Bad read error

[DLandonCole]

I've emailed Wolflair to ask about this but I'm not expecting anything quick as it's the weekend, but I have a game tomorrow and I need to prep! Any ideas gratefully received.

HeroLab is throwing the following error at me when I try to save a portfolio or export it:

HeroLab.exe has encountered an error and needs to close.

Please email a DESCRIPTION OF WHAT YOU WERE DOING, in as much detail as possible, along with this message, to support@wolflair.com. PLEASE NOTE: Unless you tell us what you were doing, we won't have enough information to fix this problem!

Right click and choose "Copy to Clipboard" to copy these details, or you can find them in this file: C:\users\dlc\Temp\lwderror35.txt

C:\Program Files (x86)\Hero Lab\HeroLab.exe
4.1 337

major: 5, minor: 1, build: 2600, platform: 2, version: Service Pack 3, spmaj: 3, spmin: 0, suitemask: 00000000, type: 1
ACCESS VIOLATION
Address: 0x005f3420
Type: bad read

I'm running HL under Wine on Linux. It's run happily before now. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling but it's causing the same error. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Colen]

Hi there,

Sorry we couldn't get back to you in time for your game. Do you get this error when you try to save any file in Hero Lab, even a blank character with no changes made to it?

We don't officially support Wine, but if this is a recent change I'll try to figure out what the problem was so we can restore HL's functionality for you.

[Illydth]

Holy CRUD! I JUST sent in an e-mail to wolflair support on this myself.

Identical error message, identical problem. It happens when you try to save, save as, or export a portfolio. Changes are NOT saved. Doesn't matter if you try to save via the real directory structure or the virtual windows structure (say /home/user/portfolio.por or /home/user/.wine/drive_c/users/user/portfolio.por).

This is new since the 3.9 version which was gold/platinum status and worked perfectly (all functionality/features supported as far as I could tell).

EVERYTHING Else works perfectly (Download, install, update, open, etc.).

You can reference Case 4945 or just run that case here on this thread if it'll help.

Wine 1.5.16 is what's installed, x86_64 Ubuntu 12.10. BTW I've followed the advice from the following: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...sion&iId=25757 which talks about modifications to the msxml and urlmon libraries to get PDF Printing to work.

Save portfolio to pdf works just fine (at least for current hero only, I didn't try entire portfolio though it does take quite some time for the save as to happen...like 5 minutes or so). It does pop up the error message "No appropriate application could be found to view the file..." but that I wouldn't expect to be a HeroLab problem...that's a windows/wine issue. And the PDF was absolutely generated.

Under Find Updates under the "Hero Lab for Windows (V4.1)" Update in the "Description" section, I note "New save format" as one of the items listed. Is it possible that in adding support for windows 8 or changing the save format that something allowing the save in the 3.9 version is now broken?

Thanks for looking at this, you've got at least a few people using this under Wine and while it's not make or break for me, having this running under wine has been a godsend.

Thanks for taking the time to look at it!

--Douglas Wagner

To answer your question I did the following:

* Opened HeroLab through Wine
* Chose "Pathfinder" and Loaded the application.
* At the entry box for New Character Creation I typed in "TestPC" and My name under player name, kept everything checked.
* As it created my character (with no other information filled in) I went to "Save Portfolio" and accepted the defualt name "TestPC"
* The application crashed at that point with the same Reported Access Violation.

I also tried again without entering Character Name or Player Name and got the same Access Violation.

Edit #2: I still have a 3.9a installation on my previous work Linux Box (Ubuntu 12.04, Wine 1.4), but unfortunately it's been unregistered (and thus cannot save) so I can't verify it works...though I'm CERTAIN it does.

[Colen]

It turns out that in Wine, one of the functions we use to write an XML file reports an error in an unexpected way. I've got a special beta version put together that fixes this, so if you're running into the problem, please email us at support@wolflair.com and I'll send you the update.

Thanks for reporting this issue!

[Illydth]

I just want to give Kudos to you guys at WolfLair on this.

I know support for Wine isn't offical and it can't be a top priority item for you guys, but less than 24 hours after this was identified on the boards and I put a case in, you guys have a fix for an unsupported edge case.

You guys rock!

--Illydth

[restlessadventurer]

I'm another Linux & Wine user and have I've encountered the same problem. I'm relieved to see that there is a fix for this. I'm Linux only on my desktop and netbook so was quite worried. Thanks for the fix. I'll be emailing you for the fix next.

[CFet]

This is fantastic news, I have also emailed for a request for this fix. Love your product, enabling it to work on Wine would be the Bee's Knees!!
Chris

[Illydth]

Want to quickly update;

The fix you put in for allowing HL to load under Wine breaks the Profile file for a load under Windows.

This is OK in most cases...I can use the profile file through Linux only for the mean time, however at work I have 2 computers, one's a linux box one a windows box. It's handy for me to store the hero lab profile file I use under a shared location and access it either via the wine installation or the windows install, depending on which one I happen to be working in at the time.

Unfortunately whatever the fix was to get this read error fixed on Linux has broken the compatibility of the file under windows.

If you load the profile under linux and then save it back, it will no longer load under the windows version (non-fixed/updated version).

I have NOT updated my windows version of HL with the same code as you gave me for the wine fix, so potentially this is what's needed to get the profile loadable across all versions.

This is more an FYI than a request for assistance, but if it's as easy as updating hero labs and/or loading the different HL into my windows install please let me know.

--Doug

[KarlM]

I've run into the same problem!

Just emailed a request for the beta.

Thanks Colen!