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Author Topic: Break into debug mode?  (Read 5792 times)

madrsihands

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Break into debug mode?
« on: August 07, 2016, 01:54:10 am »
When playing the Jan 22nd 2016 UFOAI 2.6 dev release, the game often crashes in the battle-scape.  The error would start with a gray window popping up and offering me to "Break into debug mode".  No matter what option I pick the game immediately quits.  I am reporting this bug here because it is very difficult to repeat.  So far I am still working on my same campaign file, working past the mission crashes by repeatedly playing them.  If I am lucky I can finish a mission without breaking into debug mode.  Sometimes it takes two or four attempts at the same mission till I can beat it without breaking into debug mode.

Some observations of what would happen when I would break into debug mode:
(a) Typically it starts when my soldiers become injured and are bleeding.  It doesn't tend to occur if the gunshot wound was immediately fatal.
(b) Typically it happens when Shevaar are present on the map.  It does not seem to occur when a lot of Hovernet drones are on the map.
(c) After the crash the terminal reads "tracepoint /break" on the last line, though before that line everything appears to be normal with the game.
(d) Typical can happen on very large maps, especially forest levels.

How can I make a helpful bug report after such an incident?  Is it worth posting the ufoconsole.log immediately after a crash?  Is there anything I can do when the debug menu comes up to keep the game from crashing?  Or at least to get the game to provide a more detailed error report as to what happened at that instant?  Is this debug mode made for only developers to access, or could I access it at anytime?

Offline anonymissimus

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2016, 08:06:01 pm »
You are on windows I suppose ?
MS windows always does this attempt to use debug mode when a program crashes, but this would only make sense if you are running UFO:AI under a debugger in the first place and are using a debug build (which is probably not the case). You would have to set up a development environment first.
Is there anything I can do when the debug menu comes up to keep the game from crashing?
No way.

From what you're writing there could be some illegal memory handling related to bleeding which tends to show up on the system the majority of developers do not use...

Offline DarkRain

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2016, 04:38:13 am »
Well I'm not a windows user so I couldn't tell if the problem is windows-related I don't have it here on linux, that said Jan 22nd 2016 should be right in the middle of integration of the work on the LUA UI IIRC — with all the bugs associated to a new feature — so I really suggest that you first try with a more recent version and see if that helps

Offline AntJam

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2016, 12:34:48 pm »
I am a Windows user and with the latest 2.6 build and arent having these crashes so hopefully it is fixed

madrsihands

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2016, 02:07:14 am »
An update, I've pinned down the bug.  Everytime I access the inventory of an injured solder, the game breaks into debug mode.  This will make the campaign a bit more challenging, but I'm already upto using laser weapons so I should be done soon.

You are on windows I suppose ?
Nope, Linuxmint.

that said Jan 22nd 2016 should be right in the middle of integration of the work on the LUA UI IIRC — with all the bugs associated to a new feature

Should I bother submitting a bug report then?  Does the command
Code: [Select]
git pull --rebase still work for updating?

Offline anonymissimus

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2016, 12:39:52 pm »
Um, sounds as if you should try to get a backtrace then, if you can reproduce it reliably. And even if not, it may help. Even if it's a release binary a gdb backtrace contains some info.
Where did you get the binary from then ? Linux users seem to be expected to always compile themselves.
And of course you should check that the problem still happens using latest trunk.

Offline Jonny

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2017, 04:53:51 pm »
Hello.
I read this post and this issue appeared also on my system. I use Arch Linux and the game is compiled from the newest master branch.
In order to reproduce this issue I append a savegame file. If you take the transporter and fly to the ufo while starting the mission the debug window appears and the game breaks.
I hope I will help to find this bug.
Regads, Jonny

Offline geever

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2017, 05:46:01 pm »
Hi!

I loaded up your savegame, sent the dropship to the UFO, landed and begin mission, nothing bad happened.

If you could share your ufoconsole.log when the issue happens it could help.


-geever

Hello.
I read this post and this issue appeared also on my system. I use Arch Linux and the game is compiled from the newest master branch.
In order to reproduce this issue I append a savegame file. If you take the transporter and fly to the ufo while starting the mission the debug window appears and the game breaks.
I hope I will help to find this bug.
Regads, Jonny

Offline Jonny

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Re: Break into debug mode?
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2017, 10:44:36 pm »
Hallo geever,
with your hint to see the ufoconsole.log file I have found the reason of the debug box on my system. The reason was a missing of a map. I downloaded maps via a python script before. Now I compiled all maps new and the program runs perfectly.

Thanks and regards,
Jonny