Problem with WHDLoad installs that use single files
 

Hi,


i come across the problem with the new MetalMaster WHDLoad installer ...
The previous have used Disk images - so no problem ...
The new use single files - with file names that not supported from the Host OS (Windows)
The game have files with "M." and "G." - no problem with the Zip - but after temporary coping of FS-UAE from this files to an directory - the files renamed to "M_" and "G_" - and so the install dont work
- maybe, have seen more and more newer installs use single files - this problem will hit more in the future ...


Regards

As I have written in the Mantis ticket already, use a properly configured emulated Amiga environment. If your emulator doesn't handle perfectly valid file names ask the developer of that emulator to fix it.

And as I've said multiple times before, never use Windows applications like 7zip or WinRAR to extract Amiga lha/lzx files.
Always, as in always do it Amiga side in WB to a proper Amiga formatted HDF.

ähhmm..


@StingRay
this is the reason i write it here - in the FS-UAE support forum -> the emulator dont adopt properly to the Host OS limitations - i have NOT say it is an problem with your install > then i have this writen in the mantis tracker


@Retroplay
i have the file ziped on an ORIGINAL A4000/Cs-MK3 060-70Mhz 132MB RAM.The problem is NOT zip or anything like that - the problem is windows dont support this file name compilation (a letter and a single dot as finish)
every file system have limitations - so no sense to discus this further...


A propper solution would relay on the emulation self (here FS-UAE) to ensure no illegal file names for the underlaying host system is created and propper translated between host OS and emulation - or to say it simply - it is FS-UAE where did not worked correct here ....

To clarify :
FS-UAE have an extra option to start ziped WHDLOad installs directly - an nice feature
but this is, at it looks now, not prepared for problematic file names ...
"If" i would copy the zip in an emulated Amiga environment and unzip it here - imho it would correct translated to work...
(if i remember right this have happen to a couple of files i have on Amiga games that was already on HD and transfered to the Emu on PC...)

I didn't say or think that.

You actually did! I have already closed that ticket yesterday and wrote almost the same I wrote here in this thread.

Amiga files should be handled with native Amiga packers, everything else can (and will) cause problems.

some slaves/installs have been fixed so they could be burned on ISO9660 cd-rom (puzznic, batman). Basically the spaces at the start/end (don't remember) and other weird stuff have been removed.

most of the time zipping an installation will work. But it will trash those rare name oddities and also special meta flags (protect flags) like "script".

@StingRay
sorry - english is not my nativ language -> to clarify :
"..then i have again this writen in the mantis tracker.."
have seen you have it closed :)

the missunderstanding here is ->
i know that zip files that packed on amiga "can" have file names that hurt other OS ... i think this happen nearly for all OS x <> OS y combos ...

The problem here is, FS-UAE have an option to run an ziped WHDLoad install directly from the emulator (without unpacking it before or install anything)
This is nice - but the bug is now in the temporary unpack routine from FS-UAE - he simply unpack the files in an windows temp directory - and here come the error - understandable ..

@jotd
i know amiga related file bits get maybe lost in direct transfer to another OS - the problem here is the careless unpack function of the ziped WHDLoad installs - it was not prepared for filenames that can make problems ...

I'm sure there aren't a lot of them. Most games are using short filenames. I only know about the 2 games I quoted (puzznic & batman). The others could be whdfixed.

This really is a problem for the author of FS-UAE to fix.

It cannot be the responsibility of the person who wrote the WHDLoad install to consider things that have no reason to exist as a problem on a real Amiga, which is precisely what these installs were written for.

The author of FS-UAE is on this very forum, Frode Solheim

Frode doesn't need to fix anything. FS-UAE supports lha packed WHDLoad games and unpack them before game start without any issues. Just get the preinstalled lha games from Retroplay and everything is fine.

On Mac and Linux perhaps, but not on Windows with it's ancient filesystem. :rolleyes

The launcher replaces illegal characters with an underscore. (Python default, I uess...)
M. becomes M_ and G. -> G_
FS-UAE itself already deals with illegal characters correctly using percent encoding. So M. should be named M%2e and G. G%2e
So if you rename the files manually like this it should work.
Possible real fix: The launcher could check the ZipFile/LhaFile namelist(), get position of illegal char and replace by percent encoded string before write(). Bonus feature to add: respect different OSes. :cool

Thanks for info. But what is the reasoning behind this? I use WinRAR all
the time for both... I un-lha them to my Dropbox or other data directory
and then load the directories up as harddisks and copy them off to an HDF
if I need to or just use them as is.

I have never had an issue with a program or file not working.

So - what issues would I run in to?

Try your workflow with MetalMasters_v1.1_0534.lha and see what happens...

File attribute problems.

Try and extract Embryo_v1.0_2265 or Embryo_v1.0_De in WinRAR and run it.
It won't work unless extracted properly on Amiga side.

First Frode needs to add Metal Masters v1.1 to the WHDLoad database. What games currently causes problems with the FS-UAE launcher too? I use Windows 10.

@Retro-Nerd there is no problems with any of the "problematic" whdload installs using the launcher.

Frode took care of the illegal characters issue just when people stumbled over the embryo_v1.0_2265 issuse which @Retroplay mentioned.

So as long as you don't alter Retroplay wonderful installs delivered in .lha format outside an (emulated) Amiga environment there is NO problem.
If people for whatever reason decompress/recompress the .lha archives outside an amiga environment, it is their fault and there is nothing frode can do.

also it was mentioned that the launcher can run "not in the database" whdload slaves in .lha format out of the box, there is kinda no single reason to touch retroplays installs at all.

so the problem most likely sits in front of the monitor then it is a problem with fs-uae or the launcher :)

Ah, i thought as much. :)

Lots of opinions here...


jbl007 is correct :great, the problem is with the unpacking routine in FS-UAE Launcher, which does not take Windows limitations of filenames not being able to end with a dot into account. FS-UAE already supports this, so it's a matter of the Launcher escaping the name correctly (as expected by FS-UAE).

Happy to be corrected.... As usual, error = user :)

absolutly WRONG
IF the app (FS-UAE) support the usage of zip packed WHDLoad installs (as it does loong time) - especialy if the zip generatet on an real Amiga - then the user "in front of the monitor" can at last expect that the app (FS-UAE) ensure it runs flawless on the OS the app (FS-UAE) is build for ... simply -- not all windows user are stupid - i have Amigas from the A500 eara on (2x A500 / 2 x A2000 / 3 x A4000, all A4000 with 060 ...) - so sorry to destroy your inappropriate low brain theorie ...


And as Frode sayd already - the problem was in FS-UAE