Six Updater: Install/Update mods, missions. Delta patching. Server browser, and more!

[tomz 10]

hello men,

i have got an issue with the sixupdater.

Since the Addonsync doesn't work for some time, i have to get back to the sixupdater to update the ACE for ArmA2:OA.

So, i've downloaded and etc... but when the synching starts, the following error message i've received:

receiving incremental file list

[receiver] io timeout after 30 seconds -- exiting

rsync error: timeout in data send/receive (code 30) at /home/lapo/package/rsync-3.0.8-1/src/rsync-3.0.8/io.c(140) [receiver=3.0.8]

I've figured out, that this is some kind of rsync problem, but i can't solve it.

Anybody has an advice?

Thanks in advance,

tomz

[sickboy 13]

hello men,

i have got an issue with the sixupdater.

Since the Addonsync doesn't work for some time, i have to get back to the sixupdater to update the ACE for ArmA2:OA.

So, i've downloaded and etc... but when the synching starts, the following error message i've received:

receiving incremental file list

[receiver] io timeout after 30 seconds -- exiting

rsync error: timeout in data send/receive (code 30) at /home/lapo/package/rsync-3.0.8-1/src/rsync-3.0.8/io.c(140) [receiver=3.0.8]

I've figured out, that this is some kind of rsync problem, but i can't solve it.

Anybody has an advice?

Thanks in advance,

tomz

Hi!

SU network has both rSync (rsync://) and zSync (http://) mirrors, do you have issues with both?

Please make sure you have properly configured your firewall(s) and security suite(s), exclude all the SU executables (especially tools\bin\rsync.exe and zsync.exe) from these utilities (and if possible, upgrade to the latest version of these softwares).

http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+Documentation#Firewalls,%20ports%20and%20security/antivirus

If still issues please create a ticket with SU log files and details (what security software do you run etc) and hopefully we can figure it out.

http://www.six-updater.net/p/support.html

Edited August 9, 2011 by Sickboy

[tomz 10]

I think it's an rsync issue, because i've tried to use rsync from command line, and there was the same error message.

I've tried to turn off my antivirus software (NOD32 2.70.39), without effect.

I am behind an home gateway (router) but it has all the ports open.

I use the XP SP3 integrated firewall. I've configured all the programs mentioned in the FAQ/Trsh section (rsync, zsync, sixupdater gui, etc...) without effect.

I've tried to completely turn off the firewall, without effect.

So, i am now stucked, and haven't any idea, what's wrong.

---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------

by the way, what is it mean?

"SU network has both rSync (rsync://) and zSync (http://) mirrors, do you have issues with both?"

I can somewhere change the synching method (rsync or zsync) in the sixupdater?

[sickboy 13]

It's a known issue with Cygwin rSync and older versions of NOD32. Only upgrade or uninstall of NOD32 helps, sorry.

Re rSync/zSync, well there's a couple of zSync mirrors and a couple of rSync mirrors in the network, and SU will select another mirror when a failure occurs.

You can also disable all the rsync:// mirrors and only leave the http:// ones enabled.

Enable "Advanced" mode up top, and select the Mirrors datagrid, then tick the disabled checkbox at all the rsync:// mirrors.

(Make sure you run Six Updater 2.x and not the old legacy suite)

[tomz 10]

Well, thanks for the advice about the NOD32 stuff. I'll try to get another version, and we'll see it.

But before i'll check out the zsync method described. I run the latest 6UD.

Anyhow, thanks again.

[sickboy 13]

Released v2.6pre7 with some fixes and enhancements (available on auto-update), another release and WIP report is planned for coming weekend.

[Freeborne 10]

For the love of god PLEASE slow the frequency of your updates!

I can't stress this enough. It shouldn't take 2+ minutes to load the program because it has to download small updates (that I imagine add nothing for majority of users).

I think I've downloaded 8.1MB updates which re-installed this app at least 3 times in the past month!

I also see posts about Release Candidates, and milestones. I find this all confusing when you are pushing out updates almost every week and they are not optional (minor updates should be optional, major updates that break older versions should have warning prompt).

I find SU currently ineffective as a server browser. Can you change default window to be "Server Browser". For the players who load your app twice a day they want to see the content that changes constantely and represents why they loaded the app in the first place. Can there be a option to filter by country (or multiple countries) like with YOMA, which can be saved to default view. This should make it faster to load the servers too.

Bottom frameset. Can the left frame vertical sizing be made seperate from the right frame?

As well as the "Current Server MOTD" is it possible to put in custom (formatted) info in the server config.yml? This would let admins put in hyperlinks back to their forums, squad logo's, etc which would be useful.

The config.yml contains a list of MPMissions. Is this dynamically generated? Either way if you could display the missions in SU that would be great if we could search for a mission and find a server that is hosting it.

Installation is simply and quick, but maybe add a setup wizard that asks things like "What Country are you in" and then show countries they can filter by, let them choose their 'pack' drive (explaining what it means) and set up other options. Should reduce the amount of times you have to go back and change settings after learning what they do.

P.S: Apologies if that all sounded negative. Overall, fantastic work and you're a boon to this community, just hoping you can improve SU to make it more user friendly and useful so everyone can use it, instead of the current miss-mash of apps everyone uses.

Edited August 13, 2011 by Freeborne

[.kju 3239]

Suggestion: Disable auto update by default, so that the common users uses only stable releases.

[sickboy 13]

@PvPScene: If the majority of the people would have problems with the updates, then that might be an idea.

Until now only a few mentioned it, and usually it's a complaint about multiple updates a day or large file sizes, which isn't the case currently.

The updates are generally important. Im also receiving unhandled exception reports on my tracker, these are solved with updates, and reduce the spam.

People can opt-out, but I do not recommend it.

This is how I develop and release my projects, if people want to use my free software and hosted services, they can suck it up.

@Freeborne:

Software Updates

The update frequency once was once or multiple times a day (I agree, that's a little much), at least multiple times a week.

The current update frequency is much lower, and if you don't want to enjoy the latest improvements and fixes, disable the bloody auto update!

http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+FAQ#How%20can%20I%20prevent%20SU%20from%20updating%20to%20new%20versions%20automatically?

The updates don't reinstall the whole app, just changed files. No version should "break" older versions - if you know a specific situation, please report it).

If the issue is payment required for International Traffic (which is afaik the case for Australia), or slow downloads from Australia, perhaps try to arrange an aussie mirror (I hear providers offer this possibility esp for game related materials).

Ticketed multi-mirror support for SU software updates: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/23414

And those updates absolutely contain vital fixes and improvements, for the majority of the users. Follow the news if you want to know what exactly, or follow the project activity http://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater/activity

http://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater/repository/revisions

The update released earlier this week wasn't even planned but due to outstanding bugs that affected servers with custom repos, I had to deploy it.

With each news blog (WIP report about pre-releases, RC's and Stable) next to auto-update, a setup.exe is released, so even without auto-update you can download a specific release and stick to it.

TBH - these comments about regular (optional, though really recommended) updates makes me wanna throw up, and then about 8.1 MB !?!?!

Which is actually already reduced by 50% (it was like 16 MB) because of people whining about update sizes.

I've gone through great lengths already to improve the update experience, by reducing file size and improving install/upgrade procedures.

Missions

You can host missions on a custom repo yourself, see the documentation http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+CustomRepos_Setup.

When missions are assigned to a server (in server.yml) the missions will be auto downloaded on install/update/join.

There's one semi-officially hosted missions repo (1600+ missions collected by '76') listed here:

http://www.six-updater.net/p/communities.html

When you have a server selected with a custom repos, the missions are under the Custom Repos -> Missions tab.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Full support for missions on the official network is ongoing. http://dev-heaven.net/issues/17686

MOTD and other Server Info

MOTD info can be entered in the server.yml - currently no support for (clickable) urls or images. Urls should be easy, images perhaps for the future. http://dev-heaven.net/issues/23410

Homepage url for a custom repo can already be entered in config.yml, while you can also add info url to every server.yml.

If a user right clicks a server and selects "Get more info about server", the user will be sent to (in this order of priority, if info isn't defined it will try the next):

- Server info url

- Repo homepage url

- Url extracted from server-name

I suppose I could add a button at the MOTD info that says "Visit homepage" or so. http://dev-heaven.net/issues/23409

Fully commented config and server yml examples available at: http://www.pastie.org/2270406

Server Browser

You can sort (left click), group (right click) on any column in any of the data grids, incl the Server Browser, and you can search Country already:

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

(Search fields are remembered too, so searching on server name or country will filter the server browser on next startup the same way)

Searching on continent (aka multiple countries) is planned: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/23240

Saving/loading of search profiles ticketed http://dev-heaven.net/issues/23411

Other

Allowing to choose the default tab that is displayed on startup (or remembering last tab) ticketed at: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/18614

Beginner mode/wizard is planned: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/16592

More flexibility for changing frame sizes ticketed at: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/23408

If you have other feedback, suggestions, feature requests or bug reports, please create a ticket per issue, and I'll look into it. Thanks!

http://www.six-updater.net/p/support.html

(Big chance it's already on the Roadmap: http://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater/roadmap)

PS. Apologies if that sounded negative. Im just working my bloody ass off on this project for your and other's benefit.

Edited August 13, 2011 by Sickboy

[jblackrupert 14]

I just checked it out but this what I get on several systems I've tested it on.

- Takes a long time to load

- Eats up large amounts of memory and slows the system down to a crawl

making it barely usable.

- Many listed mods are seriously out of date by several versions.

[sickboy 13]

I just checked it out but this what I get on several systems I've tested it on.

- Takes a long time to load

- Eats up large amounts of memory and slows the system down to a crawl

making it barely usable.

- Many listed mods are seriously out of date by several versions.

- It only takes first time long to load

- Memory usage and performance will be improved. I dont know about slowing systems down to a halt. Perhaps exclude SU from your security suites. http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+Documentation#Firewalls,%20ports%20and%20security/antivirus

- How about you be a helpful rupert and tell me which mods are supposedly outdated? I can't keep tabs on every mod out there. People let me know about outdated or new mods @ http://www.six-updater.net/p/support.html disqus comments.

Feel free to create a ticket with details and logs for issues you come across at http://www.six-updater.net/p/support.html

Edited August 14, 2011 by Sickboy

[wolffy.au 9]

I just checked it out but this what I get on several systems I've tested it on.

- Takes a long time to load

- Eats up large amounts of memory and slows the system down to a crawl

making it barely usable.

- Many listed mods are seriously out of date by several versions.

I dunno man - I find the application itself performs fine, never had memory problems and the such. What are the specs of your PC out of curiosity?

If you find a mod out of date, just ask if it can be updated. Its not like we spend all of our spare time looking for the latest updates. :)

[Freeborne 10]

Brilliant post mate! Thanks for taking time to respond to my post, and in such detail :)

if you don't want to enjoy the latest improvements and fixes, disable the bloody auto update!

Disabling the updates is not intuitive. Instead of having to create a shortcut with a specific paramater why not have a check-box in the Options area.

'Minor' updates could be optional (by default). I don't mean to offend, but less frequent updates would (IMHO) make SU appear more polished and professional and regain confidence in your program (which from my experiences players find quite confusing).

You say the frequent updates are necessary to fix bugs, but ther other way to look at it is "would there have been less bugs if updates weren't pushed out so quickly?"

We have an Australian mirror (thx AEF/Platform Networks) and my concern was with the time it takes to download/unpack the updates. Even though it's only 8.1MB it's not a quick download. When I fire up the program (usually only once a week as I don't use it as a server browser) it's annoying that it takes 3+ minutes just to 'check' if ACE/CBA/ACRE needs updating (that's also with AutoSync off)

Otherwise all the future changes look very promising, and I'll be keeping an eye more closely on SU in future. Cheers.

[sickboy 13]

Thanks for response.

As pointed out, this is how I develop and release, and it works pretty well, SU has a lot of activity, new features, fixes, and improvements every week. Bugs are often reported and feedback given about new features, which are improved by it.

I develop and manage this project on my own, and development has to be fun and useful for me, or you'd have no SU to use, right?

Besides, requests for assistance fall on deaths ears.

I do agree that daily updates is too much, and rather works against than for the project. Hence it's about once a week. The last 2 updates have been because of gamespy changes BIS activated recently, and some other bugs found.

I disagree on the professionallity argument, and otherwise don't really care what people think TBH. It's easy to whine/judge, and it's in human nature to fight change.

Disabling updates isn't intuitive because it's intended.

The argument ref the time it takes to download+unpack+install the software updates, will soon be resolved once i've added SU setup multi-mirror download, so you can download the software updates from the Australian mirror.

You can even improve the situation for yourself by starting the updater at an earlier time than when you intend to use it.

AutoSync off will not allow you to see if a mod is outdated (unless you manually sync), as it's exactly that sync (with SU portal) who retrieves this new information :)

Besides, for a quick look you can just as well look at http://stats.six-updater.net/mods

How long does sync with SU portal take for you btw? It's from the same dev-heaven.net server, so it might be slowed down for Australia (again).

In any case, performance and memory usage will be improved. There's just been too many other, more important, things to be worked out.

Usability improvements the same.

Most of the tickets linked in my previous post have already been resolved for tomorrows update.

Otherwise all the future changes look very promising, and I'll be keeping an eye more closely on SU in future. Cheers.

Glad to hear :) Edited August 14, 2011 by Sickboy

[anarcho 0]

- Eats up large amounts of memory and slows the system down to a crawl

making it barely usable.

If you have so little memory on your computer, you could always use the option to create a game shortcut with the SU so you don't have to have running all the time?

[sickboy 13]

Six Updater v2.6 RC1 Released!

Release Notes

The milestone is nearly complete - stable hopefully soon, then moving on to v2.7.

(Mirror support for su-setup software download isn't active yet - so still slow software update from .AU).

[d3lta 10]

Hi sickboy,

what's the best tutorial to create a server repository using repobuilder?

Best regards

D3lta

[sickboy 13]

http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+CustomRepos_Setup

[d3lta 10]

Very thanks sickboy, however, I already knew about your official page. I'll try.

Best Regards.

[sickboy 13]

Very thanks sickboy, however, I already knew about your official page. I'll try.

Best Regards.

If questions come join us @ http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+GroupChat

[sickboy 13]

SU v2.6 is about done, RC2 this weekend.

For SU v2.7 im planning to do a performance / memory usage overhaul, decrease startup time and improve processing time etc, as well as some more bug fixes.

New features etc are moved up to v2.8+.

If you have feedback ref SU performance / memory usage etc, please post ASAP ;-)

[sickboy 13]

I just checked it out but this what I get on several systems I've tested it on.

- Takes a long time to load

- Eats up large amounts of memory and slows the system down to a crawl

making it barely usable.

- Many listed mods are seriously out of date by several versions.

Still awaiting reply...

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=2003139#post2003139

[jedra 11]

With regard to performance issues...

Would I like it to start quicker? Yes, but I think that it is related to the number of profiles. On my main machine it takes a while to startup but I have around 50 profiles and all but 5 of the currently available mods downloaded. On my testing clients that have far fewer profiles, it starts up quickly. I would like ALL of my apps to start quicker!!

It would be great if swapping between active profiles was a little quicker, but again I am not going to stop using it because it takes 5 seconds rather than 2!

The speedtest can take a while, but as you add more mirrors I guess it has to go through them all. As you don't have to do this very often and it is a beneficial exercise then again, I am not to worried.

Memory usage is now rock solid. A while back it was getting all megalomaniac on my ass and eating RAM for fun, but now it is rock solid at around 400-500Mb.

Not spotted anything myself that is out of date, but then again, until you implement that 'psychic mod updater' you are working on it is up to us to let you know when we spot one!

Conclusion - I would rather see functionality over performance for this app if there is a compromise to be made. I have been in IT too long to doubt that a compromise is always necessary in this respect.

[sickboy 13]

Thanks Jedra, it's rather about what I want and feel like working on :)

Last few versions have brought a lot of new features.

Now I wanna refactor and fix+improve things before adding more on top of the pile, especially before bigger features planned for v3.0

See the v2.7 roadmap and the others for more details.

If you have a feature in mind that you (and perhaps everyone else) "gots to have" - please point :)

Edited August 19, 2011 by Sickboy

[dukenukem. 10]

Hi Sickboy,

I read through this thread but i still have a few questions.

1)

SU supports including and excluding files in modfolders, so if a user would want to exclude say x and y.pbo, he would enter those in the updater, and the files would be left untouched.

How does one do this?

2) Is there a way to see the list of files that are included inside a mod (ala YOMA addonsync used to allow you to see the whole list). I know right click on an official mod and "get info about mod" will display a webpage with the list but its not the easiest list to read.

3) Lets say you download @someisland that is on SU official network. Then u join a server's custom repo that also has @someisland in there as well. So will u be having 2 copies of the @someisland pbo on your harddrive? Can i just have the official SU version of the island and ignore the custom repo one?

Similar to http://dev-heaven.net/issues/17635.

4) How do we use the "server monitor" ? I can't figure out how to show the list of players on the server.

Thanks and sorry for so many questions.