Build 448: Bugs while searching for updates

[chrroe]

Hi!

Some Bugs in build 448 under openSuSE 10.3 (KDE 3.5.7):
When no network is available (after /etc/init.d/rcnetwork stop ) the Check For Updates function throws an exception:

Non-authoritative response (try again or check DNS setup)

This happens while application start or using the corresponding menu entry.
When the network is available the check-process seems to work fine. But in the displayed dialog box some strange characters are shown at the bottom edge when you move the mouse over the Visit the Cirrus beta site link (see attaced Screenshot),Bye
Christoph

[Jacques]

The first issue should be fixed in the next release. I'm still investigating the second issue.

[stevepjohnson]

Hi, build 449, when behind a restrictive firewall, "Check for update" just hangs the Cirrus process(es) totally.

After presumably the connection timeout (2 mins?) it gives "Socket error #110 Connection Timed out" and lots of hex numbers. OK on that gives a blank Updates window, but the main window is still unresponsive, with one error window that will not close or respond to clicking on the OK button.

I didn't expect it to be able to contact the web (unless you can make it find out from Firefox what proxy to use), but it shouldn't hang.

[Jacques]

Unfortunately the fix for this didn't make it into the 449 release, but it should be fixed in 450.

[Jacques]

We solved the second issue, I had forgotten to commit a line of code which is why I couldn't reproduce it.

[chrroe]

Hi, build 449, when behind a restrictive firewall, "Check for update" just hangs the Cirrus process(es) totally.

As I have to notice, still no progress on this issue up to build 462. Although I think that it is no dramatic issue, a technical solution should not be too difficult for a 3.0.x version of BC3.

Under all SUSE distributions you can edit a system-wide setting for the proxyserver in the corresponding YaST-module. The configuration is written to /etc/sysconfig/proxy.

I do not know if this is available under other Linux distros, maybe use it as option ...

Any chance?
Jaques, your opinion on that?

Bye
Christoph

[Jacques]

Perhaps if a more distribution agnostic method presents itself, then I'd be happy to try and implement it. Until then though, I'm happy as long as the program doesn't hang or crash.

[elson]

Perhaps if a more distribution agnostic method presents itself, then I'd be happy to try and implement it. Until then though, I'm happy as long as the program doesn't hang or crash.

Hi,

Of all the Linux/Unix distros I have used, it seems fairly standard to expose an "http_proxy" environment variable, certainly in Ubuntu/Debian and probably others too. It should be simple to check for this environment variable and use it if it's present.

Not sure if anyone else can confirm/not the accuracy of this statement?


Cheers

[Craig]

I've added support for http_proxy for the next release. If the proxy requires authentication you'll need to include it in the variable; we won't prompt for it.

[chrroe]

I've added support for http_proxy for the next release.

Does BC3 expect an extra ordinary syntax for the value?
I tried version 3.0.13 on openSUSE 11.1 at my office. The following value is set in the environment:

http_proxy=http://aa.bb.cc.dd:8080
But BC3 is still not able to cantact the update website. :(

Firefox for example can contact the internet on that machine ...


Bye
Christoph

[Craig]

Are you using Gnome? From what I found it looks like Firefox gives the settings from gconf priority over the http_proxy variable. Anyway, no, BC doesn't use any different syntax than what you've got there. If you did need a username/password it would have to be http_proxy=http://user:pass@aa.bb.cc.dd:8080, but that's it.

[chrroe]

No, Im on KDE 4.1.x and the proxy settings were entered in YaST.
I do not need authentication at all, as said before, FF works well with that settings.

[Chris]

Hi Christoph,

On my test system (Ubuntu 8.04 with Squid proxy) it works if I place quotes around the URL. If I don't have quotes then it fails.

To set the variable on Ubuntu using the Bash shell, I use the command:
export http_proxy="http://user:word@aa.bb.cc.dd:3128"

Please let me know if placing quotes around the URL solves the problem for you.

[chrroe]

No, that does not help, either. :(

I think BC3 is still working around the proxy. You can see that when you use the tool iftop. Simply start it in a separate shell (as root) and then let BC check for updates.

You can see clearly that the original scootersoftware.com website is contacted directly and not the proxy (so the check fails).


Bye
Christoph

[chrroe]

To all forum members:

Am I the only user who makes this experience?
Has anyone else tried under Linux to check for updates through a proxy server?
Please report any success or failure ...

Bye
Christoph

[elson]

I am still having problems with the proxy as well.

I have found that using the "Check for updates" menu item causes BC to hang for about 5 minutes, then report it was unable to contact the website.

However, when launching BC today i noticed that it did have a new menu item next to help called "New version available" (or something similar), but clicking it caused the same problems. There was indeed an update available, so BC must have been able to contact the update server somehow, even though the main check feature fails.

This is the main problem stopping me from purchasing BC on Linux (if an apt repository isn't possible), but I really would like to :-)

[Craig]

Hi Elson,

This will be fixed in the next release. The current one uses http_proxy for the background check, but not when it shows the dialog.