Master Server Down (20 mins)

[Scawen]

The master will be shut down for approximately 20 minutes.

This is for electricity reasons. It will probably go down for a few minutes on another 1 or 2 occasions today.

[Frankmd]

Saving the ozone layer huh?

[Gully]

after plumber now electric home-worker....

[nism0]

I was kicked from OptusNet LFS #2, assuming because of the server going down, and now when I try join a server I get "Username already online" and on LFS World it says i'm online at that server..

[Mr.Ferret]

uhho hope its back up at 8:30 GMT+ 10 time the AAL is having the first race of the fox series then :O 50 lapper on bl it would be a real barstard if it went offline again then :S

[Scawen]

I was kicked from OptusNet LFS #2, assuming because of the server going down, and now when I try join a server I get "Username already online" and on LFS World it says i'm online at that server..You wouldn't get kicked because the master was down - that must be a coincidence.

Looks like somethnig went wrong with that host and it's just that old "stuck on host" bug. Anyway, i've remotely restarted that host, so you are free again.

[Scawen]

uhho hope its back up at 8:30 GMT+ 10 time the AAL is having the first race of the fox series then :O 50 lapper on bl it would be a real barstard if it went offline again then :SWell... not really. It's not really a bit deal at all. If the master is shut down later today, it will be for 2 mins or so. In which time you would not be able to join a host. But if you are already connected then you would stay connected.

[Breizh]

stuck on host myself.. can you help?
Would it be feasible to implement an authentification check so we can boot the ghost user name ourselves?

[Mr.Ferret]

Well... not really. It's not really a bit deal at all. If the master is shut down later today, it will be for 2 mins or so. In which time you would not be able to join a host. But if you are already connected then you would stay connected.

thanks for clearing that up Scawen ;)

[Breizh]

Thank you!

[Scawen]

stuck on host myself.. can you help?
Would it be feasible to implement an authentification check so we can boot the ghost user name ourselves?OK... restarted.

I'm quite surprised at these "coincidences". It's strange that two hosts got stuck today... :scratchch

I've got a good solution planned to fix this problem totally, so you wouldn't need that admin thing. I just didn't get time to do it before S2 Alpha. The method relies on master receiving small "stay alive" packets from live guests attached to hosts, so that even hosts stuck in a time warp can't keep telling master "everything is ok and these guys are still connected" (strange bug this is). It needs to be implemented in an incompatible version.

[96 GTS]

Sorta kind maybe off topic, but is the master server located in your home, Scawen, or is it in a remote server bank somewhere?

[xaotik]

Sorta kind maybe off topic, but is the master server located in your home, Scawen, or is it in a remote server bank somewhere?

The whole internet is linked to his house's fusebox... :(

http://www.lfsforum.net/showpost.php?p=26812&postcount=308

[Scawen]

Sorta kind maybe off topic, but is the master server located in your home, Scawen, or is it in a remote server bank somewhere?Yes it's in my house. This is for historical reasons - there used to be two very good reasons for it. One, because we didn't have our own internet server (i mean the big one in a rack, that runs our website). And two, because it's good to develop on it and watch it right beside me. In the earlier days the master needed a lot of development and bug fixing.

Now that we have our own internet servers, it's probably a good idea to convert to Linux and put it on our main server. Eaiser said than done of course because i don't know much about Linux, but presumably quite easy...

Anyway it's really not a big deal or a rush to do it as it's a solid business connection here with a Fixed IP. Power cuts in this part of the world are about once every 2 years, for 10 minutes.

[ColeusRattus]

Anyway it's really not a big deal or a rush to do it as it's a solid business connection here with a Fixed IP. Power cuts in this part of the world are about once every 2 years, for 10 minutes.

Still, I'd like to see the next episode of "Home Improvement, Scawen Edition" to be "How to Install a Scavier PRG3000 kerosine driven power generator in the basement" with the followups "How to stop the neighbours complaining about the smell" and "How to reduce the vibrations of the generator, so that the plates actually stay inside the cupboards"

[colcob]

*cough* http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=57716

Nevertheless, I can tell you from experience that plasterers do not appreciate being electrocuted one bit. Although the sparks were impressive. Good job floats have rubber handles really.

[Vain]

Still, I'd like to see the next episode of "Home Improvement, Scawen Edition" to be "How to Install a Scavier PRG3000 kerosine driven power generator in the basement" with the followups "How to stop the neighbours complaining about the smell" and "How to reduce the vibrations of the generator, so that the plates actually stay inside the cupboards"Or short: Live for Plumbing S2 Alpha :)

Vain

[Lucasinio]

Is it still down though? Each time i go onto Multiplayer, and Join, it says 'CAN NOT FIND HOSTS'. Any help?

[Scawen]

Is it still down though? Each time i go onto Multiplayer, and Join, it says 'CAN NOT FIND HOSTS'. Any help?No, it's not down.

What happens when you click on "List of Games" ?

[Lucasinio]

Sorry, thats what i meant. It has a list, but i cant select a game as it says 'COULD NOT FIND HOST'. It is the demo version.

[Scawen]

Did you get the list a long time ago, and LFS is still running since that time? Maybe you need to click the refresh button and try again?

[Lucasinio]

Ill try leaving it for a bit, and see what happens.

[Lucasinio]

Ive noticed that it stays up, but i cant refresh either....

[Scawen]

Have you tried exiting LFS, and starting up LFS again?

[kamo2000]

i had this problem once...i just deleted cfg.txt. and it was ok...just needed to "setup" lfs again....but in this case it can be something else...

[BLooDMaN]

So, is there a fix yet? most servers are empty because people can't join them unless they use join specific game.

[OPK]

There are some ppl in the german forum also with a similar proble (both S2 licensed and demo racers)

The host list will load, but then the "could not find host" message appears and they can´t join a single host :(

[Vykos69]

same problem here in demo too. Could not join host as message, and serverlist doesnt stop refreshing.

[Scawen]

So, is there a fix yet? most servers are empty because people can't join them unless they use join specific game.Well... no, there is no fix, because i wasn't looking into it.

I've now been able to reproduce this fault, intermittently, so now i'm looking into it.

This mysterious "Could not find host" is not connected with yesterday's 20 minute power down. I think one of the hosts in the list has gone wrong. Anyway i'll find out what's wrong and if it can be fixed on the master server or if a patch is needed.

[OPK]

Okay, seems as if only demo racers are affected in german forum too.
Thx for looking at it :)

[Octane]

another thread dealing with the same problem is here :

http://www.lfsforum.com/showthread.php?p=27131

[Scawen]

I can't reproduce this any more.

I have updated a line of code in LFS, which i think will fix this if it happens again.

But it looks like the offending hosts have been restarted - because it's not reproducable any more.

Please post here if it happens again, so i can try to catch in in the debugger, or maybe i'll need to rush the patch out if the problem persists - something i'd prefer not to do as there are a couple of other bug fixes i'd like to do for Friday's version and a bit more of my own testing of the language support.

[Octane]

Strange thing, the same problem still persists for me. I get at least 15 "could not find host" messages (only the last 15 are shown on screen like in chat history, i think). LFS never finishes checking for hosts.

I tried to join a few servers by entering their names in "join specific host" and it works there, so the servers must be there.

Maybe it would help, if the name of the host, that LFS can´t find, is displayed in the message too.

[Octane]

Ok, i just checked the Demo-servers another time :

LFS says that it is checking 91 servers, can join 88 servers, noreply 2 wrong version 0

LFS-World says there are 101 servers online, should the number not be the same ? (I checked directly after closing LFS).

I dont know how the serverlist is ordered while checking the list, but the flooding of the "could not find host messages" begins after just checking a few of the 91 displayes hosts.

The main problem is, that LFS never finishes checking the hosts. Otherwise we simply could join existing servers on the list (As said before "join a specific host" is still working)


Edit: i know where the difference between LFS-World and LFS comes from. I looked for the number of all servers in LFS-World and not only for 0.5P / 0.5P2 servers. So the number of 0.5P / 0.5P2 matches the number displayed in LFS.

[Scawen]

Strange thing, the same problem still persists for me. I get at least 15 "could not find host" messages (only the last 15 are shown on screen like in chat history, i think). LFS never finishes checking for hosts.

I tried to join a few servers by entering their names in "join specific host" and it works there, so the servers must be there.

Maybe it would help, if the name of the host, that LFS can´t find, is displayed in the message too.Yeah, i reproduced it again as well, just can't reproduce it when i use the debug version. :(

Never mind, i think i will get this patch out quickly to solve / identify the problem. My aim is to upload test patch P3 within one hour.

BTW - i don't think LFS could display the name of the host - as it's really a strange bug, some kind of packet error. LFS doesn't actually know the name of the host, until it has had a successful communication with it.

[Octane]

I checked the deb.log now, and it is filled with ~1500 "could not find host messages", thats about 17 times for each host.

i attach my last deb.log here.

[drapin]

I can only speak for the demo...I think it must be one of the passworded servers, because if you manage to uncheck the Private option ( not to display Private server ) than eveything is fine. If Private is on Yes, you end up with a freeze and need to ctrl+alt+del out (or at least have to wait way too long).

[Scawen]

I can only speak for the demo...I think it must be one of the passworded servers, because if you manage to uncheck the Private option ( not to display Private server ) than eveything is fine. If Private is on Yes, you end up with a freeze and need to ctrl+alt+del out (or at least have to wait way too long).Thanks for this info - i can now reproduce it reliably.

Forget about that patch that was coming soon - it doesn't solve the bug. I'll give you more info when i know more - it could take some time...

[Misko]

If you want to disable checking the private hosts and you can't do it in the game because of this problem, you can open the cfg.txt file and towards the end of it change the Search Flags to 4. Then launch LFS.

[Scawen]

OK!

First i managed to catch it in the debugger and i've done a fix which means LFS doesn't get stuck in that way again.

Also i managed to find out which host it was and restart it - now you won't see the bug any more.

I'll think a bit more about when to release the patch. Please let me know if you see that same bug again.

Thanks for the help! :)

[Octane]

I can only speak for the demo...I think it must be one of the passworded servers, because if you manage to uncheck the Private option ( not to display Private server ) than eveything is fine. If Private is on Yes, you end up with a freeze and need to ctrl+alt+del out (or at least have to wait way too long). Today 12:56

True, error only occurs when private servers are shown. I remember when first encountered this bug yesterday evening, i set the filter to show empty servers too (which i usually dont show) and as many private servers are empty the bug occured.

[robt]

im an S2 racer and im gettin this problem, during daytime i can solve the problem by joinign a specific game then going back to the list of servers. or just restarting LFS.
but from 9pm onwards that doesnt solve the problem and i can only use join specific host or find user to get onto servers.
its hapening at this very moment.

[Scawen]

...its hapening at this very moment.It should be ok if you use the new Test Patch P3 - on the other thread. It has a fix for this problem.

[robt]

ok thanks scawen. now i just gotta find the thread lol

[robt]

nup cant find it lol.

EDIT: found it now, :s

[BLooDMaN]

It's working now, thanks.

[vrooom]

Bit off topic...
What sort of the computer do you run LFS server on it ?
Its very reilable system i must say.

jay

[the_angry_angel]

windows 3.11, on DOS 5.5 ;)