OpenCPN Crashing in Hermits, PNG

[clausont]

s/v Totem is requesting a bit of assistance from the Hermits Islands group in Papua New Guinea. They are far out of internet range and I am corresponding with Jamie and Behan via Sailmail.
I am going to re-post Jamie's last two emails here so everyone can see what the issue is and hopefully we can get some resolution to it.
"Hi Tim,
Thought you could help - Chief Bob here was given a new laptop and of course has no knowledge of how to use it. So I've been setting up programs, writing a very simple manual, and will do some training with him over the next few days. One of the things he's interested in is charts and a chartplotter.

We use OpenCPN on our laptop, freeware that is refined enough over the last year or so that it is a solid and very good program. I've installed the OpenCPN 3.0.2 on his laptop and some charts. The install was fine, but the program fails to open. I suspect that the laptop is missing a runtime component that software expects to be there. The user manual sayd that if install fails try installing these components from
Download Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) from Official Microsoft Download Center

Could you have a look and let me know what the components are so the I can check the laptop? If I can identify the component, I may be able to have another cruiser still in Kavieng download the missing bits and bring them to the Hermits next week. Or if it worked out that the missing bits are VERY small - under 30k-ish - I would have you email directly.

Anyway, we'd love to get Chief Bob setup and practicing on the laptop (first laptop we've seen in the islands).

Thanks
Jamie"

Second email after I wrote him back that the link he sent showed C++ Redistributable:

"Tim - thanks for the help, but no luck so far. Here is more detail on what's happening:
The openCPN log file show this:
18:38:43: 2012-11-26
18:38:43: -------Starting opencpn-------
18:38:43: Version 3.0.2 Build 2012-07-07
18:38:43: MemoryStatus: mem_total: 3317 mb, mem_initial: 7 mb
18:38:43: SData_Locn is C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\
18:38:43: Using existing Config_File: C:\ProgramData\opencpn\opencpn.ini
18:38:43: Setting Viewpoint Lat/Lon -1.5331, 145.079
18:38:43: Setting Ownship Lat/Lon -1.5175, 145.08
18:42:05:

Then stops when the program crashes.

Windows event viewer shows
Faulting Module name:wxbase28u_vc_custom.dll, version 2.8.12.0

I've checked this dll file and it looks the same as the one on my computer.

Don't know if posting this to the openCPN group would yield a fix, but I'm quickly running out of ideas on this.

Thanks again for the help!
Jamie"

Anyone out there with similar issues or suggestions that Jamie can try would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks,

Tim

[daddle]

From my programming days: The faulting module is very rarely the culprit.

Is it okay if opencpn.ini is deleted? That may at least get OpenCPN running.

OpenCPN is a bit prone to hang or crash. I try not to touch it when in a tight spot.

[clausont]

Originally Posted by daddle

From my programming days: The faulting module is very rarely the culprit.

Is it okay if opencpn.ini is deleted? That may at least get OpenCPN running.

OpenCPN is a bit prone to hang or crash. I try not to touch it when in a tight spot.

Thanks Daddle - I sent this off to Jamie along with some other info I found here on the OpenCPN area.

[clausont]

We are really hoping someone can take a stab at what the problem may be here. Any guesses or thoughts would sure be helpful!
Further Information from Jamie in the Hermits Islands:
"Tim-
OS Windows 7
Processor is Celeron Dual Core T3100@1.9Ghz
Ram = 2GB
At this point, no GPS is connected. It should still fine with a GPS connection, but.... Chief Bob is more interested in this for reference and providing waypoints, rather than mounting a computer chartplotter in his dugout canoe (although that would undoubtedly be the worlds first!)

Agreed on deleting .ini files. I believe that when OpenCPN is installed, there is no .ini file; it is created on the initial opening, as indicated in the log file. I did try to copy over my .ini file, but it made no difference to when the program crashed. So as it stands no, there is no openCPN.ini file, and with each open attempt the log records that .ini will be created, but crashes before it actually does.

-As for the wxWidget dlls, they were installed by OpenCPN, so expect they are fine.

-There are no navobj.xml files, so I checked on my computer (with the working OpenCPN) and found non there also. So, not sure what it means.

Again thanks for the help - and hoping somebody comes up with something.
Jamie"

[cagney]

From the log above it seems worthwhile to check the language settings on the computer. The first missing line,... is the language setting.
Perhaps it's set to something that wxwidgets doesn't support?
Reset it to something safe, such as US English, and see if that helps.
navobj.xml dosen't matter, it's just saving the state of nav objects when you exit the program + works as a back up.
If you delete the opencpn.ini file (when OpenCPN isn't running), next time the program starts it will behave like it's a new install. No problem.
Good Luck!
Thomas

[clausont]

Originally Posted by cagney

From the log above it seems worthwhile to check the language settings on the computer. The first missing line,... is the language setting.
Perhaps it's set to something that wxwidgets doesn't support?
Reset it to something safe, such as US English, and see if that helps.
navobj.xml dosen't matter, it's just saving the state of nav objects when you exit the program + works as a back up.
If you delete the opencpn.ini file (when OpenCPN isn't running), next time the program starts it will behave like it's a new install. No problem.
Good Luck!
Thomas

Thanks Thomas - I have sent this to Jamie. I actually mentioned that in my last email as I had noticed the same thing. I should hear from him in their "tomorrow" which is in a couple more hours...
Thanks,

Tim

[clausont]

"Chief Bob now has the the worlds first duggout canoe with computer chartplotter!"


"Tim - problem solved! I knew the computer was set to English, but it was English (Singapore). When I read you last emails I checked and then changed it to English (Australia) - and it opened perfectly. Chief Bob will be very happy. Thanks so much to helping, emailing the forums etc. Maybe post to the forums that with this fixed, that Chief Bob now has the the worlds first duggout canoe with computer chartplotter!

Also, maybe the OpenCPN folks can handle a language error a little better than failure to run with no error message.
Thanks Again!
Jamie"

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and the help! We really appreciate it!
It is always nice to be able to help someone that is way outside of the normal channels of help even if it isn't a huge major thing.

Thanks,
from
Tim, Jamie and crew of s/v Totem and Chief Bob of the Hermits Islands, Papua New Guinea

[yachtvalhalla]

Tried language settings of US and also Australia to no avail.

Attempting installation on ASUS EeePC 1025C (32-bit, 1.86GHz processor, 2GB RAM) running Windows 7 Starter.

HELP!!

Terry