WideFS and FSUIPC4

[gr8guitar]

Hello. This originally applied to FSUIPC3 but I came across an issue (stated below) so I recently purchased WideFS7 to check my logic in FSUIPC4. Unfortunately, the result was the same. So it is a consistent issue. First, thank you John and Pete to offer FSUIPC3 and its WideFS for free for FS9. FS9 is still my primary FS due to years of add-ons. And I spend about 95% "in the clouds" and work on instrument procedures since I fly in a mountainous area. Graphics of MSFS2020 is nice but not necessary for me. Anyways, I was using WideFS and a touchscreen tablet to insert data (Nav/Com frequencies, etc.). I really had no idea, from the tablet, what I was inserting until I hit the "transfer" button and observed the changes on the host. Then awhile back I looked at the MyDisplay.lua and that worked nicely. And then I came across Glenn Weston's usage of WND. Thank you Glenn for the idea. I then decided to look into that. Now it works great (after learning how to set and clear bits in XML) if the client is using an Ethernet connection - everything works. My "buttons" and MyDisplay.lua work fine whether Ethernet or WiFi. However, Annunciator.lua (my version of Glenn's WND example) does not work on a WiFi client. I've serached the Internet and did not find a solution. I did modify the firewall, even disabled it, but no effect. Again, this is happening on a lua that has WND in its logic. WideClient simply quits. I get this messsage at the end of the log:

5860 Stack EBP 012C1343->C5043D89, which is  (BAD) (Base=00000000).

If I don't use the WND in a lua and and a WiFi connection, no problems. Or if I use an Ethernet connection, no problems with using WND. Can anyone tell me why WND and WiFi are in conflict? Thank you.

[John Dowson]

This seems very strange...WideClient (and FSUIPC) knows nothing about what type of connection you are using - that is at a much lower  level controlled by Windows.
Are you using TCP or UDP as the transport protocol? Whatever you are using, maybe try switching to the other protocol to see if that makes a difference.

I will look into this further and get back to you, although I doubt there is much I can do about this, except maybe note this strange behavior in the documentation. I have noticed that the Wnd library isn't even mentioned as being available in the current (yet very old!) WideFS documentation...

Regards,

John

[gr8guitar]

Hello John. Thank you for your reply. I am using TCP. yes, I agree, it's very strange. I don't understand how the WND would be affected by WiFi. The MyDisplay.lua was not affected. I just purchased some USB to Ethernet adapters so I can use the touchscreen tablet as desired. Well, to be honest, I was searching how to do binary manipulation and somehow I stumbled onto Glenn Weston's WND example. I though, great, I could have a better looking indicator to show what I'm inserting using WideClient. I will switch to UDP and let you know.  Okay. I changed the WideClient.ini to UDP and using ServerIPAddr. I did not see how to change the WideServer.ini on the host so I'm not sure how the host knows to run the UDP. In any case, there were no improvements. I may try IPX .I have an IPX wrapper that I obtained years ago that I use for WideView 2000. It was free then but it also worked with FS2004/9. I don't know if it'll work at all with FSX but I will try that too.

[Pete Dowson]

16 hours ago, gr8guitar said:

Okay. I changed the WideClient.ini to UDP and using ServerIPAddr. I did not see how to change the WideServer.ini on the host so I'm not sure how the host knows to run the UDP.

See this paragraph in the first section of the WideFS documentation entitled Configure your Network:

The Server automatically operates with any clients which connect, whether they be using TCP, UDP or SPX. You can mix them,
to suit the specific individual client PCs. Better, leave the protocol choice out of the Client INI file altogether and just use
“ProtocolPreferred= …” in the Server INI to select your choice. Details of these parameters are given below.

16 hours ago, gr8guitar said:

I may try IPX .I have an IPX wrapper that I obtained years ago that I use for WideView 2000. It was free then but it also worked with FS2004/9. I don't know if it'll work at all with FSX but I will try that too.

Hmm. I'm not at all sure that IPX/SPX is supported anymore. When it was removed from Windows the code became somewhat redundant and an unnecessary complication.

On this:

Quote

 

And then I came across Glenn Weston's usage of WND. Thank you Glenn for the idea. I then decided to look into that. Now it works great (after learning how to set and clear bits in XML) if the client is using an Ethernet connection - everything works. My "buttons" and MyDisplay.lua work fine whether Ethernet or WiFi. However, Annunciator.lua (my version of Glenn's WND example) does not work on a WiFi client. I've serached the Internet and did not find a solution. I did modify the firewall, even disabled it, but no effect. Again, this is happening on a lua that has WND in its logic. WideClient simply quits. I get this messsage at the end of the log:

5860 Stack EBP 012C1343->C5043D89, which is  (BAD) (Base=00000000).

If I don't use the WND in a lua and and a WiFi connection, no problems. Or if I use an Ethernet connection, no problems with using WND. Can anyone tell me why WND and WiFi are in conflict?

 

I would make these comments:

*  There's no relation between any function in the WND library and the Network connection, so the crash must be related to something else in your Lua script.

*  There's no way WideFS even knows whether you are using Wifi or a wired connection. There may be a way to determine this, but as there's no need to know I've never investigated it. The code is just Network code.

So, I need more information to investigate this:

1. The Lua file which generates the problem

2. The full WideServer and WideClient LOGs at the time of the crash.

3. If one exists, the WideClient crash details from the Windows Event Viewer.

I can test here with a Wifi connection, but I need the exact Lua code which leads to the error. I also need you to be using the latest (current) version of WideClient (7.160) so the addresses etc match.

Thanks
Pete

 

[gr8guitar]

Hello. Thank you for your reply. I agree, there shouldn't be a difference between Ethernet and WiFi and yet there is. To be honest, for me to resolve the problem, I bought some USB to Ethernet adapters. It seemed the most expedient because it works fine that way. I was hoping for an easier/quick solution when I requested help :). I realize the manuals have the details - but seriously, there are so many things to learn about FSUIPC. I know, through the years, I've read all of it but nothing sticks until either I need to apply a feature or I have an issue. FSUIPC is truly a great add-on. I'm including the files. I hope they give insight. Thank you.

Annunciator.log WideServer.log WideClient.ini WideClient.log Annunciator.lua

[Pete Dowson]

37 minutes ago, gr8guitar said:

Hello. Thank you for your reply. I agree, there shouldn't be a difference between Ethernet and WiFi and yet there is. To be honest, for me to resolve the problem, I bought some USB to Ethernet adapters. It seemed the most expedient because it works fine that way. I was hoping for an easier/quick solution when I requested help :). I realize the manuals have the details - but seriously, there are so many things to learn about FSUIPC. I know, through the years, I've read all of it but nothing sticks until either I need to apply a feature or I have an issue. FSUIPC is truly a great add-on. I'm including the files. I hope they give insight. Thank you.

Annunciator.log 2.71 kB · 0 downloads WideServer.log 2.12 kB · 0 downloads WideClient.ini 5.09 kB · 0 downloads WideClient.log 266.14 kB · 0 downloads Annunciator.lua 7.68 kB · 0 downloads

Thank you. I notice there's no Windows crash log -- does that mean one was not produced?

It won't be till Monday that I can get to this again.

Pete

 

[gr8guitar]

Hello Pete. Where do I find the "Windows crash log?" And no hurry. I appreciate the time and information.

[John Dowson]

4 minutes ago, gr8guitar said:

Where do I find the "Windows crash log?" And no hurry. I appreciate the time and information.

First check with the windows Event Viewer, under Windows Logs -> Applications. Actual full dump logs won't be generated unless activated via a registry update. Crash/exception event logs are the first things to check and report. 

John

[gr8guitar]

Okay thanks. This is what it came up with - if I did it correctly:

Windows WideFS event error.txt

[Pete Dowson]

8 minutes ago, gr8guitar said:

Okay thanks. This is what it came up with - if I did it correctly:

Thanks. That's much more informative!

Pete

 

[gr8guitar]

Thank you. I looked at it, it made no sense to me. It might as well been in Chinese or any other language I don't know :).

[Pete Dowson]

I managed to look at it this morning.

First, some questions about the files you posted:

Neither WideClient..LOG actually shows a crash -- they both show a normal shutdown requested by the server (the Sim).  They also show you were using UDP, not TCP. So, does this mean you changed to UDP and then got no further crashes?

The Windows error event shows that crash occurred on the 5th, but both LOGs are for the 4th. So, did you change back to TCP on the 5th?

Both logs show block sequencing errors occurring. That is a typical symptom of a bad connection. Running on UDP means blocks can go missing as there is no checking -- the error logged by WideClient is through its own checks built into its data formats.

Confirming that the problem appears to be purely down to a bad connection, the Windows event crash location is within either the select_open or tcp_open function in the Windows network package. It is not in WideClient code which I have any control over.

MY TESTS

I set up an FSX-SE session on my laptop (a Microsoft Surface running an up-to-date Win10). WideClient was running on my main development PC. If I could induce your crash this would enable me to use the Debugging facilities in Visual Studio. This PC is also running an up-to-date Win10.

I was running with TCP protocol, and let it run for an hour whilst manipulating controls in FSX-SE which would result in highlighted entries showing in your WND-based window. It is still running now, and shows no sign of any errors -- and the log is clear of block sequence errors (as I would expect when using TCP, or when using UDP with a good reliable connection.

So, I'm sorry, but I can't see there's anything I can do. You might need to try to improve your Wifi setup.

Pete

 

[gr8guitar]

Hello Pete. Well, I don't know either. I just ran it and it crashed but again, not a big deal. My USB to Ethernet adapters arrived, installed and no issues. I believe I switched to UDP based on a suggestion from the above messages. In any case, I want to thank you for looking into it. It seems to me that there is some latency issue with the WiFi and WND. As I mentioned before, if I run the MyDisplay.lua (with some modifications) alone, I have no crashes - it's just with the WND.lua. I usually don't use WiFi on my dedicated FS computers, nor are they connected to the Internet. Since you've allowed people to use WideFS for FS9, I've been delving into it. And then I came across Glenn Weston's WND example. I realize it was a much better way for me to see what I was inserting using the WideClient buttons then the MyDisplay.lua. I'm extremely happy with what I have working and will continue to make adjustments to my "annunciator" panel. Best regards and thank you for your time and information.