PLEASE HELP! (ESC doesn't bring me back to Gamelist/Menu) Can I reinstall?

[javeryh]

I have MaLa set to boot straight to Donkey Kong on boot up.  This works fine - my machine boots and DK starts up.  I can play a game no problem.  When I press ESC though I am not brought back to the gamelist - I am brought to my desktop.  I cannot figure out what the problem is - I also cannot get into the option menu of MaLa (there's nothing to right click and select "Options").   Also, when I try and reboot I get the "MaLa is not responding message - End Program" but the weird thing is that if I hit control-alt-delete under processes "mala.exe" is running but under applications there is nothing there.

I don't know what to do - please help!

Thanks.

- javeryh

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EDIT: Also, my taskbar is missing - there is an empty space at the bottom of my desktop screen.  I see it flash upon bootup but when I press ESC to exit to the gamelist (which takes me to the desktop) the taskbar is gone.  I hope this isn't a computer problem where I have to reinstall XP and everything.  It took me forever to set everything up.  I installed AutoHotKey over the weekend and I'm thinking this might be the root of the problem (everything was fine for months until this past weekend) - I uninstalled it but that didn't fix anything.  I want to cry.

 

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EDIT#2:  OK, I've been thinking about this (a lot).  Can I rename my mala folder (to something like "Mala-OLD") and create a new one and reinstall everything and then copy all of the files from the "Mala-OLD" folder (gameslists and stuff) to the new mala folder EXCEPT for mala.exe?

Will this have the effect of reinstalling everything?  Like will I have to point Mala to my rom folder, etc.?

The reason I ask is because I spent a TON of time trying to figure out how to get MisfitMAME installed and the games from there merged into one gamelist and everything set up just so.  If I had to start the install from scratch (also assuming this isn't a larger Windows XP problem) I'm not sure I could get everything working again! 

[Neverending Project]

Try moving the mala.ini file out of the Mala folder and restarting Mala to see if things go back to the default. This holds all of your Mala settings and should revert it to a default state.

I don't think Mala is causing your task bar to disappear. But if it is trying to hide it when it is running, it may be causing issues if it never gets a chance to quit. Did you run any sheller program? Are you using any other utilities like CPWizard that might be hiding your task bar?

To answer your reinstall question, the mala.exe is only the executable, and it doesn't contain any information specific to your install. As I said above, it is all stored in the mala.ini file.

[javeryh]

Thanks for the reply.  I'm getting desperate.  If I move the mala.ini out of the mala folder and rename it and save it on my desktop then Mala should NOT start on bootup, right?  Because the mala.ini file is what is telling it to do that, right?  It will not have any settings and it will need to recreate the mala.ini file, right?  Hopefully reconfiguring the mala.ini will solve the problem...  I'm going to try in a few minutes (snow day!).  I'll report back. 

Thanks for the response!!

[Neverending Project]

Actually, I believe that when you set the Start at Startup setting it sets that in your registry. So removing the mala.ini file will not change that. But after you remove it, you should be able to launch Mala (by double-clicking it in Windows), and then enter the options window. From there you can make sure you uncheck the startup box. Make sure you exit Mala to save these settings. If Mala crashes before you exit, your changes to the settings won't be saved.

[javeryh]

Actually, I believe that when you set the Start at Startup setting it sets that in your registry. So removing the mala.ini file will not change that. But after you remove it, you should be able to launch Mala (by double-clicking it in Windows), and then enter the options window. From there you can make sure you uncheck the startup box. Make sure you exit Mala to save these settings. If Mala crashes before you exit, your changes to the settings won't be saved.

OK, I got it up and running again (I think I have a lot of configuring to do) but when I am scrolling through the game list MaLa crashes EVERY TIME when I scroll to Donkey Kong - it just becomes totally unresponsive.  Any ideas?

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EDIT: I removed Donkey Kong from the gamelist and now I can scroll through and launch every game (well the ones I tried) without issue.  I'm going to try adding it back and see what happens...

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EDIT: I added DK back to the gamelist and it seems to be working.  Then I took a gamble and copied my OLD mala.ini file into the mala folder and everything seems to be working for now.  I haven't tried checking the box for Mala to launch on windows startup but I'm feeling brave so maybe I'll give it a shot.

[Neverending Project]

It seems like you had a problem with your gamelist becoming corrupt rather than your mala installation. Since the gamelist is a separate file in the mala directory, you should be fine copying your old ini file back in. Since Mala was going right to your corrupt game in your gamelist, it was crashing every time. Now that the gamelist is fixed, you may want to copy it somewhere in case this happens again. It should be called something like "All Games.mlg" or "<listname>.mlg"

[javeryh]

It seems like you had a problem with your gamelist becoming corrupt rather than your mala installation. Since the gamelist is a separate file in the mala directory, you should be fine copying your old ini file back in. Since Mala was going right to your corrupt game in your gamelist, it was crashing every time. Now that the gamelist is fixed, you may want to copy it somewhere in case this happens again. It should be called something like "All Games.mlg" or "<listname>.mlg"

Thanks - I think you are exactly right - it was a gamelist problem and the game I had set the cab to boot into was causing it!  I copied my donkeykong.mlg gamelist onto the desktop in case something happens again.  My XP taskbar is back too.  The only thing left is hiding windows completely - I've looked at the wiki and there are a lot of steps (disabling pop-ups, boot screen, mouse cursor, etc.).  Does MaLa work with Instant Sheller?  Is it recommended?

Thanks again - I was really worried there for a while.   

[Neverending Project]

I personally use Mala, and I have used Instant Sheller. It worked fine for me, but others have had issues. I would recommend it, based on the ease of use - but I haven't tried any other method. There is another newer program that someone here wrote that doesn't need the .net libraries installed. I think it is called Quick Shell, but I haven't used it.

If you use Instant Sheller, have yourself a boot image made before you run it, because it will ask you to point to an image to replace the Windows login stuff. There is some info in the wiki about what specific size  and color depth this image needs to be. Good luck!

Edit: If you have any programs start or scripts run when Windows starts (besides Mala) they won't work after you run Instant Sheller. You will need to install the Mala Launcher by TheShanMan in the Mala plugins folder, and place shortcuts or scripts in the  launch folder. Then they will run when Mala launches instead of when Windows starts.

[javeryh]

I personally use Mala, and I have used Instant Sheller. It worked fine for me, but others have had issues. I would recommend it, based on the ease of use - but I haven't tried any other method. There is another newer program that someone here wrote that doesn't need the .net libraries installed. I think it is called Quick Shell, but I haven't used it.

If you use Instant Sheller, have yourself a boot image made before you run it, because it will ask you to point to an image to replace the Windows login stuff. There is some info in the wiki about what specific size  and color depth this image needs to be. Good luck!

Edit: If you have any programs start or scripts run when Windows starts (besides Mala) they won't work after you run Instant Sheller. You will need to install the Mala Launcher by TheShanMan in the Mala plugins folder, and place shortcuts or scripts in the  launch folder. Then they will run when Mala launches instead of when Windows starts.

Thanks for the tips... I'm a little scared to try it!  I have to read up on it more I guess but I'm one of those people that if something goes wrong I won't be able to fix it myself...  All that's left to do is:

- Remove the boot-up sequence (the XP logo with the bar at the bottom)
- Remove the blue Welcome screen
- Figure out how to get MaLa to remain the top window - my AutoHotKey experiment didn't seem to work (or I have the wrong script or something)

I think an shell program will solve #1 and #2.  If there is an easy fix to remove the shell program then I guess I'd give it a shot but I'd want to be sure the MaLa focus issue was resolved first (I tried the plug-in and couldn't get it to work)...

[Neverending Project]

Instant Sheller definitely fixes the first two issues. And now that I think about it, I think I had an issue where Mala would lose focus, also. For me, after I ran Instant Sheller it fixed itself. My guess is that there was some other windows task bar related thingy that was running, and after I ran Instant Sheller it was not an issue.

If you can plug in a keyboard and mouse without too much trouble, running Instant Sheller isn't really something to be afraid of. You will run in, pick your boot screen, tick the boxes for the options you want fixed like mouse cursor etc., then click Go an reboot. If you ever want to undo it, you would plug in your mouse and keyboard, hit ctrl-alt-delete and run the task manager. From there you can run apps form the File menu. If you run explorer.exe, then you can use the mouse to navigate to Instant Sheller, run it again, click Undo, and then reboot. The only issue is that before you undo Instant Sheller, your mouse cursor will be a tiny black dot, so it is very difficult to see - but you can.

I say go for it, and see if the focus issue resolves itself. As for the Focus Logger plug in, I believe it was designed to merely tell you what application was stealing the focus. I couldn't get it to tell me anything either.

And finally if you need it, instead of having AHK simulate a mouse click, I have read that you can simply have it check if an app (Mala) is running in the foreground. If it isn't, AHK can set it to the foreground. But you would have to search on that, cause I don't know for sure.