Bug? Can't Open Backup Showfile in Hog PC Running on Parallels

I run HogPC 3.12.0 (b2351) in Parallels 14.1.3 on a new, updated MacBook Pro 10.14.5 (18F132). Both the MacBook and Parallels [running Win 10, itself fully updated] are fully up-to-date, as is HogPC.

I can open a live show and make a backup in my HogPC "Shows" folder just fine, so it is not corruption or permissions. But I cannot open an archived (_bck) show file, not even your tutorial show files. And the new backup I just made from a live show is likewise un-openable. I get the same failure drumghys describes in his post "Can't open a backup show (Hog4PC 3.4.0)” (last updated October 2017).

I saw no errors in my Parallels Log (or any other log) referencing Hog or its programs. There were no Hog errors in the Windows 10 Event Viewer either. On starting up HPC, opening a regular showfile, and opening the Hog Event Viewer before I log off that show and trying to open a backup file, I see the following:

372341 372342 140 Launcher-1-001c429fa82f 10.0.0.1 Showitems.UnarchiveTask Debug launcher-win32-golden.exe Main enum Task::Progress::Result __thiscall Showitems::UnarchiveTask::Execute(void) archive_task.cpp 329 Archive //Mac/Home/Documents/High End Systems/Hog 4 PC/Shows/DF Castle 112017_bck.hog4show extracted in 88ms

372341 372341 139 Launcher-1-001c429fa82f 10.0.0.1 Os.Archive Error launcher-win32-golden.exe Main bool __thiscall Os::Archive::ExtractCurrent(const class std::basic_string,class std::allocator > &,struct archive_entry *) osarchive.cpp 142 archive_write_header failed with Can't create '\\?\C:\Mac\Home\Documents\High End Systems\Hog 4 PC\Shows\DF Castle 112017 (2)\~hog3_ident' for archive //Mac/Home/Documents/High End Systems/Hog 4 PC/Shows/DF Castle 112017_bck.hog4show

372253 372253 138 Launcher-1-001c429fa82f 10.0.0.1 Showitems.UnarchiveTask Debug launcher-win32-golden.exe Main enum Task::Progress::Result __thiscall Showitems::UnarchiveTask::Execute(void) archive_task.cpp 243 Extracting show from archive DF Castle 112017_bck.hog4show

Seems to me the Launcher app (or the sub-process handling the extraction from the archive - osarchive.cpp? archivetask.cpp?) lacks inherited permission to write the expanded showfile to my disk. That seems like a bug as I don't see a way to increase that subprocess's privileges.

How can I work around this? Is there a 3d party app to unarchive the archived showfile?
  • Hello, I do not use a Mac but among Mac users it seems Parallels does not work well with Hog PC, and Bootcamp is the better way to go.
  • As Mitch said, we don't recommend using parallels. I've heard stories of it working, but we don't recommend it completely.

    There is no 3rd party app to unarchive the backup showfile.

    Have you tried installing an older software version like 3.11 or 3.10? If the show file was made with 3.12, it should be able to go down to 3.9.
  • So, an update: Hog4 P.C. runs beautifully on Parallels. I’ve used it for 3+ years as an offline editor and teaching tool. I have yet to connect it to a widget to run a local universe but I have networked HOC to a Full Boar and used my MacBook as an RFR and to run cues.

    As for the _bck archive, Apples Archive Tool app in-archives them just fine. The app is hidden in MacOS and not in the Utility folder where if should be. Use the Finder Search tool and type Archive and it pops right up.

    You can drag a backup archive to an alias of the tool and it will expand it in the same folder. An extra step, to be sure, but it works.

    -luke
  • The problem is clear from the log you posted:
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    Can't create '\\?\C:\Mac\Home\Documents\High End Systems\Hog 4 PC\Shows\DF Castle 112017 (2)\~hog3_ident' for archive //Mac/Home/Documents/High End Systems/Hog 4 PC/Shows/DF Castle 112017_bck.hog4show
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    This means HogPC cannot create the file "~hog3_ident" under the directory \\?\C:\Mac\Home\Documents\High End Systems\Hog 4 PC\Shows\DF Castle 112017 (2)\

    The text here actually comes from 3rd party software and it is not smart enough to say if it is a permissions error, but I suspect it is. The software thinks that the directory already exists at this point and just fails to drop the ident file in there.

    I've never used Parallels, but it appears to me that the directory //Mac is a shared link back to the parent Mac OS filesystem out of the Parallel's Windows abstraction layer. I'm wondering if *ANY* software on Windows within parallels has write permissions on //Mac. I'd try that outside of HogPC-land.
  • datadriver: That's not it. The way Parallels works expressly allows the Windows-side software permission to write to the Mac side. (It works that way for everything else I use Parallels for too.)

    I know it works in HogPC-land because I save my shows and backups into a Mac-side folder -- HogPC is completely able to read and write those files. Only the unarchiver part of HPC is malfunctioning.
  • Two questions:

    1) does the directory \\?\C:\Mac\Home\Documents\High End Systems\Hog 4 PC\Shows\DF Castle 112017 (2) exist within Windows (if not, that's why it failed)
    2) if yes on #1, can you save ANY file to that directory using, say "Notepad" or another Windows application
    (if not that's why it failed)
  • 1) yes. As noted by the file path, it is virtualized on the Windows C: drive. It is not physically on the C: drive because there is no physical C: drive.

    2) When I create a test file in Notepad, I can save it anywhere in the VM or in my HogPC showfile.
  • hello,
    you have fix that?

    i have same problem

    you can tell how you fix that?


    thankyouu
  • One of our guys had a workaround in the past for this:

    It appears that when Hog 4 PC is attempting to extract the archive and write it to the documents/HighEndSystems/Hog4PC/Shows directory the coordinating shared user documents directory in MAC OS is rejecting the file writes. I don't know if this is because of the types of files being written or because of how shares work with Parallels but the easy work around is to turn off sharing of the documents user directory of MAC OS X. To do this just go into the parallel share settings and look for MAC SHARE and configure it not to share documents.
  • What I don't understand is that with sharing off h4pc appears to be saving to a different shows folder location than with sharing on? I see different show files in each folder. The folder for shows as created when the s/w was installed is different to the folder being used when sharing is off?