XBMC4Gamers stopped loading?

[fiftydkpminus]

I have a softmodded 1.6 XBOX with Rocky5 1.1.9, I have the Softmod (UnleashX) dash as default and XBMC4Gamers (latest version - updated after installing) and XBMC-Emustation installed as Apps in E:\Applications.  I have a 2TB HD with F & G evenly split at just under 1TB each.  G is blank, I've been FTPing games into F:\Games

Everything's been working great, I'll upload a batch of games, load XBMC4Gamers, run the artwork update script, then check out the Games section.  Afterwards I'll load XBMC-Emustation and rescan the games, then check out the XBOX games listing. 

Tonight, after finishing another small batch of games, I went to do the same procedure above except this time when launching XBMC4Gamers, it shows a blank screen instead of the XBMC4Gamers logo.  LED changes the color I set for that dash - so it's trying to load.  It then exits back to UnleashX (or actually probably boots back to UnleashX).  I've tried powering down / rebooting a few times, booting straight into XBMC4Gamers (using a Dashloader Customizer button), etc.   XBMC-Emustation has no issue loading.   I also tried launching XBMC4Gamers from the file manager directly, same issue - black screen, then back to UnleashX

Extra info, not sure if it's relevant (seems like it shouldn't matter) I have 255 game folders in F:\Games, E:\UDATA\ has 256 folders. I auto-login to my only user created profile on XBMC4Gamers.  

The only thing that changed between XBMC4Gamers working and not loading anymore was FTPing more games into F:\Games.  Are there any weird limits of folders or anything like that?  Can the XBMC4Gamers  XBE or any files needs to load get corrupted?  I'm at a loss why it would suddenly just stop loading?  

I looked in the e:\applications\xbmc4games\system\xbmc.log and there are no new entries since the last time I played a game in XBMC4Gamers

Edited March 29, 2023 by fiftydkpminus

[fiftydkpminus]

I installed a new instance of XBMC4Gamers (from Rocky5's extras app) into F:\Applications and ran the XBE from the file manager - it has the same issue - black screen comes up instead of the XBMC4Gamers loader and it then exits back to UnleashX.  So it seems like it's not corrupt app files, but something in the startup routine that is not happy.

Does it store a shared config in a savefile?  Is there any logging done at startup that I can look at - if so where can I find it?

@Rocky5 any pointers would be appreciated.   

Edited March 29, 2023 by fiftydkpminus

[fiftydkpminus]

I've tried completely deleting XBMC4Gamers, clearing the cache, renaming my Games folder so it will be ignored, reinstalling XBMC4Gamers.  It still won't load.

Is there something stored in UDATA or TDATA that could be causing a problem?  

[HDShadow]

I'd hoped somebody would help you on this as I'm not certain of the cause but your speculation that having 256 E:\UDATA folders maybe involved does ring a bell. There's some limit I'm pretty sure about that but if it is this why it would have the problems described I can not even guess at.   

[KaosEngineer]

Share the content of the xbmc.log file?

Changing the debugging level will help too.

Find the advancedsettings.xml file (It will be located in <XBMC4Gamers' install path>/system/UserData/) in the installation folder and add the following line to it:

 <loglevel hide="false">2</loglevel>

The format of the file is as follows:

<advancedsettings>
    <setting>value</setting>
    ...
    <setting>value</setting>
</advancedsettings>

Adding the above setting line to the file will write debugging information to the xbmc.log file.

See UserData/advancedsettings.xml - XBMC4Xbox for additional information.

[fiftydkpminus]

Thank you for the link to the advanced settings doc.  I tried setting that loglevel, unfortunately it's not logging anything - on this new install, there is no log at all (it hasn't created one).

On the old install (which I deleted, hoping installing fresh would fix the issue) it wasn't writing to the log since it stopped loading.  The last entry in the old log was that it was loading the last game I played (i.e. the last time it was working) - i.e. the timestamp was before uploading the latest batch of games and XBMC4Gamers stopped loading - so I didn't think there was anything useful to be gleaned.        

Edited March 31, 2023 by fiftydkpminus

[fiftydkpminus]

OK this is strange too.  If I try to run DVD2Xbox (XBMC4Gamers\Apps) from the file manager it also won't load.

I tried installing DVD2Xbox from the softmod tools as a standalone app, it also won't load.    No logs in either.  

Yet my games all load and so does XBMC-Emustation.

I tried switching the drive from my 1.6 xbox to a 1.0 xbox, same thing. 

Have no idea what to try next.   

Edited April 8, 2023 by fiftydkpminus

[fiftydkpminus]

I tried swapping in an old original hard drive that has XBMC4Gamers installed, no problem loading both XBMC4Gamers and DVD2Xbox.    

I tired swapping 80- pin cables as well as cheapie 2 cap SATA adapter for Startech SATA adapter, tried reinstalling XBMC4Gamers on both, neither will run XBMC4Gamers or DVD2Xbox.

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by fiftydkpminus