Scraper issue

[vonblubba]

Ok, I'm re-posting this on the bugs section, since I got no answer whatsoever in the "need help" section. Maybe it will be picked up by devs sooner or later, who knows.

I'm trying to setup a mame-only system. I think I've done everything right, but during step 2 of db update (image/media scraping) I keep getting an "invalid parameter" error, followed by a "The database update has been stopped etc...". If I resume the update, it keeps running for a while, but then the errors show up again. It seems fairly random, I can't pinpoint any possible causes 

Any idea what the cause may be, or where I can find some kind of log file?

My system is a Windows 10, running mGalaxy 7.0.0.0. I'm trying to setup mame 0.193 with full romset. The rom files are on a network partition on my NAS, mounted as a network drive in windows 10.

[mgalaxy]

Which option are you using to scrape in Runway: thegamesdb or screenscraper ?

[vonblubba]

Tried both. Same issue.

[jmd]

My system is a Windows 10, running mGalaxy 7.0.0.0. I'm trying to setup mame 0.193 with full romset. The rom files are on a network partition on my NAS, mounted as a network drive in windows 10.

Scraping MAME file works perfectly well with me (I know it won't help you )...have you tried to run a test with local files (instead of network drive) to see how it gets and help the developer help you?

[vonblubba]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that as soon as possible.
Personally I think that instead of trying things more or less at random it would be more useful to know how to enable/access the application log, so to at least have an idea about where to look for the issue.

[vonblubba]

Ok, unfortunately I've waited as long as I could to find a solution to the issue. Im' experiencing other minor problems, but there's no point in mentioning them, I suppose. Moving back to the "attract mode" frontend.
I consider the money I spent on mGalaxy as a kind of support to the arcade community as a whole, so that's ok. But add my name to the "unhappy customers" list for mGalaxy frontend (not because of the issues, those are expected in this kind of environment, but because my pleas for help went basically unanswered, and in my experience that's really unusual in a community as lively as the arcade one).

Thanks again to @jmd for the suggestions and see you around!

[jmd]

What a pity...you've waited 2 days and are ready to leave us (and the ease of use, great themes..) !? Have you tested with local files, it's easy to test!?

[mgalaxy]

Hi there,
Just coming back from a short holiday time and I discover your thread.
You have to know that we do our very best to address all questions asked there. I simply was away for a few days and counted on some brave people here to help in the meantime.
So, if you're still willing to receive some help...it'll be my pleasure
I would first exactly recommend what was proposed by jmd!
Scraping media is achieved first by checking CRC of every file (to be sure that proper results are returned later). In the case of MAME, with thousand roms (of sometimes heavy weight) that could take some time on some system...but it will be worst if done by the network (even if we did never receive any complain on the subject)
May I please ask you to create a temp MAME folder with just a few (local) roms...and check how it's going?

[vonblubba]

Hi,

sure, I'll take all the help I can get :-)

I've already tried what JMD suggested, but to no avail. Error is still there.
I don't think the error arises during CRC calculation, since some media files do get downloaded. Sometimes it keeps downloading for 10/15 minutes before stopping. Other times it hangs right away.
I thought about network issues, but I checked every setting on my router and everything seems ok. I also have no other netrwork issue whatsoever with other programs/devices. Moreover, other scrapers from other frontends work just fine.

I really don't know what else to try here.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[jmd]

I don't think the error arises during CRC calculation, since some media files do get downloaded. Sometimes it keeps downloading for 10/15 minutes before stopping. Other times it hangs right away.

Oh! Ok, so you're able to scrape some media then it stops after a while (from the first message I thought that it didn't work at all!)
Just curious to know: in another post you're speaking of another frontend that you're using and that works "well"...what is this frontend and what is the source it scrapes from?

[mgalaxy]

VONBLUBBA,
I'm extensively checking for your problem...but can't reproduce it here.
I am writing a special version to debug this particular problem and will propose it for you to download and test if you agree!?

[mgalaxy]

OK, I got it...seems to be a chance in the way the info is sent from the database server...I check

[vonblubba]

@JMD scraping works well with launchobx and attract mode, so I don't think it's a network issue.

@mgalaxy of course I'm available to try a debug build :-)

[SegaDoesWhatNintenDont]

I would like to contribute to this thread because I'm having constant crashes with mGalaxy_Runway 7.0 on Windows 10 Home. Here's what I did:

1. fresh install of mGalaxy 7.0
2. Setup paths to respective folders in Runway
3. clicked update using the GamesDB server (notification: submitted games 781)
4. clicked update with Screenscraper selected...

Runway quickly goes through all the rom names, then says updating info for file: "whatever game starting with A..", goes through two or three names, lingers on the last one for 10 seconds or so and then just closes without any alert.

5. Trying again. This time Runway stops at the first game and closes.
6. Trying again. This time Runway stops at the second game and closes....

Now I can play the game of restarting Runway and hitting update to have one more game updated with scraped info each time I launch the app...

[SegaDoesWhatNintenDont]

One thing that makes Runway crash are comments in the zip files, apparently. This still doesn't change anything about the above mentioned behavior, but in case one zip contained the additional comment property Runway would crash on the same zip every time... since I'm not getting any comments.. should I open a new thread for this?