Opera 9 mysteries and bugs - ΩJr. Software Articles and Products

Shell32 Config?

The remote computer which runs Opera happens to be operated by MS Windows 2003 Server. For some reason, Opera (or one of the sub processes) tries to read a file named 'SHELL32.dll.124.Config'.

Log from Sysinternals' Filemon:
10:37:49 Opera.exe:2564 IRP_MJ_CREATE C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll.124.Config NOT FOUND Options: Open Access: All

Obviously this file does not exist.

Klient?

Appears to be the built-in IRC-client. It seems ill-configured, because without warning it starts reading and writing on the remote computer's C:-drive... but Opera is installed and configured to exist on its H:-drive (which points to a USB-stick, shared from my local computer through the terminal-service connection).

Output from Sysinternals' Filemon:
10:37:52 Opera.exe:2564 IRP_MJ_CREATE C:\klient\opera_profile.txt SUCCESS Options: OverwriteIf Access: All
10:44:46 drwtsn32.exe:948 IRP_MJ_CLEANUP C:\klient\opera_profile.txt SUCCESS
10:44:46 drwtsn32.exe:948 IRP_MJ_CLOSE C:\klient\opera_profile.txt SUCCESS


Files in C:\klient\:

• m2_shutdown.txt
  
• m2_startup.txt
  
• m2_store_startup.txt
  
• opera_profile.txt
  
• shutdown.txt
  
• startup.txt

Of these, only opera_profile.txt is used by Opera9. The other files are used by Opera8.54.

That can get really ugly and will crash the IRC client (including M2) if the currently logged-on user does not have sufficient privileges, like in my case where Opera is installed on a shared drive on my local computer, but run on a remote computer. I did not find any setting in the default installation to govern this behaviour.

On another of my computers the operating system is installed on an NTFS E:-drive... Still Opera wishes to create C:\Klient. The C:-drive does exist but it is a FAT filesystem, on which Opera is not allowed to create or write anything. What if my computer did not have a C:-drive?

For all those interested, I've made the full log file (32KB) available as well. Thanks to SysInterals for their FileMon.

Update, 2006-09-23:
Opera 9.02, build 8585 for Windows, still tries to create the file opera_profile.txt. It doesn't create the directory, so if the directory doesn't exist already, the file isn't created.

Also, M2 no longer crashes if those files aren't present. If the directory is present, the opera_profile.txt is filled with a bunch of numbers upon shutdown of Opera. Upon startup, the file is blanked.

Filemon says:
10:43:20 AM Opera.exe:1724 CREATE C:\klient\opera_profile.txt PATH NOT FOUND Options: OverwriteIf Access: 00120196

Bug report filed with Opera, as number 230268.

Spell checking?

The setting (in spellcheck.ini):
[ Spell check ]
Spell check engine=H:\Program Files\Opera\spellcheck.dll

but Filemon shows:
10:38:02 Opera.exe:2564 FASTIO_QUERY_OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\aspell-15.dll NOT FOUND Attributes: Error

I cannot tell whether it looks for the spellcheck.dll or not (probably because the file monitor does not inspect the other side of the terminal-service connection). In the default installation the aspell-15.dll module is not mentioned as far as I can tell.

About Opera?

Each time I invoke the "About Opera" menu option in version 9, the browser crashes. I guess it wants to keep quiet.

Update, 2006-09-23:
This problem seems to be solved in the latest builds.