!Beta Troubleshooting, Tips, FAQs

[Dwarden 1125]

IMPORTANT !

It's always better to uninstall previous beta!

(if You fail to uninstall it erase beta subdirectory inside ARMA 2 directory)

WARNING!

It's recommended to restart You mission instead of using save from older version or previous betas!

NOTE!

Beta installer create shortcut inside ARMA 2 directory to launch beta properly.

The tricky part is that the game is started with commandline:

Drive:Path\ARMA 2\beta\arma2.exe -mod=beta

but in start in path

Drive:Path\ARMA 2\

INFO:

Installer claims it updating on version 1.04, ignore it updating the \beta\ directory content

Uninstaller claims it removed version 1.03 ignore it as it should remove \beta\ directory content

PROBLEM:

Uninstalling beta may result into removal of ARMA 2 symlink / junction directory link (hopefully not whole directory)

IF anyone experience whole ARMA 2 directory erase on uninstall please report ASAP thx

FIX / WORKAROUND for the beta failing to install on STEAM build:

use registry editor add registry key into

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2

create new String value

name it "MAIN" (w/o "")

then place into it same content like is already in key "path"

(e.g. "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Common\ARMA 2" w/o "" again)

that's all and now the installer sees Your STEAM game ...

Edited June 17, 2010 by Dwarden

[CarlGustaffa 4]

IMPORTANT !

It's always better to uninstall previous beta!

I would says it's always better to rename the previous beta, append the build number or something to its folder name. Reasons:

1) If you report, you can go back and check if that bug was in the previous version.

2) If you're the quick one, and nobody else in your squad has upgraded, it may be wise to at least stay on the same version. Our server wouldn't let us in on a Mando Missile prepared mission if client had older version. Or vice versa, unsure here.

3) If a beta is heavily bugged and unplayable, all that is needed is a rename of folders.

Also I would like to add:

* If you play with squad addons and beta, and find a bug, please try to recreate that bug without your other addons. We use beta for our squad nights, and there is no way we're going to revert to 1.04 now :)

[312_Pinky 10]

I've recently had identical problem with the beta installation. Having purchased Steam few days ago. Arma was on 1.04, but installer said the game is not installed or it's corrupted. Check on steam files gave OK, no corruption.

I looked in the registry and the thing was that the value "Main" with the game path was there, while "Path" was missing (reverted situation of the above). I created the missing "Path" string value and beta got installed correctly.

Just in case you come across this problem too... ;-)

[anc 0]

In Arma 1 if i can remember well it was not possible to enter a server that wasn't running a beta patch, but in Arma 2 this is possible does this mean that it is ok to enter a non beta server or it is not advised to do so?

Best regards

[suma 8]

In Arma 1 if i can remember well it was not possible to enter a server that wasn't running a beta patch, but in Arma 2 this is possible does this mean that it is ok to enter a non beta server or it is not advised to do so?

Our intention is this should be OK. It is hard to make any guarantees about beta, but so far we are not aware of any problems caused by this.

[SnR 1]

Our 1.04 server has had me playing with every single beta, no problems what so ever. Think of it as a client side mod;)

[markushaze 10]

Yes, true, but to be honest, i don't think its a good idea to have different betas, and non betas, at least to give feedback, its advisable to have server and client side on the same beta. this way a bug you might notice and report is certainly not caused by miss match of certain files .....

Just a suggestion and my 0.02$:-)

By the way, kudos to BIS and all of the community. the betas are coming along nicely, and ArmA 2 ( now with the fabulous ACE 2 MOD ) is all i was craving for....

Keep it up >:-)

[Yapab 10]

My beta email notifier now also mirrors the latest beta files on my server, here is the link (should be fast for those in Australia etc)

http://www.qbasix.com/ARMA2/betafiles/

Yapa

Edited June 20, 2010 by Yapab
updated mirror info

[Dwarden 1125]

Would just like to add this mirror link I found in the main thread:

http://www.mydigital-dj.com/downloads/Arma-2/BETA-Builds/

For some reason I am only getting 5kb/sec from the ARMA2 beta page.... (this bring back nightmares of dialup days!)

Not sure who hosts that but hopefully its updated, I had to search for it so having it here might help others.

Thanks to the mirror hoster!

Yapa

why you downloading public beta of 1.05 , when final version 1.05 is already released?

[Dwarden 1125]

i discovered another problematic behaviour of beta uninstaller

it removes flags on junctions (maybe other filesystem links too) in path

for example

C:\Program Files\STEAM\STEAMAPPS\Common\ARMA 2\

had two different junctions for STEAMAPPS (to F:\STEAM\SteamApps) and ARMA 2 (to H:\_Junctions\ARMA2)

after running uninstaller these junction links vanished and needed to be recreated ...

so just advice for these who use this on multiHDD/SSD/ramdrive systems , no need to panic just annoyance

[pravinrocks4u 10]

I've installed ARMA II on other than C:.... i.e on L drive, I get following msg when I try to install beta patch "Arma II is not installed on your computer or installation is corrupt"

I do I fix this?

[Dwarden 1125]

try the suggestion in first post, check the registry keys , adjust or create them

[st!gar 3]

I've installed OA Beta Patch 71900. But when I try to start it from the shortcut in the "Beta"-folder, I get an error message saying "No Entry ".ProfilePathDefault". Then the game boots, then the screen goes black before turning into a multitude of colours, and then I'm kicked to desktop.

So... help?!

Edited July 2, 2010 by St!gar

[PogMoThoin 10]

Check Your root arma directory, there should be a Launch Arma2 OA Beta Patch shortcut, right click it and send it to your desktop

[shataan 1]

If the OA Beta uninstaller removes stuff it shouldn`t in Steam, can`t we just do a verify integrity of game cache, and Steam should red/l the missing files right?

Edited July 5, 2010 by Shataan

[Callsign 128]

My mod folders aren't seen in the expansions table when using the beta, how can I solve this?

[PogMoThoin 10]

My mod folders aren't seen in the expansions table when using the beta, how can I solve this?

I'm sure thats the idea, they want You testing the beta with the vanilla game

[Callsign 128]

of course, i do that anyway, but then i like to use the latest version with all my mods...

[Sekra 10]

My mod folders aren't seen in the expansions table when using the beta, how can I solve this?

The reason for this is that whenever you launch OA with the -mod= parameter it will autodisable the ingame mod manager and since the beta patch NEEDS the -mod parameter theres really no way you can bypass this. You can still run all your mods using the old style of creating icons with a long -mod= line or using a launcher that supports the beta versions of OA.

[Wieking 10]

When I launch Arma 2 OA whith Expansion I get an error message saying "Cannot initialize DirectInput. (DirectX 8 required.). This trouble is with all beta bilds for OA.

Please help me,

[MavericK96 0]

Try reinstalling DirectX 9c, perhaps?

[Mojo 0]

I would like to be able to dis-allow beta code on our primary dedi-server, leaving beta code to run on our pub and practice servers. How can I disable beta code on a server?

This may be a point for bringing up a beta .bisign for servers that want to have beta code allowed.

[nobrainer 0]

NEED HELP.....

we can't use beta actually.

This works, no beta:

call "C:\A2CO\ARMA2OAserver.exe" "-mod=Expansion;common" "-mod=@CBA;@zeu_AI"

But this don't, with beta:

call "C:\A2CO\Expansion\beta\ARMA2OAserver.exe"  "-mod=%_ARMA2PATH%;EXPANSION;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expansion;ca"  "-mod=@CBA;@zeu_AI" 

The last "code" is from http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=101214

I have removed all -cpuCount and other important stuff.

Seems to me that I startup the server in a wrong way. I would like to get the beta running though.

It's a win7 64-bit. No steam, separate DVD's installed into the same folder.

I used the "_runA2CO_beta.cmd" for NoSteam and modified it a bit to clean it all up. But players get kicked if I use call line that came with "_runA2CO_beta.cmd". The server starts fine, showing a lot of "arma 2".

When people get kicked, there is just a "disconnected" in the public.log. No other information. Not even in the servers rpt-fil.

Does anybody else know how I can use the beta with A2:CO, BAF, PMC and other addons?

[stk2008 14]

Hey no brainer why not use tophe dedi server tool its so easy to use and ya can select the BETA server.EXE :)

[nobrainer 0]

woulden't it be better if BIS got it to work?