[W10] Settings doesn't stick on restart

[Porkepix]

Description

On Windows (at least on 10), trying to change the language to a different from default one doesn't work (here it was specifically to switch it to English to have more accurate reports of two other bugs for Mumble).

See the STR below, but it seems impossible to change the language: setting doesn't stick after restart.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to the language selector in the configuration and select another one than default (I tried with both American and British English, I doubt they would be the only affected ones).
2. Clicking 'apply' does nothing
3. Clicking 'Ok' close the configuration window, and opens a popup asking to restart Mumble, as changing language requires that
4. Accept restart
5. Language didn't change, and if you check in the configuration, it's back at default
6. I tries with only apply and closing Mumble by hand rather than restarting from the popup, result is the same.

Mumble version

1.5.634

Mumble component

Client

OS

Windows

Reproducible?

Yes

Additional information

No response

Relevant log output

I have no idea on how to gather logs from Windows, as opposed to just open this from terminal and/or checking journald for Linux.

Screenshots

N/A

[davidebeatrici]

Are other settings applied correctly?

[Porkepix]

I'd say at least the audio output one isn't, I have to correct it on every start. I don't think I tried changing others, or I don't remember, but I could always try another one if you need/want.

[davidebeatrici]

@Krzmbrzl This could be potentially related to #6567.

[Hartmnt]

@davidebeatrici Agreed, but this only seems to affect a handful of users. People in our Matrix room are reporting the settings are being saved just fine. The question now becomes: What is the common condition that connects all users with issues.

[Hartmnt]

@Porkepix Would you be able to provide us with logs from the Developer Console?

[Porkepix]

@Porkepix Would you be able to provide us with logs from the Developer Console?

So I just did that, but I can only observe what's in this console after applying settings: that wouldn't work upon restart unless there's a way to get this written somewhere when the program close.
The only thing I saw that might be useless is Mumble complaining about is this:

<W>2024-11-12 17:19:04.698 Failed at moving settings from C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp to C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/mumble_settings.json - reason: Le fichier source n'existe pas.

Very curiously, the first message is translated while the second isn't. It basically says the file does not exist.

I'm more used about IRC, and didn't quickly see a mention about Matrix. I'll connect there as you seemed to have had questions regarding this there, in case I can also help there.

EDIT: It would seems I couldn't find a publicly advertised chan.

[Hartmnt]

@Porkepix Could you please check, if the folders in this path exist? Specifically the Mumble related folders. C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/

The public Matrix room is here: https://matrix.to/#/#mumble:matrix.org

[Porkepix]

@Porkepix Could you please check, if the folders in this path exist? Specifically the Mumble related folders. C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/

The public Matrix room is here: matrix.to#/#mumble:matrix.org

Mmmh, I only checked the first path, not the second one. Just did, and yeah it exists.

[Porkepix]

Also note this is something that must have happened through an update since the install, because the only shortcut I've ever set, to mute myself, has been kept.
(I checked creating a new one, just in case those would stays while other settings wouldn't, and it just produced the same error in dev console, and had disappeared after restart)

[Porkepix]

@Porkepix Could you please check, if the folders in this path exist? Specifically the Mumble related folders. C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/
The public Matrix room is here: matrix.to#/#mumble:matrix.org

Mmmh, I only checked the first path, not the second one. Just did, and yeah it exists.

And to complete this answer, the directory exist. But the directory is empty.
And C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp does not exist either.
So I don't even know where the current shortcut is stored and found when Mumble starts.

[Porkepix]

Some digging later, I found that C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Roaming/Mumble/ exists, and this one isn't empty (though not very full).
And something that might or might not be some weirdness, I'll try to describe it correctly (a directory tree with dates would have been much more clearer, I'd have provided this from a serious OS like any *nix, but here I can't).

C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Roaming/Mumble/ contains a sqlite database, marked as modified last time today (from last launch). It also contains a lock file dated from June.

Then there's a Mumble subdirectory with logs and a couple of other empty dirs, but also another sqlite database with the exact same name and size, but a different checksum. Last access date: the same day than the first lock file and a couple of minutes of difference. And then there's another lockfile here, with the same name but the date of today, a couple of minutes of difference with the first database.

So to sum it up, two databases, two lockfiles. One of each in the main directory, one of each in the subdirectory. But their respective date are switched. and not shared with the other file in the same directory. I hope I'm clear enough.

EDIT: Some very rough scheme:

C:/Users/$USER/AppData/Roaming/Mumble/
|__mumble.sqlite (today)
|__mumble.lock (June 2024)
|__Mumble/
   |__mumble.sqlite (June)
   |__mumble.lock (today)

[Krzmbrzl]

How does a path with $USER in it exist? This seems like something the shell would have to expand but I doubt that the way we access the path, any shell expansion is performed. To me it seems like what we really should have is the actual user name instead of $USER 👀

[Porkepix]

How does a path with $USER in it exist? This seems like something the shell would have to expand but I doubt that the way we access the path, any shell expansion is performed. To me it seems like what we really should have is the actual user name instead of $USER 👀

That's just me manually anonymizing the logs I post in issues. There's my real username at this place.
(Which in this case admittedly is a bit overkill, considering it's just my first name we already find in my GH profile, but I have that habit of anonymizing irrelevant parts).

[Krzmbrzl]

Ah okay. Now that makes sense 👍

[pateus]

Similar problem, settings are not saved, have to configure again each time you log in. Running as administrator does not help.
<W>2024-11-24 00:40:29.283 Failed at moving settings from C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp to C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/mumble_settings.json - reason: Исходный файл отсутствует.
There is no mumble_settings.json.tmp file in directory C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/, directory C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/ is there but empty.

[Hartmnt]

Ok, wild punt, but does everyone affected by this issue have a "special character" in their path? As in, does your username contain one or more non-ASCII characters? Ping @Porkepix @Mihail-Lazarev @markusmueller73

[Porkepix]

Ok, wild punt, but does everyone affected by this issue have a "special character" in their path? As in, does your username contain one or more non-ASCII characters? Ping @Porkepix @Mihail-Lazarev @markusmueller73

It depends if you talk about 7 bits 128 characters ASCII range or 8 bits 256 characters range one.
The é in "Clément" is missing from the first, but is in the second (numbered 233).

[mfxbe]

@Hartmnt Just found this issue because I also run into a simliar problem and for my case: Yes, the username contains an umlaut.

[markusmueller73]

@Hartmnt Same here, have an umlaut in my username.

[Hartmnt]

Nice, that gives us a reasonable assumption of what goes wrong here and why this issue is relatively rare.

We let you know when we have a bugfix that you guys can test before we merge it, since we (the Mumble core team) can't reproduce this easily.

[pateus]

The problem most likely occurs with the username in the native language. For example, the ASCII table does not have Russian (Cyrillic) letters.

[Hartmnt]

Hi all, I need someone who can test this experimental build: https://dev.azure.com/Mumble-VoIP/c819eb06-7b22-4ef3-bbcd-860094454eb3/_apis/build/builds/8990/artifacts?artifactName=Windows%20%28x64%29%20installer&api-version=7.1&%24format=zip

Please install the version of Mumble linked above and let me know, if your settings now stick. If they do not stick, please provide the output of the Developer Console.

Also note that this is from the unstable 1.6.x branch, so I would not recommend this as a daily driver.

If you let me know ASAP, I might be able to get this into the next 1.5.x release.

Ping @Porkepix @pateus @mfxbe @markusmueller73

[Porkepix]

Hi all, I need someone who can test this experimental build: dev.azure.com/Mumble-VoIP/c819eb06-7b22-4ef3-bbcd-860094454eb3/_apis/build/builds/8990/artifacts?artifactName=Windows%20%28x64%29%20installer&api-version=7.1&%24format=zip

Please install the version of Mumble linked above and let me know, if your settings now stick. If they do not stick, please provide the output of the Developer Console.

Also note that this is from the unstable 1.6.x branch, so I would not recommend this as a daily driver.

If you let me know ASAP, I might be able to get this into the next 1.5.x release.

Ping @Porkepix @pateus @mfxbe @markusmueller73

How about the ability for the database to downgrade, though?
If we upgrade to this 1.6.x, is it able to go back to 1.5.x after that without issues, or we need to somehow backup some files before and restore them after?

Also, one things I mentioned but that wasn't really visible: the settings not saving were a regression (but from when, I don't know), considering I had one shortcut saved in the past, and that one was still sticking around, but no way to add other ones.

Saving servers is still working, too.

[Hartmnt]

If we upgrade to this 1.6.x, is it able to go back to 1.5.x after that without issues, or we need to somehow backup some files before and restore them after?

You will probably have to fully uninstall 1.6.x as the Windows Installer does not allow software to be downgraded IIRC.

So, definitely backup any data related to Mumble that you care for. The downgrade could break things and even the upgrade may possibly break something as 1.6.x is not that thoroughly tested yet.

Also, one things I mentioned but that wasn't really visible: the settings not saving were a regression (but from when, I don't know), considering I had one shortcut saved in the past, and that one was still sticking around, but no way to add other ones.

The Mumble devs current collective assumption is that a recent Windows Update somehow broke how we were handling paths. But I can not say for sure. We all use Linux as a daily driver.

Saving servers is still working, too.

There we are interacting with a sqlite database with the proper abstraction in place. The settings file is a raw file output stream we write to.

[pateus]

The error remains.
<W>2024-12-02 21:33:50.982 Failed at writing temporary settings file: C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp <W>2024-12-02 21:33:50.982 Failed at moving settings from C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp to C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/mumble_settings.json - reason: Исходный файл отсутствует.

[Hartmnt]

The error remains. <W>2024-12-02 21:33:50.982 Failed at writing temporary settings file: C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp <W>2024-12-02 21:33:50.982 Failed at moving settings from C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp to C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/mumble_settings.json - reason: Исходный файл отсутствует.

Damn, but thank you very much for testing.

[pateus]

The error remains. <W>2024-12-02 21:33:50.982 Failed at writing temporary settings file: C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp <W>2024-12-02 21:33:50.982 Failed at moving settings from C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Temp/mumble_settings.json.tmp to C:/Users/Пользователь/AppData/Local/Mumble/Mumble/mumble_settings.json - reason: Исходный файл отсутствует.

Damn, but thank you very much for testing.

Maybe it makes sense to make it possible to choose the path for installing the application?

[Porkepix]

mentioning that my (not the exact text, as it's in French) "config file references a database (sqlite) file but that this file doesn't exist.

What does it say in french? It is easier to look up where that string comes from in the original language.

Here are the first error window, and when pressing esc to not answer the question, the error popping up right after:

Where this config file could be? What's its name? I was not able to find one located at another place than those two directories.

Are you providing a config file via --config to the application launcher?

Nothing, I didn't touch the launcher and it's the one Mumble's setup put there.

Is there a mumble_settings.json in your backup?

No, but I think it's kind of the point of this issue: it looks like this file never was created for me when you moved the configs to a .json file.

[pateus]

I deleted the old version and installed the new one, there was no database connection error, the server for connection was pulled up from the old version.

[Hartmnt]

Maybe it makes sense to make it possible to choose the path for installing the application?

This is not an option sadly, we need to work around how Windows handles encoding internally.

I will be back shortly with another attempt.

No, but I think it's kind of the point of this issue: it looks like this file never was created for me when you moved the configs to a .json file.

Ah yes, totally makes sense. When you upgraded from 1.3 to 1.4 or somthing the old registry keys were not deleted. Now that the json/sqlite files are gone, it probably defaults to registry keys or something like that. I think you can ignore this and just create a new database for testing.

[pateus]

Maybe it makes sense to make it possible to choose the path for installing the application?

This is not an option sadly, we need to work around how Windows handles encoding internally.

I will be back shortly with another attempt.

No, but I think it's kind of the point of this issue: it looks like this file never was created for me when you moved the configs to a .json file.

Ah yes, totally makes sense. When you upgraded from 1.3 to 1.4 or somthing the old registry keys were not deleted. Now that the json/sqlite files are gone, it probably defaults to registry keys or something like that. I think you can ignore this and just create a new database for testing.

Please note that the settings from the sql file are read and saved without errors, although the path there is the same.

[Porkepix]

No, but I think it's kind of the point of this issue: it looks like this file never was created for me when you moved the configs to a .json file.

Ah yes, totally makes sense. When you upgraded from 1.3 to 1.4 or somthing the old registry keys were not deleted. Now that the json/sqlite files are gone, it probably defaults to registry keys or something like that. I think you can ignore this and just create a new database for testing.

Am I to consider the registry keys were used pre-1.4 and are now all obsoletes, or are some still used? (Bonus question, if the answer is positive: is Mumble's setup removing those if we use a clean uninstall with it?

---

Let's add more weirdness to the situation. I randomly found out that the shortcut point to C:\Programs\Mumble\client\mumble.exe but as I had C:\Programs\Mumble open in the middle of the screen with a binary in it, it turns out C:\Programs\Mumble still contains mumble.exe… version 1.3.4. And that I launched it. It seems launching it once messed something up somewhere else: now when launching Mumble have it complain about this:

It also seems that now, if I try to change the language, Mumble ask for a restart as usual, and when I answer yes, it keeps a zombie process around (without systray icon), preventing to launch Mumble anymore until I go to kill the process manually.

[Hartmnt]

Am I to consider the registry keys were used pre-1.4 and are now all obsoletes, or are some still used? (Bonus question, if the answer is positive: is Mumble's setup removing those if we use a clean uninstall with it?

Yes, I guess it would have been smart to remove the registry keys on a successful migration to json

It also seems that now, if I try to change the language, Mumble ask for a restart as usual, and when I answer yes, it keeps a zombie process around (without systray icon), preventing to launch Mumble anymore until I go to kill the process manually.

Yes, this is already tracked by #4932 and will be fixed with the PR that rewrites the tray icon implementation

[Porkepix]

Am I to consider the registry keys were used pre-1.4 and are now all obsoletes, or are some still used? (Bonus question, if the answer is positive: is Mumble's setup removing those if we use a clean uninstall with it?

Yes, I guess it would have been smart to remove the registry keys on a successful migration to json

Can those registry keys be the culprit for the last popup I posted, about shortcuts? Or it's completely unrelated? My Mumble seems to be in a quite weird state right now.

It also seems that now, if I try to change the language, Mumble ask for a restart as usual, and when I answer yes, it keeps a zombie process around (without systray icon), preventing to launch Mumble anymore until I go to kill the process manually.

Yes, this is already tracked by #4932 and will be fixed with the PR that rewrites the tray icon implementation

That's weird, as I believe that it didn't have this behavior when I opened this issue, and there was no update since then.

Anyway, I guess we need to wait for another attempt for the settings issue here.

[Hartmnt]

Can those registry keys be the culprit for the last popup I posted, about shortcuts? Or it's completely unrelated? My Mumble seems to be in a quite weird state right now.

Most likely related. You can disregard this as Mumble is trying to migrate your registry keys again into a json file. When you move your backup files back, those take priority.

[Hartmnt]

Alright, I have a new build to test

https://dev.azure.com/Mumble-VoIP/c819eb06-7b22-4ef3-bbcd-860094454eb3/_apis/build/builds/8991/artifacts?artifactName=Windows%20%28x64%29%20installer&api-version=7.1&%24format=zip

Ping @Porkepix @pateus

[mfxbe]

If you let me know ASAP, I might be able to get this into the next 1.5.x release.

Unfortunately I can't test the builds currently. I only have Linux systems as well and the affected Windows laptop left town with my SO.

Will do it as soon as possible (if testing is still needed then.)

[Porkepix]

Alright, I have a new build to test

dev.azure.com/Mumble-VoIP/c819eb06-7b22-4ef3-bbcd-860094454eb3/_apis/build/builds/8991/artifacts?artifactName=Windows%20%28x64%29%20installer&api-version=7.1&%24format=zip

So, several things again:

• To test your build, I decided to do a clean uninstall of what I had first (to have a clean basis and also because looking at the mess Windows' registry is, it seemed like impossible to get this clean)
  • When I went in Windows' place to uninstall programs, I discovered that… I had both Mumble (client) and Mumble 1.3.4 presents in the list, installed side by side
  • I got rid of both and installed your test build (a question here, what's the PDB's folder in here? I was surprised by the size of the archive)
  • It looks like despite the clean uninstall, the issue regarding shortcuts mentioned in [W10] Settings doesn't stick on restart #6628 (comment) is still around and appeared, I don't understand why
  • Finally I couldn't end the test because I have the main window and the consent window that starts to draw and I get the outline, then it goes in a "does not respond" state and get crashed/killed by the OS a couple of seconds later.

From here, I don't know how to get in a cleaner state, nor how to find why it crashes (no journalctl to get a look at here… :|).

Unfortunately I can't test the builds currently. I only have Linux systems as well and the affected Windows laptop left town with my SO.

For my culture/understanding, what does SO stands for here?

[Hartmnt]

• I got rid of both and installed your test build (a question here, what's the PDB's folder in here? I was surprised by the size of the archive)

Debug symbols iirc

• is still around and appeared, I don't understand why

The registry keys are probably not deleted on uninstall

• Finally I couldn't end the test because I have the main window and the consent window that starts to draw and I get the outline, then it goes in a "does not respond" state and get crashed/killed by the OS a couple of seconds later.

Possibly still related to the tray icon thing. Could you try again and if this crash keeps happening, start Mumble in a CMD and see if that prints anything useful, please?

[Porkepix]

• Finally I couldn't end the test because I have the main window and the consent window that starts to draw and I get the outline, then it goes in a "does not respond" state and get crashed/killed by the OS a couple of seconds later.

Possibly still related to the tray icon thing. Could you try again and if this crash keeps happening, start Mumble in a CMD and see if that prints anything useful, please?

Unfortunately, nothing gets written in the cmd. It even gives the prompt back before it crashes. It's sometimes able to draw entirely windows and their content, but most of the time not.

[pateus]

Хорошо, мне нужно протестировать новую сборку.

https://dev.azure.com/Mumble-VoIP/c819eb06-7b22-4ef3-bbcd-860094454eb3/_apis/build/builds/8991/artifacts?artifactName=Windows%20%28x64%29%20installer&api-version=7.1& %24format=zip

Пинг@Porkepix @pateus

Thank you. Now everything works correctly. The settings are saved.

[Hartmnt]

Thank you. Now everything works correctly. The settings are saved.

Very cool. Thanks for testing, so that this can land in the next release 👍

@Porkepix At this point, I would recommend uninstalling Mumble completely again and manually removing the settings/sqlite files located in %AppData%
Edit: And let Mumble create the sqlite file, when you get prompted again.

[Porkepix]

Thank you. Now everything works correctly. The settings are saved.

Very cool. Thanks for testing, so that this can land in the next release 👍

@Porkepix At this point, I would recommend uninstalling Mumble completely again and manually removing the settings/sqlite files located in %AppData% Edit: And let Mumble create the sqlite file, when you get prompted again.

I already got rid of this when I did the testing… according to Windows' search (I wish I had find…), there shouldn't be anything else with Mumble in the name…
There's still the registry though, this huge dump of mess…

[Hartmnt]

@Porkepix Are you able to downgrade to 1.5?

[Porkepix]

@Porkepix Are you able to downgrade to 1.5?

Yes, I did a clean uninstall of your build, and removed everything regedit.exe allowed me to with "Mumble" appearing., and then reinstalled 1.5 stable.

[Porkepix]

I wanted to verify the issue is solved with the newly released 1.5.735, unfortunately, that release completely crash on startup the same way the release from #6628 (comment) did and I mentioned in #6628 (comment)

Any issue related? Any way to get debug information?

[Hartmnt]

I wanted to verify the issue is solved with the newly released 1.5.735, unfortunately, that release completely crash on startup the same way the release from #6628 (comment) did and I mentioned in #6628 (comment)

Any issue related? Any way to get debug information?

Ok, have you tried upgrading from 1.5.634 or did you delete everything before installing 1.5.735?

[Porkepix]

I wanted to verify the issue is solved with the newly released 1.5.735, unfortunately, that release completely crash on startup the same way the release from #6628 (comment) did and I mentioned in #6628 (comment)
Any issue related? Any way to get debug information?

Ok, have you tried upgrading from 1.5.634 or did you delete everything before installing 1.5.735?

Tried both, same result.

[Porkepix]

Issue verified as fixed with latest stable once startup crash got fixed with the latest Redistributables mentioned in #6659 (comment)