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kennsj

DB1 Error 75 under XP (school network)

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Hi

Sorry to just jump on forum with a request for help straight up, but here is my situation...

I am the ICT teacher at a small international school in Tokyo, and was planning to use Doom Builder 1 (our PCs won't run DB2) to teach my students basic CAD skills in an engaging manner.

The problem is, unless it's run using Run As and then run using the admin login details, I get "Runtime Error 75: Path/File Access Error" whenever I try making a new WAD or opening an existing one. Giving my students the admin login is obviously not an option, and the tricks that reportedly get Doom Builder to work under Vista are not working for me (yes, I did read the related topics here before posting).

So, does anyone have any ideas? I'm pretty certain the issue relates to students having restricted access to system files, but that's the way it needs to be for the security of the workstations and network as a whole. Is there any workaround or solution for this problem?

Thanks in advance.

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As mentioned in my original post, the school's PCs can't run DB2. They are not up to spec. I tried it out just in case, but it won't run.

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If the student's network accounts include some personal storage space - try installing DB1 there if space permits. That's one place they shouldn't have read/write access issues.

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I did (unsuccessfully) try moving the program files to a shared drive to which students have full read/write access, but I haven't tried installing to that drive (better than individual installs on all their personal network drives).

Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm also thinking of making a Doom Builder-specific login with admin machine priveleges but limited network access. I've got enough workstation-side security limits set up for all users (including admin) that this might also work out.

Will try one or both of these ideas tomorrow and report back. Hopefully I will then be able to report at a later date on the students' success with making their levels in Doom Builder!

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I don't know if Doom Builder will function in a multi-user environment - congratulations if you can get it working that way. The odds are you'll have to install a separate copy for each student.

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Doom Builder is already installed on all the workstations, it just won't run unless run as an admin user. This is why I'm thinking a DB-specific login with admin priveleges will work. Even DOOM slows down a little when run from the server, so I started out trying to avoid running DB as a network resource, but then hit this snag...

I read on the Doom Builder website that there's a school in China using DB in classes... I wonder how they get around this one? Maybe their computers are more up-to-date than ours and have the necessary grunt to run DB2...

--edit--

Now that I have the DB-specific domain user set up as an admin for each computer, Doom Builder runs just fine.

It's kind of annoying to have to search for a workaround like this, but then I don't suppose there will be any updates made to DB1 any time soon, just because I've discovered this issue.


To summarise...

- Doom Builder 1 will give Runtime Error 75 when run by a Windows XP user without administrative priveleges.
- The workaround solution is to give users running Doom Builder administrative priveleges, or to make a specific shared account with said priveleges.

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This looks like a network security issue. I presume students accounts have fairly limited access, which probably includes being barred from installing software on the network, so apart from creating a power user group for them - as you've done - the options are limited.

Here's the thread relating to the school in China. They were using DB1, though I don't know what problems Scorpion encountered - if any - or how he resolved them.

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Thanks for the link, and for your input. It was very valuable to have someone else's ideas to stimulate my own thinking on this one.

Yes, the problem IS a result of tight system security measures on the workstations. Just too many kids who think they're experts and know how to "fix" things to leave the systems any more open than they are...

Pure speculation of course, but perhaps Scorpion's school had a more relaxed approach to that kind of thing, in which case he would never have come up against this issue.

In any case, a solution's here now for the next person who might happen to come up against it.

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No, the problem is a result of Doom Builder 1 not being programmed according to Microsoft's guidelines for applications on Windows. One of the guidelines is that an application may not write to any files in the Program Files directory (where it is installed, under normal circumstances) but must instead write to files in it's roaming settings directory or local settings directory. This was not a problem before and no program did this, but since Windows XP this guideline has become more of a rule and is enforced by Windows (and breaking the compatibility for many programs). A program running as Administrator is still allowed to write anywhere, though.

It is unfortunate that you have to work with older systems, because Doom Builder 2 adheres to these rules, but Doom Builder 1 is no longer in development since several years.

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AND on the account that you use to run the program with, it must have rights to write in that directory, as well as the working directory (where your WAD file is). Then it might work.

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Thanks for that, CodeImp. I kind of figured that might have been the case. The DB-specific login I'm having the students use has admin rights, so it has write access to Program Files.

Thanks for Doom Builder, too. It is much more accesible for younger learners than the modding tools I used back in the day.

I also think it's a pity we can't use DB2 on more up-to-date systems. Our school relies on hand-me-downs from a bigger international school for a lot of its equipment. We're a small, specialist school and an NPO to boot...

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