Compatability Issue

[rjford]

Hello, and please excuse this question.

I have a VAST 5.5.2 application out there, and one user has just moved it to a 64-bit Windows SBS 2008
machine. When they try to load the program, they see the splash screen, and then the application
simply disappears.

The symptom looks exactly like a DEP error. In older Windows Server OSs, as well as Windows 7 and even
occaisionally Windows XP, I have run into this. Data Execution Prevention seems to get tripped by
Smalltalk images, due to the way the Virtual Machine runs the image. Windows thinks a bad program is
trying to run in data space, and shuts it down.

To solve this, I go into the Performance settings, and add my programs to the exclude list on the
DEP tab. I have tried this solution on the SBS 2008 machine, but it has made no difference.
A google search suggests that 64-bit Windows OSs ignore this setting...in which case DEP might be tripping,
and I cannot do anything about it. However, I have my application running successfully on 64-bit Windows 7
machines (or so I have been told by my clients).

I know 5.5.2 is ancient history, so I apologize for asking this here, but does anyone know how I might
resolve this issue? Or can someone definitively state that it CANNOT be done?
I KNOW I should upgrade to the latest, and I would love to...but with the small user base I have, it is hard to
justify the cost (even though it is very well priced!). I am hoping I can find a simple solution for this one user.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Happy Holidays, everyone!!!

[wembley]

Yes, early versions of VisualAge Smalltalk (released before DEP existed) did not mark the Native Code Cache (where the JITer writes it's output) as executable since there was no reason to do so, and no way to do this before the Windows memory allocation APIs were updated to support DEP.

Since you mention the splash screen, I assume you are running abt.exe. Is there any chance that you upgraded abt.exe to a later version than the one shipped with 5.5.2? Can you try running with nodialog.exe to see if it runs any better (I doubt it willl make a difference, but it could be a useful bit of information if it does)?

[koschate]

I have a VAST 5.5.2 application out there, and one user has just moved it to a 64-bit Windows SBS 2008
machine. When they try to load the program, they see the splash screen, and then the application
simply disappears.

Have you considered running the application from within a Windows XP virtual machine hosted on the server? I'm not sure about SBS, but I seem to recall that some Windows 7 licenses allowed for this. I'm also not sure about the DEP flag's status within an XP VM.

[rjford]

Thanks for the reply.

I am definitely using an updated version of the .exe.
It was recompiled with the splash screen resource.

I can definitely try running with the default nodialog.exe instead.
I will send it to my client, and ask them to try it.

I know that the most appropriate course of action here is to update to the new version of VAST.
I am already registered for the Smalltalk Solutions in March...perhaps Instantiations will
offer a discount upgrade price to attendees??????? (here's hoping!)

Thanks!

[rjford]

Have you considered running the application from within a Windows XP virtual machine hosted on the server?

I have not tried that. Actually, I was not aware that could be done.
I certainly can look at giving this a try, though I am not sure how my client will feel about it.
Of course, they expect us to run on any Windows platform...which is not an reasonable request.
So I was hoping to find a more permanent solution.

Thanks for the suggestion...

[koschate]

I have not tried that. Actually, I was not aware that could be done.
I certainly can look at giving this a try, though I am not sure how my client will feel about it.

See http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/ for a little more information. It has the advantage of being a Microsoft-sanctioned solution, which makes some companies happy.