www.virtualacorn.co.uk/forum

This is a copy of a posting that I made yesterday to the VA mailing list and to c.s.a.networking, though the newsgroup posting never came back to me. So far, one person had said that he has the same problem, and one person says not.

[quote]

In the last two or three days ShareFS has been behaving very oddly. If
I try to transfer files from this Iyo to either of two copies of VRPC
for Windows, I get on VRPC three copies of each file, with seemingly
random dates, and with two copies of each of zero length. Rather than
try to explain further, I've uploaded a screenshot of what I see,
having transferred an OPro and a DataPower file, in VRPC to
(External image no longer available)

If I try to delete any of the zero-length files, they all three get
deleted. Needless to say, all of these files are completely unusable,
and I've been having to transfer via LanMan98 direct to the HostFS
hard disc.

I haven't changed anything in ShareFS, and the only other thing I've
done is to install the upgrades of HostFS on both copies of VRPC.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[unquote]

Peter.

We are investigating this at the moment - as a request - if you do find a problem after installing a new VirtualAcorn Upgrade/Update can you *please* contact us first (either my e-mail or via the Forum). Can you then please allow us a couple of days to investigate.

Please don't post to mailing lists/newsgroups etc until we have had a chance to take a look at the problem, or unless you've sent us a message and not had a reply (allowing 48hours if it's at the weekend). Thanks.

Noted, with apologies!

Peter.

Despite my earlier posting on the VRPC mailing list that I couldn't get this problem to present on my machines, by changing the method by which the files are transported, I can now reproduce the zero byte three file problem on the XP- VRPC SE and Vista VRPC AdjustSA both of which have had a HostFS update applied.
If I revert to my usual file transfer method, then the problem doesn't happen on either of the systems.
Dave

Thanks for that Dave, can you provide a simple explanation of the two methods - the one that works fine - and the one thet fails - thanks.

Sorry I've not replied sooner... Reasons!

By my normal method:
I have a "Public" ShareFS on the icon bar of all the RO machines, both Hardware machines and the VRPC versions.
If I want to transfer something from one to another I just single click the Public icon on the bar and it opens a directory into which I put or take things out.
In effect only one ShareFS directory (Public on the first machine started up) is being used by all the machines.
Providing I use the Public icon bar icon on any of the RO versions only one file is transported.

However if I do Menu button over the Public icon and click "Show disks", then click on the icon for one of the other versions shown, this opens the root of the other machine.
If I now attempt to transfer between the machines I get the triple file problem.

Dave

Apologies for the delay in responding....

We've been testing various fixes to the problem that turned up with duplicate files when transferring stuff via ShareFS under the latest version of HostFS.

So far feedback from first line testers has been positive apart from two problems:

On one machine the HostFS extensions file vanished suddenly
On the same machine PrintPDF wouldn't produce files

We are still investigating these but in the meantime could anyone who feels brave try the following beta release:

[url]http://www.riscworld.co.uk/virtualacorn/betareleases/hostfs_(datestamp)_beta_nov_2008.zip][/url]

I should point out that this is of beta quality and the large changes that we have made to HostFS over the last few months may have some unexpected side effects that we haven't thus far discovered.

I wouldn't recommend using this on a VirtualRPC installation that is of "critical" importance at the moment, but feedback would be ppreciated (e-mail me directly please - not via the forum)

Thanks

Aaron