8 replies to this topic

[Plum]

Hello! I have not run my iRO client since June, so I decided to let it run today to update my iRO client and get the latest patches so I could see what's new...

... but every time I run the Patch Client, it attempts to patch 4 months of patches and fails every time (failing in different places with each attempt to get the patches, but rarely making it as far as the September patch set). I get the "failed to get (patch name here)" error every single time I run the patch client and have tried dozens of times.

The newest official client on the website is the version released in April 2011, so I would have to download even more patches if I started with a brand new client.

What can I do? Is there a way to manually get the patches required to play?

Edit: Forgot to mention that I have already followed the advice in the sticky note on this forum and manually downloaded patches from ftp://ropatch2.gravityus.com/patch/ . The instructions here say "just put it in your RO folder"; I did this and it completely ignores these patch files and attempts to download them anyway (and of course fails each time).

Edited by Plum, 12 November 2011 - 10:36 AM.

[Oda]

Are you starting the game from a shortcut or from the exe in the RO folder? Try right clickling on the ragnarok.exe and run as administrator

[Axylus]

Are you starting the game from a shortcut or from the exe in the RO folder? Try right clickling on the ragnarok.exe and run as administrator

Actually, you should never do that, because it'll result in Windows creating a second copy of any updated files, due to the File and Registry Virtualization "feature" of User Account Control.

What is File and Registry Virtualization? In a nutshell, it's a feature of Windows Vista and later that enables compatibility with old or poorly-designed software that doesn't respect the security model of newer versions of Windows.

For example, if the RO updater attempted to write to the file %ProgramFiles%\Gravity\RagnarokOnline\data.grf without administrative privileges (which it normally wouldn't have), Windows would pretend to allow the operation while actually transparently redirecting the output to %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Gravity\RagnarokOnline\data.grf. If you suddenly switch to running the client with administrative privileges, any new updates will instead be written to the Program Files folder, resulting in two desynchronised copies of the client's files.

As for the solution to Plum's problem, I unfortunately don't know what causes the updater to fail to download files at random. Try:

• Resetting your Internet Explorer configuration (you can do this from the Internet Options control panel). It would be wise to create a backup of your configuration first.
• Uninstalling the client, then reinstalling it to a folder outside of the Program Files folder, such as the Documents or Public folder.

I hate suggesting such unspecific solutions, but unfortunately there's no specific information regarding the cause of the problem you're experiencing.

Edited by Axylus, 07 April 2013 - 07:06 AM.

[DrAzzy]

I've seen this behavior before. Unfortunately, there isn't a graceful solution to it...

The key design flaw is that, while the patcher applies patches after downloading each one, it doesn't record that it's applied them until it's done applying them. Hence, you're repeatedly downloading patches that have already been applied, and which don't need to be re-downloaded. Oh, and if one download fails, it kills the whole thing.

Once you get it fully patches once, you'll be fine - if a patch fails, just restart RO, and it'll try again, and since you only have a few patches to download, it will probably work.

Your options are:

* Keep trying until you get through all the patches.

* Get a patches copy from someone

* Figure out why downloads are randomly failing.

* Hex edit patch.inf so the game knows which patches have been applies, and doesn't redownload them: http://forums.warppo...h__1#entry61791

[BoingBoing]

Actually, you should never do that, because it'll result in Windows creating a second copy of any updated files, due to the File and Registry Virtualization "feature" of User Access Control.

What is File and Registry Virtualization? In a nutshell, it's a feature of Windows Vista and later that enables compatibility with old or poorly designed software that doesn't respect the security model of newer versions of Windows.

For example, if the RO updater attempted to write to the file %ProgramFiles%\Gravity\RagnarokOnline\data.grf without administrative privileges (which it normally wouldn't have), Windows would pretend to allow the operation while actually transparently redirecting the output to %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Gravity\RagnarokOnline\data.grf. If you suddenly switch to running the client with administrative privileges, any new updates will instead be written to the Program Files folder, resulting in two desynchronised copies of the client's files.

As for the solution to Plum's problem, I unfortunately don't know what causes the updater to fail to download files at random. Try:

That's not good advice. He must elevate to run the patcher, because the patches he missed include not only data grf's, but also diffs for the client executable. How do you sandbox the running executable? You can't. If he switches to elevated, the patcher will not access anything in the sandboxed directory, no longer virtually merged via the registry! So he'll just download the entire patch again, not just 'any new updates'; and this will result in a complete, and up-to-date copy.

[Axylus]

That's not good advice. He must elevate to run the patcher, because the patches he missed include not only data grf's, but also diffs for the client executable. How do you sandbox the running executable? You can't. If he switches to elevated, the patcher will not access anything in the sandboxed directory, no longer virtually merged via the registry! So he'll just download the entire patch again, not just 'any new updates'; and this will result in a complete, and up-to-date copy.

If what you're suggesting is correct, then how are the majority of players able to play without issue, despite not tinkering with their RO installation so its executables run with administrative privileges?

Reverting to accessing the client's original files when the updater is run with administrative privileges is the behaviour that I would expect, however, the fact that there are frequently complaints on this forum from people who are encountering errors due to their clients mysteriously missing months of updates suggests that the reality isn't that simple.

Even if running all of the client's executables with administrative privileges is the correct solution to this problem, it should not be done using the "run as administrator" contextual menu item because the change won't be permanent. You should instead do this.

Edited by richard, 10 July 2012 - 02:12 PM.

[Axylus]

I've just performed a clean installation of the client on a very fresh Windows 7 installation. Both Ragnarok.exe and Ragexe.exe were somehow able to write to the Program Files folder on a regular account without requesting administrative privileges. Task Manager reported that both processes were running with UAC Virtualization enabled.

As I suspected, there seems to be some voodoo being used.

Edited by richard, 25 March 2012 - 03:22 PM.

[BoingBoing]

Yes, but is that in the program files folder on the disk that windows is installed on?

[Axylus]

Yes, but is that in the program files folder on the disk that windows is installed on?

Yes. There are no other volumes.

By the way, I'm sorry for hijacking your thread and filling it with technobabble, Plum.

Edited by richard, 13 November 2011 - 05:22 PM.