Under aggravatingly and seemingly random circumstances, MaraOS will crash. It has done this to me about 5 times (out of hundreds, nay, thousands). I can't repeat it, and every time it happens, I restart and everything is fine again. Since lots of applications do this to me, I tend to believe that maybe it's a MacOS thing. I've tested MaraOS on everything from a PowerBook 165c (which I developed it on), to a Q800 and Q950, to PowerMacs of all shapes and sizes (up to and including Scott's 8500- the spoiled brat)- if anything, it seems to afflict PowerMacs more than 68K ones, but I'll be damned if I know why.
Certain circumstances may lead MaraOS to run out of memory. One possible scenario is if you have an extreme and Byzantine number of nested folders that MaraOS has to search through. If this is the case, MaraOS may report an out-of-memory error or crash. Try increasing the memory partition.
Note: for those of you who have experienced "crashes" when trying to launch Marathon, the 1.0.1 release has a small modification that may help. I think in most cases, MaraOS wasn't really crashing but didn't realize Marathon hadn't launched correctly and was just sitting there waiting for it to quit. You could force quit MaraOS pretty cleanly in these instances. The 1.0.1 release contains a check to see that Marathon launched properly and if it didn't, it notifies you before quitting. See below for details on what this error means.
MaraOS can get confused by a number of situations, and should attempt to inform you which file is causing a problem. If things get really strange, some things to try are:
- turning off the app and file sharing quitting features
- restarting, with the extensions off if necessary
- throwing out the MaraOS Preferences file
- starting with a minimal Marathon folder and gradually adding modules to help identify any problems specific to a particular file. See the "Typical setup" document for a suggestion.
If a particular file seems to be causing problems, especially when renaming it, make sure it isn't locked.
Errors
A note on terminology:
- "standard name" means the name that Marathon expects. For example, a map file named "Map"
- "in position" means a file has the standard name and is in the directory Marathon expects.
These first errors might occur the first time you run MaraOS, or whenever it doesn't find a preferences file:
I can't find any "<type>" modules. - This errors means that no modules of the given type were found by MaraOS within its directory. Marathon requires the following module types: prefs, map, shapes, and sounds. You do not need to have any music or physics modules. Check to see that MaraOS is placed within the top level of the directory in which your modules are located.
I can't find the Marathon application. - MaraOS cannot find any Marathon applications. The application must be in the same directory as MaraOS, and not within a subdirectory.
Please rename the file "^1". - This error can arise the first time you run MaraOS. If MaraOS finds a module with one of the standard names "in position", you will be asked to give it another name.
Please rename the file "Marathon Preferences" and move it within Marathon's folder. - Since this was the most common problem people had when first trying MaraOS, I gave it it's own alert. Don't forget your Marathon Preferences file! You must move it out of your preferences folder to within the same folder as MaraOS, and it must be given a different name.
These next errors occur when MaraOS tries to move and rename files according to it's log (kept in the MaraOS Preferences file), but some file manger related problem occurs, such as a file of that name already existing. This can happen if you move files around behind MaraOS's back, or, under unusual circumstances, Marathon or MaraOS crashes.
I'm having problems renaming file "x" to "y" (<OSErr>). - Most likely, a file with a certain name already exists in that directory and is preventing MaraOS from renaming it. This happens mostly with Marathon Preferences files- check your Peferences folder for not only a file named "Marathon Preferences" file but other Marathon pref files that have already been renamed (such as "Harry's Prefs").
I'm having problems moving file "x" to the folder "y" (<OSErr>). - This happens when MaraOS is trying to move a file x from folder a to folder y but a file named x already exists in folder y. MaraOS will attempt to help identify which folder is causing problems, but sometimes the destination folder may not be given.
Some other errors are:
More than one <type> module with the name "x" was found. - Like it says, MaraOS found 2 or more modules with the same name. To avoid confusion, both for MaraOS and yourself, you are required to give each module a unique name.
A file called "x" was found in the folder "y". Please give it another name. - A file with one of Bungie's standard names was found somewhere (but not in position). Again, MaraOS will attempt to point you to the offending folder that the file is found in.
I'm having trouble deleting the file "x" (<OSErr>). - This error should only arise when you have Marathon on a non-startup volume. In this case, MaraOS copies the Marathon Preferences file to the startup volume and deletes it from the source volume. I suppose under some circumstances, something may go awry.
I'm having problems launching Marathon (<OSErr>). - Certain circumstances may prevent MaraOS from launching Marathon properly. Most common is the memFullErr -108, which means that there wasn't enough memory to launch Marathon. Check that you have enough memory by opening the "About this Macintosh" window from the Finder. If you have other applications open, quit them. If that doesn't clear up enough, try restarting, with the shift key depressed if necessary. Fiddle around with Marathon's partition sizes by doing a "Get Info" on Marathon and decreasing the "Preferred Size" item. Or buy more memory. Or RAM Doubler.
