FLMM and Freelancer.ini

[Turkish]

This is actually a relatively simple problem, but one that might elude some people and has the potential to cause a good deal of headache. Today I've taken to installing Freelancer and activating Discovery for a friend of mine.

Everything went fine, from installation, to downloading the .fl.zip file, to activating and running DSUpdate. That is until I went to launch FLMM to deactivate Discovery. Notably before now I've never had this issue with 4.85, its only after the latest update that this has become apparent.

Now for the problem, upon launching FLMM you're presented with an error:

Code:

Access to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.ini was denied.

The error itself is simple enough, the .ini file has been set to read-only and FLMM cannot access it, and subsequnetly cannot write to it any changes it may make. Compounding the matter is that FLMM does not present the error message to you, its hidden behind its splash screen which is perpetually open as a result.

Further investigation shows that both Freelancer.ini and enbseries.ini have both been set to read-only, making it impossible to edit unless you disable this manually. As I've said earlier, before now this has not been an issue.

So my question is, is this intentional? Which I assume it to be, and if so why? This seems needless and only likely to present this issue to other players. If this is by chance a one-off on my part, apologies for the thread, it was however something I wished to discuss. And yes, I have used the search function.

The installation was done on 32-bit XP with SP3 installed, all drivers are updated and functioning properly, the only change was the use of FLMM 1.5 over 1.3 or 1.4.

And dear god, I think I just gave n00bl3t cannon fodder for weeks.

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I have a fetish for all things Norse.

[Cannon]

I think it is intentional. My understanding is that FLMM always makes files that it installs or updates read-only. I could be wrong about this. I also think (but not sure) that FLMM automatically clears the read only flag when it updates files and then turns it back on.

I've done a little bit of testing with FLMM 1.5 but my results were mixed. It went 'weird' on me once - the mod wouldn't install properly so I stopped using it and went back to FLMM 1.3. I didn't investigate this so I'm not sure if it's FLMM 1.5 or something else that was causing the problem.

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Proud member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"

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[Turkish]

Thanks for the reply Cannon, I'll do some testing between all three versions and update with my findings. For the time being though I've yet to activate Discovery without this problem presenting under 1.5 b1.

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I have a fetish for all things Norse.

[triple88a]

Agree with sir Cannon. Most of the updates replace the old files with read me ONLY files. Simply right click on the file. Go to properties and you will see read only and hidden. Make sure read only does NOT have a check mark on it, if it does, click on it, the mark will go away, then press OK.

At last, why use 1.5 vs 1.3? Is there ANY advantages to it besides the .2 bigger update number?

[Niezck]

I believe 1.3 is the preferred version for updating, as it is far more stable than the later versions?

[johnpeter]

1.5 Seemed to be *hugely* faster, But, it may have problems, that I don't know about.

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Come on! Be free!

[Cannon]

One of the nice things about 1.5 is that the U/I doesn't freeze when installing or removing the mod.

Code:

Access to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.ini was denied.

This is a bad error and there must be a simple explanation for it. The reasons I can think of:
- The read only flag (but I think FLMM deals with this and clears and then resets it anyway)
- Account permissions - adminstrator and other random stuff like this.
- Another program is already accessing it - like Freelancer or FLStat or FLCompanion, etc. Finding the program and closing it or rebooting fixes this.
- Stupid virus checking - unlikely but possible.

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Proud member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"

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[verossiraptor]

Now for the problem, upon launching FLMM you're presented with an error:

Code:

Access to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.ini was denied.

The error itself is simple enough, the .ini file has been set to read-only and FLMM cannot access it

This is true, i always got that pop up window, and it started to get annoying so i had to do some research....

As Johnpeter says:

1.5 Seemed to be *hugely* faster, But, it may have problems, that I don't know about.

1.5 *is* a whole lot faster than previous versions at installing any mods.

and, indeed:

One of the nice things about 1.5 is that the U/I doesn't freeze when installing or removing the mod.

However I found this all to be incorrect,

- The read only flag (but I think FLMM deals with this and clears and then resets it anyway)
- Account permissions - adminstrator and other random stuff like this.
- Another program is already accessing it - like Freelancer or FLStat or FLCompanion, etc. Finding the program and closing it or rebooting fixes this.
- Stupid virus checking - unlikely but possible.

If you open FLMM (while immediately moving the splash screen out of the way) and go to Options

----->
the first option is "Show splash screen at start up" best to disable this, because that gives you access to the dialogue boxes that appear...

next,

----->
the third option is "Make modified files Read-Only when mod is activated (Prevents Tampering)"
if this is disabled neither of the dialogue boxes come up again!!!


Problem solved, and you get to keep your speedy mod install!!!!



This worked for me (Vista Ultimate 32bit) my friend (XP Pro 32 Bit) and my other computer (Vista Ultimate 64 Bit)


hopefully it will work for you guys and others

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[Cannon]

I'd forgotten about this. I checked the FLMM 1.5 bug reports list a week or so ago - this issue was recorded and marked to be fixed in the next beta version of FLMM.

The issue is nothing to do with the mod or updater and doesn't happen if you use FLMM 1.3

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Proud member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"

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