaround.

So... the bug is not or seems not to be associated with the System directory or the Station file on the USB disk but on the C Drive somewhere.

Thanks,

Jet

I know that administrative rights fix this but I cannot have that here.

Henrik Berlin

Hi Jet,<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I am sorry to hear about your hassles. Clearly, the problem is related to USB access. My guess is that the problem is due to the VC-process (RobVC.exe) lacking write access to the USB drive. The difference between the two scenarios you describe is that the "Add Existing System" do not perform a cold-start whereas "Unpack & Work" performs a cold-start and restores the backup. Before a cold-start the "image.bin & ctrl.bin" files in the VC system folder are deleted. Then they are re-written after the cold-start has completed. Apparently, this is not allowed on your system with limited rights. The situation is not handled by RS and, so, it crashes. During a warm-start (="Add existing system"), the files mentioned are simply loaded into controller memory why only read access is needed.

NOTE: The recommended way to open a Pack&Go file is via Unpack&Work. Moving systems without using these to features is not supported and will have other side effects.

There is probably is security setting somewhere in Windows which will resolve this situation. One suggestion is to try the following. Insert the USB disk and open

Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Storage->Removable Storage->Libraries-> <YOUR USB DISK> -> Properties -> Security. (see below)

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Ensure that the "Users" group has full access rights. (This must be set by a user with administrative rights.)

Did it help?

As for your other problems:

Have you tried to look for the Support Logs using the "RobotStudio Support Tool"? This is not really meant for users but should be attached to any support requests you post to your local ABB representative.

Henrik Berlin2008-2-26 17:43:56

Jetman

Hello Henrik,

It would be more elegant for RobotStudio to give me an error message stating it cannot read than just crash if you have time for RS5.11. I am not complaining, I know you work hard, just teasing you a bit hehehe

I haven't tried the support logs but I will do so and I will let you know what I found regarding my problem.

The students have full access to their USB Disk. (By USB Disk I mean USB Stick, USB Key, Removable Memory). The only drive that has access restriction is the C Drive where RobotStudio is installed. And I know they will never allow my students to have write access to it.

"Before a cold-start the "image.bin & ctrl.bin" files in the VC system folder are deleted. Then they are re-written after the cold-start has completed. Apparently, this is not allowed on your system with limited rights"  ----That seems to fit because RS crashes right after finishing loading the system but not because of the USB stick. Are there some other files that are written on the C Drive during a cold start even if I load my system/Station/Unpack&Work entirely from the USB Stick?

I will look into the access rights with my IT guy and see if I can provide you with more information.

regards,

Jet

 

Jetman

Ok it still keeps shuting down even with full access.

when you're runing 30 computers at the same tie you see a lot of crashes. I was able to get to the Error logs created. I have the latest version installed.

Can you help with this problem? The error log says funny thing like "7203  Key: ExceptionHandler: Caught exception in OLE thread. It sleeps with the fishes.  Value: 648"

2008-04-03_153547_Error_Logs.zip

Thanks,

Jet

Henrik Berlin

Hi Jet,

I have looked at the error logs and it seems to me that it is the Nvidia Open GL driver for the graphics card that crashes. Please try to use Direct3D for rendering (Tools > Options) instead of OpenGL and see if that helps.

Kind regards,

Jetman

Thank you Henrik,

 

I will try that right away and let you know how it goes.

 

Jet

Jetman

Hello Henrik,

Direct 3D didn't help unfortunatly. No more than Full access rights and the craches aren't only related to a Station transfer anymore.

On my laptop it's always running fine like probably most of you. But  because of the large ammount of computers I am using at my university, I see a lot of bugs. Statistically, it's still way too much tohugh.

It's all about stability. RS crashing without a warning. Problem is that there is no warnings before the crash. If there were some we could pinpoint the problems.

I might not have all the required Specs to Run RS on some of my computers. But they're all the same, ghosted the same way and it runs fine for some computers. In other classes, my computers are up to specs, powerfull and they go through the same problems, some crashes, some are ok.

Sometimes the ones that are ok crashes and the one that usually crashes are ok. It seems like it's not a bug of the computers but a software "random" bug.

Do you have some leads on what might be going on right now that you intend to implement with the next version of RS? I mean do I help by telling you this or am I just bugging you?  If you need more information I can send you files and repports about my computers.

Thanks,

Jet

Henrik Berlin

Hi Jetman,

There is one problem that RS suffers from that appears more frequently on some hardware than others. Perhaps that is what you see. I don't know how much happier you are by knowing that the problem has been solved in the version we will release as 5.11 (due september). Unfortunately,there is currently no plan to release a service pack with the fix since it involves threading and dependencies between RobotStudio and the Robot Communication Runtime involved with communication to the VC. Deep things that may cause unwanted side effects. However, you can always try to unzip the following add-in that will try to prevent the problem from occuring. Put it in the RobotStudio/Addins folder and restart RS.

2008-04-16_143127_KeepRobCfgBsoInMemory.zip

Please let me know if it helps

Johannes Weiman old account

Hi Jet,

Also, it would be interesting to look at some more crash dumps
So it would be great if you could create reports (using the Support Tool) for some of the problematic computers and send them to me at
johannes.weiman(at)se.abb.com

regards,
Johannes

Johannes Weiman2008-4-16 14:55:3

Jetman

Hello guys,

Thanks Henrik, I will try your add-in next week and keep you inform of the changes. And any piece of good news make me happy.

Don't get me wrong, I really like RS and I think it's an awesome software and I'm willing to help as much as I can to make it better. Just wanted to know if you already had "More than enough" Reports to evaluate the crashes.

 

Johannes,

here are some reports I just made. One problem though, I beleive that the crash dumps are empty because when my students have a problem, they are using their own account and when I log in, I have a different account and the report doesn't find any crash dump files. I will try to create reports as the bugs comes next week using the students accounts to get the crash files.

You will see that there are 3 different reports named C216 something. Those are kinda weak computers in the same class, I took one that is always running perfectly, one that always crash and another that is in between. I also included 2 other computers called JET and JETTA and they are more powerfull computers with ramdon crashes. Used to be all fine but I think the crashed started around 5.08.

Thanks for your help. 2008-04-16_185155_RobotStudioReport_2008-0416_122329_GOOD_C2 16-13.zip 2008-04-16_185205_RobotStudioReport_2008-0416_122603_BAD_C21 6-18.zip 2008-04-16_185212_RobotStudioReport_2008-0416_122739_AVERAGE _C216-20.zip 2008-04-16_185219_RobotStudioReport_2008-0416_124413_JET_BAD .zip 2008-04-16_185226_RobotStudioReport_2008-0417_124909_JETTA_B AD.zip

Thanks,

Johannes Weiman old account

Hi Jet,

All the dumps from JET and JETTA show the same thing; crash in OpenGL.
Unfortunately our internal error handler only catches certain types of crashes so the OpenGL driver may only be a part of the problem.
The error handler is improved in the next version though, and the debugging information is not written to the per-user files anymore.

/Johannes

Jetman

Thank you Johannes,

Can you give me a quick crash course about OpenGL and Direct3D?

I tried Direct3D on my computers and it works for the powerfull ones with a 256Meg graphic cards but on the weaker ones with only an internal graphic card it doesn't (the station doesn't refresh properly and it all become black).

About OpenGL, is there a driver or latest version of software I can get or it's not really a device but just an emulator?

Thanks,

Jet

Jetman

Hello Henrik,

I do not have an ADDINS folder under RobotStudio Folder.

 

2008-04-21_133207_RS_Folder.zip

abenaki

Look for "C:Program FilesABB Industrial ITRobotics ITRobotStudioBinAddins"

Jetman

Found it,

Thanks Abenaki,

Jet