Win98SE Error: Path does not exist

Make comments, ask questions, or just complain about the software on this site. Or comment on any educational software.
Please note that by clicking on links that may appear in these posts that you may be leaving the Dale Harris Educational Software website and that the content of those sites is the sole resposibility of the authors of those sites.

Moderators:daleadmin, Dale Harris, Alan, Andrew

Onno
Occasional Poster
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:00 am
Location:Australia
Contact:
Win98SE Error: Path does not exist

Post by Onno » Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:14 am

After searching the archive for win98, path, network, I'm none the wiser, so perhaps I'm trying to solve a non-problem.

New installation of POS 6.10, revised 7-28-04. Three machines each running Win98SE. Network is operational with TCP/IP as the only protocol. One (back-office) machine is giving out IP addresses with DHCP (using the DHCP server in Internet Connection Sharing).

The Main Till has a local and a global folder, the global folder is shared. The Second Till has a drive mapped to the global folder on the Main Till. In either Explorer or a DOS window, I can go to the mapped drive on the Second Till and see the files that are on the Main Till.

When I run the local copy that is installed on the Second Till and attempt to select the network, the software responds with "Path 'F:\' does not exist". (This is the path of the shared folder mapping.)

From my reading of the manual, the Global Copy of the software is not supposed to be running, just once a day to reset the tills.

Can someone point out what I've missed and why this might be happening?
--
()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
|>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno..
--- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno..

User avatar
Andrew
Site Administrator
Posts:822
Joined:Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:40 pm
Location:New Zealand

Post by Andrew » Wed Sep 01, 2004 6:12 am

If DHPOS is giving the path not found error - it isn't able to connect via your mapped letter to the global folder.

What is the full path to the global folder - if it uses long filenames this may cause problems. Also - did you use windows mapping or the DOS NET USE command?

See http://www.home-nets.biz/discuss/phpBB2 ... 565f7a112b about long filenames and DOS.
Image
DHPOS Veteran (from v3.46, July 2002)

Guest

Post by Guest » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:16 am

I am mapping the drive through windows, but if I start up a command shell, I can get to that drive with no problems.

The actual folder on the Main Till is "C:\global" and it is shared as such. The mapped drive is mapped to that folder, thus F:\ on the second till is C:\global.

I am familiar with the 8.3 file name issue and I'm not sure how that would affect this issue.

The net use command did not seem to make any difference when I tried it in a command shell.

Am I correct in understanding that I can run POS within a command shell, or am I required to reboot to DOS, setup a network, and run it from there?

Onno
Occasional Poster
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:00 am
Location:Australia
Contact:

Post by Onno » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:18 am

Yes, the response above was from me. The forum logged me out for no particular reason :-(
--
()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
|>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno..
--- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno..

RJ

Protocols.

Post by RJ » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:26 pm

Try using the NetBEUI protocal. I've noticed that this makes a big difference on what you can do with your network. Also, the machine with the GLOBAL folder, it is best to use an NT operating system. Either 2000 or XP, this way you know for sure you can get a connection to it.

User avatar
peewee3ie
Forum Regular
Posts:225
Joined:Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:46 am
Location:Ireland
Contact:

Post by peewee3ie » Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:23 pm

Try just typing in F: It Has worked for me in the past.
Tony McGuire
Ireland Support

User avatar
Andrew
Site Administrator
Posts:822
Joined:Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:40 pm
Location:New Zealand

Post by Andrew » Wed Sep 01, 2004 5:45 pm

What are the OS'es running on both your global and local folders?

Windows 95/98/ME have difficulty connecting to NTFS formatted volumes such as those used by Windows NT/2000/XP.

Remember - your global folder does not need to be on a server - it can be a shared folder on ANY terminal, not necessarily requiring a server OS.
Image
DHPOS Veteran (from v3.46, July 2002)

Jonathan

Post by Jonathan » Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:56 pm

Actually, you can connect to any drive as long as it's on another system from 95/98/ME. They cannot read NTFS formatted drives locally, but on they can as a network drive as long as the system with the drive is capable of reading it. This is also how you can access linux drive volumes over a network (which typically use a totally different file system).

There is, however, another benefit to using FAT or FAT32 on your server, even if it is NT based and capable of using NTFS. You can boot off a floppy and read FAT formatted drives, while you have to have a working OS to get to them if they are NTFS. This is big benefit when you consider all your sales and stock info might be on that drive!

Onno
Occasional Poster
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:00 am
Location:Australia
Contact:

Solution

Post by Onno » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:56 pm

Thanks all for your suggestions.

As I suspected it had nothing to do with the protocol, the file system, the server platform (rather the lack thereof), 8.3 file names or anything with the network.

It turned out that for some reason the POS software had corrupted its own file. I launched the global copy after much hair pulling and it too came back with a path error. Replacing the files with their backups resolved the issue.

Of course this creates a whole new problem. This software isn't even in production yet and the data file corrupted itself for no particular reason. Which as a professional software developer gives me the complete willies...


Has anyone seen any corruption issues and if so, what causes them and what work-arounds exist?
--
()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
|>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno..
--- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno..

Onno
Occasional Poster
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:00 am
Location:Australia
Contact:

Post by Onno » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:58 pm

Jonathan wrote:There is, however, another benefit to using FAT or FAT32 on your server, even if it is NT based and capable of using NTFS. You can boot off a floppy and read FAT formatted drives, while you have to have a working OS to get to them if they are NTFS. This is big benefit when you consider all your sales and stock info might be on that drive!
Of course you can always boot from a Linux rescue CD, the INSERT cd has NTFS read/write support.
--
()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
|>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno..
--- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno..

User avatar
Andrew
Site Administrator
Posts:822
Joined:Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:40 pm
Location:New Zealand

Post by Andrew » Fri Sep 03, 2004 6:57 am

The problem
The file corruption may not have existed within DHPOS, although it is possible - especially when running beta copies. This is why EVERY single time Dale posts a new update - he reminds people to backup the whole POS folder, data and program files.

Quick quiz - who takes the backup advise seriously?

I don't understand what you mean by "the software isn't in production yet", as far as I am aware DHPOS has been "in production" for sometime (I've been here since before 3.41) and there have been no further reports or this bug.

It may also pay to note that by running ANY software you run a risk of losing data - it's fact of PC-life not restricted to DHPOS.

Work around - backups and lots of BETA testers!
BETA testing has been very slack lately - many people keep asking for new features but even less are the number of report-backs we receive on the forum. This is the only way Dale will know if something is wrong - send him an email - post a message/reply or join us in chat - WE MISS GOOD SOLID DHPOS CHAT!

This saddens me a great deal as I've been here for a while - as have Jon etc and the software always had a community feel about it - everyone pitched in and tried every single weird combination, keypress and option to make sure each version was as robust as it could possibly be.

So the moral of the story is - run backups, protect your PC and BETA test like you have never tested before! 8)
Image
DHPOS Veteran (from v3.46, July 2002)

Onno
Occasional Poster
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:00 am
Location:Australia
Contact:

Post by Onno » Mon Sep 06, 2004 4:58 pm

andrewbunn wrote:The problem
The file corruption may not have existed within DHPOS, although it is possible - especially when running beta copies. This is why EVERY single time Dale posts a new update - he reminds people to backup the whole POS folder, data and program files.
I'm confused, seeing as I downloaded a release version of the software, as stated in my initial post - unless of course the version I download from the main page isn't a release version - in which case, that needs addressing, and I need to know what the current release version is.

I'm not a beta tester, I'm installing this software for a client who needed a problem solved. If at some stage I have enough time to spend more looking at other people's software, I may become a beta tester. At this stage, I'm just an end-user.
andrewbunn wrote: I don't understand what you mean by "the software isn't in production yet", as far as I am aware DHPOS has been "in production" for sometime (I've been here since before 3.41) and there have been no further reports or this bug.
I guess you could be misunderstanding. When I write "in production", I mean, the software is in use in the business that I'm installing it in. The code that I'm installing is assumed to be of release quality.
andrewbunn wrote: It may also pay to note that by running ANY software you run a risk of losing data - it's fact of PC-life not restricted to DHPOS.
Yes of course. But you don't expect software that has just been installed for the first time to corrupt its files within the first five minutes of its life, which is what happened.
andrewbunn wrote: Work around - backups and lots of BETA testers!
BETA testing has been very slack lately - many people keep asking for new features but even less are the number of report-backs we receive on the forum. This is the only way Dale will know if something is wrong - send him an email - post a message/reply or join us in chat - WE MISS GOOD SOLID DHPOS CHAT!
I hear your plea and for that reason I posted my question to this forum. If there was a more appropriate way of communicating, then I was not aware of it.

I must confess that this forum is diving me nuts in how I need to quote responses, but you get that. Perhaps a mailing-list with an archive would be a more interactive means of communicating with the group.
andrewbunn wrote: This saddens me a great deal as I've been here for a while - as have Jon etc and the software always had a community feel about it - everyone pitched in and tried every single weird combination, keypress and option to make sure each version was as robust as it could possibly be.

So the moral of the story is - run backups, protect your PC and BETA test like you have never tested before! 8)
Mate, I'd love to beta test this code, but right now, I need to make it work. The client has no intention of becoming a beta tester, she just wants to run her business - and rightly so.

I'd love to make backups, and of course I will, but not in the first five minutes.

Finally, I suspect that some may be offended by my tone. This is not my intent. I am a software developer, have been for 24 years, and see a lot of merit in the application that Dale has produced. If it were not the case, you would have never heard from me, nor would I have actually installed the code.

I discussed briefly with Dale about the idea of making the source-code open, but he rejected that because of security concerns.

This may not be the place to discuss that further, but security through obscurity is not security at all.
--
()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
|>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno..
--- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno..

User avatar
Andrew
Site Administrator
Posts:822
Joined:Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:40 pm
Location:New Zealand

Post by Andrew » Mon Sep 06, 2004 5:20 pm

Omno,

Well in a nutshell - nobody really understands why the data may have been corrupted (from what I've seen here in this thread), the details of the corruption are rather hazy also.

I haven't heard reports of this happening ever in the time I've been a DHPOS supporter (unless caused by a failed BETA or by altering the data files manually).

It is possible for something else (don't ask me what) to have corrupted the files. If it's working now I don't see what the issue is?

Beta copies
Beta versions are only ever published by way of the forum or email. They are never ever ever uploaded as the release file (POS.ZIP).

The forum
The forum is of course the correct area for this - or by emailing Dale. However if here everyone can get access to it. We haven't had this forum for a long time - and it is a long leap forward from what we did have on Network54.

We won't be changing this anytime soon I imagine, as Dale, Jon and myself invested a lot of time researching every possible avenue once Network54 became spyware-ridden and we needed a new home.

Quoting previous responses is optional - it's a feature of the forum and if you are posting a message in the same thread as a response it's probably reasonably easy for readers to follow the story without quotations.

Open source
Oh gosh I thought this matter had been laid to rest. This query has been around a long time and basically it's up to Dale. He has expressed security concerns and the fact that Dale is an "old school" programmer wouldn't help many "new age" programmers.

There are many other ways to work on the project as evident by the numerous affiliate programs which Dale has graciously accomodated by way of altering DHPOS to output certain files, etc...
Image
DHPOS Veteran (from v3.46, July 2002)

Onno
Occasional Poster
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:00 am
Location:Australia
Contact:

Post by Onno » Mon Sep 06, 2004 5:37 pm

andrewbunn wrote:Omno,
If you're going to address me personally, it would be a good idea to actually spell my name correctly.
Well in a nutshell - nobody really understands why the data may have been corrupted (from what I've seen here in this thread), the details of the corruption are rather hazy also.
Well, as I said, it gave me a path error as stated in my very first post in this thread. I have no further details to share, because there are none. The software didn't freeze, the machine didn't crash, the drive has no bad sectors, the network has no issues. I'm not sure what else you'd like in the way of detail.
I haven't heard reports of this happening ever in the time I've been a DHPOS supporter (unless caused by a failed BETA or by altering the data files manually).
Well, I suppose that is good news.
It is possible for something else (don't ask me what) to have corrupted the files. If it's working now I don't see what the issue is?
The issue is of course that it happened at all. Your second comment is a little naive and I'll let it lie, because I'm not in the habit of beginning a shouting match with someone whom I've just met and someone who is attempting to assist me.
Beta copies
Beta versions are only ever published by way of the forum or email. They are never ever ever uploaded as the release file (POS.ZIP).
That is great.
Open source
Oh gosh I thought this matter had been laid to rest. This query has been around a long time and basically it's up to Dale.
Well, if it were laid to rest, there would be an entry in the FAQ that addresses it. If there is genuine interest in actually discussing this in a constructive manner, I'm happy to commence a new thread on the subject.
He has expressed security concerns and the fact that Dale is an "old school" programmer wouldn't help many "new age" programmers.
I'm not sure what your reference to "new age" programmers means, and "old school" means little in my vocabulary. It is silly to sit in this forum and compare the size of our egos, so lets move on and discuss without what I perceive as throwing rocks.
--
()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
|>>? ..EBCDIC for Onno..
--- -. -. --- ..Morse for Onno..

User avatar
Dale Harris
Forum Owner
Posts:1171
Joined:Sun Dec 28, 2003 10:19 pm
Location:Chicago
Contact:

Beta vs Release versions

Post by Dale Harris » Mon Sep 06, 2004 6:48 pm

Onno,

This program is in almost continous production. There is usually an upgrade once a month although occasionally there will be a month or two between upgrades if I am working on a very tough new feature.

Once I complete a version I test it out for several days to a couple of weeks. Then I release it as a beta test version by sending an email to the registered beta testers and posting a note here on the forum. A beta version always has "BETA" in the version number in the program. For example the beta versions for 6.14 were "6.14 BETA 1" to "6.14 BETA 3"

Only after a BETA version becomes a release version is the "BETA" removed from the version number and it is uploaded to the download page http://keyhut.com/pos3.htm

Does this mean that it is perfect? Well nope. All it means that all the bugs that have been found by quite a bit of testing by many people have been found and fixed. The odds that there is still an obscure bug in the program that will occur only under an unusual combination of program settings is quite high. Sometimes it is so obscure that it will persist through several or many versions of the program before someone finds it and it gets fixed. For example the "Pause between receipts" while using APRINT bug that was fixed in version 6.14 has been there for a long time because APRINT is not needed on receipt printers and "Pause between receipts" is kind of pointless on page printers. But eventually someone tried them together and reported the bug.

One of the main reasons that we have this forum is so people new to DHPOS can see what others are saying about it. They can read the forum and see that there are many people that use the program and like it a lot. Also that if there are problems with the program that they get fixed or that there is a community of people to try to help them with the program. I encourage people who have problems with the program to post them on the forum for the world to see. Their problems are our problems.

So lets talk about the problem you have reported of the program files being corrupted by the program itself. First of all the number of reports of this problem over the last 4 years are exactly one, yours. This does not mean that it did not happen to you just that it has not happened to anyone else who then reported it. Since this program has had over 100.000 estimated downloads (it could be much higher) the odds that this is a common problem that for some reason no one has reported until now are slim.

This program is written in QuickBASIC and I know of no way that a QB program can write to a program file (.EXE) unless it opens an .EXE file first. I can guarantee that there is no place in the program that can possibly open an .EXE file except for RUN "?????????.EXE" which will run the program file but cannot make changes in it.

The only remaining possibilities are that the program was corrupted during the download or the unzipping of the file or that DOS or Windows erroneously wrote data to a section of your hard drive that contained part of an .EXE file. I have little control over that.

But I could be wrong and we will soon find out. Since this program has over 100 downloads per day (on average) if your problem is part of my download file then we should be receiving more posts on the forum about it real soon.
Dale

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests