Menus don't appear

[eidenk]

Hello, I have been trying to run this on my totally unsupported system (Windows ME + KernelEx) and everything works fine apart from menus that don't display at all.

I can move UI blocks around, use knobs and switches, popup the waveform window and work in it, navigate the preset browser and select presets, reposition the wires with the handles and adjust their transparency, but whenever I click on anywhere a menu should pop, nothing happens.

In case it rings a bell and it's trivial to "fix" it please feel free to do so.

Otherwise, don't bother wasting your time for a clown like me.

Coolest piece of freebie I have seen in a long while btw.

Cheers.

[sonigen]

In case it rings a bell and it's trivial to "fix" it please feel free to do so.

Hey bugs need to be fixed, i am glad to have people report them! You're helping me improve the software

Could you start it, open a few non working menus, close it down, and then send me the error log, its located at...

My Documents/SonigenModularErrorLog.txt

Either email it to chrs{at}sonigen[dot]com

or post it here.

Many thanks,

[eidenk]

Cool, thanks for looking into it.

It doesn't seem the error log shows anything wrong:

ModularStartup
Lookups generated
CJL Skin initialized
Modular Skin initialized
SSE Supported
Startup::Sucess
VST::CreatePlugin
VST::Open
VST::SetSampleRate
VST::Resume
VST::Suspend
VST::Resume
VST:SetProgram
VST::GetProductString
VST::GetProductString
VST::GetProgramName
VST::GetProgram
VST::Suspend
VST::Resume
VST::GetProgram
VST::Suspend
VST::Close
VST::DestroyPlugin

The only other message that may get logged (many of them at once when I switch to certain other presets) is:

CreateWnd : The operation completed successfully.

And btw, I can't open any menu at all, it's not that commands on them don't work, the problem is that whenever I click on wherever a menu should pop, nothing happens, no menu pops up.

[sonigen]

OK the line

"CreateWnd : The operation completed successfully."

The "CreateWnd :" means the attempt create the window failed, and the text after that is what you get from windows when you ask it why it failed. So it obviously doesnt make any sense.

There's one other windows call that could be having a knock on effect on the attempt to create the window. I've added a logging function to that. So if you can try this version and see if anything new pops in the error log that would help me determine the which of the two calls is a problem.

I've double checked my code against the Winows API specs and it's all OK. So unfortunately it's probable that the best I can do is file a bug report with the KernelEX project and see what happens. Both functions are new since Windows 2000 so they would be emulated by KernelEX if I understand things correctly.

Link for version with extra logging.

http://www.sonigen.com/SonigenModularSetup158.exe

Thanks,

[eidenk]

Ok I have tried the new version and there are no new messages that appear in the log.

Anyway those "CreateWnd" messages don't appear when I try to display menus, they seem to occur sometimes when I go in the browser, choose a new preset and go back, but nothing wrong seems to have have happened.

So, nothing you can do to make those menus work on my system I understand.

Neither the plugin nor the standalone work without KernelEx, I have hexed a couple of functions and the PE header so that it would run without KernelEx but then only a process gets created but no window, so KernelEx definitely emulates the Windows 2000 window creation process. Perhaps it does so incompletely and that is why those menus don't appear, I don't know.

I am not sure the KernelEx developer will respond to any request as the project seems more or less dead right now unfortunately. Perhaps if it comes from a fellow developer, he might be more keen to revive it, who knows?

Anyway it was very nice of you looking into it, not everyone so kindly responds to windows 98/ME users those days, thank you very much.

[sonigen]

Ok I have tried the new version and there are no new messages that appear in the log.

That means the problem is with the CreateWindowEx function. I have three different calls for different kinds of windows, and only the popup type window is failing. I will have a look tomorrow and see if there's anything I can change, but room for change is limited because I need a specific kind of window.

[eidenk]

Hehe, not all hope is lost then, fingers crossed.

[sonigen]

Hi, two more versions for you to try...

http://www.sonigen.com/SonigenModularSetupNTW.exe

http://www.sonigen.com/SonigenModularSetupNDS.exe

Let me know how they go, if they work I'll roll it into the main version, if only the NDS version works I'll have to figure out how to detect KernelEx and just add a little workaround when that is present.

If neither of those work I dont think there's anything I can do other than report the problem to the KernelEx team.

[eidenk]

Hi, the NTW version doesn't work but the NDS does work perfectly, all menus are perfectly working as well as context menus and tooltips. Thank you very much.

Here is the KernelEx startup key in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MPRServices\KernelEx]
"DLLName"="C:\\WINDOWS\\KernelEx\\KernelEx.dll"
"EntryPoint"="_MprStart@4"
"StackSize"=dword:00001000

I guess that checking for this key should be enough to detect its presence.

Btw, I also have a minor issue with the plugin version, on first initialization of the GUI, the cables don't display and I have got to toggle to another preset and back to have them to display. It's occuring in all three hosts I have tested it in, ashost, Cantabile 1.2 and savihost. Standalone version doesn't suffer from it.

Thanks again for that fix.

Cheers.