rfs Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 After rebooting and having the same problem, I deleted the backup file (after rebooting yet again to get around that file-is-open error) then started over. And this time it appears to be working normally. I have successfully made several backups with no errors like I had before. My confidence level is now a little above zero. I originally planned to do scheduled backups every few days but now I think I'll do them every night for a while and see if this error pops up again. What I discovered in testing the auto backup is that if my computer is asleep nothing will happen. NOT what I expected. Do I have to leave it running all night???? Surely there is a way. In fact, what I want to do is have it wake up, then MOUNT the drive I'm backing up to, do the backup, then dismount the drive and go to sleep again. Am I asking too much? (Probably should be in another thread, huh?) Thanks for taking the time to reply, Dave. Now, to answer your questions -- although since its working now it doesn't matter much, but I didn't want to ignore you. - How did you install Retrospect? Ummmm.... from the installer? Or did you imply there was another way? - How are you launching Retrospect? I double-click its icon, and maybe a time or 2 I used Recent Items under Apple menu. - Does the Dock show anything unusual during the working backup? Not during it, no. But when I run the program I do see a Retro icon appear for a bounce or 2 then goes away, and immediately comes back, every time I run it. - Does Activity Monitor show any instance of Retrospect running when you thought you'd quit? Its showing RetroRun (as root) right now but I think that may be because I have a scheduled backup pending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 >What I discovered in testing the auto backup is that if my computer is >asleep nothing will happen. NOT what I expected. No? What about ssh? Can you connect to a sleeping mac? Or Apache? Can a sleeping mac run as a web server? (answer=no) When a Macintosh sleeps, all processes are suspended. It's actually a neat trick, considering that *nix was never designed for this sort of thing. But yes, your machine has to be awake for scheduled activities to run. >when I run the program I do see a Retro icon appear for a bounce or 2 then goes away, >and immediately comes back, every time I run it. This is normal. It's the authentication scheme running, that allows Retrospect to run as root (so that it has access to all the files on your machine). >Its showing RetroRun (as root) right now but I think that may be because I >have a scheduled backup pending. retrorun will always be there (scripts pending or not), unless you deselect the auto-launch Preference. Since things are working as expected, it's not unusual that nothing unusual is happening (!). But if you get the locked file error again, please revisit the possibility that multiple-instances of Retrospect are running (as discussed earlier in the thread). And document whatever you can. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfs Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 >What I discovered in testing the auto backup is that if my computer is >asleep nothing will happen. NOT what I expected. No? What about ssh? Can you connect to a sleeping mac? Or Apache? Can a sleeping mac run as a web server? (answer=no) When a Macintosh sleeps, all processes are suspended. It's actually a neat trick, considering that *nix was never designed for this sort of thing. But yes, your machine has to be awake for scheduled activities to run. Right. It can't do anything while asleep, I know (well, nothing but wake up anyway). That's not what I meant to imply. What I want it to do is wake up, THEN do the backup. I don't see where it says it will or can do this -- all it said is that it cannot wake up a Powerbook from sleep. I assumed that since it got specific about Powerbooks that it WOULD wake up my MDD G4. I think I found a solution anyway. In the Energy Saver, if I set it to turn on the computer at, say, 1:58am then if the computer is asleep at that time it will wake it up. Then Retro will run at 2am and be happy. I've also got it set to go to sleep after 1 hr of inactivity, and that should work fine for me. Now all I need to do is find a way to mount my backup drive at 1:59am. So far, no luck on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 >I've also got it set to go to sleep after 1 hr of inactivity, and that should work fine for me. Careful. Others have reported that Retrospect Client activity might not be enough to keep a machine awake; once it goes from Backup to Compare, your machine might snooze. >Now all I need to do is find a way to mount my backup drive at 1:59am What drive is this? Volumes that are mounted when your Mac goes to sleep should be available again when they wake up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfs Posted August 11, 2004 Report Share Posted August 11, 2004 >I've also got it set to go to sleep after 1 hr of inactivity, and that should work fine for me. Careful. Others have reported that Retrospect Client activity might not be enough to keep a machine awake; once it goes from Backup to Compare, your machine might snooze. I have it set to sleep after 1 hour of inactivity. Think this is long enough to backup & verify around 120GB? >Now all I need to do is find a way to mount my backup drive at 1:59am What drive is this? Volumes that are mounted when your Mac goes to sleep should be available again when they wake up. It's an internal 160GB Seagate drive. Since the only purpose of this drive is for backup, I do not want it mounted on my desktop 24/7 -- only during the backup process. It will afford me a little extra security since it is normally spun down and not visible to anyone, or any applications. And, I found an applescript that will mount it (wasn't easy to find). Also found something that I needed, and have always had but never knew I had... a simple & clean way to run a script via schedule. Would you believe, iCal? It's alarm functions allow you to run any script at the alarm time. So, this is my backup plan: Energy Saver wakes the machine at 2:10am. iCal's alarm at 2:11am runs the script that mounts the drive. Retro starts the backup at 2:12am. iCal's alarm at 3:09am runs another script that unmounts the drive. Sleep after 1 hour of inactivity puts it to sleep either at 3:10am or 1 hr after Retro finishes. Everything is set to trigger on Tue, Thu & Sat, and a Recycle done every 4 weeks. (Sorry I got way off this thread but it seems like it's just me & you here, Dave.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwarthman Posted August 15, 2004 Report Share Posted August 15, 2004 I'll chime in as another (long-time Retrospect user) who is having this problem. I have a script scheduled to run at 12:01 AM. I have my Unattended preference set to "Stay in Retrospect" so I can see what happened in the morning. Often (but not always!) I have two copies of Retrospect running in the dock in the morning. When this happens, I get the "catalog is locked error". Here's an example from this morning's log: ? Retrospect version 6.0.193 automatically launched at 8/15/2004 12:01 AM ? Retrospect version 6.0.193 automatically launched at 8/15/2004 12:01 AM + Retrospect Driver Update, version 5.2.101 + Normal backup using Primary Backup at 8/15/2004 12:01 AM To backup set Macintosh HD Backup… - 8/15/2004 12:01:46 AM: Copying Macintosh HD… + Retrospect Driver Update, version 5.2.101 + Normal backup using Primary Backup at 8/15/2004 12:01 AM Can't add to backup set Macintosh HD Backup: The catalog is locked. 8/15/2004 12:01:54 AM: Execution incomplete. 8/15/2004 12:52:47 AM: Comparing Macintosh HD… Notice that two copies of Retrospect started, and one appeared to perform the backup, the other failed with the error. Log entries from both copies are interspersed, which is interesting. I'm running on a TiBook 667, OS X 10.3.5, and Retrospect version 6.0.193. I'm anxious to solve this problem, and welcome all questions and comments! Enjoy! -- Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h41 Posted August 20, 2004 Report Share Posted August 20, 2004 Hello, got the same Problem TWO RETROSPECT 6 applications launch one after the other, normally Retrospect launches, quits and relaunches, but I have TWO APPLICATION ICONS IN DOCK, crazy!!! They execute my backupscripts always twice, locked catalog message from time to time but not always. Running Retrospect 6.0.193 and 5.6.102 RDU G4/500 OSX 10.3.5 (Problem existed since 10.3 I think...) Did anyone find a workaround or a solution? TIA Hal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwarthman Posted September 3, 2004 Report Share Posted September 3, 2004 Okay, it's been two weeks since I posted my experience, and still no answers. I have a bit more information. I have observed that, for me, this problem ONLY happens the first time Retrospect runs a scheduled backup after the Mac is restarted. To recap, Retrospect launches and starts its backup, and then a second copy of Retrospect launches (with a second icon on the dock), and both copies of Retrospect seem to read/write into one log file. That is, the log file seems to contain interleaved lines from the two copies of the program. See my posting, above, for an example. Clearly this is a problem that multiple people are having. I hope Dantz is working on this. Thanks! -- Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwarthman Posted September 12, 2004 Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 Well, I thought I'd found an important aspect to this issue, but still no comments from Dantz. Clearly others are having the same issue, yet Dantz appears silent. This is disappointing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Hi How old is your Mac again? Is there any chance the pram battery has lost its charge? Do you have the mac set up to check a time server to verify date and time? I wonder if a clock reset after the machine has been off could cause something like this... Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwarthman Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Nate, Thanks for the reply. I have a TiBook that's nearly 3 years old, but the clock/calendar haven't had any problems. After a restart, they're still showing the correct date & time - and yet Retrospect launches twice when the timed backup happens. I don't believe it's a problem with my pram battery. Best Regards, Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElRay Posted December 9, 2004 Report Share Posted December 9, 2004 Quote: No? What about ssh? Can you connect to a sleeping mac? Or Apache? Can a sleeping mac run as a web server? (answer=no) When a Macintosh sleeps, all processes are suspended. It's actually a neat trick, considering that *nix was never designed for this sort of thing. But yes, your machine has to be awake for scheduled activities to run. This is not a totally satisfying answer. The machine can wake on mouse movements, keyboard presses, modem activity, ethernet activity (for administrative access access) and scheduled wake times. I find it hard to believe that Retrospect can't tap into one of these functionalities to wake the machine for a scheduled back-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Although this is way off the topic of the thread, I'll bite. As far as I know, Retrospect is unable to click on a keyboard, either locally or from a remote location. The only way an Apple Macintosh running Mac OS X can remotely be awoken from sleep is to send it a "magic packet" via ethernet. There are a few applications that can do this; Retrospect does not have the feature. I think everyone would agree that it would be a good feature to have. This Apple tech note http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107540 lists some options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElRay Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 I wasn't quite clear enough. What I should have said was that there are ways to wake a sleeping Mac. Energy Saver and others do it, so it seems odd (whether it's Dantz's oversight or Apple's) that Retrospect can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfortunately Posted January 5, 2005 Report Share Posted January 5, 2005 I get it too. * Two simultaneous instances in the dock. * One succeeds and the other fails because of file lock. * They both write to the same log file and their entries' characters are interspersed. * It only happens at sign-in (wake from sleep, close screen saver or truly log in). * It only happens when a script's scheduled time has passed. * It still gets the job done and although it doesn't inspire confidence it seems to be harmless. * I've noticed that Retrospect will run my scheduled scripts even if no users are logged in. You'll see it pop up and do it's thing in the main OSX login window. * This is something of a security & privacy risk by the way because it sits there merrily listing all the file names that it's dealing with for all the world to see, even though no-one has authenticated. * If I login whilst this is still happening I witness it make the second simultaneous attempt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Hi Have you ever dragged Retrospect to the trash? If so empty it. Also try uninstalling and reinstalling Retrospect using the uninstall option in the Retrospect setup program. Also search your hard drive for duplicate copies of Retrospect and delete them. Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elurie Posted January 19, 2005 Report Share Posted January 19, 2005 This is somwhat off the topic, I have no idea if it is related to the locked file problem... When double-clicking my "Panther drive" catalog, then clicked the options tab in the catalog window and compressed the catalog. It took a long time to compress, but went from 288MB to 46 MB. This is good, I thought. But, on quitting Retrospect 6.0.193 and checking script, now I get the message can't back up "Panther drive", catalog is locked. All Options are grayed out. I cannot uncompress the catalog, so this backup script won't back up. My question is: How do I unlock the catalog? (Get info window does not show file as locked). Update function of Repair catalog says can't repair catalog, it is locked. (log report) + Executing Recatalog at 1/19/2005 12:46 PM To backup set PantherDrive… Can't save catalog, error -45 (file locked). 1/19/2005 12:46:23 PM: Execution incomplete. TIA, eve G4Dual500/1GBRAM/Panther10.3.4 Backing up to an 80GB internal HD Retrospect 6.0.193 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elurie Posted January 20, 2005 Report Share Posted January 20, 2005 more info... Relaunching Retrospect finds that Options are now available. The Panther Backup set script has run successfully. Log below, despite catalog file reported as locked and not ready. Have only one Retrospect on my computer. Hmm, it looks like same kind of problem as reported earlier in this thread. + Normal backup using BUPantherHD at 1/19/2005 5:00 PM To backup set PantherDrive… - 1/19/2005 5:00:23 PM: Copying PantherHD… Can't read file “d01293-001”, error -43 (file/folder not found), path: “PantherHD/private/var/spool/cups/d01293-001”. Can't read file “d01325-001”, error -43 (file/folder not found), path: “PantherHD/private/var/spool/cups/d01325-001”. 1/19/2005 5:16:17 PM: Comparing PantherHD… File “access_log”: different data size (set: 121,223, vol: 128,632), path: “PantherHD/private/var/log/cups/access_log”. 1/19/2005 5:17:56 PM: 3 execution errors. Completed: 694 files, 211.2 MB, with 0% compression Performance: 87.9 MB/minute (67.0 copy, 127.9 compare) Duration: 00:17:33 (00:12:45 idle/loading/preparing) eve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted January 21, 2005 Report Share Posted January 21, 2005 Hi I have heard reports where double clicking directly on a catalog file will open a second instance of Retrospect. This will lock the catalog file from the other already running instance. Does that appear to be happening in your case? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elurie Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 more info: I am no longer getting a locked file message on the Panther BU catalog. It has fixed itself. eve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangekay Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 I'm seeing this same problem on a client's machine, and it will not go away. The fact that the issue has not been addressed by Dantz in all this time is truly disappointing. I realize I should not expect much from a company who paid to have the old SCSI Manager ported to X just so they wouldn't have to touch any of their ancient code, but surely there must be enough funding laying around to pay an engineer to sort this out in less than a couple years' time if there are this many people complaining about it. The machine exhibiting the behavior is a mirror door G4 running 10.4.3 and the most recent version of Retrospect currently available on the site as of today. Immediate backup works fine. Automated backup results in the bogus "Not ready: Can't add to backup set X: The catalog is locked." errors constantly. The second "Retrospect Directory" icon does indeed appear in the dock and refuse to go away. Retrospect has never been installed on this machine before, nor has it ever been removed by dragging it to the trash. There is exactly one copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted November 8, 2005 Report Share Posted November 8, 2005 Quote: I realize I should not expect much from a company who paid to have the old SCSI Manager ported to X just so they wouldn't have to touch any of their ancient code If this is an anecdote or urban legend, it's the first time I've heard tell of it. Paid whom? I remember that Apple wasn't very gung-ho about even including SCSI in OS X, and there's no doubt that its support in today's OS isn't very strong. Are you saying that Dantz paid Apple (or some third party) to port Apple's own SCSI Manager for inclusion into OS X? While it's certainly possible that Dantz lobbied Apple for SCSI support when OS X was in development, it's seems unlikely that Dantz had to pay the development costs for it. If you have a story, I'm sure people would be interested in knowing it. There have been many reports here on the Forum, yet in most all cases the information necessary to reproduce it under controlled conditions has been lacking. Complete hardware, software and configuration information is always the fist step for helpful online contributions. That's true whether you're asking for or offering help. If this was happening on my machine I'd run, not walk, to plunk down the $70 for a call to Dantz. If my input was enough to help them sort it out, or if they couldn't provide an answer or a fix, I'd then ask for a refund, which I'm confident they'd provide. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 15, 2005 Report Share Posted November 15, 2005 Hi OrangeKay Dave is right, I've never heard of this either. Where did you get this information? In regard to two versions of Retrospect launching, Have you uninstalled and reinstalled the application with a system reboot in between? Does any one every click directly on a backup set to open Retrospect? Thanks nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted November 15, 2005 Report Share Posted November 15, 2005 Nate, Most all of the reports that I've read on this issue come down to auto-launching, and enough have been on machines with only a single, solitary install of Retrospect that it just doesn't sound as if there are multiple files involved. It's multiple instances of the same binary file. The 24/12 hour clock thing is an interesting path to take (since so many others have been dead ends). Question for anyone having this issue; is your clock set to 24 hour or 12 hour? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted November 15, 2005 Report Share Posted November 15, 2005 When we've had this issue, both launches show the same 12-hour clock time. Not all autolaunches resulted in a double launch, and there appeared to be no difference in the chances for a double launch whether the autolaunch was preceded by a reboot, whether there had been a manual launch of Retrospect before the autolaunch, or whether the Retrospect app or uncorrupted config files were recently reinstalled. We have not experienced this problem since upgrading from a G4 (AGP Graphite) to a G5 in September, but because a double launch had frequently resulted in corrupt config files or a corrupt app (causing lots of assert errors and requiring a reinstall), I have been loath to rely on autolaunching. As a result, I don't yet have much data with the G5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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