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[Fixed] PortableApps.com Launcher 2.1 Can't Handle Additional Starts

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portable.me
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[Fixed] PortableApps.com Launcher 2.1 Can't Handle Additional Starts

What follows in the post contents is the original description which applied to Iron Portable; it seems now that it's more widespread PortableApps.com Launcher problem. Further information in JonBoy's comment.

The error window itself I get is titled "Iron Portable (PortableApps.com Launcher)"

I installed Iron Portable three times new the last weeks as I always got a "Another instance of IronPortable is starting. Please wait for it to start before launching it again." after a fresh start of windows.
Eventually I also got a "Another instance of IronPortable is already running. Please close other instances of IronPortable before launching IronPortable."
I checked the processes running in the background but no Iron instance found. Closed PortableApps at all, tried to start Iron - fail.
Starting iron.exe from \IronPortable\App\Iron\ does work with none of my profile items loading of course. No plugins, history, etc.
Until now I could only solve it by uninstalling and reinstalling everything from scratch, doing all installs, form data, cookies, etc all over.

Any suggestion what might be wrong?
Thanks a lot for any helpful suggestions to get rid of this problem. Firefox became too much of a ressource hog my laptop couldn't handle anymore (1gb+ ram while running).

[Title updated from "Iron Portable (or maybe PortableApps.com Launcher) error" - mod Chris]

Chris Morgan
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Delete runtime data INI file

This message is provided by PAL. While the app is starting, it sets a flag that it is "starting", which is then changed to "running" when it gets to run. There is one situation that it has occurred to me is not covered by this situation: when custom code causes the abortion of the program. If you have portable passwords enabled and enter the wrong password or cancel the password input panel, you will get stuck in the "starting" state. Is this what you've done?

To fix it yourself, delete Data\PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-IronPortable.ini.

computerfreaker: you should not abort the program after the Init hook. Your Pre code belongs in Init, as does much of the PrePrimary code. Edit: there are also a variety of other things that you should clean up in that launcher - the language file includes strings it shouldn't, CallANSIPlugin.nsh isn't needed with PAL 2.1, PluginsA isn't needed, and what is the Languages directory doing there at all? Custom.nsh could also be cleaned up somewhat (ImportPasswords and ExportPasswords don't need to be in separate functions, for example, only getting called once, and can be inlined.)

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“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

portable.me
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Thanks for your quick reply Chris!
I have no portable passwords enabled, but deleting the "PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-IronPortable.ini" still solved it for me.

Chris Morgan
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Hmm.

Any idea what you were doing the time before it broke? (The Portable Passwords thing just seemed a good idea as it could potentially have been a trigger - but then also, in the code I do have something that should be called if it Aborts which would delete the runtime data, so I don't think what I said was particularly right anyway - though it still shouldn't use Abort after the Init hook.)

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

portable.me
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got back to it just now;

got back to it just now; nothing specific to report what I did.
I've closed the browser manually and clean, no abortion of the process via task manager, etc.

computerfreaker
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Please can you check the Task

Please can you check the Task Manager to see if either iron.exe or IronPortable.exe is still running? That's fairly important.

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

florisz
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'Ironportable is currently stopping

I use a couple of portable apps over the last 6 years. Ironportable only since a year and daily.
Just since this week I start getting these errors of 'Ironportable is currently stopping' when I want to start the program.
It happend on my home pc first. This pc is often set in hybernation, so I checked if there was any exe of iron running in the task manager. Negative!
I checked the mentioned ini file and indeed it still had 'stopping' in it. So deleting did it.
All of a sudden today I got it at my work pc also. This PC is always shut down completely everyday(no hybernation or sleepin etc.)

I use Iron portable: 19.0.1100.0 (Developer Build 140000 Windows)
Portable launcher v2.1.2

computerfreaker
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Cleaning up the launcher

ChrisMorganyou should not abort the program after the Init hook.

How should I handle an invalid password, then? Just create a goto that skips the rest of the code in the affected function?

ChrisMorgan Your Pre code belongs in Init, as does much of the PrePrimary code.

I'll move my Pre code to Init, but I'm not so sure about the PrePrimary. Isn't Init called each time the launcher opens (i.e. if the user runs IronPortable.exe again)? The user should only need to enter the master password once, hence my selection of PrePrimary for that code.

ChrisMorganthe language file includes strings it shouldn't, CallANSIPlugin.nsh isn't needed with PAL 2.1, PluginsA isn't needed, and what is the Languages directory doing there at all?

All taken care of. Is this ok for the language file?

ChrisMorganCustom.nsh could also be cleaned up somewhat (ImportPasswords and ExportPasswords don't need to be in separate functions, for example, only getting called once, and can be inlined.)

I'm not sure how I would cleanly merge ImportPasswords and ExportPasswords, since the functions' cores are fairly different. Do you just want me to create one big conditional:

;setup code common to ImportPasswords and ExportPasswords goes here
${If} Import == "true"
;ImportPasswords code here
${Else}
;ExportPasswords code here
${EndIf}

Looking back, that's a good-sized amount of cleanup. Do you think it's worth a revision for Iron? (Please keep in mind that we just posted 12.0.750, and that SRWare usually posts a revision or two of their own)

Thanks for the suggestions!

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

JonBoy
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Variant is confirmed here for other apps.

I've recently started seeing error messages on my XP system from launchers of the form "Another instance of ZZZ, Portable Edition is starting. Please wait for it to start before launching it again"" where ZZZ has (so far) been OperaPortable or FoxitPortable.

This happens when clicking a link in ThunderBirdPortable (to be passed to OperaPortable) but also in the file explorer when double-clicking a pdf file to be opened in FoxitPortable. Note that it seems to trigger when a second link is passed to an already-running program. If Opera is already running then the second request errors but if, for example, Foxit isn't already running then the first file is opened and so is the second but the third errors.

I am not aware of any change to my practice or configuration that could have triggered the behaviour but it's not clear to me that deleting the relevant Data\PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-ZZZPortable.ini files would make the problem go away (and not return) in this situation as it doesn't quite match OP's (but this is only relevant thread I found when searching).

Anyway, I thought I'd flag that (for me) a similar problem started appearing at a similar time with launchers for other portable apps so IronPortable should probably not be seen as a unique case.

Nasenbaer83
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Same problem here

I can also confirm it for Opera and FoxitReader. I assigned the FoxitPortable.exe as the default app for PDFs and OperaPortable.exe as default browser.

The following scenario describes opening PDFs with FoxitPortable.exe as assigned app. The behavior is the same when opening links with OperaPortable.exe.

If I open the first document, the corresponding app is opened showing the document. Open another document and everything works again - another windows is opened to display it. But then the ini-file is broken. After opening the second document the status changes to "starting" stays forever. So when trying to open the third document I get the "Another instance is currently loading ...".

For Opera, I manually replace OperaPortable.exe with the one from OperaPortable 11.00. Works fine with newer version but not a real solution and requires manual manipulation.

John T. Haller
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Confirmed - Critical Bug

I've confirmed this is a bug in PAL 2.1 that effects multiple restarts. On first launch, it launches as expected. On second launch (while already running), The launcher runtime INI is set as Status=starting and is then stuck like that. Third and further launches will all fail with the "X is already starting.." message. This happens even when custom code is not aborting an app.

This will particularly affect all PAL apps that accept files on the commandline to open (LibreOffice Portable, Foxit, Opera, etc) and prevent them from being able to be associated with files using the platforms upcoming file association utility.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Chris Morgan
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Identified, will release 2.1.1

I didn't exercise enough caution during "starting". It should skip writing that value if it's a secondary launch. I had observed the potential problem with the "stopping", but I think I had been depending on "running" being set - forgetting that it's not set if $WaitForProgram == false and $SecondaryLaunch == true implies that. Still, though, when the primary instance is closed, it should clear up the "starting" value, so it should just be third and subsequent starts which don't work until they're all killed and then it should start working again. Is it not doing this?

I found a comparatively minor related bug with it, too - secondary launches would leave $PLUGINSDIR\runtimedata.ini behind. Fixing that for 2.1.1 as well.

Perhaps for 2.2 I should add some more to the starting/stopping error messages: "If you aren't starting $AppNamePortable and you keep getting this message, delete $DataDirectory\PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-$BaseName.ini."

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

Chris Morgan
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PortableApps.com Launcher 2.1.1 Release Candidate 1

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

John T. Haller
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Fixed in 2.1.1

This is fixed in PAL 2.1.1. It is filtering out to apps now as they are updated.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

JonBoy
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Thanks to all those

Thanks to all those involved.

Surprised that few users seem to have encountered this (judging by search of forum) but delighted that it's been attended to and sorted.

John T. Haller
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Associations

It's generally people who use file associations. And while we have CAFE Mod, eXpresso and Portable File Associations add-ons available for easy install to the platform, it's not as popular as it could be.

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ItchPii
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I have a similar problem

I have a similar problem except I want to delete mine for good because it's causing errors every other time I want to run Illustrator. Please help! I've been trying to delete the IllustratorPortable.ini file for hours and I got no luck. It keeps on saying it can't be found but when I do a search on my drive C, it still shows. Even command prompt can't find it.

John T. Haller
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Unrelated, Warez

This issue is unrelated to the one posted above. It's also unrelated to PortableApps.com. A distributed copy of Illustrator Portable is warez (illegal) and nothing to do with our site (it also probably has other nasty stuff in it). We only build and support legal software.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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