21 replies to this topic

[Chevalier]

I do have a patched BGmain (that is now late in a Mega Mod install)
From Debug file:

[aurora/english/agkaraea.TRA] has 274 translation strings
[aurora/extend/soa/agkaraea.baf] loaded, 17533 bytes
[./override/JOURTYPE.IDS] loaded, 67 bytes
[./override/SPELL.IDS] loaded, 34143 bytes
[./override/STATS.IDS] loaded, 4145 bytes
[./override/ASTYLES.IDS] loaded, 33 bytes
[./override/CLASS.IDS] loaded, 2078 bytes
Processing 1 dialogues/scripts ...
Copying and patching 1 file ...
[aurora/batchlog/t-ansi.txt] loaded, 20 bytes
Copying and patching 1 file ...
[BGMain.exe] loaded, 7843840 bytes
FAILURE:
BGMain.exe not valid - make sure your ToB .exe is patched to v26498!
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.
Stopping installation because of error.

When it looks at the file and see differences is it because other mads already patched it??

COPY ~BGMain.exe~ ~BGMain.exe~ //Validity check
      sz = SOURCE_SIZE
      READ_LONG 0x40742c c1
      READ_LONG 0x40a8da c2
      READ_LONG 0x7536e7 c3
    BUT_ONLY
    
    ACTION_IF (c1 = 0x3db6d84) AND (c2 = 0xc6004c48) AND (c3 = 0x54464958) AND (sz = 0x77a02e) BEGIN
      OUTER_SET skip = 1
      PRINT @454 //BGMain.exe appears to be patched already; skipping .exe modifications
    END ELSE BEGIN
      ACTION_IF (c1 != 0xb48f) OR (c2 != 0x3d7c1) OR (c3 != 0x53505700) OR (sz != 0x77a02e) BEGIN
        FAIL @455 //BGMain.exe not valid - make sure your ToB .exe is patched to v26498!
      END
    END

Here is my current  BGMain.rar   1.99MB   547 downloads

[Miloch]

Can you do a --change-log on your bgmain.exe and attach your WeiDU.log as well. Also indicate any non-WeiDU mods you may have used to patch the executable. I'm guessing one of those mods changed some offset in the .exe that we're checking for validity, but in an invalid way, otherwise the mod would still install (and print "BGMain.exe appears to be patched already; skipping .exe modifications" instead).

[Chevalier]

I have not been doing anything to my bgmain stable install.

here is the  bgmain-change.log   1.72K   468 downloads

I just keep my ToB disk handy to play the game. I will see about a fresh install on my (at home) work computer and check the bgmain.

[Mike1072]

ACTION_IF (sz != 0x77a02e) BEGIN
 FAIL @455 //BGMain.exe not valid - make sure your ToB .exe is patched to v26498!
END

[BGMain.exe] loaded, 7843840 bytes
FAILURE:
BGMain.exe not valid - make sure your ToB .exe is patched to v26498!

His bgmain.exe is not the same as the one in the BGII-ThroneofBhaal_Patch_26498_ENGLISH.exe patch. He says he uses a 2tob_26498_eng.exe patch that came with his copy of the game. There are some minor differences between the two bgmains, including a bunch of empty bytes added on to the end of his file.

[Chevalier]

I really don't want to mess people up. I am moving a copy of my stable install to another disk and if I can figure out how to safely remove (and replace) registry that BG2 in installed I will do a fresh install. My disk is scratched and am not sure if it will install alright.

[Chevalier]

By other means I got my hands on a more standard BGmain (size 7,847,790) and the install went fine. I am now going to do a new BWP install. I will let you know if I get any more BGmain bugs (Other bugs are more likely install bugs).

Sorry for the bother.

[Mike1072]

By other means I got my hands on a more standard BGmain (size 7,847,790) and the install went fine. I am now going to do a new BWP install. I will let you know if I get any more BGmain bugs (Other bugs are more likely install bugs).

Sorry for the bother.

We know the patch works on normal v26498 bgmain.exe files. The question is whether your unusual bgmain.exe can be accounted for by an installation error or something you did to it, or if this is a more widespread problem.

If there is a legitimate patch being shipped with certain copies of the game that has this slightly different v26498 bgmain.exe, it's likely that others will encounter the same problem you did, and the mods that check if bgmain.exe is patched to v26498 should expand their definition of what constitutes a valid v26498 bgmain.exe.

[Chevalier]

2 of my disks are scratched and aren't reading well. I don't want to risk my current install with bad disks. I am not sure if the size difference my fault or a variant patch/version of BGmain. I know other patching has worked with my BGmain. If others have a problem patching lets check there size. That should give us an idea. I now have both versions of BGmain.

[Miloch]

I diffed the two EXEs too and found only a single byte difference and the padded zeros at the end of Chev's, which may or may not overwrite some legitimate data at the very end of the standard EXE. But we don't write to those areas and as long as everything else is the same, there's no harm in accounting for "rogue" executables like that with:

ACTION_IF (c1 = 0x3db6d84) AND (c2 = 0xc6004c48) AND (c3 = 0x54464958) AND ((sz = 0x77a02e) OR (sz = 0x77b000)) BEGIN
      OUTER_SET skip = 1
      PRINT @454 //BGMain.exe appears to be patched already; skipping .exe modifications
    END ELSE BEGIN
      ACTION_IF (c1 != 0xb48f) OR (c2 != 0x3d7c1) OR (c3 != 0x53505700) OR ((sz != 0x77a02e) AND (sz != 0x77b000)) BEGIN
        FAIL @455 //BGMain.exe not valid - make sure your ToB .exe is patched to v26498!
      END
    END

Infinity Animations uses the same code (as I think does Vecna perhaps).

[Gertwenger]

Hi, I'm having the exact same problem as Chavalier, the installer refuses to recognise BGmain.exe as valid. I don't know where to get the valid BGmain.exe from.... help???

[Miloch]

You should be able to change setup-aurora.tp2 as indicated above, if you can handle editing text files. Open that file in the aurora folder and look for the line indicated, around line 224 (use a decent text editor like EditPad or PSPad that indicates line numbers - Notepad doesn't). Or just search for a unique string (like 0xb48f). Copy and paste that ACTION_IF block above and replace the analogous block in the .tp2 file (8 lines of code from ACTION_IF (c1 = 0x3db6d84) to END). Save the file and try installing the mod again. It will only work if you had the same executable size as Chev originally. It has valid checks to make sure we don't try patching invalid executables like those without the official patch, or it would render the game useless (though thanks to WeiDU, uninstalling the mod quite easily reverses all changes).

Edit: let us know if it works or not - I don't think Chev tested with the old executable and I didn't want to code this until I had confirmation it worked.

Edited by Miloch, 13 July 2011 - 12:22 PM.

[Gertwenger]

I tried it,it didn't work. This is funny, cause I used these very CDs for my previous BWP and Aurora installed just fine. Anyway,it seems I can't install any mod which checks BGMain.exe validity (Like Infinity Animations). So, what should I do?? Substitute my BGmain.exe with a "valid" one?? If so where do I get a valid one??

PS: I tried force installing it by removing this section of the coding, the menu screens ran fine but, as expected, CTD on staring a game.
PPS: I downloaded about five or six versions of the TOB patch just in case there was something wrong with my patch file.... no luck.

Ideas???

[Miloch]

Is your game from GOG or what? I'm guessing it doesn't have the proper patch version or something. There should be a file like BG2-ToBPatchReadMe.txt in your game folder that tells you which patch version you have (should be v26498). If you want to zip and attach your bgmain.exe here I'll take a look at it. (I'll remove it after I download it in case anyone objects to it being here.)

[Gertwenger]

Is your game from GOG or what? I'm guessing it doesn't have the proper patch version or something. There should be a file like BG2-ToBPatchReadMe.txt in your game folder that tells you which patch version you have (should be v26498). If you want to zip and attach your bgmain.exe here I'll take a look at it. (I'll remove it after I download it in case anyone objects to it being here.)

It's definitely not GOG, I've had these CDs since 2001... I've installed infinity animations and Aurora on an install from these cds before and they worked.... don't know what the problem is now. The readme file definitely says it's v26498. Don't know what else to say... Maybe I should try buying new ones.... scratched cds don't make a difference do they??? Here's the BGmain.exe  BGMain.rar   2.02MB   434 downloads

Thank you!

[Gertwenger]

Is the GOG version compatible with Aurora and IA??

[Miloch]

You have a bunch of garbage at the end of your .exe, some of which may have overwritten legitimate data. Also there are a few minor differences from the standard .exe. I think it probably got corrupted somehow, either due to scratched media or a virus. If the former, just get a cheap disk repair kit - it will pay for itself after fixing the first disk or two.

IA and Aurora are compatible with the GOG version AFAIK - someone would've reported it by now if not.

[Gertwenger]

The disk repair kit didn't work.... just going to go for GOG. Cheers!

[Gertwenger]

Okay,I used the gog version.... big surprise ,it didn't work.... I've tried about 4 different versions of BG 2 so far, all the bgmain.exe are the same. same size down to the last byte, I've down numerous virus scans with numerous softwares, i've reinstalled windows!! No luck, so I'm guessing these are legitimate unadulterated files.... I'm getting desperate, not to mention pissed cause I've bought four sets of bg 2....

[Miloch]

I've tried about 4 different versions of BG 2 so far, all the bgmain.exe are the same. same size down to the last byte

I find that rather hard to believe, especially if you got them all from different sources. Your build says it is ToB patch v26498 (you can see this if you right click on it, go to Properties, Version and then Private Build Description). But I'm quite sure it is *not* ToB v26498 nor even a legitimately patched one (because any reliable patch to the .exe should not change its size).

There are several differences, but a huge one at the end that leads me to believe the one you attached is corrupt:

The one on the left is fresh from the v26498 patch, the one on the right is the one you attached. At the end of the file is a bunch of pure garbage. Granted, I can't read machine code in hexadecimal, but I do know legitimate data is usually delimited by things like zeroes occasionally, and this isn't. So I don't know how this corruption got introduced (possibly a read error) but it's there.

The bottom line is, Aurora's patch (and similar patches such as in Infinity Animations, One Pixel Productions etc.) does not change any part of the different data in your .exe. So in theory it should work if you remove the size check - at least it should patch it as expected. But if your .exe doesn't launch or crashes, then that's a symptom that there's something else wrong with it, as I'd expect from that screenshot above.

Honestly, if that's the legitimate GOG version, I'd like some explanation of what those differences are supposed to be so we can deal with them somehow. But we've had zero reports except Chev's, and he had a different .exe as I recall (which also may have been corrupt somehow).

Have you tried TobEx with your .exe? If so, does it work?

[Gertwenger]

Exactly what I thought, how can legitimate but different versions of the same game have the same corrupted file, especially when I used the same version before and it installed fine. So I gutted the cds and the digital versions, found the BGmain.exe files in each and compared them. Turns out the digital versions, like GOG, and the installed game had the same BGmain.exe file i.e. those files on the hard drive. But the Cds didn't, they had the original version. Virus I thought. But I'd already run scans with Bit defender, kaspersky, malwarebytes, AVG, Avira, AVAST, Windows Defender, spybot..... most of them trial versions with full functionality, so where was the virus?? So I thought, 9 time lucky, eh?? Downloaded a trial version of mcafee and it picked up a virus in BGmain.exe.... among other executables. Cleared it and infinity animations worked like a charm..... FINALLY!!!

Thanks Miloch.... uhhh I suggest you do a virus scan on your pc too.... sorry I might have infected your pc:( It seems to jump from .exe to .exe.