EasyNotes causes crash due Launch

[pauckstadt]

Everytime I try to start EasyLaunch 2.0 it results in a Reset with the follwing Error Message: "EasyLaunch.c; Line 648; Missing App Info Block".
This did not happened with the Trial version but since I registered.

[pdadds]

Which device are you using?

[kleinias]

Easy notes has now crashed the treo 650 twice in the first 10 minutes I've been using it. The second crash happened just as the poster above mentioned. I went to start easy notes and the treo 650 crashed, it gives me this error message "easynotes.c, Line:648, Missing app info block"

To be up front about it, I no longer give Iambic the benefit of the doubt (after the agendus fiasco). I typically believe that 99% of problems with most applications are user error, but Iambic turns this on its head. Even though the easy notes concept is a nice one, Iambic should make this product far more stable before releasing it.

[DawMatt]

Everytime I try to start EasyLaunch 2.0 it results in a Reset with the follwing Error Message: "EasyLaunch.c; Line 648; Missing App Info Block".
This did not happened with the Trial version but since I registered.
Hi,

My title might sound like a dumb question, but you have mentioned both EasyNotes and EasyLaunch in your request, and EasyLaunch is what appears to be having the problem.

EasyLaunch (http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/easylaunch.shtml) is a hackmaster extension I used to use on one of my prior devices. Its great, but it does look like it is choking on something according to your error message.

Can you please try to launch EasyNotes 2.0 from the standard Application launcher that came with your device? Do you encounter the crash when you try this? If you do, it might be worth trying to reinstall EasyNotes on your device. If not, it is probably a EasyLaunch issue and I can't really offer too much advice there (I can't run it on my OS 5 device, so I'm getting rusty on how it operates).

Thanks,
Matt

[pauckstadt]

Sorry, my fault. I am talking about EasyNote 2.0 of course. My device is a Treo 650.

To be more specific. The Crash occures every time I am trying to start EasyNote.
The Bug occurs the first time after the device has crashed by any application. From that point EasyNotes could not be started anymore. I have to DELETE AND reinstall the application to get it working again until the next (unexpected) Device Crash.

[DawMatt]

Hi,

I'm using a Treo 650 and am having trouble reproducing the problem.

To simulate your circumstance I used Soft Reset (http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/softreset.shtml) to simulate a crash, then ran EasyNote soon after the restart (I did run World Clock first). EasyNotes started fine. Maybe you could also give this a try to see whether a "controlled crash" also encounters the issue you mentioned?

Do you have any system extensions - e.g. QLaunch - running on your system? If you have to delete and reinstall to get things working, it sounds like something is keeping EasyNotes open and deleting the program is the only way to make it "let go".

Thanks,
Matt

[pauckstadt]

Ok. At this point I can not reproduce the scenario since I downloaded the actual version following the Iambic supports suggestion on Friday, but before that it occured 4 times. I will let you if it happens again, and try to log my software usage until then ...

[kleinias]

Everytime I try to start EasyLaunch 2.0 it results in a Reset with the follwing Error Message: "EasyLaunch.c; Line 648; Missing App Info Block".
This did not happened with the Trial version but since I registered.I realize that you are talking about easynote here. I have the same bug that you have. It crashes on start up and gives the exact same error message that you mention. I have a cdma Treo 650. I also want to mention that if I can be of any help to Iambic in tracking down exactly what is causing this, I will be happy to help. Easy note seems like a great concept and I would very much like to be able to have my voice notes, drawings, and text notes, all in one easy to use application.

[DawMatt]

I realize that you are talking about easynote here. I have the same bug that you have. It crashes on start up and gives the exact same error message that you mention. I have a cdma Treo 650. I also want to mention that if I can be of any help to Iambic in tracking down exactly what is causing this, I will be happy to help. Easy note seems like a great concept and I would very much like to be able to have my voice notes, drawings, and text notes, all in one easy to use application.
Hi Kleinias,

We appreciate the offer to help out tracking this down.

Have you noticed any trends about when the product crashes? i.e. does it crash every time, or only after certain events? pauckstadt mentioned it occurred after a device crash.

pauckstadt seems to have said (if I understand this correctly) that the issue has died off after redownloading and installing the product. Could you please try this as well? If this doesn't help, can you please try to provide some of the info I asked pauckstadt for?

Sorry I can't provide more immediate help, but we need to start isolating the problem before we can resolve it. Unless I can reproduce the issue here I can only speculate as to the cause, which means slow progress on the issue.

Thanks,
Matt

[v3blue]

Have you noticed any trends about when the product crashes? i.e. does it crash every time, or only after certain events? pauckstadt mentioned it occurred after a device crash.

Thanks,
Matt

I've kind of discovered the same thing, but for me it seems directly related to ZZTechs zLauncher program. If I install EasyNotes "before" I install zLauncher and then attempt to lauch EasyNotes, it crashes. I have to install ZLauncher before I install EasyNotes.

I've discovered this because I'm testing both EasyNotes and zLauncher together, which is soemthing I normally do not do.

[michael]

I've kind of discovered the same thing, but for me it seems directly related to ZZTechs zLauncher program. If I install EasyNotes "before" I install zLauncher and then attempt to lauch EasyNotes, it crashes. I have to install ZLauncher before I install EasyNotes.

I've discovered this because I'm testing both EasyNotes and zLauncher together, which is soemthing I normally do not do.



I, too have ZLauncher (& love it by the way. By far the best launcher out there), but of course I already had it installed before installing EasyNotes. I'll keep this in mind the next time I ugrade my ZLauncher.

[kleinias]

Hi Kleinias,

We appreciate the offer to help out tracking this down.

Have you noticed any trends about when the product crashes? i.e. does it crash every time, or only after certain events? pauckstadt mentioned it occurred after a device crash.

pauckstadt seems to have said (if I understand this correctly) that the issue has died off after redownloading and installing the product. Could you please try this as well? If this doesn't help, can you please try to provide some of the info I asked pauckstadt for?

Sorry I can't provide more immediate help, but we need to start isolating the problem before we can resolve it. Unless I can reproduce the issue here I can only speculate as to the cause, which means slow progress on the issue.

Thanks,
MattMatt, I'll do my best to mention any trend I see. I haven't reinstalled easy notes since the crashes, so I'll do that and see if the problem persists. At first I was able to use easy notes but the first crash occurred when I tried to switch from using text to drawing with the stylus. After that crash, a short time later (while using easynotes) I ran into the crash on startup issue. So, to an extent you are correct in that there was a device crash (caused by easynotes) before the regular crashes on that would occur whenever I tried to start up easynotes.

When easy notes was crashing on startup, It would crash whether I tried to use it via the regular default launcher, or with a third party launcher (in my case "initiate"). I do not currently use zlauncher although I have used it in the past with this device. Other than the crashes with easynotes, I have not experienced any (unintentional) crashes in the last month or so.

[v3blue]

I, too have ZLauncher (& love it by the way. By far the best launcher out there), but of course I already had it installed before installing EasyNotes. I'll keep this in mind the next time I ugrade my ZLauncher.

This is by no means an unrelated 3rd party forum, but I thought it worth posting that this is not only a problem with EasyNotes, but apparently others. For example, I had to uninstall and then re-install the free Tones program available form PalmOne. It exhibited the same behavior as EasyNotes. After re-installation, all is fine. So I highly suspect this is just some sort of conflict in how the launcher app is starting up a program. I'm not terribly surprised considering that a 3rd party launch propgram is usurping many of the Palm Launcher functions.

[DawMatt]

Matt, I'll do my best to mention any trend I see. I haven't reinstalled easy notes since the crashes, so I'll do that and see if the problem persists.
Hi Kleinias,

When you reinstall, can you please be sure to redownload the program? pauckstadt mentioned that the problem hadn't reoccurred since trying that.

Thanks,
Matt

[v3blue]

I, too have ZLauncher (& love it by the way. By far the best launcher out there), but of course I already had it installed before installing EasyNotes. I'll keep this in mind the next time I ugrade my ZLauncher.

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. Someone let me know if not.

I'm still experiencing a problem with EasyNotes and zLauncher that I thought I resolved, but apparently not. My problem seems to be somewhat related to the original post in this thread, so that's why I'm again posting this here.

I'm using zLauncher v5.2 Build 050329. Admittedly, I have the trial version, but plan to purchase it since I like it a lot. However, I'm having a problem getting EasyNotes (also on trial with latest version) and zLauncher to work together for some reason.

I originally installed EasyNotes before installing zLauncher and I experienced problem of EasyNotes crashing on startup. I uninstalled EasyNotes and re-installed the app the next day. Everything seemed okay. I looked at existing memos and added titles, icons, etc. I also added a couple of extra memo notes using EasyNotes.

This morning I tried accessing EasyNotes again and it immediately crashed again. The Treo goes into what I believe is called a soft reset. I do not receive any error messages. I don't think there is a log I can look at for an error, but I'm not sure. I deleted the app, re-installed it, and its once again working okay. But this is the fourth time this has happened in 3 days of use. In the days within which this has occurred, I've only used my Agendus Pro, Agendus Mail Std., zLauncher, Pocket Tunes, Tones for Palm, eReader, Docs to Go, Adobe Reader, Filez, Dict to Go, & Backup Man. I don't think there is any reported EasyNotes conflict with those programs, but I listed them in case maybe there is and someone can let me know. Other than mSafe and KeyCapsOn, I have no other apps installed.

I had this same problem with Tones for Palm and Dict to Go as well, but uninstalling followed by re-installing has resolved the issue with those programs and the problem has not reappeared, but not so with EasyNotes.

I feel as if this program should not have any problem with zLauncher, so hopefully this is just an issue of finding if a setting within EasyNotes should be changed (or other app?). I know others are using these together and do not have this problem, so I'm sort of perplexed.:confused:

Any help or suggestions from someone is much appreciated.
Thanks

[Serendip]

I use zlauncher, and have EasyNotes. I love zlauncher, but have had problems with programs downloaded as well.

This trick seems to work for me. I don't know if it *really* makes a difference, but when I load programs this way, I don't have crashes. Try it, and see if it helps.

If I'm going to load a new app, I exit zlauncher before syncing. I sync, start the palm, click on zlauncher from the native palm screen, and before touching anything, I refresh the applications. For some reason, this stops the crashes. It could be because I really believe it works, but it's worth a try. :)

The programs you listed that I don't have are PocketTunes, Tones for Palm, KeyCapOn, mSafe, BackupMan, and Filez. (Used to have Filez, until I realized Zlauncher takes care of it.) Maybe we can at least narrow it down!

Best,
Resa

[v3blue]

I'll try your method and see if works. It certainly sounds loigical. I'm also going to delete Filez since its redundant while using zLauncher. I cannot see that the other programs I have would interfere with EasyNotes, especially this particular problem but I guess it's possible. I'll post results after trying your suggestion.

Thanks for your reply :)
Ron

[kleinias]

Hi Kleinias,

When you reinstall, can you please be sure to redownload the program? pauckstadt mentioned that the problem hadn't reoccurred since trying that.

Thanks,
MattThanks for your suggestions Matt. I have downloaded and reinstalled Easynotes but I still occasionally get odd crashes with it. I am pretty sure that more work needs to be done to get easynotes more stable on devices like the Treo650. The most common error I get with easy notes seems to be ""EasyLaunch.c; Line 648; Missing App Info Block". Though I know the error message has something to do with easynotes, I'm not exactly sure what it means?

EDIT: The error message I get is "easynotes.c, Line:648, Missing app info block"

[DawMatt]

I am pretty sure that more work needs to be done to get easynotes more stable on devices like the Treo650. The most common error I get with easy notes seems to be ""EasyLaunch.c; Line 648; Missing App Info Block". Though I know the error message has something to do with easynotes, I'm not exactly sure what it means?
Hi,

I use a Treo 650 and I don't experience any of these issues. Strange.

Once again I have to point out that the error message above refers to EasyLaunch, not EasyNotes. There is a Palm hack-based launcher named EasyLaunch, so I'm wondering whether it is a problem in this product instead. In the mean time I'm trying to seek confirmation from the engineers re whether EasyNotes can possibly generate this error code. And if so, what are the likely causes.

After a bit of googling it appears that "missing app info block" messages are normally generated when starting an app and trying to open the database you are working with. I'm guessing that potential causes include the database being locked when attempting to access, or that the launcher isn't providing all info required at the time of launch. I'm asking the engineers to confirm (or otherwise) these guesses for me. Will let you know when I have some more info.

Thanks,
Matt

[DawMatt]

Hi,

In the process of verifying another bug (http://support.iambic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14417) I've managed to reproduce this.

To reproduce this issue I tried the following steps:

Opened EasyNotes and created a new memo record
Assigned it an alarm for 1 minute in the future
Left EasyNotes and went back to the default application launcher
Waited for the alarm to fire, which reset the device
After the reset, tried to launch EasyNotes, which caused another soft reset
Used the Phone app to dial #*377, which provided the same error message (barring the EasyLaunch type) reported previously

At the time of this crash I had only 4 EasyNotes created records in my database - all test records, with 1 record each of type text, pen, voice and text with alarm. This may or may not have a bearing on the test.

Based on my "database access issue" theory posted early today I fired up FileZ and deleted the three main EasyNotes databases ENDB, ENPenDB, ENVoice*, reset my device (probably unnecessary), then launched EasyNotes without any problems. Didn't even need to reinstall the prc. I've since created voice, pen and text without issues, and been able to restart EasyNotes OK as well.

In summary:

avoid using the EasyNotes alarm functionality until a bug fix is released for this
workaround is to use FileZ (or similar) to delete the EasyNotes databases (listed above). This deletes all pen, voice and all non-Memo pad fields (icon, title, etc), but these would not be available anyway because of the EasyNotes crash at launch


Klienias, would appreciate it if you could verify whether you have ever tried to use the alarm functionality, and whether this workaround helps resolve your issue.

Thanks,
Matt

[chiusano]

I have notiected that after a soft reset, for whatever reason, that easynotes crashes on program start.

This is a fatal flaw - a user should not have to unistall and reinstall after every reset.

[kleinias]

Klienias, would appreciate it if you could verify whether you have ever tried to use the alarm functionality, and whether this workaround helps resolve your issue.

Thanks,
MattMatt, sorry about including the "easylaunch" line instead of the "easynotes" line. A poster in this thread posted that originally. Of course (I've never used easylaunch) I took the lazy mans way out and copied that error message (because it matched the one I did get) forgetting that the original poster had made the same mistake of writing "easylaunch" instad of "easynote."

On your point about alarms... I think you are on to something. I didn't really think anything of it, but the one time I got the really bad "crash on launch" I had just prior to that crash, used an alarm. As you mention, when the alarm was supposed to go off, it crashed the treo and then easynotes crashed on launch from then on.

I will try your suggested work around and let you know what I find.

[DawMatt]

I have notiected that after a soft reset, for whatever reason, that easynotes crashes on program start.

This is a fatal flaw - a user should not have to unistall and reinstall after every reset.
Hi,

If you look at the workaround mentioned above an uninstall/reinstall is not necessary. But you do need to delete some databases. I agree - this is a serious issue, and am trying to get it resolved quickly.

It appears we have two separate problems:

EasyNotes alarms cause a soft reset when they fire
If you have used EasyNotes to record a Pen note, then experience a reset for whatever reason, the next time you launch EasyNotes it will soft reset your device


To test point 2 I used the following steps:

Create a new note that included use of the pen facility
Exit EasyNotes, and use SoftReset to reset the device
Launch EasyNotes, which causes a second reset

I did similar tests with only an EasyNotes text note, and only an EasyNotes voice note, and neither of these caused a reset at step 3. It was only when a pen note was in the database that a second soft reset was experienced. The workaround mentioned earlier in this thread - delete the EasyNotes databases - resolved this issue, but obviously at the expense of pen/voice data entered using EasyNotes.

Apologies for the inconvenience. Will try to get this resolved ASAP.

Thanks,
Matt

[iggatto]

I have the crashing problem too with Treo 650. No third party launcher. I mapped the launch button for Easy Notes as option-mail on Treo 650. After few launches the Treo crashes. When I try to launch Easy Notes from the defaulkt launcher window it crashes again. The only solution is to delete Easy Notes. After installing it again, the routin is the same: few good launches, then the crashes. I have used the demo version.
By the way, I like the progra and I'd like to buy it.
Stefano

[DawMatt]

I have the crashing problem too with Treo 650. No third party launcher. I mapped the launch button for Easy Notes as option-mail on Treo 650. After few launches the Treo crashes. When I try to launch Easy Notes from the defaulkt launcher window it crashes again. The only solution is to delete Easy Notes. After installing it again, the routin is the same: few good launches, then the crashes. I have used the demo version.
Hi Stefano,

Do you use the alarm or pen functionality in EasyNotes? As has already been discussed in this, and the related, thread there are issues around that functionality, so that would explain most of the crashes. If not, then we will need more info to isolate this cause.

As also described below, you don't need to delete and reinstall EasyNotes to resolve the crashes, but some might find that approach easier than using FileZ to manually clean up the data that is having problems..

Thanks,
Matt

[james]

We're looking into this, I've reproduced it randomly before. Not sure what triggers it but we're working on it and hopefully will have a solution soon.

[iggatto]

Hi Stefano,

Do you use the alarm or pen functionality in EasyNotes? As has already been discussed in this, and the related, thread there are issues around that functionality, so that would explain most of the crashes. If not, then we will need more info to isolate this cause.

Matt

Hi Matt,
I'm now working again with EasyNotes. In the previous crashes probably I tried one or two times the pen functionality, but never the alarm one. I'll try again trying to detect the problem. I'll let you know.
Thanks for the reply.
Best
Stefano

[DawMatt]

In the previous crashes probably I tried one or two times the pen functionality, but never the alarm one. I'll try again trying to detect the problem. I'll let you know.
Hi Stefano,

If you have used the pen functionality, it appears that any crash of the device - whether caused by EasyNotes or not - will cause future attempts to launch EasyNotes to generate the "missing app block" error reported previously.

So if you follow the steps to cleanup your EasyNotes database, and avoid the pen/alarm functionality until 2.01 comes out, then you should be able to use EasyNotes without crashes. Please let me know if you discover any additional issues.

Thanks,
Matt

[james]

We're working on locating the cause of this, on occasion I've seen it but we haven't yet figured out the cause. Hopefully we'll have it fixed soon.

[v3blue]

So if you follow the steps to cleanup your EasyNotes database, and avoid the pen/alarm functionality until 2.01 comes out, then you should be able to use EasyNotes without crashes. Please let me know if you discover any additional issues.

Thanks,
Matt
I cannot cuurently use EasyNotes because my trial version expired earlier this week, but I thought I'd post my experience with this. Hopefully, it will provide some additional food for thought on researching this problem.

I tried using EasyNotes on my Treo for a full 2 weeks. I only used the pen function on one note on one occasion and never used the alarm function. I added a pen note to one existing memo and it did not immediately cause a crash, so I cannot say for certain it was the root of that particular crash experience.

However, my trial version began crashing the Treo almost from the beginning. It appears it started once I began adding titles and icons to notes; especially icons. On several occasions, as long as I did not add a title or an icon to notes, it functioned fine. Soon after adding some titles and some icons to select notes, it would crash and cause a reset upon starting the app after I exited the program and then attemnpted to start it again a few hours later.

I know this is somewhat different than others have described, but I was able to get it to function rather well as long as I did not add icons or titles. For some reason, I still think it was adding icons that created the problems for me. My last crash experience occurred last Monday just after I added icons to six of my existing notes/memos. I did not add any titles at the time. At that time I had about 20 notes/memos total and all but 5 were created via the normal Palm memo program.

Unfortunately, I just learned how to view error messages when a crash occurs so I do not have the error details that possibly could have been revealed.

I think this is known, but my trial version never caused a reset while using it. It only did this after I exited the program and attempted to start the app again sometime later.

[DawMatt]

Thanks Ron!

I've never used icons, but have always used titles. As such I might have confused the causes here, but its strange if that is the case.

Basically when I used title + voice note, soft reset device and started EasyNotes, it worked fine. When I used title + pen, soft reset defice and started EasyNotes, it caused an involuntary soft reset (the other time I used Soft Reset to deliberately reset). So maybe it needs to be both title and pen to cause the issue.

I have never used icon functionality, and only used alarm functionality when trying to reproduce that other problem reported in this forum.

Will hopefully get this more reliably reproduced soon.

Thanks,
Matt

[DawMatt]

Hi,

The new EasyNotes release appears to have resolved this issue. I've repeated my earlier tests, and have been unable to reproduce the crashes I had previously experienced.

Please download the new version and try it out!

Thanks,
Matt