Laptops with Deep Freeze and newest launcher refusing to auto login

Have you tried thawing the laptops, logging in to update the tokens, and then freezing them again for public use?

Sorry, forgot to list what I attempted to do to fix it. Edited.

The old launcher is still available for download at http://minecraft.net/download. Click the link that says "show old download options" near the bottom of the page. The new launcher still has a lot of bugs, and there are issues still to work out with the profiles and authentication system. I don't think it was ready to be promoted to the recommended release, and should have been kept just as a development build until those issues were resolved. I would recommend sticking with the old launcher and 1.5.2 until the new launcher is more stable, particularly in your specific use case.

Oh thanks for the information, I'll download a copy of it in the mean time. I didn't realize they had a copy of the previous launcher. As long as it doesn't try to auto-update this should work for a bit. Still hoping for a fix though. This does have all the new items still right? I can't recall if they pushed out the clay and horse update with the launcher. Most of the structures in the server use clay with a custom texture....

No, the old launcher only goes up to 1.5.2. It cannot handle 1.6.x. Thus, hardened clay, horses, carpets, etc. are not available, and if you load a world containing them in 1.5.2, those things will be deleted from the world.

Are you switching between profiles or usernames on these laptops? I know there have been some bugs with switching profiles either invalidating tokens or simply trying to use the wrong one. Also, I believe the tokens are locked to a specific computer – you can't copy them around. I don't know the exact details of the new authentication system, but the token is just a file stored on your computer. The client can verify that it's correct, but cannot create it without contact the server. The process presumably uses public-key encryption. The point is that the token is proof that you've contacted the server at least once, and have the correct username and password, without actually storing the username and password, which the old system did. So there's no "credentials to download", and it should work fine even without an internet connection, as long as you've logged in once.

From what I've read about "Deep Freeze", it allows users and software to modify the system temporarily, but all changes are lost when you reboot, and the system reverts to its previous state. So unlike setting the file system as read-only, it shouldn't interfere with the normal operation of a program, because the program thinks the file system is fully writable. I'm inclined to think it isn't a factor in this problem, particularly if it's still happening with it disabled. If you have it disabled, log in, close Minecraft and the launcher, and then reopen the launcher, all without turning the computer off, does the auto-login work?

Do you have the latest version of the launcher? The issue here says 1.1.2, but I believe they're up to 1.2.1, and some of those profile issues may have been resolved. Your issue may actually be that the update process itself is invalidating the tokens, and because of Deep Freeze, the computer keeps rolling back to an earlier version, silently updating, and then breaking the tokens.

So, in short, I think you should disable deep freeze, make sure one of the computers is fully up to date, log in, enter a game, close Minecraft and the launcher completely, and then try the auto-login again, all using the same profile, with the same account. If that works, then it may be possible to fix it on your end. If it doesn't, then the issue probably runs deeper, and Mojang may have to put out a fix.

Well I got the .bat file working and I'm breathing a sigh of relief. While not the most user friendly fix, it certainly will confuse the kids enough to be hopefully not be able to mess with it.

We; unfortunately, do not have data Igloo on our version of deep freeze. We could look into it but this is working. I am hesitant to further mess with something that looks good, runs well, and does what it is supposed to. While this will not fix other peoples problems with Minecraft and Deep Freeze, but I am done with it and tired. Hopefully some further updates will correct some conflict problems but at this point, this works. However putting any further work time into this would put my other job responsibilities further behind. Like the library's server itself.

Thank you so much Torabi for all your assistance with our library's problem. I do not know if this should be considered closed simply because I have found a work around. Other educational programs may be experiencing conflicts, hopefully they have the newest version of Deep Freeze, the Enterprise Edition and can use Data Igloo with it.

Glad to be able to help. I like libraries ^_

Data Igloo is freely available from Faronics, and works with both the Standard and Enterprise versions of Deep Freeze. However, you shouldn't even need to use it, since you were able to make a thawspace. While the Enterprise edition of Deep Freeze is required to create ThawSpaces, even the standard edition is capable of specifying that a partition should be Thawed, and never Frozen. So you could have repartitioned the drives, or used a network drive to store the Minecraft installation.

The "Game Directory" setting in the profile editor only allows you to choose where the information specific to that profile (such as single-player worlds) is saved. In order to relocate the entire .minecraft folder, which is where the profile settings themselves, and the login tokens, are stored, you must use the "--workDir" command line option to the launcher. So your bat file could be as simple as a single line:

Minecraft.bat

C:\Location_of_minecraft_launcher\Minecraft.exe --workDir "D:\Minecraft\"

Where D is the drive letter of the thawspace.

What does your final .bat file look like? While you say you've got it working, you've also indicated that your workaround isn't user-friendly. It should be possible to make it completely transparent to the user – they shouldn't even know that what they're clicking on isn't the old Minecraft Launcher icon. If you store the bat file in a folder somewhere (perhaps in the same location as the launcher), and make a shortcut to it, you can even change the icon to look like the Minecraft "grass block" icon.

It's unlikely that Mojang will do anything to change how this functions. Refreshing the tokens is a fundamental aspect of the system that increases its security – logging in from any location invalidates the tokens at all other locations, so even if a user's token is copied without their knowledge, or they log in to a public place and forget to log back out, logging in again from any other location will invalidate those other logins, protecting their account. In your specific case, this protects the library's Minecraft accounts: Even if someone were to copy the launcher_profiles.json file and take it home with them, the next time someone logged that account in at the library it would revoke the token that the person took home.

It's extremely uncommon for there to be any reason to make the launcher_profiles.json file read-only, and even more unusual environments like that produced by Deep Freeze should include their own solutions, allowing you to specify a location where changes are retained, rather than reverted on reboot. The --workDir option is all that's necessary to make use of this and resolve the problem. What Mojang can and should do is document the command-line options better: the --help option doesn't even work on the Windows executable version of the launcher (it only works on the jar version, while the --workDir option works on both), and the average Windows user isn't likely to even know to try it.

Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version 1.6.4 / Launcher version 1.2.5 ? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases.

No answer, assuming no longer an issue.

I have not switched to the newest launchers out of fear of it breaking entirely, so I can't not answer this question. Pardon for missing the question.