[NPVR 2.3.6] Pre-R2 Skip patches

[Nistrod]

So I wanted to apply the Incomplete EPG patch, but the comment is "You'll need to have the recent skipping patches installed aswell."
I was at R1, so I downloaded and applied the Pre-R2 Skip Patch 2a, and the NShared.zip in the EPG thread.

And that's when the nightmare began.

Two days later, I realised that shows had not been recorded. Investigation revealed:

• Nothing had been recorded
  
• NTray was taking about 60 secs to open its menu
  
• EPG display had pending recordings un-coloured
  
• Recurring recordings were not being scheduled
  
• System was saying "Unable to communicate with recording service"
  
• No EPG updates had occurred
  
• There was no ndigitalhost.log or ndigitalhost.log.1 (there was a .2, but it predated the patch)
  
• Status had no devices
  

Restarting the recording service had no effect. Rebooting had no effect. Re-installing and re-R1-patching had no effect.
It looked like the recording service just went into winter hibernation.

The Windows sidebar gadget seemed to be OK, and was showing pending recordings that the TV Guide displays was not.

I finally had to completely uninstall, and start from scratch, rescan devices, import my recurring recordings, change all my settings and the like.

It all seems OK now, but I am terrified to try to apply the skip patch again.

Can I confirm,

• The skip patch is a single patch. It updates a lot of files, but its no different to any other patch?
  
• Does it have pre-requisites (like R1)?
  
• The Nshared.zip patch for the EPG update needs to be applied after the Pre-R2 Skip patch?
  
• If I apply 2b, do I need to re-apply the EPG patch?
  
• If I zip up my program directory, apply the patch, test it and find problems, is it enough to just unzip the old directory again? Or are there things that need re-registering or other magic?
  

Cheers

[mvallevand]

Installing experimental patches can be tricky. You have to make sure all the programs and gadgets and services have stopped running before applying them plus in Vista and Win 7 you have to make sure UAC is being respected. On top of that you have to make sure that you download the right patches.

Martin

[johnsonx42]

Sorry for the trouble you had. All the symptoms you describe were due to the recording service not running. I realize things have gotten very confusing with all these patches, but what you shouldn't have done is install the NShared.dll from the EPG update thread as that was actually older than the NShared.dll in the rev 2a skip patch. Your older NShared.dll then wasn't compatible with the rest of the newer .dll's that work together, and thus NRecord either couldn't start at all, or started but crashed or hung.

I had added the "STOP HERE" note to the patch list to warn against doing exactly what you did, but perhaps I need to make it a little more clear.

The reason re-installing didn't work is that the NPVR installer doesn't replace files that are newer than what's in the installer. Likewise the R1 patch only includes the 3 files that were updated to that point, so the others remain updated.

To answer your bullet points in order:

1 - it's no different than any other patch, but it does replace nearly every core NPVR file.
2 - no prerequisites; the 2b version currently available includes all listed patches 1-30 (whereas R1 is 1-14 or something like that).
3 - no, I'm sure you understand now that you shouldn't install ANY patch listed prior to #30.
4 - same answer
5 - yes, that would work fine to get back to the stock condition. NPVRTSReader2.ax will still be registered, but the original 2.3.6 code (or R1) doesn't know about it and won't care.

[Nistrod]

Great! A clear explanation of the problems, thanks.
Could we please clarify the EPG patch/Skip patch issue on the sticky page?

This is good, I can feel my stress levels receding
A big thank you!

[Nistrod]

OK, I am still having problems.
If I just download the Skip 2b patch, stop everything, install the files and re-start everything, I still get the problem with the server.
I really did think I understood what was going on, but I cannot get that EPG patch!
What have I missed, oh wise ones?

[stustunz]

IM over it ive gone back to 2.2.6
ahhh things just work

[johnsonx42]

OK, I am still having problems.
If I just download the Skip 2b patch, stop everything, install the files and re-start everything, I still get the problem with the server.
I really did think I understood what was going on, but I cannot get that EPG patch!
What have I missed, oh wise ones?

post your logs. Also, did you read the note in the pre-r2 post about unblocking the exe files?

[Deev8]

Also, did you read the note in the pre-r2 post about unblocking the exe files?

I believe that means unblocking the zip file before extracting the files contained with it*. But just to avoid any confusion, does it mean individually unblocking the two exe files that are contained in that particular zip archive?

*Unblocking the zip file as per this note:
if you are using Windows Vista/7 built-in zip handling to extract these files, please note that you must Unblock the zip file before extracting it. To do this, right-click on the .zip file and click the "Unblock" button on the General tab

[johnsonx42]

Once you unblock the .zip file itself, the files you extract will not be blocked. However it certainly couldn't hurt to double-check that the individual files aren't blocked as well.