GSX won’t install **SOLVED**

[brucewtb]

That's because we just updated them as, as explained in this very thread, after an update it might take a while for all Cloudflare nodes to get the update files, your local node might still have got the old files or, even worse, some of them might be new, some of them are still the old version.

Of course your checksums don't match the one in this thread, the installer has likely been updated other times in between so, it's not a problem if they don't match those checksum, the new ones are:


2C7DDE2E1AB5D83B18A6BEE5256216A7  gsx_p3d4_setup2-6.bin
1E705270C1CC249389DD005310D91A98  gsx_p3d4_setup2-5.bin
34169CEBD3556063052AF484BBDB4D00  gsx_p3d4_setup2-4.bin
20E04D8321AA5656BCF9288310245D64  gsx_p3d4_setup2-3.bin
D72140A7A154CC0B1CB60F1EEF62964C  gsx_p3d4_setup2-2.bin
5FCBDEFF9D6B96CB736E796DE5496025  gsx_p3d4_setup2-1.bin
F5FF4B3B680F4AA7B519E190948A9C8D  gsx_p3d4_setup2.exe

Thank you for those.  Unfortunately only some of the checksums match and the ones that do and don't change with repeated downloads.  Furthermore all my FSDT airports have reverted to Trial Mode and the serial activation process does not work.  If I attempt to run the airport installers they insist on having GSX level 2 installed so I am stuck.  If I run live update it only updates my MSFS install of KORD doesn't seem to know about the P3D4 and P3D5 stuff. Is it a complication that the MSFS 2020 KORD installed into an addon manager in my MSFS2020 folder whereas the P3D4 and P3D5 FSDT airports are all in an addon manager on my P3D4 drive?   I know the internet is the wild west but I am puzzled that these bad downloads are only an issue with FSDT files.  Other large files are downloading and extracting without issue including the recent MSFS2020 WU and my Orbx files.  If this can't be fixed then I guess it looks like the end of the road for FSDT and me (except for MSFS2020).  Thank you for your past service.

Bruce

Bruce

[virtuali]

Unfortunately only some of the checksums match and the ones that do and don't change with repeated downloads.

This is likely caused by your local Cloudflare node being slow getting the updated file. As an alternative, you can try using a VPN, which will trick Cloudflare to access a another node, some free ones you can try:

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/best-free-vpn

Is it a complication that the MSFS 2020 KORD installed into an addon manager in my MSFS2020 folder whereas the P3D4 and P3D5 FSDT airports are all in an addon manager on my P3D4 drive? 

YES, of course it's a complication. In fact, it would surely mess FSDT completely, and I wonder HOW you even managed to DO THAT, considering all our installers prevent you to do that.

As you might have noticed, when you install an FSDT product for the first time on an clean system, it will LET YOU freely choose any destination for the main Addon Manager folder, but any product installed after the first one, won't let you, because the installer has set a key in the registry to save that location, to prevent you from doing exactly that: installing some products in one folder and other products in another one.

ALL our software, from GSX to the installers, to the updater RELY on that registry key to be set, to be correct and to the assumption that all FSDT products, regardless which simulator they are related to, will be all in the main folder together.

I still don't understand how you managed to do that, other than manually moving the installation and/or manually editing the FSDT registry key.

I know the internet is the wild west but I am puzzled that these bad downloads are only an issue with FSDT files.  Other large files are downloading and extracting without issue including the recent MSFS2020 WU and my Orbx files. 

You shouldn't use your own experience as an indication of anything. Because, if you checked some forums, you would see PLENTY of users complaining about extremely slow or stuck downloads, especially with MSFS 2020 updates, for example here, a topic aptly named "GIVING UP":

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/614963-giving-up/

So, if you got good results with Microsoft or Orbx distribution method, and now you got unlucky with FSDT one, it doesn't mean anything, other than Microsoft distribution working normally from your location, which might not work for some users  ( see above ), but Cloudflare being slower than normal to get the latest files on your location, but that's also clearly not happening to the vast majority of users.

[brucewtb]

When I installed KORD for MSFS2020 it just allowed me to install an addon manager folder to the NVME ssd where my MSFS2020 installation is located. I was keen to have all my MSFS2020 stuff on the same very fast drive. My P3D4.5 and P3D5.3 installations are on their own separate SSD drives.  I guess the key in registry that prevents another addon folder being created didn't do its job on that occasion.  The original folder was on a drive set aside for P3D4.5 that I planned to scrub as I was moving onto P3D5.  But keeping FSDT stuff on my PC is just becoming too complicated. Other developers seem to manage things in a less convoluted more streamlined way and their addons continue to work over successive P3D updates with little effort on my part.  I like GSX, its features add a lot to flight simming with P3D and once working FSDT airports are very high quality - I have most of them.  It looks like even if I did a complete uninstall and attempt a clean reinstall of my FSDT stuff the Cloudfare gotcha is going to put a stop to that and I have no desire to go down the VPN route as the free versions have many drawbacks. If Cloudfare does work, or rather does not work, as you describe then it puts a big roadblock on the efficient transfer of content over the internet - what a bummer! Has it always been that way?

Bruce

[virtuali]

When I installed KORD for MSFS2020 it just allowed me to install an addon manager folder to the NVME ssd where my MSFS2020 installation is located. I was keen to have all my MSFS2020 stuff on the same very fast drive. My P3D4.5 and P3D5.3 installations are on their own separate SSD drives.  I guess the key in registry that prevents another addon folder being created didn't do its job on that occasion. 

Sorry, but that's not possible, the only possible way this could have happened is if you uninstalled FSDT and reply YES to the question about removing the Addon Manager, and this CLEARED the registry key, so you were allowed to choose a new one for the MSFS installation.

This, or you manually removed the key, to force the MSFS Addon Manager to let you choose a different folder freely.

Or, you created a new user account on that PC, because the key is by-user, not by-system.

After you cleared the registry key, your old P3D install, while still having all files and still having all the sceneries working, was now ignored by the FSDT Live Update so, from its point of view, even if your P3D sceneries were still working, because their add-on.xml were still valid and pointing to their actual locations, it was now frozen in its last state, because the update would now consider only the new MSFS location.

But keeping FSDT stuff on my PC is just becoming too complicated.

You are making it complicated, because you fixated on having "P3D stuff" and "MSFT stuff" separated, as this would make ANY difference for something that is ALWAYS installed OUTSIDE THE SIMULATOR, like FSDT.

If you stopped considering the products "by sim", and started to reason as "the whole FSDT stuff", you wouldn't even tried to separate them, because it doesn't really many any sense, when they our outside the sim.

Other developers seem to manage things in a less convoluted more streamlined way and their addons continue to work over successive P3D updates with little effort on my part.

That's not the case. Other developers are making it convoluted, by doing strange things like installing something inside the sim, something outside. Or using the add-on.xml to point to something inside the sim. Or using the add-on.xml without an absolute path, putting all their stuff in the Documents folder, instead of JUST the add-on.xml

THESE questionable methods must have lead you to assume you should "separate by sim" because yes, developers doing all these convoluted things forced you to think this way, when in fact, the reality is the opposite: the PROPER way we use the add-on.xml, which is:

- DO NOT install ANYTHING into P3D

- Place ONLY the add-on.xml in the Documents folder, but use absolute paths to ANY drive you want.

This is PRECISELY what allow you to "have the addons continue to work over successive P3D updates with NO effort on your part" ZERO effort, because the place where you install "THE FSDT STUFF" is not related in any way to the simulator used, and P3D has been *designed* to have add-ons surviving an complete simulator reinstall, but not all developers use this feature in the proper way, which I assure you it's the one we use. There are *whole* P3D Add-ons ( Lorby's Addon Manager, for example ) to achieve exactly what we already do BY DEFAULT!

Clearly, this means the whole issue of wanting to keep MSFS and P3D stuff is completely irrelevant, when the folder is completely separated from the simulator. What's simpler than:

- EVERYTHING from FSDT installed in a SINGLE place, the main Addon Manager folder

- The P3D products being visible because their own add-on.xml, placed in the Documents\Prepar3d Add-ons folder, pointing to Addon Manager folder, regardless where it is

- The MSFS products inside the Addon Manager\MSFS folder, with just a Symbolic Link to the Community folder so, again no Community folder is being harmed here. There are whole MSFS ADD-ONS (Addon Linker ) made just to achieve with other products what we already do BY DEFAULT ( creating a  Symbolic Link to the Community folder to let you install the scenery everywhere )

If Cloudfare does work, or rather does not work, as you describe then it puts a big roadblock on the efficient transfer of content over the internet - what a bummer! Has it always been that way?

Of course it has, that's the way a CDN works but, after a day or to, the whole world gets all the latest files, and all complains stops immediately. 

Developers that don't use CDNs have their own server down or incredibly slow for a few days after a major release, people complain ( or they just say "wow, that product launch was a success!!" ) but the end result is the same: affected users still can't get their download for a day or two, then the problem disappear by itself once the traffic goes to normal levels.

[brucewtb]

"Sorry, but that's not possible, the only possible way this could have happened is if you uninstalled FSDT and reply YES to the question about removing the Addon Manager, and this CLEARED the registry key, so you were allowed to choose a new one for the MSFS installation. This, or you manually removed the key, to force the MSFS Addon Manager to let you choose a different folder freely. Or, you created a new user account on that PC, because the key is by-user, not by-system."

Ok further to this I can adamantly declare that I did not uninstall FSDT and at the time knew nothing about the FSDT registry keys (I do now) or created a new user account when I installed KORD for MSFS2020. None of these things happened. So something else happened to overwrite the addon manager registry path or maybe at some previous time my P3D FSDT stuff got corrupted and I didn't notice because of being preoccupied with MSFS2020.  Now that I have a better understanding of the way FSDT is installed I can see where you are coming from so I too am puzzled.  Anyhow it does explain why my P3D FSDT stuff was so screwed up.  I will now completely scrub FSDT from my PC using the procedures described elsewhere on this site and hopefully manage to get a clean FSDT download if cloudfare allows me to do so and have a think about where to put addon manager.  But I do prefer the way Orbx organises their stuff allowing me to have separate libraries for P3D4, P3D5 and MSFS2020 all installed outside the sim.

Bruce

[virtuali]

Ok further to this I can adamantly declare that I did not uninstall FSDT and at the time knew nothing about the FSDT registry keys (I do now) or created a new user account when I installed KORD for MSFS2020. None of these things happened.

You might not now about the registry key, and you don't even *need* to know, normally. But our installer surely KNOWS and, I can assure you, the only possible way it could let you install an FSDT in one locations after you already had installed another on in another, is if that registry was missing. This is not open to debate.

Now, I can't possibly be sure WHY it was missing on YOUR system. I listed 3 possible ways but, over the years, I learn there's no end to how much end users system can be messed up, usually by running something else entirely, like antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, registry-cleaners, ad-removal tools.

So yes, in addition to the 3 possible reason I explained, there might be plenty of others, but surely your registry key was lost, and I don't know how the program should have behaved any differently, other than letting you install afresh and forgetting about the old install.

The only possible way to deal with this automatically, would be forcing ALL users to wait what might be a fairly long process ( especially if you have many large drives ) to scan the entire system to find an existing installation, and in that case offer a choice to restore the lost registry key and continue to install there, or just ignore it and install anew somewhere else. That could work, but it will slow down the installation process JUST to cover a borderline case of possibly losing the FSDT registry key.

Not even the simulator itself does that. If you lost the P3D registry key, it won't try to "find" an existing installation, it will let you install everywhere else, possibly leaving an old duplicate folder orphaned. That's why registry keys exists to begin with, to prevent a program to scan the whole system to find its previous version.

But I do prefer the way Orbx organises their stuff allowing me to have separate libraries for P3D4, P3D5 and MSFS2020 all installed outside the sim.

As already explained, we have ALL our products installed OUTSIDE OF THE SIM since years, before anybody else and, in fact, when we were the first ( as we usually are ), doing this, users called us "weird", because they were accustomed to the old ways of installing "inside the sim". Now, years after, almost everybody understood the value of installing outside the sim, as we did first, and there are various utilities made ( Lorby's in P3D, Addon Linker in MSFS ) to achieve PRECISELY what our installers do by default.

Installing outside of the sim is what makes all the difference.

Once add-ons are outside the sim, having the add-ons in different libraries "organized" by sim doesn't give you any actual benefit, it's just a visualization thing. And it might be useful for products that are *huge* and won't share ANY files between simulator versions.

But it doesn't really apply to us, since lots of our products SHARE files between versions and even across different products.

For example, if you have GSX installed in FSX, P3D4 and P3D5, the ONLY thing different between the two are most of the 3D vehicles ( PBR in P3D4/5 or not in FSX ) and the Couatl executable ( 32 bit or 64 bit ), but the rest it's the same so, why wasting your valuable disk space by needlessly duplicate files that are identical in all version of the supported simulators, just so you would find them "organized" by simulator ? Each and every scenery from FSDT that use things like Marshallers, or Jetways, or Docking Systems, is using the GSX's ones, that's why our scenery installers are usually smaller than others.

Don't you think we know how our stuff works and, if they have been designed to be all together, there's a good reason ?

[Racklefratz]

I've had registered GSX Lvl 2 and a bunch of FSDT airports installed and working fine in prior P3D installations. 

Now using a new PC and new P3D v5 installation, and I've been struggling for a week attempting to get GSX stuff installed and running again.  Have been getting every install error in the book, "anti-virus" is blocking it, "corrupt files", Live Update refused to run, yada, yada, and this was with a half dozen or so uninstalls, re-downloads, re-installs....nothing worked.

Then, today, I stumbled across this discussion, and it lead to the GSX Universal Installer.  I ran it, and now, Live Updater RUNS, when it only crashed before.  It completed its process successfully, and I'm seeing all 4 GSX addon entries under "Addons" in P3D5, vs only the "Addon Manager" I was seeing earlier.

Thanks for the Universal Updater effort, which solved my problem, as I believe it will or has for the others reporting issues.

[brucewtb]

OK lets move on from what might or might not have happened in the past.  I believe I have now completely removed all traces of FSDT from my system.  So going forward I have some questions about a reinstall of GSX and the FSDT airports which I will raise in a new thread.  Thank you.

Bruce

[snay]

Hello, I searched all over the net, I couldn't find any way to install GSX. Everything was fine a few days ago, I decided to reinstall everything, but GSX tells me that there are corrupt files for two days, I tried everything, restart my router, my computer, disable antivirus, reset all settings, do a clean install, still nothing helps the corrupted files error

[virtuali]

Hello, I searched all over the net, I couldn't find any way to install GSX. Everything was fine a few days ago, I decided to reinstall everything, but GSX tells me that there are corrupt files for two days, I tried everything, restart my router, my computer, disable antivirus, reset all settings, do a clean install, still nothing helps the corrupted files error

Please follow the direction in this thread, to check the MD5 of the files you downloaded, to understand which files are still outdated on your Cloudflare node.

[snay]

Hello, I searched all over the net, I couldn't find any way to install GSX. Everything was fine a few days ago, I decided to reinstall everything, but GSX tells me that there are corrupt files for two days, I tried everything, restart my router, my computer, disable antivirus, reset all settings, do a clean install, still nothing helps the corrupted files error

Please follow the direction in this thread, to check the MD5 of the files you downloaded, to understand which files are still outdated on your Cloudflare node.

https://www.zupimages.net/up/22/07/uw4o.png

[virtuali]

Ok, here's the current files which are online:


D861A30C0B60160E420B8AD8BDD0B8E4  gsx_p3d4_setup2-6.bin
451833DAAA301162F9F468FE5EFD958C  gsx_p3d4_setup2-5.bin
749CFAB90DDDC1AB0AE6DF54B87B743D  gsx_p3d4_setup2-4.bin
91A4EEC09C1F30DB3AB0950AC60B07CF  gsx_p3d4_setup2-3.bin
7806AD4CF3266E4857C2DBB0AE71015D  gsx_p3d4_setup2-2.bin
991ECB5E44BBCDE7B9A4B061E82B61AA  gsx_p3d4_setup2-1.bin
FE987848705620D9BBF1A9353744BFB6  gsx_p3d4_setup2.exe


So you got ALL files correct except one, the gsx_p3d4_setup2-2.bin. I'll try to force a refresh of that file, hopefully your local Cloudflare node will get it this time so, try it again. I can't tell exactly how much time will take for the file to be spread again, but it should be soon.

[brucewtb]

Corrupt GSX downloads continues to be an issue for me. These files are corrupt (Checksums don't match)

gsx_p3d4_setup2-5.bin
gsx_p3d4_setup2-4.bin
gsx_p3d4_setup2-2.bin

So what do I do just keep trying?  If so for how long?  Should I just keep trying this until I get a set of clean files as the corrupt ones seem to change with each download attempt?  Thanks

Bruce

[brucewtb]

Well I have answered my own question and tried multiple downloads wasted many gig of download quota but eventually got a clean set GSX install files.  Have now successfully installed into P3D5 and serials for airports seem to activate OK - at least it did for KORDv2.  I will try the rest tomorrow.  A bit of a saga surely there is a better way?

Bruce

[virtuali]

Well I have answered my own question and tried multiple downloads wasted many gig of download quota but eventually got a clean set GSX install files

So it happened exactly as I've said it would, the right files eventually came by themselves ?

A bit of a saga surely there is a better way?

There's always a better way.

One could have been if you just just saved the last installer you got, there wasn't any need to download a new one in the first place, since if you start from any reasonably recent installer ( in your case, it needed to be the the first that supports P3D V5 ), it would have run the SAME, IDENTICAL Live Update process ( because that is downloaded on the fly as well ) which would have got you the latest version of all files anyway.

I suspect your issue might also caused by some addition CACHING ( on top of Cloudflare ) which might be in place by your ISP, otherwise it wouldn't explain why most of users got the correct files immediately, but you and *some* others ( we have hundreds of downloads PER DAY ) got them with a delay.

So, for example, assume that Cloudflare files need 15 minutes to spread all over the world but, if your ISP that, not only is placing you under a quota but, to reduce THEIR bandwidth costs, is using a local cache which is updated more slowly, let's say 48 hours like some DNS, you would get the files which everybody already has after 48 hours. That's the only explanation I have which might explain why for you and a couple of users it's different than anybody else.

The only way we could possibly fix this, is install each file one-by-one, instead of having large chunks of files that, if they are not all matching one with each other, would result in a "corrupted file" message. But this would surely make downloads WAY slower for *everybody*, because each single file ( there are ten of thousands ) will cause a separate http request, instead of just 6 like in this case.