ANN: ZMacSync-1.5b1 available

[bgotori]

Hey dhns

I Don't do PalPay, thats why I need an address to send you at Money order.


Thanks!!!

Brad

[dhns]

what you mean by "crossed out",

"crossed out" meaning two red lines across the Zaurus icon. This occurs if the ping process built into ZMacSync gets no more responses.

The pings never seemed to slow up any, and the "Data from Zaurus-1 not available" messages kept appearing.  I was still able to ssh into my Zaurus after a couple of these messages appeared.

Ok, this confirms my hypothesis that the ping and ssh connection layer is really working but there is an issue with the data coming from the Zaurus to the Mac.

Probably worth noting that it takes almost 10 seconds from the time I start to ssh into my Zaurus from the command line till the time that I actually get a command prompt.

I have also experienced this several times - independently of ZMacSync. It seems to have something to do with the openssh-server authentication negotiations on connection setup.

[toshi]

I tried it out and everything seemed to install fine but I'm getting a couple of errors.  I'm just trying to sync the address book

>> Data from Zaurus-1 not available.

I have one record on the Zaurus.

And from the log:

>> Committing Local-1 with Zaurus-1...
>> Committing Zaurus-1 with Local-1...
>> Commit error for Zaurus-1 with Local-1

The records don't get transfered.  I tried Sync and File->Copy.  Any ideas?

I have a C860, Cacko 1.21b

Thanks.

[dhns]

Now, Release 1.5b2 is available. The most important changes

Auto-install of dtm2xml daemon on Zaurus

You do not have to install it manually any more - openssh still needs manual installation and there is no known solution.

Note: this requires to set the ssh user name to be "root"!

I just recognized that the text field is now disabled - so you can't change it. Either use the 1.5b1 version to change settings. Or delete the preferences ~/Library/Preferences/de.dsitri.ZMacSync.plist. Or use the "defaults" command on the Mac command line.

Now reads iCal events and tasks and tracks changes

There is a feature (or bug?) in iCal that there might be several iCalendar entries with the same Unique-ID in a Calendar file.  And some of them did have neither DTSTAMP nor LAST-MODIFIED. I am not sure if this conforms to the standard.
After handling this, these additional records are no longer counted as something to sync separately and Calendar syncing is enabled.

Copies events and tasks to the Zaurus
With that working, Events and Tasks are now synced/copied to the Mac.

Known bugs: Events are stored but don't show up in the Calendar application yet (either the translation is setting one bit wrongly or there is an issue with the Index); Tasks lack the display of Due Time.

Writing to Mac Calendar files is still disabled so changes on the Zaurus can't be synced to the Mac yet.

Print more debugging messages
As suggested by some of you to track the "Data from Zaurus-1 not available" issue this release prints a lot of debugging messages to the Console.

So if you run into this or a similar issue, please submit the critical part of the Console log.

Note: the log file might contain your personal address/calendar data that you probably don't want to see here on ZUG and in some days indexed by Google. Alternatively, you can send it through zmacsync@dsitri.de

Sincerely,
hns

http://www.dsitri.de/wiki.php?page=ZMacSync

[dhns]

Data from Zaurus-1 not available.

Please try the 1.5b2 release which prints a lot more messages to the Console. Especially all reasons that might end up in the "Data from Zaurus-1 not available" as the only message.

I have a C860, Cacko 1.21b

That should make no difference.

Thank you very much for reports!

hns

[ashikase]

I tried version b2, still no luck. Unfortunately, the added logging provided no new information.

By running sshd in debug mode, I confirmed that an ssh connection is made, then quickly disconnected.

From a command-line, I manually ran the command:

Code: [Select]

ssh zaurus@192.168.129.201 /home/QtPalmtop/bin/dtm2xml -a... which worked fine (returned an XML dump of my DTM files). Of course, I don't know if this is the same command that ZMacSync uses or not.

On a side note, I noticed that b2 only attempts an ssh connection on startup. Afterwards, it never makes another attempt, even when clicking on 'fetch' or the 'sync' button.

- ashikase
  anpachi, gifu, japan

[dhns]

Code: [Select]

ssh zaurus@192.168.129.201 /home/QtPalmtop/bin/dtm2xml -a... which worked fine (returned an XML dump of my DTM files). Of course, I don't know if this is the same command that ZMacSync uses or not.

Yes, that is very similar to the command used internally.

On a side note, I noticed that b2 only attempts an ssh connection on startup. Afterwards, it never makes another attempt, even when clicking on 'fetch' or the 'sync' button.

Could you please try the following: open the Zaurus settings, click some checkbox twice so that it is not really changed and close + try Fetch again. This procedure resets an internal mechanism if ping/ssh did mangle up.

And a second thought: please try to use "root" in ZMacSync to access the Zaurus (you will have to delete ~/Library/Preferences/de.dsitri.ZMacSync.plist to get it initialized to "root"). The setting of the clock works only with root login (using the date command). And if that fails it might block all further sync operations.

Many thanks for these additional feedbacks!

-- hns

[ganoe]

Nov 10 11:54:45 Craigs-Computer /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/MacOS/ZMacSync: objc: Both /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/Local.conduit/Contents/MacOS/Local and /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/Zaurus.conduit/Contents/MacOS/Zaurus have implementations of class mySync.
Nov 10 11:54:45 Craigs-Computer /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/MacOS/ZMacSync: objc: Using implementation from /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/Zaurus.conduit/Contents/MacOS/Zaurus.
2004-11-10 11:54:46.160 ZMacSync[2699] VTODO: unknown tag BEGIN
2004-11-10 11:54:46.324 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ
2004-11-10 11:54:46.429 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ
2004-11-10 11:54:50.584 ZMacSync[2699] stderr: CheckFileBoxEx error /home/zaurus/Applications/dtm/SLMEMO.BOX 40
2004-11-10 11:54:50.600 ZMacSync[2699] stderr: /home/QtPalmtop/bin/dtm2xml: BoxOpen("/home/zaurus/Applications/dtm/SLMEMO.BOX") failed even after creating new Box
2004-11-10 11:54:50.646 ZMacSync[2699] dtm2xml -a failed
2004-11-10 11:55:23.123 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ
2004-11-10 11:55:46.915 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ
2004-11-10 11:56:23.618 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ

[dhns]

Ok, let's have a look on this...

Nov 10 11:54:45 Craigs-Computer /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/MacOS/ZMacSync: objc: Both /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/Local.conduit/Contents/MacOS/Local and /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/Zaurus.conduit/Contents/MacOS/Zaurus have implementations of class mySync.
Nov 10 11:54:45 Craigs-Computer /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/MacOS/ZMacSync: objc: Using implementation from /Applications/ZMacSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/Zaurus.conduit/Contents/MacOS/Zaurus.

This is annoying but not really harmful. But should be solved as well.

2004-11-10 11:54:46.160 ZMacSync[2699] VTODO: unknown tag BEGIN
2004-11-10 11:54:46.324 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ
2004-11-10 11:54:46.429 ZMacSync[2699] VEVENT: unknown tag TZ

This is a message from the iCalendar parser. It means that it stumbles over unexpected tags. Did you import public calendars? If you have no concerns about the calendar file, please send as a private mail so that we can analyse what is going wrong.

2004-11-10 11:54:50.584 ZMacSync[2699] stderr: CheckFileBoxEx error /home/zaurus/Applications/dtm/SLMEMO.BOX 40
2004-11-10 11:54:50.600 ZMacSync[2699] stderr: /home/QtPalmtop/bin/dtm2xml: BoxOpen("/home/zaurus/Applications/dtm/SLMEMO.BOX") failed even after creating new Box
2004-11-10 11:54:50.646 ZMacSync[2699] dtm2xml -a failed

This seems to be the "bad boy"...

Someone else has also reported the same problems with the SLMEMO.BOX (http://www.dsitri.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=213#213). This is the DTM file for storing "Text Editor/Notes" or Stickies. It could be that Sharp 3.13 ROM does not create this file on a hard reset until you use "Text Editor/Notes". And dtm2xml tries to create a new one but this fails. We have tested mostly on a C860 with ROM 1.4JP and a SL5500G with ROM 3.10 which might be a little different to yours.

Thank you very much for these reports!

-- hns

[dhns]

I Don't do PalPay,

I understand. In my view it is not difficult to use PayPal but there are unresolved doubts about security.

Alternatively, you can also KAGI through https://order.kagi.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?storeID=QM4 where you will find either ZMacSync or a general donation option (in 1$ steps).

I will also send a PM with a third option.

Many thanks for your support!      

-- hns

[ganoe]

This is a message from the iCalendar parser. It means that it stumbles over unexpected tags. Did you import public calendars? If you have no concerns about the calendar file, please send as a private mail so that we can analyse what is going wrong.

I have a bunch of calendars that I am subscribed to.  What do you need sent to you?  Here are some of the calendars I subscribe to:
webcal://ical.mac.com/ical/US32Holidays.ics
webcal://cscl.ist.psu.edu/public/calendar.ics
webcal://cscl.ist.psu.edu/public/hci/calendar.ics
webcal://ical.mac.com/oxomega/Penn32State32Football.ics
webcal://ical.mac.com/ical/Virginia32Tech32Football.ics
webcal://www.hokiesports.com/cgi-bin/new-schedule/vt.vcs?sport=football
webcal://ical.mac.com/ical/Steelers.ics

This seems to be the "bad boy"...

Someone else has also reported the same problems with the SLMEMO.BOX (http://www.dsitri.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=213#213). This is the DTM file for storing "Text Editor/Notes" or Stickies. It could be that Sharp 3.13 ROM does not create this file on a hard reset until you use "Text Editor/Notes". And dtm2xml tries to create a new one but this fails. We have tested mostly on a C860 with ROM 1.4JP and a SL5500G with ROM 3.10 which might be a little different to yours.

OK, I created a note in the Text Editor app and it now seems to sync without error messages.

Unfortunately, it created duplicates of all my addresses inside my Mac's Address Book.  The duplicates instead of saying "work" or "home" next to the e-mail address have a "1" instead and also seem to be missing icon and maybe other data.

It is also unclear to me why it's looking at calendar stuff if the only thing I have checked to update is "Address Book".

[ashikase]

Still no luck...

On a side note, I noticed that b2 only attempts an ssh connection on startup. Afterwards, it never makes another attempt, even when clicking on 'fetch' or the 'sync' button.

Could you please try the following: open the Zaurus settings, click some checkbox twice so that it is not really changed and close + try Fetch again. This procedure resets an internal mechanism if ping/ssh did mangle up.

Strange, this problem doesn't occur with b1 (it attempts to connect everytime).

And a second thought: please try to use "root" in ZMacSync to access the Zaurus (you will have to delete ~/Library/Preferences/de.dsitri.ZMacSync.plist to get it initialized to "root"). The setting of the clock works only with root login (using the date command). And if that fails it might block all further sync operations.

I tried it as root, still fails. I tried it once with only 'sync clock' selected, and once with just 'addressbook' selected.

Any other debugging ideas?

- ashikase
 anpachi, gifu, japan

[dhns]

webcal://cscl.ist.psu.edu/public/calendar.ics
webcal://cscl.ist.psu.edu/public/hci/calendar.ics

Thank you very much. I have subscribed to all calendars and will have a deeper look into the file structure later. Interestingly, iCal prints messages about an invalid character in these two calendards. So iCalendar standard seems to have different interpretations...

Unfortunately, it created duplicates of all my addresses inside my Mac's Address Book.

For the duplicates we will have to look again into the unique-ID mechanism. It appears that firstly, your addressbook was copied to the Zaurus and then (because of lost references) added back.

The duplicates instead of saying "work" or "home" next to the e-mail address have a "1" instead and also seem to be missing icon and maybe other data.

The 1,2,3 is an data model limitation that is not easily solved. It is the result of non-perfect translation from the Zaurus DTM to the Mac ABPerson format. The Mac can store labels for each entry of a ABMultiValue - this is the Work, Home etc. in the case of the e-mail addresses.
The Zaurus just has a single entry for a comma-separated list of e-mail addresses. So, unless you specify manually, ZMacSync does not know the correct label from the e-mail list. And these are initially assigned "1", "2" etc. when translating to ABPerson. Other records like phone numbers are stored separately for Home and Work on the Zaurus.

It is also unclear to me why it's looking at calendar stuff if the only thing I have checked to update is "Address Book".

This is a result of the plugin-architecture. The Mac plugin does not know that the Zaurus plugin has disabled writing to the Calendar and therefore tracks and advertizes changes by reading the calendar anyway.

So to summarize what we have to fix with highest priority:
1. installation and communication become more robust
2. duplication of records when syncing forward and backward
3. iCalendar parsing

Many thanks again,
hns

[dhns]

Any other debugging ideas?

Hm.

please try

Code: [Select]

ssh -l root 192.168.129.201 /home/QtPalmtop/bin/dtm2xml -aThat is the way the command is sent internally.

It might also be that the auto-install fails for some unknown reason on your system (file permissions etc.). I think we will remove that automatic mode from the b3 release and put the dtm2xml tool together with openssh server into a single .ipk installer package.

-- hns

[ashikase]

please try

CODE


ssh -l root 192.168.129.201 /home/QtPalmtop/bin/dtm2xml -a

That is the way the command is sent internally.

This works fine.

It might also be that the auto-install fails for some unknown reason on your system (file permissions etc.). I think we will remove that automatic mode from the b3 release and put the dtm2xml tool together with openssh server into a single .ipk installer package.

Isn't the auto-install feature only part of b2? I have tried both b1 and b2, with no luck.

Through some testing, I've found that when attempting to fetch data, for both b1 and b2, while it appears that an ssh connection is established, the 'dtm2xml' utility is never called. It looks like the ssh connection is cancelled as soon as the request for the command to execute is made... as if the command fails to run/is not found. Are any other commands run over ssh before dtm2xml?

- ashikase
  anpachi, gifu, japan