20221003-677257a5d4-win_x64-devprev Reopened non-all-hands puzzle 2201 shows all-hands menu

Started by Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park Lv 1

I reopened my 2201 puzzle and got this all-hands popup. When clicking the 'next Guide' icon, it shows that this puzzle currently has no public solutions. Seems like a memory flag / non-initialized memory field issue to me.

BUG

bkoep Staff Lv 1

Thanks for the feedback @"Bletchley Park"! The All Hands panel is a very old feature that should never be displayed, but I think I see how it might be triggered on some expired puzzles. We'll work on a bugfix.

LociOiling Lv 1

I've been seeing all-hands mode on at least some expired puzzles since the new system launched.

Changes in the ir_puzzle file seem to be the root cause. The comparison below shows what happens.

On the left, the "before" version of "0002013478.ir_puzzle" for puzzle 2207 shows "phase" : "Normal", while the "after" version on the right has "phase" : "AllHands".

The keyword "current" also changes from "1" to "0", and there's a slight change to the "categories" keyword.

In the "file_sums" keyword, the checksum for the ".params" file also changed.

Apparently, the change to "AllHands" happens when you open the puzzle. So I was able to open the puzzle with the client on the right one time. After restarting Foldit, the puzzle disappeared from the puzzles menu. There doesn't seem to be a way to bring it back again using the client or the website.

Outside of the official tools, if you happen to have a "0002013478.ir_puzzle" with "phase" : "Normal" available, copying it to the problem client will allow you to open the puzzle once again. Then the switch to "AllHands" happens again, and you won't be able to reopen the puzzle.

This appears to be at least one explanation for why old puzzles can't be opened, as discussed with @jeff101 recently.

It's not clear to me why the system would change these puzzle files after expiration, but maybe bkoep's bug fix will address that.