Multiple "LoadLibrary" errors (again, I know...)

[TheFiddler 5]

Hello All,

having today purchased and installed the RXP GTN 750 for X-Plane 11 (and of course also the Garmin Trainer for the GTN 750, but not for the other devices), I have been promptly hit by the non-fatal but extremely annoying errors described in an older long thread on this forum.
(Moderator: As the last post there is from March 2019, and versions etc have changed since then, I thought it best to start a new thread here, instead of adding to the old one; I hope this is acceptable.)

This message is mainly for the record (problem persists in current versions). I am aware of the various other threads about the problem (and specifically the Comodo issue); and I'm trying to find out if anything new has come up in the meantime which I may have missed. I have also found what might be a new twist.

Versions:
XPlane: 11.41
RXP GTN750 plug-in: 2.5.26.0 (dated 06.06.2020)
(GNS plugin, PFCHidReports64.dll, is version 3.2.5.109)
Garmin "Aviation Trainer Launcher": 2.7.10
Garmin GTN 750 Trainer (GTN Simulator.exe) : 6.62.4.0
(dated 28.05.2020, thus earlier than the plug-in -- so this is probably not simply another case of Garmin getting ahead of RXP, Or?).

The problem is exactly the same as described by others before: After clicking on the "Power on" button in the "Aviation Trainer Launcher", I get 12 to 16 pop-ups with "LoadLibrary failed to load XXXXX.dll. GetLastError: 126", where XXXXX apparently (as per the older thread) is a series of DLL files for the Garmin Trainer program. Those files are all present in the same directory where "GTN Simulator.exe" lives
(...\GTN_Trainer\Packages\GTN\bin).
But after clicking OK on each of those 12-16 pop-ups, the trainer then seems to actually work as expected (I have so far only tested the most basic functions), which has also been reported before by others. (OK, three or four clicks to get rid of those pop-ups would perhaps not be a real problem, but a dozen or more is...)

• This happens both with the stand-alone Trainer and in XP11, via the plug-in.

Even after reading the 9 pages of the old thread, it is however still not clear to me if this should still be happening also with the latest versions over a year later, hence this post. Perhaps I have missed some more general information/solution which has been found in the meantime?

I can also add one new twist, just to increase the confusion:

Like some earlier posters I am running a Comodo firewall and have tried the following:

• telling the firewall to "Allow" all applications to do with the Garmin Trainer: this did not help;
• temporarily disabling the firewall: this did not help either;

The new(?) twist:

• When I exit the firewall application completely, I can start the "Aviation Trainer Launcher" (as stand-alone thus),
  but after clicking "Power on", now nothing at all happens any more: the actual Garmin GTN 750 window does not even come up.
  After closing the Launcher, I am then stuck with a roar.exe process (router to database, or something like that) which cannot be killed
  even with Process Explorer ("Access denied" even though I am the admin. Impressive!).

Subsequent efforts to run the Launcher again then fail, with a message "Preflight error: The data router is already running from a different program."
The only "solution" at this point (to get rid of roar.exe) is thus to reboot the whole machine...

Some people apparently had success with uninstalling the Comodo firewall completely and/or replacing it with another one. But while I am willing to try (for testing) temporarily disabling or even exiting it, a complete uninstallation cannot really be considered a "solution", in my view. Besides (see above) without the firewall running (even if disabled),  I cannot even get to the GTN 750 window.

I also realise that this is almost certainly a Garmin rather than an RXP problem. I did try the Garmin "Support" site, but so far was not even able to find any links relevant to the Trainer (as opposed to their hardware). Whereas the RXP support is excellent, judging by the patience and persistence displayed in that older thread. And after all, the RXP product does rely completely on the Trainer, so... 😉

Any hints or ideas would be much appreciated.  

Cheers,
theFiddler

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

Since last time, we've implemented mitigation and workaround for most occurrences of this problem. In effect, we've not had a single report for a while.

However and like you've further discovered, it appears Comodo firewall is badly interfering with the trainer executable in a way which seems really intrusive (I find this nearly suspect). Shutting down the application doesn't seem to actually really shut it down (are you sure it not documented shutting down the application doesn't shut down the 'protection' which would still run in the background?)

At this stage, it is a very low system level component (Comodo) trying to take too much control on another application (the trainer) and the issue is in the hands of Garmin unfortunately.

I'm suspecting why Comodo is doing this with the Garmin trainer and I'll eventually further some tests with you if you agree. I can't promise whether this will be soon or not because there is a lot on our hands right now, but there is something I've been suspecting a few month ago and I might want to try out this theory and I can't do it without your help.

[TheFiddler 5]

Hello All,

just so no one thinks this thread has gone dead: Jean-Luc and I are working "behind the scenes" on this. Excellent support by RXP!

Unfortunately, so far not much progress to report; it really looks as if currently the only way to get Comodo (just the firewall in my case) out of the equation is to uninstall it completely (as has been reported before). Just disabling or even exiting it will not suffice.

Obviously uninstalling a firewall is always risky "surgery", which I can't try currently, for fear of risking more fall-out on a computer I need to be working. But others have done that and reported success, see the earlier thread linked above.

If you try, do remember not to run without any firewall, though!

Cheers,
theFiddler

 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by TheFiddler

[TheFiddler 5]

Just FYI and for "closure": Even after long and instructive (to me at least 😄) discussions with Jean-Luc, no proper solution of that "LoadLibrary error 126" could be found, alas.

However, the work-around reported by others in the earlier threads works fine for me, too, namely to use an older version (6.21.0) of the Garmin Trainer instead of the current v.6.62.4.
That older Trainer version (from Sep.2016) will even work with most databases of the newer (Nov.2019) one.

The one exception is a file "card" in v.6.21.0 (I think this is the airport charts). This file is not in v.6.62.4, which instead has a file apt_dir.gca. But this latter file will not work in the older Trainer: the GTN then reports "Charts: not available". So I have to stick to the 2016 charts. With that, I "can live", however.

Cheers,
theFiddler

Edited June 26, 2020 by TheFiddler

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

This is definitely a problem with Comodo software impacting normal operation of the trainer standalone.

Until Comodo and Garmin find out the root cause and solve this, or that we find out a workaround, using the older trainer (6.21) is for now a working solution if you keep using Comodo.

I thank you for your enduring patience and all the feedback you've provided!