ScummVM crashed once and now fails to start.

Alexander · Post by **Alexander** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 2:50 pm

Hello.

I am using Lifedrive, Palm OS 5.

I was trying to run Goblins 2 under ScummVM and it crashed (probably the game was corrupted or I did smth in the wrong way).

Now any time I launch ScummVM it says "Cannot open/create games list/DB" and exits immediately. I tried reinstalling it together with complete game/data set. It didn't help. I tried installing it on a memory card (instead of HD). It didn't help.

Looks like some of program data was corrupted but I've run out of ideas on where can it be.

Do you think something other than secure erase can help?

P.S. I've found a post with similar problem dated June-2007. No insights there.

clem · Post by **clem** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:59 pm

My guess is that the equivalent of the ScummVM.ini still exists somewhere on the Lifedrive with settings etc - have you checked the list of present pdbs if something looks suspiciously like it belongs to ScummVM? Might work after you delete that.

Alexander · Post by **Alexander** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:21 am

clem wrote:have you checked the list of present pdbs if something looks suspiciously like it belongs to ScummVM? Might work after you delete that.

Yeah. That was the first thing I tried - I used Lifedrive Launcher Info to check what was in the memory. No luck: I didn't find anything obviously belonging to ScummVM. Does Launcher Info tool give exhaustive information?

By the way there was in fact ScummVM.ini on my hard drive. I didn't copy it manually, so I assume it was automatically created by ScummVM. I deleted it - zero impact.

I hoped to get a hint on how exactly ScummVM data is managed. Probably someone knows exact names of ScummVM components/databases and their locations. Maybe some of the data got stuck in Palm OS system records (just a guess)?

I don't understand why the issue is so persistent. How does ScummVM corrupted data manage to survive OS reboot? I guess it should be automatically saved on HD during shutdown. Does it mean it is going to appear in the backup either, so (secure erase) + (restore from backup) won't help?

I read a bit on Palm OS memory structure. However it was outdated. What's the most relevant source for Lifedrive / Palm OS 5 ?

Alexander · Post by **Alexander** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:52 am

Short update.

I've managed to fix the problem in a tough way: full-backup + secure-erase + full-restore. People from Palm Support suggested removing 3rd party applications from the backup one-by-one, but it appeared unnecessary.

So I conclude the problem was not in any of the visible databases, since they are preserved during backup-restore process.

Also I had to pass through several iterations of the process before I was able to filter all "potentially dangerous" games including Gobliiins, FOTAQ and Simon the Sorcerer 2. They seem to be working just fine after secure erase but quiclky become unstable after I restore my applications & preferences. Since secure-erase process is a bit tedious I wasn't too eager to find out what exactly caused the games to misbehave.

Thanks.