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MLS Won't start, hung on "Loading Resources"

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:07 pm
by dcattran
MLS refuses to start, instead the splash screen appears, and the Loading Resources widget appears. The resources widget gets almost to the "full" point, and then it stops. Looking in task manager, there is a java process, a javaw process, and an MLS.exe process, none of which appear to be doing much (i.e. no CPU, or changes in memory usage. These processes appear to be fully hung, as I can leave them for more than 20 minutes with no change.

I have read through some of the recovery options on the wiki, and I have tried:
1. Reinstalling MLS, with and without an uninstall preceding it. (we're on the current 3.5 revision)
2. I followed the directions for doing a "clean" install, including wiping out the JRE directories, making sure the MLS directories are cleaned, etc.
3. I also tried restoring one of the backups in the "recover\unit\data-backupXXXX" directories

None of these things have helped.

I noted that there are errors in the mlslog that I assume are relevant. I've attached a screenshot showing what I see on the screen, as well as the relevant logfile output (i.e. from the last time I tried to start the application)

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:10 pm
by russellhltn
Are you able to start MLS if you temporary clear out the Units folder? I'm wondering if it's a data error.

But first I think I'd call Local Unit Support.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:16 pm
by dcattran
No, unfortunately not. It gets stuck at the same point. I tried calling in to Local Unit Support over the last hour or so, but the line is busy, such that they're not even taking calls into the queue. I'll try again tomorrow, I suppose.

Yesterday when I was looking at this, I was able to get it to start if I cleared out the *entire* data directory, so really starting from scratch, but then it was prompting me for all sorts of "so, you're a new unit information" and I didn't think that was a path I wanted to head down without some serious help.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:32 pm
by lajackson
dcattran wrote:It gets stuck at the same point.

The log you posted shows MLS is throwing an error and not starting. Keep trying Local Unit Support.

Another possibility is to load a fresh version of MLS 3.5 over the existing version. If it is a program problem, that should fix it without harming your data. If it is a database problem, you will get the same error again and need LUS to help you.

Or someone will come along who can actually read the log file you posted and tell you more about the error.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 5:52 pm
by jdlessley
If you have a good recent backup (preferably from the last MLS session) you can uninstall MLS completely and remove any folders orphaned after the uninstall. Once the system is clear of all MLS files (except backups) and folders you can do a fresh install. The fresh install will require you to input your unit name and number, your stake name and number, and an administrator username and password. After the fresh install you can recover the backup to restore all data.

If there is a corrupt file or a hard drive issue preventing MLS from loading, a fresh install will correct these issues.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:01 pm
by russellhltn
He stated in the OP that he did that.

I'm wondering if this isn't a quirky memory problem. May want to download and run Memtest86.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:12 pm
by jdlessley
RussellHltn wrote:He stated in the OP that he did that.
Yes, then in post #3 he posted
dcattran wrote:Yesterday when I was looking at this, I was able to get it to start if I cleared out the *entire* data directory, so really starting from scratch, but then it was prompting me for all sorts of "so, you're a new unit information" and I didn't think that was a path I wanted to head down without some serious help.
This leads me to believe he started to do a fresh install but backed out.

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:56 pm
by dcattran
Yes, that's correct, I don't think I was very clear in the OP.

The problem has been solved, thanks to all who were kind enough to make suggestions.

I reasoned that the problem might not be with the unit data, but rather with the base system data, since doing a clean install didn't help, and restoring previous versions of the unit data didn't help.

So, I took a copy of the data directory, then deleted it.

When I started up MLS from a clean install, it asked me for the various bits of unit and stake information. But, I exited at that point, and copied the unit information back under the data directory, as well as some of the ".properties" files in the base data directory. When I restarted MLS, it was all working good as new!

Thanks to everyone who read and responded to this thread, it was very helpful to me in sorting through some of the options.