"An Error has occured 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82"

[AbyssTV]

Hello I just found out about the ICE steam emulator and when I run the program It creates the ROM folders in my directory but it doesn't download any emulators and gives me the error "An Error has occured 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range <128>" I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

[scottrice]

Would you do me a favor and send me your log file? Specifically, it is at

C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\log.txt

[marcusmoller]

Sounds like it might be the same as #61. Do you have any ROMs etc. that has got "odd" characters in it, such as "é" etc.?

EDIT: Nevermind. This is caused before adding ROMs.

[AbyssTV]

@marcusmoller It's not that because I haven't tried putting any ROMS in the folders yet since I don't have any emulators installed

@scottrice I'm going to paste the log below. Thank you

[10/05/13 16:49:02] Creating ROMs directory at C:\Users\Gravelord\ROMs [10/05/13 16:49:02] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 16:49:02] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 16:49:05] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 16:49:05] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmpiepewm.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:06] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 16:49:06] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 16:49:09] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 16:49:09] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmpj0uaiu.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:10] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 16:49:31] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 16:49:31] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmp884oh5.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:33] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 16:49:33] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 16:49:40] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 16:49:40] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmpxylof_.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:40] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 16:49:50] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 16:49:50] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmptuoqgv.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:51] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinGens.zip [10/05/13 16:49:57] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinGens.zip [10/05/13 16:49:57] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmpiaujs7.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:57] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 16:49:57] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 16:49:57] Downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 16:49:59] Finished downloading http://consolegrid.com/ice_emulators/WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 16:49:59] Unzipping c:\users\gravel~1\appdata\local\temp\tmp3pldi7.zip to C:\Users\Gravelord\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\Emulators [10/05/13 16:49:59] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 16:49:59] No bios found [10/05/13 16:49:59] No bios found [10/05/13 16:49:59] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 16:49:59] #################################### [10/05/13 16:49:59] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 16:49:59] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 16:49:59] #################################### [10/05/13 17:00:37] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 17:00:37] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 17:00:37] No bios found [10/05/13 17:00:37] No bios found [10/05/13 17:00:37] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 17:00:37] #################################### [10/05/13 17:00:37] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 17:00:37] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 17:00:37] #################################### [10/05/13 17:00:53] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 17:00:53] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 17:00:53] No bios found [10/05/13 17:00:53] No bios found [10/05/13 17:00:53] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 17:00:53] #################################### [10/05/13 17:00:53] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 17:00:53] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 17:00:53] #################################### [10/05/13 17:03:21] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 17:03:21] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 17:03:21] No bios found [10/05/13 17:03:21] No bios found [10/05/13 17:03:21] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 17:03:21] #################################### [10/05/13 17:03:21] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 17:03:21] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 17:03:21] #################################### [10/05/13 17:53:28] Creating ROMs directory at C:\Users\Gravelord\ROMs [10/05/13 17:53:28] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 17:53:28] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 17:53:28] No bios found [10/05/13 17:53:28] No bios found [10/05/13 17:53:28] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 17:53:28] #################################### [10/05/13 17:53:28] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 17:53:28] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 17:53:28] #################################### [10/05/13 17:57:37] Creating ROMs directory at C:\Users\Gravelord\ROMs [10/05/13 17:57:37] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 17:57:37] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 17:57:37] No bios found [10/05/13 17:57:37] No bios found [10/05/13 17:57:37] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 17:57:37] #################################### [10/05/13 17:57:37] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 17:57:37] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 17:57:37] #################################### [10/05/13 18:01:00] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 18:01:00] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 18:01:00] No bios found [10/05/13 18:01:00] No bios found [10/05/13 18:01:00] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 18:01:00] #################################### [10/05/13 18:01:00] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 18:01:00] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 18:01:00] #################################### [10/05/13 18:10:26] =========================Starting Ice [10/05/13 18:10:26] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 18:10:26] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 18:10:26] Found zip file WinProject64.zip [10/05/13 18:10:26] Found zip file WinDolphin.zip [10/05/13 18:10:27] Configuration missing key for Wii on Windows [10/05/13 18:10:27] Found zip file WinePSXe.zip [10/05/13 18:10:27] Found zip file WinPCSX2.zip [10/05/13 18:10:27] Found zip file WinGens.zip [10/05/13 18:10:27] No user supplied name for Dreamcast [10/05/13 18:10:27] Found zip file Winbsnes.zip [10/05/13 18:10:27] Found zip file WinVisualBoyAdvance.zip [10/05/13 18:10:27] Configuration missing key for DS on Windows [10/05/13 18:10:27] No bios found [10/05/13 18:10:27] No bios found [10/05/13 18:10:27] ---------------Running for user 31719198 [10/05/13 18:10:27] #################################### [10/05/13 18:10:27] An Error has occurred: [10/05/13 18:10:27] 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 46, in File "", line 32, in main File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 49, in init File "C:\Users\Scott.Scott-PC\Development\Projects\Ice\build\ice\out00-PYZ.pyz\ice.rom_manager", line 61, in is_managed_by_ice UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82: ordinal not in range(128) [10/05/13 18:10:27] ####################################

[AbyssTV]

I placed the PS1 and PS2 bios into their folders but i'm still getting the "ascii codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 82" error

[scottrice]

The logs point to a line that looks like this

filesystem_helper.app_data_directory() in shortcut.exe

The app_data_directory() just returns the value given by appdirs user_data_directory. I noticed this issue on the appdirs open source project: https://github.com/ActiveState/appdirs/issues/27. I'm not quite sure what the fix is yet for this, but its a start.

Also, both log files I've gotten from people who have had this problem have had their username show up as sometext~1.

[marcusmoller]

The error message itself is similar to the one that fixed another error in this commit: https://github.com/scottrice/Ice/commit/07ad3fb2b57b0f4d1935adbef726fd98e664be7c

I just don't understand why the username is shown as sometext~1.

[scottrice]

Yeah, scratch that. The sometext~1 is only used in the temp directories, whereas the problem is coming from the result of appdirs (which provides the C:\Usersusername\AppData\Local\Scott Rice\Ice\ path).

The other option for fixing this is to just remove the use of appdirs. I know someone on Reddit wanted an option to choose where Ice downloads its emulators and such.

The only thing I worry about is the old 'exe' method. When I first started Ice, I had all of the steam shortcuts point to a shell script, and then the shell script would take care of launching the game/rom (there was a shell script for each game). As I learned more about Steam, I stopped doing that, but the Mac emulators (which I did first) still have that functionality. The reason I worry about it is because the shell scripts that I used were stored in the same directory as the Emulators/Downloaded Zips. That means that Steam would be linking to a path that can change via config.txt.

If I rip that out (which I really should have done a while ago), then I dont think there will be any problems with removing appdirs.

[AbyssTV]

Okay I'm not great with all this but pretty much there's nothing I can do at the moment correct? I really wanted to try ICE out, I hope this can be fixed and thanks for your help.

[scottrice]

The most recent commit (f1aa7ed50406ba71e8768053183878338b75449e) should fix this issue. Part of this commit is the removal of the app_data_directory (which seemed to be the cause of your errors before). I will leave this issue open until I hear back, but if you are willing to try the source that would be a great help.

NOTE: The source is in a VERY different state than the executable. It does not work the same way the executable does. Instead of Ice downloading emulators, it allows you to enter the paths to your current ones. If you are having trouble setting it up, just post here and I can walk you through the steps.

[Placentor]

I'm just going to throw this out there. I had a very similarly worded error that caused Ice to stop functioning. I just made this account so I don't have the exact error on hand anymore, but I resolved it by double checking that the roms I was adding did not contain accent marks.

Specifically, the error stopped when I renamed André Agassi Tennis for Genesis to replace the accented é with a normal e.

[marcusmoller]

@Placentor Are you running from the newest source or are you using the binary?

[Placentor]

At the time that I was experiencing that particular error, it was running from the binary.

[marcusmoller]

@Placentor This commit should have fixed the problem: https://github.com/scottrice/Ice/commit/07ad3fb2b57b0f4d1935adbef726fd98e664be7c If you can, please try to run Ice from source. Otherwise you'll need to wait on @scottrice to upload new binaries of Ice.

[Placentor]

@marcusmoller Yea I have been running it from source since then. That was an error I got the other day when I was still using the binary. I should have clarified. I just thought I'd leave that tip there so anyone who is still running the binary version might find it helpful.

[marcusmoller]

So the newest changes do fix the error, but unfortunately adds a wrong destination of the ROM in the Steam shortcut file. Ice will add the destination with the normalized ROM name, so that it will be an invalid destination.

Two ways I can think of to work around this problem:

• Rename the ROM to a normalized name (Super Mªn -> Super Man) or
• Figure out how to add non-ASCII symbols to shortcuts.vdf.

Personally I would rather not want to mess around with renaming files.