[S60 V3] Problem with console applications and emulator

[dalore]

I think I've found a bug with S60 V3 emulator and console based applications.

I found that console based applications seem only to work the first time round. Second time round they don't work and the PC requires a reboot to fix it.


Steps to reproduce using eshell.exe (console based app that everyone has).

1. run \epoc32\release\winscw\udeb\eshell.exe
   This should bring up the command prompt, which is a console based application.
2. In the command prompt type in 'exit'.
   This should close the emulator. If the grid has come up, you can change to the eshell application by holding the application key until the task manager comes up.
3. Again run \epoc32\release\winscw\udeb\eshell.exe
   This tries to bring up the emulator, but then leaves and shuts down.

Only a reboot will let you start it up again.

I have traced the error to this line of code:

console = Console::NewL(_L("Console"), TSize(KConsFullScreen, KConsFullScreen));

The above line, on the second time round leaves with a -1 (KErrNotFound).

I've tested this on 2 computers. I have tried using the new S60 V3 MR SDK and the problem still exists. I'm using Codewarrior 3.1, but mainly using the command line build tools.

As you can imagine, it is quite frustrating to work in this fashion. My questions are, can other people repeat this bug, and is there a workaround?

Thanks

[ltomuta]

I've done it several times with no problems ... You may want to try "eshell.exe -dtextshell --", it loads a lot faster though the emulator definitely has a problem in this case and displays the overlayed window at screen coordonates (0,0)

[dalore]

Those extra command line options for eshell fixes up eshell not working second time round, but it doesn't really solve my problem of console mode applications only working the first time.

Did you try it twice without using your command line options? Which SDK are you using? What OS? (I've tested only WinXP). Was it on a substed drive? What was your EPOCROOT? etc, anything you can tell me to help me try narrow it down. Try using a test console application from the examples directory.

I've tested it on other computers and I can reproduce the bug, but then again the computers I've tested on have all been setup by the same IS department and have alot of the same software on it.

[ltomuta]

I'm using S60 3rd MR installed in default location (c:\symbian\9.1\ ...) on WinXP (fully* patched). No %EPOCROOT% environment variable set but the SDK is set as the default device.

I have tried the eshell.exe launched from the command prompt (with and without xtra params) but the result is the same after tens of trials.

I can also run a test console application from the command prompt as many times I need (does not work with "-dtextshell --" though I think it should).

The same works with the console app run form CW 3.1 (change the runtime app from epoc.exe to <your_console>.exe). In this case I have noticed that "-dtextshell --" only works in debug mode while in run mode it silently crashes the emulator (or does not wait for my key press before exiting the console ?! ... I have no time to investigate this ...)

You can try switching the emulator in console mode (replace epoc.ini and epoc.bmp with console.ini and console.bmp) ...

Also, check how many epoc.exe processes are running when the incident happens...

HTH,

[dalore]

I've tried with your setup, with no EPOCROOT set and running it from the c drive but still no avail.

The problem exists in both codewarrior and command line.

I've tried running my console app with the params '-dtextshell --' which results briefly in a blue console screen (like eshell) which then disappears and the emulator shuts down.

There are no epoc.exe (or my console app .exe) in the process list.

I tried changing the console.ini to epoc.ini but that just catchs the panic rather then just exiting and shutting down straight away.