Windows 8 SMB and VMC problem

[acaN]

Hello. I've faced a weird problem: while using windows8 pc to set up a share for opl, I've managed to do it without any problems: i can play games, it saves settings for games, i can create VMC bin's over SMB too. But when i try to save a game to VMC, saving either fails or game says that save complete, but .bin file stays empty.
What i tried:
- manipulating permissions until my nose bled (nothing helped, even full access permissions to Everyone).
- forcing W8 to use smb 1.0:

sc config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

- setting per-file permissions for .bin files.
- making network private
- turning off windows firewall
Nothing worked. I thought i was a opl bug, but then i shared same folder using ubuntu livecd and games saved without any problem. Magic.
PS2 is connected directly to PC. No router or anything.
Is there something i am missing in SMB setup? I suppose, if i can create VMC over SMB i should be able to modify it over SMB? But W8 doesn't think so.

[redlion]

Hi, just registered, first time poster, and sorry for the length in advance.

I have exact same problem, and until I read your post, Windows 8 never crossed my mind. A brief history...

I had been running Free McBoot 1.8b with OPL 0.8 off USB for some time and have been fairly pleased with how it functions. Most VMC saves worked fine except for occasional games that don't save to VMC at all. However, most people seemed to indicate that SMB was better for FMV and general game loading. As most games had choppy intros, I wanted to give it a try. I also wanted to partition 800MB of a 3GB drive for games so I could access them all at once instead of the 300GB drive I was using at the time.

I was using Windows 7 and was not able to get PS2 SMB up and running. I had read that there are a lot of network issues with Windows 7 and Vista. After trying for days, I just decided that because of all my playing around, I just wanted to start fresh, so I installed Windows 8. I had no problem setting up the PS2 for SMB on Windows 8. Most games work better, but like you, I am going crazy with my VMC.

Like you, I am able to create new .bin files for saving games, but once in a gave get the save failed message. I also found that games that previously ran on my USB setup no longer function on SMB, which I found odd. During one game, I was able to load VMC, but then after failing to save, the VMC stopped working altogether and couldn't be accessed or loaded from or saved to. I also noticed in Spiderman 2 it now asks me to insert a Dualshock2 controller (which is already plugged in) and it did not do that before. No response, even after unplugging and plugging back in. Get rid of the VMC reference and it works fine. This is why I thought OPL originally.

In addition to installing windows 8, I also upgraded from Free McBoot 1.8b with OPL 0.8 to Free McBoot 1.8c with OPL 0.9.1 and thought maybe that was causing the problem. I am now considering going back to my old setup except trying SMB instead of USB on OPL 0.8.

Any help or suggesting are much appreciated. Sharing in Windows 8 is slightly different from previous versions, so my guess is we've both missed ticking or unticking something.

[redlion]

One other thing I forgot to mention. I didn't find the same to be true with most existing saves. I have been able to load games from existing .bin files and save many back to the same file. I haven't tried all of my saves, but from my small sample, this seems to be true of about 80% of the games. Is this the case for you as well?

[acaN]

One other thing I forgot to mention. I didn't find the same to be true with most existing saves. I have been able to load games from existing .bin files and save many back to the same file. I haven't tried all of my saves, but from my small sample, this seems to be true of about 80% of the games. Is this the case for you as well?

I just got a new PC, so i didn't have any VMCs with save files on them, so i can't confirm or deny your case. But i have successfully loaded game from the save i made during ubuntu|samba experiment, so, i guess, loading from existing .bin's works fine.