Many bugs, impossible to repair a rom properly

[mih]

a few years ago, I was used to this software, I liked it particularly. I wanted to make it work again but I was faced with many recurring bugs. A window that opens quite frequently and that prevents me any correction ("The underlying provider failed to open").

[mih]

A new window for importing a pack of roms, "operating system directive CreateFile failed"

[Drakonas]

Well I can tell you what causes the CreateFile failed popup. I figured it out myself. The program is trying to write to a admin-only writable folder. Based on what I’ve read in related issues in the tracker, it’s C:\Temp. Why are the devs writing to that folder instead of using the %TEMP% environment variable? C:\TEMP is only writable by programs running as administrator when using a modern Windows OS. %TEMP% points to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp, which is what you SHOULD be using when installing programs in Program Files.

For end users looking for a way to fix this, you can run Romcenter as administrator to work around the issue, but I don’t call this a fix.

You can also right click on the shortcut on the desktop or in the start menu → Properties, go to the Compatibility tab and check off the “Run as administrator” checkbox to always run as administrator when you open the shortcut(s).

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As for the devs, I’d advise utilizing %TEMP% instead, or finding what folder you are trying to write to that is causing an issue. C:\Temp used to be writable back on XP. That, along with a number of other folders, are no longer writable with modern Windows operating systems when running programs as normal without forcing them to run as adminstrator. Some people that are paranoid are going to avoid your software if they have to run it as admin. Also people that are using locked down machines and don’t have the password won’t be able to use your program at all.

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FYI I am on Windows 10 1903.

[Drakonas]

Well I need to correct myself because it still produces the error, this time randomly when writing files. My first thought is it’s some form of antimalware but I’ve excluded it in my antivirus. Then I found this post: https://www.ibphoenix.com/resources/documents/general/doc_476

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It would seem that firebird 1.5.X was added in the past to the block list in Windows 10 since the Fall Creator’s Update in 2017. And if my guess is right, they did the same with newer renditions of the software later on. Considering these errors seem sporatic, it only makes sense to me that internally Windows 10 is finding components of Romcenter (specifically firebird) to be malicious and soft-disabling them or preventing certain functions from firing. To be honest, when I first saw “Operating system directive WriteFile failed”… my first thought was it’s an operating-system level failure. If this was a normal access denied function, I’m pretty sure that’s the error we’d see. But instead, it seems to be a high-level blockoff.

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I’m sad to say, but my first guess is that if Windows 10 is to be supported 100% by romcenter, firebird needs to be dropped entirely. I know it may come across as a big “Are you serious”, because I’d imagine that would require a decent re-write to the code, but as far as sql goes, I’m not sure why you guys didn’t opt for a more reliable and standard open source SQL software like postgresql.

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Firebird has 734 unresolved open tickets in their issue tracker that date back to 2006! It seems that the software is not updated as much as it should be, and I’d assume that brings security holes along with it, which is probably why Windows decided to blacklist it.

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I’d really advise just dropping the software altogether. In all honest, I will be uninstalling this program and leaving it uninstalled for good unless you move away from firebird. Thanks.

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And before you ask… I have 130GB free at least on every storage drive connected to my system… So no, it’s not a storage space issue.

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Here’s an official FAQ post on the error: http://www.firebirdfaq.org/faq102/

[Why would I]

why you guys

If I’m not mistaken, RomCenter is maintained by a single guy. Hence why it takes time improving the software and fixing all the bugs.

[Drakonas]

it takes time

I am aware, and I’m not expect this to be fixed fast, if at all. That point you stated, however, doesn’t explain why he chose a very underdeveloped SQL database software over the more widely standard software out there. That automatically means a higher liklihood of issues like this if you’re not updating it to the latest version. The developer is using a very old version that is most likely not made for recent versions of Windows 10. At the very least, he needs to update to the latest firebird version at some point to ensure Windows 10 compatibility, which is going to be the main supported Windows version come October this year.