[Workaround found] Immediate login failure on Vista-64 since patch -- hardlinked dirs

[Brandish]

Hi,

I'm using links to get the speed boost from the file system knowing that 3x progs are really accessing the same data. The linking worked fine up until this patch, and, in fact continues to work on the side box running XP. The main machine, running Vista-64, fails on login immediately (as-in not going out to the net)

The main directory (the one getting linked to) logs in fine. (I don't normally use this directory, just testing if it worked)
Any linked directory fails immeditately (log message below)
Real (unlinked) copies of the main directly work fine, but of course I don't get the speed benefit.
And, as I said, on the XP box the linked directories work fine.

The message in the connection.log is:

6/28 09:31:12.837  GRUNT: state: LOGIN_STATE_FAILED result: LOGIN_NO_BATTLENET_MANAGER

As I said, this fails immediately, it's not going out on the net to log in anywhere.

Any ideas?

[mikekim]

are you using powershell to create the linked copies?

if so just recreate the links (after moving your wtf folders from the old linked directories and deleting them)

[ghonosyph]

This^ what mikekim said should fix what issues you have, recreating your sym links after a wow update is mandatory! It sucks less than updating 5 wow folders though (6 in my case lol)

Try it and get back to us!

[Brandish]

Yeah, have re-linked everything into a fresh directory. Problem persists.


Here is my batch file which I run from adminstrator's command.com:

 mklink /d Data "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Data"
mklink /d Cache "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Cache"
md Errors
mklink /d Interface "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Interface"
md Logs
md Screenshots
rem md WTF
mklink "BackgroundDownloader.exe" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\BackgroundDownloader.exe"
mklink "Battle.net.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Battle.net.dll"
mklink "dbghelp.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\dbghelp.dll"
mklink "DivxDecoder.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\DivxDecoder.dll"
mklink "ijl15.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\ijl15.dll"
copy "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Launcher.exe" Launcher.exe
mklink "Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest"
mklink "msvcr80.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\msvcr80.dll"
mklink "Patch.html" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Patch.html"
mklink "Patch.txt" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Patch.txt"
mklink "Repair.exe" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Repair.exe"
mklink "Scan.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Scan.dll"
mklink "unicows.dll" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\unicows.dll"
mklink "Wow.exe" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\Wow.exe"
mklink "WowError.exe" "c:\program files\world of warcraft\WowError.exe"

[Owltoid]

Perhaps my computer just doesn't need it, but I just don't understand the hassle of symlinking. Is this for people not using ISBoxer and want their startup process to be less painful (selecting the correct account and toon)?

[mikekim]

had a play with my system this morning..

i have managed to duplicate the error on one of my boxes.

wow will run on its own
it will not run symlinked
log file shows the "GRUNT: state: LOGIN_STATE_FAILED result: LOGIN_NO_BATTLENET_MANAGER error"

looks like this is a specific problem with o/s's pre win7, as it works fine with Windows7 (x64)

update: just found this on the forums http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...id=1&pageNo=1.

hopefully should help

[Brandish]

Thanks for taking the time to reproduce the error.

I looked at the link you gave, and was unable to get my system into a low enough
safe-mode such that I could swap in a new wldap32.dll.

So I switched tactics, and started unlinking the files and replacing them
with copies one at a time. It appears that not linking Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest
is sufficient to restore functionality.




Regarding why people use linked directories when running multiple clients at once: Linking directories
reduces file system contention when all clients simultaneously access the same files (such as when porting into Dalaran, for a busy case of what is happening all the time) People using solid states disks won't see much benefit speed-wise, although the size savings still applies, not matter what your underlying storage technology may be.