Celestia Forums

Hi guys!

New install of Celestia 1.5.1 on XP SP3 with ATI Radeon X1050 with latest drivers. This is a basic (no add-ins) install but everytime I run the program, I get the above error. I have downloaded the package again, just in case there was a corruption there with same result. i have uninstalled and reinstalled with the same result. Pretty frustrating as I was really keen to see this!

Yes, I have looked through the forums but didn't find anything useful...likewise with google.

I'd be grateful for any help!!

Cheers

Steve

steveinakayak wrote:Hi guys!

New install of Celestia 1.5.1 on XP SP3 with ATI Radeon X1050 with latest drivers. This is a basic (no add-ins) install but everytime I run the program, I get the above error. I have downloaded the package again, just in case there was a corruption there with same result. i have uninstalled and reinstalled with the same result. Pretty frustrating as I was really keen to see this!

Yes, I have looked through the forums but didn't find anything useful...likewise with google.

I'd be grateful for any help!!

Cheers

Steve

Steve, clearly you must have accidentally done something that caused this unusual error, since thousands of people use Celestia 1.5.1 without any problems.

Did you check whether you have the file 'stars.dat' in the data subdirectory of the celestia distribution? Did you upgrade Celestia from some earlier distribution, using part of the older data?

Fridger

HI, thanks for the quick reply!

I thought the same as you so i downloaded a new copy...uninstalled..reinstalled (following all defaults..) and get exactly the same problem. The stars.dat file is sitting exacly where it should be at C:\Program Files\Celestia\data\stars.dat and the config file is correctly referencing StarDatabase "data/stars.dat"

This was a clean install, not an upgrade and there are no add-ons involved to complicate things...should be as easy as it gets!

Still confused..

What are the protections on stars.dat?
Are you running Celestia from the same account that you used to install it?
I'm wondering if it was installed from an admin account and you're trying to run it
from an unprivileged user account which doesn't have the rights to read the file.

You might try installing Celestia in a completely different directory, not in Program Files.

Like maybe create the folder from your non-privileged account
C:\user_programs
and install Celestia there using that same account.

Vista treats programs installed in Program Files differently from programs installed elsewhere.
I've never seen XP do that, though.

Very strange.

Hi Selden!

Well..I don't know how, but that was the problem. I installed into another directory and it worked just fine. Can't explain it though. The only unusual thing about this PC is that i run ShadowUser so I can test stuff and then reboot with all the changes gone. C:\program files is protected but I install stuff all the time...all it means is that when you reboot, the PC loses all the changes and goes back to square one. So I installed to a unprotected staging folder and tada, it works!!! Totally weird, I have NEVER seen this before and I can't figure it. HOWEVER...I don't care cos now its working and I'm going to go play.

Thanks guys...)

Steve