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Blank blue box on startup
By: JohnMa
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 31
From: n/a
Added: 10/17/2009 - 03:15 PM

Message has been edited, click here to see original content
By: JohnMa
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 31
From: n/a
Added: 10/17/2009 - 03:23 PM

OK, this is the second time I have had the same problem. On startup, the AbelCam screen comes up as just a blank blue rectangle on the screen. The word AbelCam is about in the middles of the screen. The opening sequence that shows the program starting up seems like things are working, but they don't finish. Then it opens IE with a message that I can't get listed without at least one camera active. The program actually is running to some degree, and does upload jpg pix to my website, but I can't control it at all.

The previous time, I ended up renaming the config file and re-entering all the setup information from scratch. I would really rather not keep having to do that. If I rename the config file now, AbelCam does start up OK, just without any configuration information. So, the problem must be with something in the config file, but I can't see what it would be in the config file that is causing the problem.

I notice that under <WebCamDevices> it puts a "t," in front of the name of the camera (QuickCam Orbit/Sphere MP)

Also, after that, still under <WebCam Devices> there is then a whole long column of <string xsi:nil="true" /> repeated 20 times, which looks like maybe it shouldn't be there. I tried just deleting that column of repititions, but it had no apparent affect on the problem.

Any suggestions on what I could do to fix this, short of starting over on configuration?
By: sse
Rank: Forum Addict
Topics: 73
From: n/a
Added: 10/17/2009 - 08:44 PM

Hello John
do you have any plugins active?
By: JohnMa
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 31
From: n/a
Added: 10/18/2009 - 02:30 AM

No plugins on AbelCam that I know of. The only thing I added to it was a second camera license, though at the moment I'm just trying to get it to work with one camera at a time.
By: MelvinG
Rank: Magna Cum Laude
Topics: 661
From: Los Angeles, USA
Added: 10/20/2009 - 10:10 AM

I've seen this happen when I have Listed selected and AbelCam can't contact SSE's listing server at start-up. The old familiar "can't connect back to you" never appears - AbelCam just sits there as a blank form.
By: sse
Rank: Forum Addict
Topics: 73
From: n/a
Added: 10/20/2009 - 07:13 PM

Melvin, it's unlikely that this is his problem - the server is up and running fine.

John, try the following proposals:

Rename the configuration folder or the camera folder and gradually move back to what it was to get to the core of the configuration problem.

or edit config.xml and set
<debug>false</debug>

to
<debug>true</debug>

This will create the debug log.

To deactivate cameras on startup replace
<Devices>
<string>t,QuickCam whatever</string>
..
</Devices>

with
<Devices>
<string xsi:nil="true" />
..
</Devices>


Hope this helps.
By: MelvinG
Rank: Magna Cum Laude
Topics: 661
From: Los Angeles, USA
Added: 10/20/2009 - 10:46 PM

"Melvin, it's unlikely that this is his problem - the server is up and running fine. "

I was thinking more along the lines of connectivity issues between "him" and "you". When I have experienced the blank form at start-up your server has indeed been working (can see the cam list just fine from one of my other machines) but for whatever reason my server either can't connect to you or the connect-back fails. In my case this is usually caused by the dynamic DNS service I'm using being down.
By: JohnMa
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 31
From: n/a
Added: 10/21/2009 - 05:03 PM

OK, so I got it working again, but not sure why it got messed up in the first place. I did what you suggested. First I edited the config file to change debug to true, ran AbelCam, then looked at the debug file. It didn't show anything that looked like an error message of any kind. It just went through the whole startup sequence successfully, but still (of course) ended up with the blank blue AbelCam window.

So then I renamed the config file, restarted AbleCam (without any pre-existing config file) saved the configuration, then compared the new config file produced that way with the old renamed config file. The significant differences seemed to be:

(a) under <devices> after the t,Quickcam Orbit/Sphere AF-1 line, there was then the column of

<string xsi:nil="true" />

Repeated 21 times.

I copied that into the old (renamed) config file.

(b) a little farther down, it had two lines that were different.

<uid>0</uid>
<lid>0</lid>
in the new config file
vs.
<uid>4170</uid>
<lid>9344</lid>
in the old (renamed) config file.

So, I changed toe 4170 and the 9344 both to 0.

I then saved the old config file as config, replacing the other new one, and voile' everything was back and working correctly. Because I (stupidly) made all three changes at once, I don't actually know which of the three changes solved the problem. I also have no idea what caused the problem. I suppose that in the interests of science I should go back and change just one thing at a time to find out which one is actually at fault, but I thought maybe you would just know that without me having to try all three one at a time. Of course, the thing I wonder is, what causes it to get messed up in the first place and how do I stop it from happening again.

Thanks,
John