Background:
1. I bought a server slot from the LFS website.
2. Lapper worked, but only once.
3. I can use Airio but I don't want my server to just be restricted to lapping/racing.
4. I've tried resetting the "Admin app" used by the server in "Your host" menu.
5. I've already contacted LFS Dev team about this and they referred me to this forum if problems persist.
6. Also LFS Dev team will not grant me local file access, which is fair enough.

Scenario:
1. As stated in the subject, LFS Lapper doesn't connect to the server when I click on "start" on the "your hosts" screen within the LFS.net website.
2. It kept going "LFSLapper in standby state" then when I typed start it would show "LFSLapper in work state".
3. NOW it DOESN'T even show "LFSLapper in standby state", there's just no response to any of the "!" commands.
4. The only commands that do work are the "/" commands, and the server recognises me as admin.
(Note: I already tried changing "Admin app" to "None" to reset the LFSLapper, unless it didn't reset..., I also previously tried copying and pasting the Lapper code into each file individually from the newest release, which only gave me the "standby" and "work" statements above.)

Question:
How would I go about fixing this? The aim is to get LFSLapper working on my server again.

I've read through most of the code of the base file (LFSLapper.lpr) and I can't find any errors (although I just have basic knowledge of C++).

And what does the Lapper error log show?
In most care those errors are very detailed and useful.

The logfiles can be found here: \bin\default\logs
Look for the file ending with -ERR.log

Basically the scripts I can access are limited to what is already in their list, any new files created by Lapper don't show on the list, and I can't access the file system.

The developer's definitely need to add the \bin\default\logs folder... I agree that the logs are essential to diagnosing the problem properly.

Given it's a Saturday hopefully the dev's can get it sorted by next week...

The logs don't tell us much unfortunately.
Via the LFS console I'm seeing Lapper connect, and disconnect basically immediately:

Quote :

Jan 30 11:08:56 InSim - TCP : LFSLapper
Jan 30 11:08:56 Handicaps :
Jan 30 11:08:56 InSim guest closed : LFSLapper

/bin/default/logs/127.0.0.1-57497-MSS.log:

Quote :

1/30/2019 11:08:56 AM -> Connecting to: [127.0.0.1 / 57497]
Instance [127.0.0.1 / 57497] successfully connected
1/30/2019 11:08:56 AM -> InSImReceive Thread Started...

/bin/logs/LFSLapper-MSS.log:

Quote :

1/30/2019 11:08:56 AM -> Started - LFSLapper Version=7.0.6.3 -
1/30/2019 11:08:56 AM -> Start set of instances thread

and that's all

We're using the latest Lapper v7.0.6.3

I'll keep trying to find out what's going on. Though I wonder if there could be a bit more debug for the log files.
Another thing I noticed is that Lapper doesn't seem to send an init packet at all. Otherwise the console output would have shown "InSim : version 7 requested - using 7" after "InSim - TCP : LFSLapper", but there's no such line.
I assume the message "InSim guest closed : LFSLapper" means Lapper actively closed the connection.
Does that give you guys any hints?

This is a good one. I will investigate this when i get home.
Could you try to change the 'remote port' in /bin/LFSServers.cfg.

From my experience. I know that Lapper doest start/connect when you have multiple Lapper instances running with the same "remote port" on the same machine

I tried remotePort=3002 but it didn't help unfortunately.

EDIT - so just checking ... remotePort is for remote management of Lapper, correct? So this port should always be randomised as Lapper will open a local socket on that port for each instance?

EDIT 2 - actually I don't see a listening socket on 3001 at all. Even though there should be one?

EDIT 3 - aha, when I start a new instance of Lapper, I can briefly see activity on 3001:

Quote :

$ netstat -ant | grep 3001
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:3001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:59673 127.0.0.1:3001 ESTABLISHED
tcp 32 0 127.0.0.1:3001 127.0.0.1:59673 ESTABLISHED

but then it goes away after Lapper exits, of course. At least this hints that remotePort (or at least, setting up the socket) is not the issue here.

i've been trying to reproduce this, but no luck yet.

It seems like a Lapper crashed.

Some questions:

• -Are you able to see the LFSLapper console?
  

The messages on the console should look like this: When it is successfully connected.

Quote :

Client OK
Connecting Servers...
>Lapper Instance [DEF1/127.0.0.1/30000] Successfully connected!

• -Are there any ERR files in the "logs" folder
  
• -Which files did you changed to set-up Lapper.
  

Your console question got me a bit further. No, I don't have a console of Lapper, but i'm now piping the output to a file, to see this:

Quote :

Password does not match your multiplayer admin password!! restart LFSLapper

Unhandled Exception: System.TypeInitializationException: An exception was thrown by the type initializer for InSim.LfsEncoding ---> System.TypeInitializationException: An exception was thrown by the type initializer for InSim.LfsUnicodeEncoding ---> System.NotSupportedException: CodePage 1251 not supported
at System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding (Int32 codepage) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding (Int32 codepage, System.Text.EncoderFallback encoderFallback, System.Text.DecoderFallback decoderFallback) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at InSim.LfsUnicodeEncoding..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at InSim.LfsEncoding..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at InSim.Decoder.pakGetString (System.Byte[] pak, Int32 first, Int32 len) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at InSim.Decoder+VER..ctor (System.Byte[] packet) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at InSim.Connect.insimConnectTCP (System.String host, Int32 port, System.String adminPassword, System.String mode, System.String nameApp, Boolean isLocal, Int32 receiveJoinReq, Int32 disableAIcars) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
[ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.TypeInitializationException: An exception was thrown by the type initializer for InSim.LfsEncoding ---> System.TypeInitializationException: An exception was thrown by the type initializer for InSim.LfsUnicodeEncoding ---> System.NotSupportedException: CodePage 1251 not supported
at System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding (Int32 codepage) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding (Int32 codepage, System.Text.EncoderFallback encoderFallback, System.Text.DecoderFallback decoderFallback) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at InSim.LfsUnicodeEncoding..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at InSim.LfsEncoding..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at InSim.Decoder.pakGetString (System.Byte[] pak, Int32 first, Int32 len) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at InSim.Decoder+VER..ctor (System.Byte[] packet) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
at InSim.Connect.insimConnectTCP (System.String host, Int32 port, System.String adminPassword, System.String mode, System.String nameApp, Boolean isLocal, Int32 receiveJoinReq, Int32 disableAIcars) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

Are these two errors? Something admin password related and a codepage exception?

Re. the password, I have it configured:

Quote :

$ cat bin/default/default_1.ini
$password = "adminpasshere";
$configFile = "LFSLapper.lpr";
$superUsersFile = "superusers.txt";

Did something change regarding the password?

And no idea about the exception. Should I update mono maybe? It's quite an ancient version that I have there.

Quote from Bass-Driver :

• -Are there any ERR files in the "logs" folder
  
• -Which files did you changed to set-up Lapper.
  

and oh, no ERR files and I'm using a default configuration ... except the two extra lines with $configFile and $superUsersFile in default_1.ini, as pasted above.

nice to see that we get closer to the connection issue.

hmm, never seen that LFSencoding error before. You could give it a try to update mono.

you might could install/update this file aswell.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5555

just some more food ...

I've dumped some Lapper traffic where you can see:
17:03:03.879720 - Lapper sends ISP_ISI with the correct admin password
17:03:03.881793 - LFS sends ISP_VER in reply (so everything should be ok, yet I don't see this in the LFS console )
and then some more data is exchanged before Lapper hangs up right after sending ISP_TINY + TINY_NCN (17:03:04.015324).

So this is pretty weird. In which cases does Lapper report that the admin password is incorrect?

Quote :

17:03:03.878653 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [S], seq 2657384438, win 32792, options [mss 16396,sackOK,TS val 1426327200 ecr 0,nop,wscale 4], length 0
0x0000: 4500 003c 92e5 0000 4006 e9d4 7f00 0001 E..<....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 77f6 0000 0000 .........dw.....
0x0020: a002 8018 fe30 0000 0204 400c 0402 080a .....0....@.....
0x0030: 5504 06a0 0000 0000 0103 0304 U...........
17:03:03.878675 IP 127.0.0.1.57497 > 127.0.0.1.43226: Flags [S.], seq 1246297714, ack 2657384439, win 32768, options [mss 16396,sackOK,TS val 1426327200 ecr 1426327200,nop,wscale 4], length 0
0x0000: 4500 003c 0000 4000 4006 3cba 7f00 0001 E..<..@.@.<.....
0x0010: 7f00 0001 e099 a8da 4a48 fe72 9e64 77f7 ........JH.r.dw.
0x0020: a012 8000 fe30 0000 0204 400c 0402 080a .....0....@.....
0x0030: 5504 06a0 5504 06a0 0103 0304 U...U.......
17:03:03.878689 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [.], ack 1, win 2050, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327200 ecr 1426327200], length 0
0x0000: 4500 0034 92e6 0000 4006 e9db 7f00 0001 E..4....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 77f7 4a48 fe73 .........dw.JH.s
0x0020: 8010 0802 fe28 0000 0101 080a 5504 06a0 .....(......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a0 U...
17:03:03.879720 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [P.], seq 1:45, ack 1, win 2050, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327200 ecr 1426327200], length 44
0x0000: 4500 0060 92e7 0000 4006 e9ae 7f00 0001 E..`....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 77f7 4a48 fe73 .........dw.JH.s
0x0020: 8018 0802 fe54 0000 0101 080a 5504 06a0 .....T......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a0 2c01 0100 0000 e007 0821 6400 U...,........!d.
0x0040: 6264 6648 4864 6668 6773 7132 0000 0000 admnpasshere....
0x0050: 4c46 534c 6170 7065 7200 0000 0000 0000 LFSLapper.......
17:03:03.879737 IP 127.0.0.1.57497 > 127.0.0.1.43226: Flags [.], ack 45, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327200 ecr 1426327200], length 0
0x0000: 4500 0034 f8d3 4000 4006 43ee 7f00 0001 E..4..@[email protected].....
0x0010: 7f00 0001 e099 a8da 4a48 fe73 9e64 7823 ........JH.s.dx#
0x0020: 8010 0800 fe28 0000 0101 080a 5504 06a0 .....(......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a0 U...
17:03:03.881793 IP 127.0.0.1.57497 > 127.0.0.1.43226: Flags [P.], seq 1:21, ack 45, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327201 ecr 1426327200], length 20
0x0000: 4500 0048 f8d4 4000 4006 43d9 7f00 0001 E..H..@[email protected].....
0x0010: 7f00 0001 e099 a8da 4a48 fe73 9e64 7823 ........JH.s.dx#
0x0020: 8018 0800 fe3c 0000 0101 080a 5504 06a1 .....<......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a0 1402 0100 302e 3654 0000 0000 U.......0.6T....
0x0040: 4445 4d4f 0000 0800 DEMO....
17:03:03.881826 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [.], ack 21, win 2049, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327201 ecr 1426327201], length 0
0x0000: 4500 0034 92e8 0000 4006 e9d9 7f00 0001 E..4....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 7823 4a48 fe87 .........dx#JH..
0x0020: 8010 0801 fe28 0000 0101 080a 5504 06a1 .....(......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a1 U...
17:03:03.914340 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [P.], seq 45:49, ack 21, win 2049, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327209 ecr 1426327201], length 4
0x0000: 4500 0038 92eb 0000 4006 e9d2 7f00 0001 E..8....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 7823 4a48 fe87 .........dx#JH..
0x0020: 8018 0801 fe2c 0000 0101 080a 5504 06a9 .....,......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a1 0403 0a07 U.......
17:03:03.931424 IP 127.0.0.1.57497 > 127.0.0.1.43226: Flags [P.], seq 21:49, ack 49, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327213 ecr 1426327209], length 28
0x0000: 4500 0050 f8d5 4000 4006 43d0 7f00 0001 E..P..@[email protected].....
0x0010: 7f00 0001 e099 a8da 4a48 fe87 9e64 7827 ........JH...dx'
0x0020: 8018 0800 fe44 0000 0101 080a 5504 06ad .....D......U...
0x0030: 5504 06a9 1c05 0a00 0000 803f 000a 0000 U..........?....
0x0040: 0001 0000 0000 0000 424c 3100 0000 0000 ........BL1.....
17:03:03.971972 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [.], ack 49, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327224 ecr 1426327213], length 0
0x0000: 4500 0034 92f5 0000 4006 e9cc 7f00 0001 E..4....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 7827 4a48 fea3 .........dx'JH..
0x0020: 8010 0800 fe28 0000 0101 080a 5504 06b8 .....(......U...
0x0030: 5504 06ad U...
17:03:04.015324 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [P.], seq 49:53, ack 49, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327234 ecr 1426327213], length 4
0x0000: 4500 0038 92fb 0000 4006 e9c2 7f00 0001 E..8....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 7827 4a48 fea3 .........dx'JH..
0x0020: 8018 0800 fe2c 0000 0101 080a 5504 06c2 .....,......U...
0x0030: 5504 06ad 0403 010d U.......
17:03:04.019117 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [F.], seq 53, ack 49, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327235 ecr 1426327213], length 0
0x0000: 4500 0034 92fd 0000 4006 e9c4 7f00 0001 E..4....@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 782b 4a48 fea3 .........dx+JH..
0x0020: 8011 0800 fe28 0000 0101 080a 5504 06c3 .....(......U...
0x0030: 5504 06ad U...
17:03:04.031615 IP 127.0.0.1.57497 > 127.0.0.1.43226: Flags [P.], seq 49:105, ack 54, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1426327238 ecr 1426327234], length 56
0x0000: 4500 006c f8d6 4000 4006 43b3 7f00 0001 E..l..@[email protected].....
0x0010: 7f00 0001 e099 a8da 4a48 fea3 9e64 782c ........JH...dx,
0x0020: 8018 0800 fe60 0000 0101 080a 5504 06c6 .....`......U...
0x0030: 5504 06c2 3812 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 U...8...........
0x0040: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
0x0050: 4164 6d69 6e00 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 Admin...........
0x0060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0101 0000 ............
17:03:04.031652 IP 127.0.0.1.43226 > 127.0.0.1.57497: Flags [R], seq 2657384492, win 0, length 0
0x0000: 4500 0028 92fe 4000 4006 a9cf 7f00 0001 E..(..@.@.......
0x0010: 7f00 0001 a8da e099 9e64 782c 0000 0000 .........dx,....
0x0020: 5004 0000 11d9 0000 P.......

Just looking into the sourcecode. It seems that Lapper reports a wrong password, when it doesnt receive a proper ISP_VER packet.

No idea why its coded like this. Sounds not very logical to me.
The code doesnt have any commentary at all , which in some cases is really hard to understand, for a non-programmer like me .
Here's a snippet of the code.

Quote :

public void insimConnectTCP(string host, int port, string adminPassword, string mode, string nameApp, bool isLocal, int receiveJoinReq, int disableAIcars)
{
int nbTry = 0;
int maxTry = 2;

tc = new TcpConnection.Connection(host, port);
myDebug.Write("mss", "Connecting to: [" + host + " / " + port + "]");
retryConnect:
try
{
tc.Connect();
}
catch
{
if (nbTry > maxTry)
{
myDebug.printDateOnEachLine = false;
myDebug.WriteLine("mss", "Ko");
myDebug.printDateOnEachLine = true;
throw new ConnectException("Lapper Instance [" + host + "/" + port + "] failed connecting with TCP connection!");

}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Lapper Instance [" + host + "/" + port + "] failed connecting!");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(200);
myDebug.printDateOnEachLine = false;
myDebug.Write("mss", ".");
myDebug.printDateOnEachLine = true;
goto retryConnect;
}

}
if (adminPassword.Length > 16)
Console.WriteLine("Wrong length adminPassword! :'" + adminPassword + "' max 16 characters");

myDebug.printDateOnEachLine = false;
myDebug.WriteLine("mss", "");
myDebug.WriteLine("mss", "Instance [" + host + " / " + port + "] successfully connected");
myDebug.printDateOnEachLine = true;
byte[] inSimInit = myEncoder.ISI(adminPassword, 0, 0, nameApp, isLocal, receiveJoinReq, disableAIcars);
try
{
this.Send(inSimInit, inSimInit.Length);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw e;
}
byte[] recvPacket;
this.waitReceiveLow = true;
recvPacket = this.ReceivePack();

try
{
InSim.Decoder.VER ver = new InSim.Decoder.VER(recvPacket);
this.connected = true;
this.Product = ver.Product;
this.Version = ver.Version;
this.InSimVersion = ver.InSimVersion;
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("Password does not match your multiplayer admin password!! restart LFSLapper");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

Quote from Bass-Driver :

Just looking into the sourcecode. It seems that Lapper reports a wrong password, when it doesnt receive a proper ISP_VER packet.

No idea why its coded like this. Sounds not very logical to me.
The code doesnt have any commentary at all , which in some cases is really hard to understand, for a non-programmer like me .
Here's a snippet of the code.

If you set a flag in the ISI packet and your password is correct, you'll get a VER as a reply to the ISI (I'm assuming he's done that inside the ISI encoder). He's catching the first packet inside the connection function so that he can use the VER to check it's connected and authorised before going to the main loop. Very neat - mine just sit there in a stupor wondering where the packets are until the socket times out

Is there supposed to be a space between the '$' and the 'cat' on the first line of that posted config? (I don't know lapper, but better to mention than not )

Oh that make sense.
Thank you for the explaination.

The '$ cat' line is something Victor has added.

pff ... have updated the os and mono and everything, but still the same issue. Seems mono doesn't know about 1251. But apparently it is supposed to know "windows-1251" (even though 1251 in the functions below should work according to docs).
I wonder if it's possible for you to create a test version with the following change? Would like to try.

CodePage.cs

Sure will give it a try when i get home.

You could make a testversion yourself, if you want to.
The projectfile and everything can you find in the 'src' folder

True, but i currently don't have visual studio setup to compile it :/

Look how nice I am

Just replaced the code block and compiled. Didn't change version number or anything.

Thanks! I'll give that a try soon.

Got the same problem. However, I installed libmono-i18n4.0-all which added the missing code pages. Now I get another error though:

Quote :

Unhandled Exception:
System.EntryPointNotFoundException: SetConsoleCtrlHandler
at (wrapper managed-to-native) LFSLapper.ConsoleCtrl:SetConsoleCtrlHandler (LFSLapper.ConsoleCtrl/ControlEventHandler,bool)
at LFSLapper.ConsoleCtrl.Dispose (Boolean disposing) <0xb5233248 + 0x0002f> in <filename unknown>:0
at LFSLapper.ConsoleCtrl.Finalize () <0xb5233200 + 0x0001b> in <filename unknown>:0

Doing a quick search led me to this thread: https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1937853#post1937853
This might be a problem I cannot fix (easily).
Were these new kernel32 functions added in recent versions of lapper?

EDIT - I wonder if this could be avoided, maybe with a startup param or config variable that enables console events or not. In my case I'd disable them and this piece of code wouldn't have to run.
Maybe I should install VS again .. hmm.

Quote from Victor :

Got the same problem. However, I installed libmono-i18n4.0-all which added the missing code pages. Now I get another error though:

Doing a quick search led me to this thread: https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1937853#post1937853
This might be a problem I cannot fix (easily).
Were these new kernel32 functions added in recent versions of lapper?

EDIT - I wonder if this could be avoided, maybe with a startup param or config variable that enables console events or not. In my case I'd disable them and this piece of code wouldn't have to run.
Maybe I should install VS again .. hmm.

VS Code isn't a bad choice for C#. Don't need the full bload of VS

Turns out it was already installed Playing around with lapper now. Not initing the console events got me a bit further but now i run into another problem again ...
Will see how far i can get.

I think it's working. So besides commenting the console event init stuff which uses a function not present in mono, I had to compile lapper with the symbol MONOSQLITE so it would use Mono.Data.SqliteClient instead of System.Data.SQLite .
Perhaps in the future you could make two releases? One for windows and one for linux (mono)
Additionally I installed libmono-i18n4.0-all which installed a whole lot more libs for mono which helped a bit too with some other problems. Not sure why I hadn't done that before...
I can provide a bit updated code tomorrow (it's late now and i might do some more tweaks), allowing you to easily create the two version if you want.

@alau07 could you try lapper again on your host?
EDIT - hmm found some more problems. Might take until tomorrow before they're fixed.

Nice to see, that you got it "sort off" working for Linux.

Could you add a changelog with the added/deleted code?
For the future releases.

Not sure if Lapper has been working on Linux before.
I simply cant test it because i dont use Linux and i dont know how to use it