Savefile block can't be read

[discochoir]

Ubuntu 13.10
I had gone to the Ubuntu software center and downloaded Angband3.3, played for a bit, then removed it completely.
I then downloaded, compiled, installed v3.5. It opens up fine and asks me to press any key to continue. So I do!
Immediately I receive the error:

Savefile block can't be read
Maybe try and load the savefile in an earlier version of Angband

I've checked the file where saves are located, and its empty except for a "makefile". I'd rather avoid erasing all of Angband and re-installing it, if possible.

I do not care about the savefile, if it happens to still exist somewhere I do not want it. I just want to play the new version from the beginning. Unless its referring to savefile.c/savefile.h. Which I know little about, but having read them, they appear to be necessary for creating save data. Those however seem both present and intact.

[Nick]

On Linux, the saves are actually kept in a different place - probably ~/.angband/Angband/save. If you delete your old savefile from there, everything should be fine.

[Derakon]

Would it be at all feasible for the game to default to create-a-new-character if loading a save fails for whatever reason? Ideally you shouldn't have to track down the savefile in the filesystem and delete it.

Actually it's kind of weird that the Linux version (apparently?) automatically tries to load your savefile when it starts. Shouldn't it give you the opportunity to save vs. load, and support multiple active savefiles like the OSX and Windows versions do?

[Nick]

Would it be at all feasible for the game to default to create-a-new-character if loading a save fails for whatever reason? Ideally you shouldn't have to track down the savefile in the filesystem and delete it.

Yes, that would be sensible - or at least give the player a choice.

Actually it's kind of weird that the Linux version (apparently?) automatically tries to load your savefile when it starts. Shouldn't it give you the opportunity to save vs. load, and support multiple active savefiles like the OSX and Windows versions do?

It does support multiple savefiles, but as a command-line -u<savefile> option (and defaults to the username). If it's run from a menu or whatever, I guess you'll just always get the default. It probably would make sense to have the ability at least to query for savefiles (as the defunct-and-in-most-other-respects-sucky-GTK port used to).

[discochoir]

On Linux, the saves are actually kept in a different place - probably ~/.angband/Angband/save. If you delete your old savefile from there, everything should be fine.

Tried this with high hopes, it made sense. However, there is no such folder in the directory. I navigated to ~/ but no ".angband" to be found. In fact, doing a complete system search there is no ".angband" anywhere at all (which has me a tad concerned)

[Derakon]

Tried this with high hopes, it made sense. However, there is no such folder in the directory. I navigated to ~/ but no ".angband" to be found. In fact, doing a complete system search there is no ".angband" anywhere at all (which has me a tad concerned)

Given what Nick said above, you should be able to start it on the commandline with "-uCharacterName" to create a new character. And once you done that, you can search for the new savefile name and find where the old one is.

[discochoir]

I guess I missed that, it launches just fine now and moves into character creation. Thanks, I'l see if i can track down the save location now as well

UPDATE:
cannot find the new save file. Created a character dump to a txt file, looked for that too but with no luck. My only theory is that the save is going somewhere hidden, a place I can't see or access without root priviledge.

[Magnate]

I guess I missed that, it launches just fine now and moves into character creation. Thanks, I'l see if i can track down the save location now as well

UPDATE:
cannot find the new save file. Created a character dump to a txt file, looked for that too but with no luck. My only theory is that the save is going somewhere hidden, a place I can't see or access without root priviledge.

How well do you understand hidden files and directories in Linux?

When Nick used ~/.angband/Angband/save he was using shorthand for

/home/yourusername/.angband/Angband/save

- apologies if you already know this, but it does seem like you haven't yet found where Angband is storing your saves and dumps. If you use "ls -a" in your home directory you should see the .angband directory. Please let us know if it isn't there - and paste a screenshot of your ls output.

[LostTemplar]

Btw when I run vanilla Angband on linux it did wierd things, dont remember exactly what, but I had to create .angband folder manually and modify some path strings in the source to get it working.

[Magnate]

Btw when I run vanilla Angband on linux it did wierd things, dont remember exactly what, but I had to create .angband folder manually and modify some path strings in the source to get it working.

What flavour of Linux, and what version of V? I don't think I've heard that reported before.

[Algus]

Hey,

Sorry for bumping old thread but I had this issue as well and found the thread through googling. I decided to make Angband 3.5 on my Xubuntu 12.04 system.

I had to run as sudo to get past the savefile block error. Maybe a read/write thing since it had to create a new file? I dunno. I can run without sudo now by using -u<CharacterName> now if I wish but I still get the savefile block error if I don't run sudo angband or angband -u<CharacterName>