Known issues¶
This file lists known issues that can affect Sculptor that, at the time of writing, are believed not to be bugs in Sculptor.
Known bug in the Sculptor Compiler (scc)¶
The syntax switch (++var) does not compile correctly and may cause var to be incremented multiple times.
The Sculptor interpreters sagewc, srepwc, etc. will not run¶
While trying to run Sculptor 5.8, you get the message:
“The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150002)”
You need to copy a later version of xerces-c_2_8.dll to Sculptorbin. The correct version is supplied with Sculptor 5.8.8 dated 1 May 2009.
Occasional DEP errors, sometimes when using a Free Format Textbox¶
DEP stands for Data Execution Prevention and is a hardware feature of modern CPUs. A DEP fault occurs when a program tries to execute code in its data segment instead of its code segment. A possible cause of this is that the program has been infected by malware.
Unfortunately, malware is not the only cause. Some OLE controls and some old system controls that were coded before DEP became available do this by design or because they have a coding error that on a non-DEP protected system is benign.
If you have Sculptor programs that crash with a DEP fault, it’s usually because an old system library is bing use or an OLE control is executing code in its data segment. This can be random and occasional.
Windows provides options to turn DEP off for the entire system or for specific programs but these are only available if allowed by the boot level setting for DEP. The boot level options are:
AlwaysOn |
DEP is on for all programs and Windows cannot turn it off. |
AlwaysOff |
DEP is off for all programs and Windows cannot turn it on. |
OptIn |
DEP is off unless a program opts in. |
OptOut |
DEP is on unless a program opts out. |
The following boot level settings are suggested, especially if the system is experiencing DEP exceptions:
Turn DEP protection off completely. This is not the best option because you lose DEP protection completely but it’s a quick fix:
Run a DOS command with administrator privilige and type: bcdedit /enum Check the nx setting and change it to AlwaysOff: bcdedit /set /nx AlwaysOff Reboot so that the change takes effect.
Set DEP protection so that individual programs can opt out.
Run a DOS command with administrator privilige and type: bcdedit /enum Check the nx setting and change it to OptOut: bcdedit /set /nx OptOut Reboot so that the change takes effect.
Now make sure you are running Dec 2016 releases of Sculptor 5.9.9, 6.1.6 or any later release. These turn DEP off for their own process if permitted by the nx setting.
With these later releases of Sculptor, you can check that the DEP setting is working by looking in the Sculptorlog folder. If you see the file warn_dep.txt, please follow its instructions. If the file does not re-appear, Sculptor is running with DEP off.
Unable to connect to kfserver¶
If you have problems connecting to kfserver, especially on Fedora, check the file /etc/services. If there are entries for kfserver and you do not need to change the default Sculptor port number, simply comment out these entries and restart kfserver. Alternatively, upgrade to kfserver 5.7.1 or later.
Firewalls¶
The following issues have been seen with the ZoneAlarm firewall. The version of ZoneAlarm in use at the time is given. The issue may or may not be present with other versions. Other firewalls may cause similar problems. In each case, disabling the firewall resolved the issue.
Performance¶
In general, the presence of a firewall will impact performance. The more concurrent clients operating, the more significant the effect. The ideal solution on a LAN is for the internet gateway to be fully firewalled and not to have firewalls on local systems. A properly configured router is a good solution but always seek expert advice before deciding whether or not a firewall needs to be installed on a system. Do not rely on these notes.
ZoneAlarm Pro 2.6.231 on Windows 2000¶
When the winrtf.s parameter file specifies the RTF reader as “default” and the default application for RTF files is Microsoft Word, indefinite delays sometimes occur. If an Internet connection is available, Word seems to access the Internet, possibly to check for an updated RTF to Word converter module. This can cause a delay. If Internet access is blocked by a firewall, then with some but not all Internet connection types, Word seems to wait forever.
Heavy network traffic caused by multiple instances of Sculptor clients connected to kfserver can generate a blue screen:
“KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED … vsdatant.sys”
ZoneAlarm Pro 3.0.118 on Windows XP¶
kfserver fails with various errors.
ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0.123.012 on Windows XP¶
Heavy network traffic caused by multiple instances of Sculptor clients connected to kfserver on a fast machine:
“An operation on a socket could not be performed because the system lacked sufficient buffer space or because a queue was full”.
Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support¶
This message can occur when you try to run a program with network support in a DOS box. Most Sculptor programs contain network access functions so they can work with kfserver. It happens when Novell Netware has been installed and later uninstalled (the uninstall procedure fails to remove some settings). It also occurs if Novell Netware is installed but some files are missing. To fix:
If Novell Netware has been uninstalled, locate the file autoexec.nt in WINDOWSSYSTEM32 or WINNTSYSTEM32 and comment out the following lines:
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\nw16
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\vwipxspx
If Novell Netware is installed, check that the following files exist and restore from the Windows CD or Netware CD if missing:
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\nw16.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\vwipxspx.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\vwipxspx.dll
There is a known issue in Microsoft Outlook that may cause the sendmail() function to fail with the message:
“Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.”
For more information see:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;872896
It’s possible to work round this issue by prefixing the destination email address with “SMTP:”, for example: “SMTP:support@sculptor.co.uk” but as this prefix may not work with all email clients or configurations, it’s best to make the prefix configurable and to allow a blank value.