General

Make sure to also check the +Overview.

What is differential updates / delta patching

http://getsatisfaction.withsix.com/withsix/topics/what_are_differential_updates_delta_patching_and_why_is_it_special

How can I prevent SU from updating to new versions automatically?

Use the --skip-autoupdate commandline option: http://six.dev-heaven.net/wagn/Six_Updater+Documentation#Commandline%20parameters

Paths (Game, mods, pack etc)

The updater uses the registry to detect arma 2 / OA game folders. Correcting these when wrong should properly detect the games.

IMPORTANT: For some specific Steam related notes, please see below.

You can manually configure paths in the Options (Click the blue application menu button left up, and select Options).

You can also configure these per Game Profile, enable Advanced mode, and go to the Game Profiles datagrid, find the Path fields and edit them (double click).

For more info about the various configurable paths, please see Documentation#Paths

Detect seperate Combined Ops installation

The updater can detect seperate combined ops installation, however the registry entries for both games need to be in order.

In case of Steam, if you launch both games seperately through the steam launcher at least once, the registry entries should be correct again. This might need to be repeated after a Steam repair or update patch.

NOTE: On Windows 7 and Vista, if UAC enabled, please run the Steam launcher "As Administrator" - available when you right click it.

Otherwise you could manually correct the registry entries.

HKLM -> Software -> Bohemia Interaction Studio -> ArmA 2 -> MAIN

and

HKLM -> Software -> Bohemia Interaction Studio -> ArmA 2 OA -> MAIN

Need to be REG_SZ(String) entries and point to your installation folders of respective games.

Using custom (non SU) mods

Currently there are 2 options to include custom mods:

• On the Mods tab/datagrid, find the Local Mods section at the bottom, select the mods you want, and click Add.
  (Some mods might not show up until you disable the 'Allowed Filter')
  Optionally, You can also manually edit these entries in the Presets datagrid (only available after enabling 'Advanced' mode) at your favorite preset, scroll to the right, find the Mod field, double click in it, and add the modfolders you wish to load extra.
  Example: @mod1;@mod2;@mod3
  Press enter to confirm the change.
• Select your favorite Profile, click at Edit Tools, on Profile.
  At the right side, "Additional Options" ribbon group, you will find the "mod" startup parameter. You can add mods here, in the same way as in Presets.
  Example: @mod1;@mod2;@mod3
  Press enter to confirm the change.

Setting it at the profile, will enable the custom mods for all Presets that use the profile.

How to change Mod loading order

On the Mods datagrid, change the priority column. Lower number is higher priority.

Default prio is 0.

Set it to e.g 99 to make it appear at the end.

Set it to e.g -99 to make it appear at the beginning, etc.

How to force update / check / repair mod folders

At "Run Updater" button, click on the lower half, and select "Verify and Repair".

Convert existing mod folders to SU

Note: This is only useful for modfolders that actually exist on the updater network.

Make sure the modfolders are selected in your current preset, either directly or through a server.

Then at the "Run Updater" button, click on lower half, and select "Convert".

After conversion is complete you can run "Install or Update" to update them to the latest version.

How to put .rsync/.pack folder in a different folder/drive

Just set the Pack Path in the Options (blue button left up) to e.g D:\six-pack

The change takes effect on new mod installations.

If you want to move existing ones, you can manually move the .pack folder of the mod, and change :pack_path: in the .rsync/config.yml to point to D:\six-pack\@modfolder

For an example, install a new mod after setting the PackPath in Options ribbongroup - then check the config.yml and the D:\six-pack location

Why does SU use nearly double diskspace, compared to other products / download methods

http://getsatisfaction.withsix.com/withsix/topics/why_does_it_use_nearly_double_disk_space

What's the difference between "Verify and Repair" and "Install or Update"

"Install or Update" and "Verify and Repair" do the same thing,

except that "Install or Update" doesn't do anything when the remote and local repository GUID and revision is equal (these are only equal after a successful update), however it doesnt detect manual changes to the modfolder applied after updating as this generally requires expensive checksum calculations and comparisons.

Another difference is that "Verify and Repair" will not Install mods that aren't yet, and it will not Convert mods that are not yet converted to SU.

Hence one uses "Verify and Repair" to force check and repair - normally you only do this if you manually made changes to a modfolder - and generally recommend users to do it to make sure their data is correct as they might have fiddled with it (intentionally or unintentionally).

How to exclude a file from processing

In the Mods datagrid, enter the filename in the "Excl" field of the mod you want to exclude a file in.

Example: addons/somefile.pbo

Troubleshooting

SQLite3::SQLException: database disk image is malformed

(e.g: SELECT "queryservers".* FROM "queryservers")

Database corrupted, need to repair the mentioned table with some Sqlite3 tool or delete the database for it to be recreated on next startup.

Configuration files and database location.

Related ticket

Crash on startup Cannot load UIAutomationCore.dll

You're probably missing the UIAutomationCore.dll, perhaps removed due to issues with Microsoft FSX.

Please restore the file. (You can download a version at: +Dll).

You can also place it into the Six Updater installation folder.

Related ticket

Crash on startup Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError character ... can't be encoded in US-ASCII

Currently the only workaround available is uninstalling Six Updater, and reinstalling it inside a path without non US-ASCII characters, e.g: "C:\Six Updater"

Related ticket

Crash on startup #1

Updating the executables might have failed, try downloading the latest set: http://updater.dev-heaven.net/updater/exec.7z

and unpack it into the Six Updater installation folder.

Default installation folder is: C:\Program Files\SIX Projects\Six Updater

On Windows x64: C:\Program Files (x86)\SIX Projects\Six Updater

Requires latest 7zip or WinRAR software.
In case of Vista/7 with UAC enabled, you might have to first unpack it to a temporary folder and then move, or run the 7zip/winrar software "As Administrator".

Crash on startup #2

If you use direct3doverrider, try disabling it.

Otherwise, do you have "IZ32" installed? http://forum.iz3d.com/viewtopi...

Try uninstall it / exclude SU from it.

Bluescreens

Make sure your GPU and Audio drivers are updated to the latest versions.

e.g Realtek HD Drivers.

Graphical corruption in Six Updater GUI

E.g black screen, black controls, black stripes, and so on.

Try to upgrade the graphics drivers to the latest version.

If still issues, try to disable graphics (drivers) related utilities and monitoring, for example Radeon Pro's "API monitoring", or the GPU Meter Gadget.

Another known issue is TeamSpeak3 Overlay Plugin - Disable it, or perhaps upgrade to the latest TS3 version.

You could also disable hardware rendering for WPF applications, which probably solves the issue but causes worse SU UI performance: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1400718/can-i-force-wpf-rendering-tier

See for more details: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/19471#note-13, https://dev-heaven.net/issues/31129#note-4 and related issues.

FTP uploads fail

Make sure Six Updater\tools\cygwin\bin\lftp.exe has full Firewall Access.

If that doesn't help, try disabling passive (PASV) mode or SSL:

Inside Six Updater\tools\cygwin\home  create a folder named after your Windows Username, e.g User1, inside it create the file: .lftprc

With the following content

• To disable Pasv mode: set ftp:passive-mode off
• To disable SSL: set ftp:ssl-allow false
• To enable SSL:
  • set ftp:ssl-allow true
  • set ftp:ssl-force true
  • set ftp:ssl-protect-data true
  • set ftp:ssl-protect-list true
• To enable Debug Logging: debug -o debug.log
  the debug.log will appear inside "Six Updater" folder.

Please refer to the LFTP Man Page for more info.

For sftp etc please see +CustomReposSetup+OpenSSH.

Linux Support

Currently the updater 2.0 and newer is only supported on Windows.

However you can upload your preset to any server supporting FTP or rSync directly from within the Updater (Edit Tools -> Preset tab),

additionally you can use the legacy updater (0.24.x), incl console and remote web-based management support.

Automation

How can I schedule the updater?

Using Six Updater GUI

1. In the GUI, Setup the preset/profile etc the way you want it
2. Go to the Presets datagrid, select the preset you want to use, scroll to the far right, and copy the preset's ID
3. Create a shortcut or a task in the task scheduler; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383614(v=VS.85).aspx
   run: "C:\program files\six projects\six updater\six updater GUI.exe"
   Start folder: "C:\program files\six projects\six updater"
   Parameters: --preset=PRESET_ID --shutdown
   Exchange the PRESET_ID with the ID you copied earlier
   Adjust the parameters to your likings. For full list see; CommandLine Parameters.

Using Six Updater Console

1. In the GUI, Setup the preset/profile etc the way you want it. Temporary disable autoskip (Options Ribbon group) and make sure all Skip? fields are unchecked on the Mods datagrid.
   Execute/save the Preset once so the six-updater.yml configuration file is setup correctly in C:\users\yourname\appdata\roaming\six-updater (or older than vista: C:\documents and settings\your name\application data\six-updater)
   You can manually edit the six-updater.yml to your needs if you have to.
2. Create a shortcut or a task in the task scheduler; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383614(v=VS.85).aspx
   run: C:\program files\six projects\six updater\sixupdater.exe
   Start folder: C:\program files\six projects\six updater
   Parameters: --kill --install --startgame --force
   Adjust the parameters to your likings. force will ignore skip-status, kill will first stop the running game if found, startgame will run the game after completion. For full list see; CommandLine Parameters.
3. If you like you can copy the six-updater.yml to say C:\games\server.yml
   then prepend to parameters: C:\games\server.yml
   This way you can keep using the updater GUI with different presets, without interfeiring with your set server configuration file.
4. Enable autoskip again.

(Replace paths with your true paths)