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View Full Version : SoftICE Symbol Loader Problem


Lou Cypher
April 1st, 2001, 09:31
Hi, I am new to this reverse Engineering thing. I am using SoftICE ver 4.05 in Windows 98 and I am having lots of problems with the SoftICE Symbol Loader. Every time I open a program from the Symbol Loader and try to load it from the Symbol Loader I get the error message "An error occurred during symbol translation/load. Load executable anyway?" and it gives me a YES and a NO button. If I press yes the debugger runs but when I exit to see what is in the Symbol Loader I get a "Error: No debug information found". At first I thought that the problem must be with the program I am loading but I found out that it gives the same error with all programs including the calc.exe file in the Windows directory. The only modifications I have made to SoftICE is changing the INIT line in the winice.dat file to INIT="wl;code on; altscr off; lines 57; wc 32; wd 8; wr; faults off; x;". Can some one please help me out!

SplAj
April 1st, 2001, 09:45
Welcome to RCE

This is a regular error. Don't worry. Just carry on and debug. You are debugging a 3rd party soft with no debug symbols ie no source to play with !!!!

There used to be a patch many years ago for this annoyance on ver 3.xx, can't remember who made it, but it was around 1998

I guess we all get used to it - it's sign that SI is OK (for me). You could actually patch it yourself. do a 'BPX MessageBoxa' and trace back after SI pops


SplAj

Lou Cypher
April 1st, 2001, 10:26
Thanks SplAj that was a very fast response I am amazed. I don't think that even Microsoft with all its money and power ever gave me an answer as fast as you did. I posted my question in several newsgroups hoping to get an answer soon but I have learned my lesson. The only place I need to go when I have a problem with reverse engineering is here.

Thanks again,

Lou Cypher

Raven58
April 1st, 2001, 10:50
Splaj, I have a similar problem except when I get the error message and press "yes", sice breaks but then locks up on me and I have to reboot. Is something missing or should something be unchecked or added to the winice dat file?
Thanks, Raven58

Kayaker
April 1st, 2001, 15:58
Quote:
Raven58 (04-01-2001 08:50):
Splaj, I have a similar problem except when I get the error message and press "yes", sice breaks but then locks up on me and I have to reboot. Is something missing or should something be unchecked or added to the winice dat file?
Thanks, Raven58


Do you have "faults off" in winice.dat set? It might be a response to that. What exactly happens? Does SI break at WinMain, the start of your program? Can you F8 single step at all or is it totally locked up? Does this only happen when you use the Loader or also when you just press Ctrl-D? Bummer if you can't use SoftIce

Raven58
April 2nd, 2001, 08:16
Hi Kayaker, Faults are off in my winice dat file. What happened was that I was following a manual unpacking tut. When I packed a exe with upx, I went to loader 32 & the exe opened sucessfully but would not load. I then changed the characteristics in upxo using procdump. Went back to loader, opened exe successfully, went to load, were I then received the error message and proceeded any way. Sice broke were I wanted to be (according to the tut) but locked up requiring a reboot. After my post, I noticed it locked up on everything I tried to use sice on. In desperation, I removed sice and reloaded it. It seems to work fine now, but then I haven't tried using the loader again on the exe mentioned above. BTW, looks like our mini project is dead. Downloaded apspy and following your thread. If you don't mind I have some ?'s on this. Still learning. I appreciate all your help.
Raven

SplAj
April 2nd, 2001, 10:32
It's time for me to go home now and stop watching you 'reversers' asking Q's..... however I did a little search
and read the original Fravia stuff again from ~1997, when we used to have to PATCH SI 3.01 and Wdasm demo etc etc
I wanted to find the original info on patching the loader error message , I thought it could be +mammon ? but anyway
I found the following site for a laugh :-

http://members.nbci.com/Carpie99/lamerlogs/morons.html

see <ALpha66> Q re SI loader :-p

Thank G I never made it here :-)

CYA tomorrow

SplAj }>