Question for .bat programmers (start & stop service and tasks)

Hi,
Can we start the service (PiServiceLauncher) and stop it (and Pimax related tasks) with a single .bat file?
I mean start with a .bat, use the headset and stop with that same .bat (like we can do with Oculus services).

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Checkout this thread

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You can start TaskManager from a batch file, but that just starts the GUI. I did some research and you can stop tasks and exes in a bat file using TaskKill.

Here’s details on TaskKill…

You can start and stop services using the net command. Here’s the details…

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sc stop PiServiceLauncher
sc start PiServiceLauncher

call it whatever.bat and run it as admin

Note: the PiServiceLauncher doesn’t show up as running at start up on my machine although PiService, pi_server and pi_overlay do and the sc command definitely starts and stops these processes

Note: PiServiceLauncher starts/stops the PiService, pi_server and pi_overlay processes

Edit: PiServiceLauncher is running after a fresh restart as per default, it wasn’t running when I was checking the commands

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That’s awesome!

So just using Sc start/stop PiServiceLauncher stops & starts related tasks?

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My hmd definitely shut down and initiated overlay again with start, easy to replicate :smile:.

Edit: ignore previous statement below -> checked PiServiceLauncher after startup for science and it was running

Dunno if some more magic is required because the launcher service doesn’t show up as running on start up here and therefore the first stop is ignored.

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Technically, you should be able to adjust the startup type to “manual” to avoid having the service started at the boot.

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I use this:

sc stop PiServiceLauncher & timeout 1 & sc start PiServiceLauncher

  • Save as name.cmd
  • Create shortcut to cmd
  • Right click, advanced, “Run as administrator”
  • Pin to start menu

Would be nice if we could capture logs for Pitool devs to fix issues for good, instead of restarting service :slight_smile:

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I already tried these solutions yesterday, but they’re made to restart the service and tasks.
The best I could do is making 2 different bat files: 1 to start and 1 to stop.
Thanks anyway for the sc stop command, net stop kills only PiServiceLauncher and not the 2 other tasks (I had to taskkill /f each one lol)

What I’d like to do is like the Oculus bat file :

  • click to the shortcut to start the service and tasks
  • cmd window closes
  • use my headset
  • click on the same shortcut to stop the service and tasks (and not reload ^^)
  • cmd window closes

Here is the oculus bat:

sc config OVRService start= demand
net start “OVRService”
if %errorlevel% == 2 net stop “OVRService”

It works as describe before but when I adapt it for PiServiceLauncher, it reloads it.

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    @echo off
    set ServiceName=PiServiceLauncher
    set ProcessName=PiService.exe
    tasklist /fi "imagename eq %ProcessName%" | find /v ":" > nul&&(
    	sc query "%ServiceName%" | find "STATE" | find /v "RUNNING" > nul&&(
    		sc start %ServiceName%
    		timeout 10
    	)
    	sc stop %ServiceName%
    ) || (
    	sc start %ServiceName%
    )

It does the toggle state thing but for restart you need to run it twice now.
I am sure @TheIronWolf could write it more nicely.

Note: why so complicated ? I’ve noticed that PiServiceLauncher times out so I’ve added additional taskkills.

Edit: removed taskkill and instead used service start and then stop as a fallback, the service is robust enough not to launch multiple copies of processes

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You’re too humble, this is already a very nice batch :slight_smile:
The only better way I can think of is self-elevating PowerShell script.

But really we shouldn’t even be doing any of this. Pitool bugs need to be fixed, and sleeping service should cost us nothing.

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It’s been awhile. But couldn’t we have it pipe the Terminal output to a text file? I remember foing something like that in DOS.

Piping is still here today - @mojojojo is using it in his script :slight_smile:
Is it possible to tag Pitool developers on this forum? I wonder if we could help them diagnose various bugs that we workaround today by service restarts.

Is there diagnostics, logs, (ETW?) we could collect to help you track down tracking issues? I personally hit 2: once in a while HMD does not see base service until restart. Second, sometimes headset looses tracking, happened only once, and seems to be related to fast shaking.

@anon74848233 @Sean.Huang @Doman.Chen

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Added pokes to your post.

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That’s exactly what I was looking for, thank you :star_struck::ok_hand::+1:

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Powershell is the much better scripting language, batch can get ugly very quickly.

I’d add this to the bugs list resolved by service restart:

https://community.openmr.ai/t/vive-controllers-in-wrong-place-help-please/17098

You were already on the right track :+1:
No problem, it was easy and fun enough, stackexchange is your friend, only some basic knowledge required.

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Agree on powershell - I prefer it to batch, but I do know very hardcore programmers who hate it :slight_smile: it has its share of ugliness :smiley:

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A much easier way to fix this is to set the “Startup Type” option of PiServiceLauncher from “Automatic” to “Automatic (Delay)”. My machine requires 2 to 3 minutes delay for the service to actually start, but if I want to jump right into the action, I can just click the “Diagnostic” in PiTool and let it start the service right away.

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