Android GD Free - Error reading from file (unknown)

[Vladislav Danilov]

Good day to everybody!

Here is the weirdest thing. Downloaded and successfully installed GoldenDict Free from Android Market/Google Play. Fed him one of the Lingvo 12.0 dictionaries, an .lsd file. It ate this just as it is supposed to, with no unexpected activity whatsoever. After short indexing the dic worked perfectly.

However, when I copied into the GoldenDict folder all the other remaining .lsd dictionaries (about 200), it started saying "Error reading from file (unknown)" right upon the app start. I could never get past this point ever since. Tried everything conceivable: reinstalled the program 4 times with physical deletion of the entire GoldenDict folder, or deletion just of its contents excluding the .Config folder, or on the contrary just the contents of the .Config or .Config/index subfolders, tried different .lsd files, or even no files at all - it has been the same "Error reading from file" (which sounds particularly like nonesense with the latter case, i.e. when the folder contains no files - just WHAT is it trying to reed there, so that it gets an error in the process? ).

Now I am at a loss... Please help!

PS: Sony Xperia S (LT26i) w/Android 2.3.7

[ikm]

I've had a couple more people who reported this. Seems to be quite rare - for that reason I have yet to reproduce this or understand just where it happens. Perhaps I could with your help?

Have you tried removing the program completely (i.e. not reinstalling, but removing it first, and then installing again - it would then lose all of its internal settings)?

Could you please install the app called 'aLogcat' (it allows reading program logs), apply Filter 'GoldenDict' there, run GD, then see what it outputs before it dies?

[Vladislav Danilov]

Hi Ikm!

Wow, never in my life have I had tech support provided by the author himself Let me profit from these circumstances by expressing my gratitude for your work - for GD, once this bug is fixed, will surely take its place among my most used Android programs. (Naturally, I will not neglect to buy the full version and add my humble 5-star to that huge starfield already awarded on the Market.)

As per your advice I've just conducted a number of aLogcat-surveyed experiments. In the attachment there is a Zip containing 7 logs with self-explanatory filenames. Hope they can shed some light upon the origin of this thing.

Looking forward to having this bug mercilessly killed Thanks again!

PS : Oops, I don't seem to be able to attach anything, and not only on this forum - it allows to select the file, but there is no Upload button. Looking for a work-around...

PPS : Everything is against me today! The hotel's Wi-Fi appears to be blocking EVERY attempt to attach just about anything to anything anywhere (tried different mail and file servers on 3 mobile devices). I could have used 3G, but I've got no signal in this god-forsaken area. So I guess the files will come through only tomorrow when I get to some more civilised place

[ikm]

Meanwhile, here's one other thing to try: kill GoldenDict process (lots of 3rd-party apps allow you to do that), then remove /sdcard/GoldenDict completely, then run GD, dismiss the error dialog. Now see if

1. The /sdcard/GoldenDict directory was created anew
2. Whether it has any content. If it does, please list all the files there (i.e. the contents of the .config subdir).

[Vladislav Danilov]

The GD process is nowhere to be seen, so I think that after the error message it closes down and unloads from memory. Deleting GoldenDict folder and launching GD results in the creation of the folder with subfolders .config/index, both empty.

[Vladislav Danilov]

At last got some faint signal, enough to upload the logs. Here they are :
http://narod.ru/disk/44120625001./GDlogs.zip.html

[ikm]

Could you check your SD card for filesystem errors? I.e. plug it into a computer and perform 'File system check' there?

[Vladislav Danilov]

I'll be able to do that on Sunday.
By the way, the Xperia's SD is a built-in one, though logically the system recognises it as an ordinary external memory card. And one more thing - I don't have a SIM yet (long story). All this is seemingly unconnected with this bug, but who knows...

[ikm]

Ok, meanwhile, do you have any of the following directories on your SD card?

dictdata/
wordoholic-dictionary/import/
ABBYY/Lingvo/

If you do, try temporarily moving them out to some other dir and see if it helps. GD automatically scans those in search for additional dictionaries.

[Vladislav Danilov]

If only I knew that! The problem solved, but here comes our bug that needs to be fixed. Indeed I had ColorDict installed that uses the Dictdata folder. However, the reason I installed it was the need for using Stardict dictionaries that I had with me in a compressed format. GoldenDict refused to work with those invoking that same "Error reading... " - but that was with the files placed in the GoldenDict folder! I couldn't have possibly thought that it scans other directories as well.

So, as I see it, what happens is that GD, upon encountering in any of the scanned folders ANY dictionary file that it THINKS it can read, but actually cannot, displays this error message and closes down - regardless of the fact that it found plenty of other valid dics. The most immediate remedy seems to be for the program to intercept this error and just ignor it. Possibly, upon completion of the scan a SINGLE report can be generated listing all such unsuccessful attempts to load particular dics, with a checkbox in Preferrences allowing user not to display this report altogether. Also, it could be valuable for a user to decide which folders to include in the scan, and which file extensions to look for (or to ignore).

As for the future, it is very much desired that some day GD support the compressed Stardict formats because ot the obvious space advantage with relatively low performance penalty (already they work very fast on my 2.5 year old 600 MHz Nokia N900, so the newer devices will make them fly).

To sum up, this fruitful tech support incident is successfully resolved Once again, thank you very much for both the program and this 'debug session'! Now waiting impatiently for getting myself a new SIM so that I could buy the full version of GD