Jetways Disoriented When Invoking Dock Sequence **SOLVED**

[virtuali]

I've tried restoring default jetways and that's not working.

Restoring default jetways from the GSX Control Panel will surely work.

So, after I uninstall GSX/SODE; I have no jetways at all.

Of course but, you can reinstall SODE and GSX too. If you uninstalled GSX *before* you restored default jetways, you'll have to reinstall it, to get the GSX Control Panel back, which will restore default jetways.

[Exodus20]

you'll have to reinstall it, to get the GSX Control Panel back, which will restore default jetways.

Thanks for the advice.  As stated in previous posts, I did uninstall and re-install both SODE and GSX and got the control panel back.  Presently, when I choose the option to 'restore default jetways', the control panel re-activates the "disable default jetways" for a second, then reverts back to "restore default jetways".  As if to say it cannot complete the action.

BTW, for some reason, it thinks that both the boxed version and FSXSE are installed, even though I have only the FSXSE version installed.

[virtuali]

BTW, for some reason, it thinks that both the boxed version and FSXSE are installed, even though I have only the FSXSE version installed.

That's because your registry keys for FSX are wrong. This usually happens because one of the following:

- you installed FSX:Steam when you still had the original FSX, then you Uninstalled FSX. This leads to issues, because FSX:Steam would still be left configured in "side-by-side" mode, which use different registry keys and preference folders compared to the normal operation ( stand-alone )

The correct procedure to remove FSX and use only FSX:Steam is:

1) uninstall FSX

2) uninstall FSX:Steam

3) reinstall FSX:Steam

Step 3 will reconfigure FSX:Steam to properly behave like the only version of FSX installed, using the FSX registry keys and folders.


Another reason why your FSX and FSX:Steam registry is messed up, it's because somebody ( or some utility ), changed both registry keys to point to the FSX:Steam installation, which is also wrong, because it confuses PROPER products like ours, that supports BOTH as separate products with their own separate folders and registry keys. It's a trick that is only used to install legacy product that don't recognize FSX:Steam, but it will cause issues to newer products that supports both, even installed at the same time.

It's likely your messed up registry is causing your problem with the GSX Control Panel, so the correct solution is fix your registry, making FSX:Steam the one and only version installed, which is done by uninstalling/reinstalling FSX:Steam.

Since are likely not able to uninstall FSX anymore, you'll probably have to clear the FSX registry keys BEFORE uninstalling FSX:Steam, otherwise it will still think FSX is there, so it will still try to install itself in side-by-side mode, but with a missing FSX.

The key to make this work, is to have *every* registry key for the original FSX removed when installing FSX:Steam, so it will install itself in "FSX mode"

[Exodus20]

Unfortunately, FSX has never been installed on this computer.  It is a brand new build with Windows 10 (due to a hard drive crash).  It must have been some "utility" (What other utilities are available that would modify GSX/SODE registry settings?) or the GSX installer itself since I only removed existing registry keys.

Update on troubleshooting:
- I engaged SODE and they have postings in their forum for this exact problem; only with GSX and SODE in P3D.  However, SODE has not responded to the inquiries.
- I manually removed the C:\Program Files (x86)\12bpilot folder.  Manually  installed SODE v1.7.1 and that jacked up GSX.  Therefore, I completely uninstalled GSX and SODE (which took away my jetways altogether).  Re-installed GSX and GSX2; that brought everything back and maintained SODE v1.7.1.
- SODE control panel now only recognizes FSX-SE installation.
- The problem remains.

[virtuali]

Unfortunately, FSX has never been installed on this computer.  It is a brand new build with Windows 10 (due to a hard drive crash).  Since I have no idea of what registry settings are set/modified during the GSX/SODE installation, I wouldn't have modified them; thus it must have been some "utility" (What other utilities are available that would modify GSX/SODE registry settings?) or the GSX installer itself.

I wasn't referring to the GSX/SODE registry keys. Those are NOT the problem. The problem are you FSX registry keys. If you never installed FSX, and you only installed FSX:SE, the CORRECT situation should be that you should ONLY have the FSX registry keys, not the specific FSX:SE registry keys.

The FSX:SE specific registry keys are supposed to appear ONLY if you installed FSX:SE when the original FSX was still there.

OR, if some utility tried to "fix" something in the wrong way, and instead of swapping them out, it duplicated both keys to the same path. Again, not an utility that has any relationship with GSX or SODE, but likely some generic fixer or compatibility tool that was designed to trick old FSX-only installers to install into FSX:SE.

- SODE control panel now only recognizes FSX-SE installation.
- The problem remains.

Sorry, but now I'm having an hard time following you. In your previous post you said your problem was the GSX Control Panel indicated you had both FSX and FSX:SE, now you are saying the SODE Control Panel *now* only recognize the FSX:SE installation ?

Do you mean:

- Before you uninstalled/reinstalled SODE, you had BOTH the GSX Control Panel *and* the SODE Platform Manager indicating you had BOTH versions of FSX Installed ?

- After you installed uninstalled/reinstalled SODE, the SODE Platform Manager *now* identify the one version, the FSX:SE one, but the GSX Control Panel still finds two version ?


As I've said, the problem doesn't have anything to do with GSX or SODE, the problem is FSX *ITSELF* and, as long you keep the registry messed up, you are going to have problems with everything.

You said installing SODE "jacked up" GSX. This doesn't surely happen normally, they are designed to work together so, the only possible reason for this to be happening ( without having any idea what "jacked up" really means ), is still your wrong registry settings for FSX.

I'll repeat it again, a NORMAL installation of FSX:SE on a CLEAN system should result in:

- FSX registry keys present, pointing to the FSX:SE installation, preference folders in %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA% using the standard FSX locations.

- NO specific FSX-SE registry whatsoever, no FSX:SE preference folders present  in %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA%

[Exodus20]

Sorry, but now I'm having an hard time following you. In your previous post you said your problem was the GSX Control Panel indicated you had both FSX and FSX:SE, now you are saying the SODE Control Panel *now* only recognize the FSX:SE installation ?

I can see where the confusion is based on the terminology I used.  It may be good to start from the beginning and perhaps more detail and better terminology:
- Windows 10 installed on new hard drive.
- Installed FSX-SE.
- Installed GSX/GSX2 (which of course installed SODE. See "note" below).
- SODE platform manager showed that I had both FSX and FSX-SE installed and only FSX-SE registered.  GSX Level 2 control panel shows "FSX-SE standalone" & "FSX-SE +FSX" and gives me options to restore default jetways for both (which didn't work either).
- The problem surfaced the first time that I initiated the jetway docking process.
- I tried the original troubleshooting steps identified in my earlier posts to no avail (i.e. removed any registry settings that I could find along with any related folders I could find, re-installed GSX/SODE).
- Attempted to restore default jetways from the GSX level 2 control panel and it failed (i.e. it activated the 'disable default jetways' button for about a second then returned back to activating 'restore default jetways' only for each option and indicated that the status is "Default jetways disabled by GSX" for both).
- Uninstalled GSX/SODE again. This time I did not manually remove any registry settings and left whatever settings were there, uninstalled GSX and SODE, deleted both the Addon and 12bpilot folders, did not remove the "appdata" folder structure and re-installed GSX/GSX2 (and SODE of course).
- After the un-install completed, I launched FSX-SE again an had no jetways at all (I suspect because of the failure for GSX to restore the defaults prior to the uninstall).
- After re-installing GSX/GSX2 again, The GSX Level 2 control panel still showed "FSX-SE standalone" & "FSX-SE +FSX" and gives me options to restore default jetways for both.  Status shows that "Default jetways disabled by GSX".
- The SODE platform manager still shows that I have only FSX-SE registered (see "note" below).
- Still no change to the jetway operations.

I tried some other operations:
- Initiated boarding process without first docking the jetway. The jetway problem persisted, however the baggage loading process successfully executed and no passengers were boarded (I'm guessing that is because the jetway docking process failed).
- Requested refueling.  The jetway problem persisted and the refueling process successfully executed.
- Attempted to customize the gate and the jetway problem persisted and couldn't re-orient the jetway.  All other customizations are accessible.
- Initiated pushback and departure and the jetway problem persists; but, the pushback sequence successfully executes.

So, the difference being that when starting with the jetway docking sequence, GSX waits for the docking process to complete; but, it never does, thus GSX is hung.

The FSX:SE specific registry keys are supposed to appear ONLY if you installed FSX:SE when the original FSX was still there.

Note: I cannot speak to how the registry keys are supposed to align during the installation, since I'm not familiar with where they all reside.  I had guessed earlier by doing a search for anything that I think to search by. Naturally, I was hoping that anything that I missed would've have been reset during re-installation.

However, I noticed that during the SODE installation (executed during the GSX installation process), it appears that the installer expects to see an fsx.cfg file in the  %appdata%\roaming\microsoft\fsx folder, even when only FSX-SE is installed, or it will wait until one is found there.  So, in both installation cases, I had to manually create the folder structure and manually drop an fsx.cfg file in to the folder (that I found from a back up of my old FSX installation, so as to not confuse it with the FSX-SE fsx.cfg tile).  Once that is done, it's happy, and the SODE installation will successfully complete and the GSX installer will continue. After the GSX installation is complete, the SODE platform manager then shows that both FSX and FSX-SE are registered. I can later delete the "FSX' folder and the SODE platform manager will show only that FSX-SE is registered.  With that being said, regardless of whether FSX-SE only or both are "registered", the problem still persists.

To your point, it may be that registry keys and folder structures are misaligned.  If that is the case, then can you provide the correct alignment?  Perhaps I can manually align them.

Still getting crickets from SODE. https://sode.12bpilot.ch/?topic=jetways-stick-up

[virtuali]

- Windows 10 installed on new hard drive.
- Installed FSX-SE.
- Installed GSX/GSX2 (which of course installed SODE. See "note" below).
- SODE platform manager showed that I had both FSX and FSX-SE installed and only FSX-SE registered.  GSX Level 2 control panel shows "FSX-SE standalone" & "FSX-SE +FSX" and gives me options to restore default jetways for both (which didn't work either).

I'm sorry, but we can stop here. There's no way *both* GSX and SODE would be equally confused by a wrong registry key for FSX:SE. And, as I've said, a wrong registry key for FSX:SE CANNOT HAPPEN if you just installed Windows 10 afresh.

Have you possibly chose an option to install Windows 10, but keep your settings ? That would explain why you inherited the wrong registry settings from a previous install because that option keeps your old registry into the new Windows install.

I can only repeat and confirm the following: on a real, fresh install of Windows, on a system you NEVER installed the standard FSX before, if you install FSX:Steam, the result will be:

- You'll have NO registry keys for FSX:Steam

- You will only have registry keys for the Standard FSX, pointing to the FSX:Steam installation folder.

This will result both GSX and SODE detecting FSX:Steam installed in Stand-alone mode, and nothing else. This is the normal, correct, situation of a clean FSX:Steam installation.


This, of course, assumes you haven't installed ANOTHER software ( just after your "fresh" Windows reinstall ), one that set the keys in the wrong way, for some reason, usually trying to force-install itself or let you force-install older products that don't support FSX:SE or the side-by-side mode.

[Exodus20]

There's no way *both* GSX and SODE would be equally confused by a wrong registry key for FSX:SE. And, as I've said, a wrong registry key for FSX:SE CANNOT HAPPEN if you just installed Windows 10 afresh.

Thank you again for the response and confirmation.  So, we have concluded that the issue is not generated by a registry key setting. 

What are other possibilities that GSX would tell SODE or FSX-SE (whomever handles the operation) to orient the jetway as shown in the original pic's?  It appears that it must be a bug in the GSX and/or SODE code.  Can FSDT provide some insights as to what can be done from a coding perspective.  Is there anything that I can provide to FSDT that could help you troubleshoot this issue?  I am seeing more and more posts for this issue.

I would like to at least get my default jetways back when I uninstall GSX.  I've tried a fresh install of FSX-SE without GSX and something remains after uninstalling GSX that tells FSX-SE not show default jetways.  And as mentioned before the GSX Level 2 control panel fails to restore them.  This actually might be a clue to the problem at hand; but, I'll let FSDT explore that, of course.

Thanks again!

[virtuali]

Thank you again for the response and confirmation.  So, we have concluded that the issue is not generated by a registry key setting. 

I only confirmed your registry settings are messed up. Never said the issue with the jetway is not related to it.

What are other possibilities that GSX would tell SODE or FSX-SE (whomever handles the operation) to orient the jetway as shown in the original pic's? 

There are no other possibilities. All users reporting this problem, usually ended up fixing it by uninstalling/reinstalling SODE and THIS can go wrong if the registry settings are mixed up between FSX and FSX:SE, and yours surely are.

Jetways are created by GSX in their static version. When you operate them, they are replaced by the dynamic version that, in its "default" position is oriented exactly like the static one.

Then, GSX calls SODE and ask to animate the jetway and, since the animation can go in both ways, SODE can possibly put the jetway in the wrong position and/or not animate it.

GSX and SODE communicate through Simconnect so, other than the registry keys, another possible reason might be the communication between the two being interrupted or slowed down, possibly missing some commands. This CAN happen when using many other addons which might increase the traffic over the Simconnect communication channel, and overflow it with so many commands the sim cannot keep up with everybody, we noticed this sometimes happens with some 3rd party weather engines, or AI traffic products that control AI with Simconnect.

Another possible reason is a mix-up of Simconnect versions, which again can be a result of either confused registry keys, or having installed another add-on that has installed an older version of Simconnect ( multiple version of Simconnect can be installed at the same time ), which might have issues with the functions we need to have GSX and SODE communicate reliably.

A possible way to test this would be disabling ALL add-ons except GSX and SODE, and see if something changes.

But not before you fixed your registry keys, and reinstalled both GSX and SODE with the registry in the correct state. If you don't do this first, every other test would be useless.

[Exodus20]

GSX and SODE communicate through Simconnect so, other than the registry keys, another possible reason might be the communication between the two being interrupted or slowed down, possibly missing some commands. This CAN happen when using many other addons which might increase the traffic over the Simconnect communication channel, and overflow it with so many commands the sim cannot keep up with everybody, we noticed this sometimes happens with some 3rd party weather engines, or AI traffic products that control AI with Simconnect.

Unfortunately, I have not installed any other add ons.  I'd like to install my Wx add on; but, I haven't done that since my Sim is effectively useless due to this issue (can't even do a pushback).  I would at the least like to get my default jetways and ground vehicles back.  Is there a way to resolve that issue?

Another possible reason is a mix-up of Simconnect versions, which again can be a result of either confused registry keys, or having installed another add-on that has installed an older version of Simconnect ( multiple version of Simconnect can be installed at the same time ), which might have issues with the functions we need to have GSX and SODE communicate reliably.

Which version of SimConnect is required for GSX?

[virtuali]

I haven't done that since my Sim is effectively useless due to this issue (can't even do a pushback).

Please clarify: I thought your problem was the jetways, in which way this affects pushback ?

Which version of SimConnect is required for GSX?

In FSX, it requires the FSX:SP2 version, which is the last before FSX:Steam and, of course, it works just fine with FSX:Steam, that is not the problem.

The problem might be another (older) version of Simconnect that has been installed by another add-on and, this is completely unrelated the fact you say NOW you don't have any other add-on, because Simconnect is installed in Windows, and it's not very easy to remove either ( requires removing files in Safe mode ), unless you know how to do it or reinstall Windows from scratch.

When older and newer versions of Simconnect are installed at the same time, sometimes the sim is "stuck" with an older version, even if there's a new one, and this might create problems with add-ons that require the newer version, like GSX.

But again, you should really FIX YOUR REGISTRY FIRST because, as I've said, everything starts from that. Don't waste your time trying to fix anything else, unless you fix your registry that, with FSX:Steam installed "stand-alone" means:

- NO registry keys for FSX:Steam

- FSX registry key ONLY, pointing to the Steam installation folder

[gaga006]

Exodus, did you fix it ?

[Exodus20]

FIX YOUR REGISTRY FIRST

Confirmed there are no FSX:SE registry settings.  Only FSX.

I thought your problem was the jetways, in which way this affects pushback ?

After attempting to board and/or disembark passengers, since the jetways go bonkers after invoking the docking process, GSX states "Operate jetways requested.  Waiting for other services to complete ()" and hangs there.  Only way out is restart Couatl.  Cannot proceed to board passengers, pushback, refuel, request catering services...nothing.

When invoking the passenger boarding and/or disembark process, the jetway flips out and nothing else happens.  Just have to restart Couatl.

Admittedly, invoking the pushback sequence from the beginning will work; but the jetway is still disoriented when it's invoked.

[Exodus20]

I finally decided to try another user profile and launched FSX:SE from that profile.  At least I got my jetways back in the default game.  Probably not got going to re-install the add-on ever again since it blew up my last instance. 

Apparently the fix is to create another user on your PC, log in with a new Windows profile and run FSX:SE without the add-on.  I usually try to leave on a positive note for support on other forum's; but difficult to identify a positive outcome here .

[virtuali]

Apparently the fix is to create another user on your PC, log in with a new Windows profile and run FSX:SE without the add-on.

That confirms the problem was never GSX to begin with, but your messed up registry for FSX:SE.

Creating a new user profile has removed ALL registry entries for FSX and FSX:SE and, the way Steam works, the first time you started the sim under the new user profile, it re-created all the registry keys AS IF you reinstalled it from scratch and, since there were no keys for the original FSX too (it's a new profile...), it correctly detected a "Stand-Alone" mode of operation, and created the only original FSX keys, pointing to the FSX:SE installation.

You must have missed some of the FSX:SE or FSX keys, which is quite easy, since some of them are not in obvious places, like the Wow6432node entry, which is a redirect from HKLM which is used or not depending how UAC was configured at install time.