Retro Client 6.0.110 keeps turning itself off

[TheBum]

I've been having a problem with Retrospect Client 6.0.110 in Tiger. Occassionally, I'll open the client app and find that it has turned off because the pitond daemon has died. I took a look at the retroclient.log file the last time it happened and found the following:

 

1116545396: connAccept: close(socket) failed with error 9

1116545396: ServicePurge: service not found

1116545396: Assertion failure at pitond/object.c-477

1116545396: LogFlush: program exit(-1) called, flushing log file to disk

 

This is on an 867 MHz 12" PowerBook and I suspect that it has something to do with the reconnection to my wireless network when I wake up the PowerBook.

 

Has anyone else seen this, especially with a laptop running Tiger?

[Guest]

I am experiencing the same issue and would be interested to hear what the resolution is. Our Tiger client machines (iMac G5s) resarts with the Retrospect client always off.

 

I read through the post regarding Tiger compatibility ( http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/printthread.php?Cat=0&Board=Announcements&main=55277&type=thread ) and it indicates that Tiger disables the RetroRun launch utility on restart.. does this mean that in Tiger we must manually start the client after each restart??

 

Hopefully I'm misunderstanding it.

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

I read through the post regarding Tiger compatibility ... and it indicates that Tiger disables the RetroRun launch utility on restart

 

---

 

The statement is referring to _prior_ versions:

 

"Prior versions of the Retrospect for Mac OS X Client use permissions that are no longer allowed with Mac OS X Tiger, so Tiger disables the Retrospect Client on restart."

 

Perhaps it could have been more accurately worded ("...so Tiger disables prior versions of the Retrospect Client on restart"). But the newer release should start the pitond process as expected across restarts.

 

The most common cause for the Retrospect OS X Client not running after restarts is that the Retrospect Client application bundle was moved by the user. It needs to remain in in its default installed location to work. If you need to have it in another location, you must edit the shell script in /Library/StartupItems/RetroClilent/

[TheBum]

I rarely restart my PB (it has been booted for nearly 5 straight days), so I know that's not my particular issue. All evidence so far, however circumstantial, still points to the client dying upon wake from sleep. As I said in my original post, I also suspect that the delay in re-establishing an Airport connection has a bearing on the issue; I wouldn't expect to see computers with Ethernet connections to their backup servers exhibit this behavior.

 

Anyone else have any suggestions?

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

As I said in my original post

 

---

 

Which explains why my comment was in reply to the subsequent post from another.

 

>I suspect that it has something to do with the reconnection to my

>wireless network when I wake up the PowerBook.

 

Gut Feelings are a Good Thing to follow when troubleshooting.

 

- Does pitond dies each time you wake your Powerbook?

 

- Is your wireless network difficult for your machine to connect to?

 

Since I've upgraded my Pismo to Tiger w/Retro Client 6.1.110, my retroclient.log does not show any failures of the pitond process. This even though until today, every time I woke my Powerbook it wouldn't be connected to the Airport network.

 

I solved that by visiting my Network preference pane, where I changed from my existing (pre-Tiger update) custom network location to DHCP, where I was presented with a cool new Tiger list of Airport networks that could be reordered for preference. That list was/is unavailable from within my old saved location setting.

 

Although my Powerbook's inability to find its last Airport network didn't cause pitond to crash, if your tiger install is an update with a custom location you might consider creating a new location and seeing if that makes any difference.

 

Yeah, yeah; I know you wanted suggestions from someone else. Oh well.

[pammm56]

I'm having the same problem, but do not have the skills to understand "pitond". I installed the client on my PowerBook and updated it from the main Retrospect machine, but as I reboot I watch it show up on the screen and then turn off. It makes unattended backups pretty much impossible.

 

Since my Tiger installation it always has to be visibly running as well (showing up in the dock).

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

I'm having the same problem, but do not have the skills to understand "pitond"

 

---

 

When you say "the same problem" do you mean to indicate that you'll "open the client app and find that it has turned off because the pitond daemon has died"? This is how Alan reported his issue.

 

When you say:

 

>as I reboot I watch it show up on the screen and then turn off

 

what exactly are you watching show up on the screen?

 

pitond is a unix "daemon" (which is what the ending "d" stands for). It is a background process that is designed to run all the time. OS X has many, many daemons doing many, many different things. Some launch and then die, others run all the time.

 

You can view the status of any OS X process from the Acivity Monitor application that comes with OS X.

 

The Retrospect Client application is just a configuration utility for pitond; changes you make in this application are passed on to either pitond or its confuration file ("retroclient.state").

 

The pitond binary file, the written code that needs to be launched for pitond to run, actually lives inside the Retrospect Client application bundle. When you boot your Mac, a Startup Items script directs the computer to launch pitond from its cozy resting place. That's why moving the Retrospect Client application to another place will keep it from launching on bootup.

 

But if you're seeing it start correctly and then crash (with an entry written to retroclient.log as Alan did) then there might just be something messed up about the software install.

 

As with any suspected problem with a software install, one good thing to try is to un-install it, and then re-install it, from original sources.

 

Use the Retrospect OS X Client to "Uninstall" the software; then re-install, then restart. You'll have to re-add the client to your Retrospect network machine.

 

Dave

[denke]

I'm having a problem that seems related. I'm too ignorant to know if it belongs here or in a new thread.

 

 

 

I was running Retrospect Desktop on my Mac (PM G5, Panther), backing up my Mac and my wife's Mac (G4 iMac, Jaguar) as a client, to a Maxtor connected to my Mac by FW400. Our Macs (and an old Windows box) are connected to a DSL router by Ethernet. None of the computers goes to sleep, and none of them is physically disconnected from the network for months at a time. Each was backed up automatically (Normal Backup) to its own partition on the Maxtor every night, with no problems whatever. Then I installed Tiger (10.4.1) on my Mac.

 

 

 

Now the script for my wife's iMac won't complete. It scans the folders and files, then says it's matching, then starts copying, then quits before it finishes copying. The log says "Trouble reading files, error 515 (Piton protocol variation)". (This is reminiscent of the Error 515 thread from last Fall, but it's not triggered by a change of media.) Earlier it was quitting after scanning and before matching, but then I repaired permissions on the client iMac, and it now quits as described, while copying.

 

 

 

I downloaded and installed Retrospect 6.0.212. I downloaded Client 6.0.110, but after reading your reply in post 56682, I did not install it. The client still has 6.0.109.

 

 

 

I also made the No Spotlight selector for the backups of my Mac, but I did not do this for the client, which is not yet running Tiger.

 

 

 

From your reply to pamelamullen, I infer that I should uninstall and reinstall the Client software. If so, should I do that from the Client machine, which is how I originally installed it? Or from my Mac, which is the "server"?

[natew]

Hi

 

You need to uninstall the client software on the client machine itself. Then upgrade to the 6.0.110 client and you will be all set.

 

Thanks

nate

[denke]

OK. Thank you.

 

And then do I also install the 6.0.110 client software on the client machine itself, or should I do it from my "server" Mac? Dantz KB article 7971 says, "When updating the Retrospect Clients on your network to the latest version, EMC Dantz recommends using the Retrospect Client Update (.rcu) feature found in Configure>Clients rather then installing the new client software directly on each computer.." I can't tell whether that recommendation also applies to reinstalling the client software.

 

Sorry to keep asking such simple-minded questions, but my understanding of the context is too slight for me to interpret such recommendations confidently, so I end up finding them agonizingly ambiguous.

 

Thanks, nate and others, for your patience.

[natew]

Hi

 

"Update" only works when a client is already installed. Since you have uninstalled the client you need to start from scratch. Just do a clean install of the 6.0.110 client on the client machine.

 

FWIW the article is saying - "if a client is already installed use the .rcu updater. Don't run the client installer on the client machine to do the update"

 

Thanks

Nate

[TheBum]

I found a solution...at least short-term. I wrote a continuous-running AppleScript that checks the process status every 60 seconds and if the pitond daemon is not found, it is restarted. Here's the script if anyone is interested:

 

Code:

---

on idle

set pitondstat to ""

set pitondstat to do shell script "ps -Ac | grep pitond | grep -v grep | awk '{print $5}'" & " "

if pitondstat does not contain "pitond" then

do shell script "'/Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond' &"

return 1

end if

return 60

end idle

---

[denke]

Well, Alan, I did all that uninstalling and reinstalling, and it didn't work, but then I disabled NetBarrier and it seems to have worked.

 

 

 

Anyone happen to know how to make NetBarrier let Retrospect back up? (Interesting that it worked okay before I updated to Tiger, but of course I had to update NetBarrier too.)

[pammm56]

I have reinstalled the client and it still continually turns itself off. I'm using the latest version from the Dantz website.

[TheBum]

Update: I've been running the AppleScript for a week now and it continues to work like a charm. Since the script only wakes up once a minute, it doesn't adversely affect other tasks.

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

I have reinstalled the client and it still continually turns itself off. I'm using the latest version from the Dantz website.

 

---

 

And yet you haven't addressed the questions that were posed to you after your first post.

 

When you wrote:

 

>as I reboot I watch it show up on the screen and then turn off

 

what exactly are you watching show up on the screen?

[pammm56]

I see a window (the client window) pop up (the client is a start-up item in the User pane of the system preferences) as the computer is booting up. There are two radio buttons (On and Off) and the client turns Off. If the client is open and On (becuase I have once again turned it on) and the system goes to sleep and the window for the client is in front, when the computer wakes up I see the radio button go from On to Off.

[TheBum]

I have the same symptoms as Pamela when not running my script but it's not consistent. On one awakening, the client will stay active, but on another it might not.

[pammm56]

How do you "run" your script (sorry, an Applescript dummy here).

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

I have reinstalled the client and it still continually turns itself off. I'm using the latest version from the Dantz website.

 

---

 

- Before reinstalling, did you use the installer program to un-install the software?

- Does your retroclient.log show the same "Assertion failure at pitond" error as submitted above?

[TheBum]

Open up the Script Editor that's in the Applications/AppleScript folder. Cut and paste the script from my posting into the editor and then save with the following settings:

 

 

 

File Format: application

 

Options: Stay Open

 

 

 

Once it's saved, just double-click it in the Finder. If you want it to start up every time you boot up or log in, go to the Accounts System Preferences pane and add it to the Login Items.

[pammm56]

I have reinstalled it several times after deinstalling it. I cannot find the retroclient.log file on the client machine.

[SWCarson]

Just in case there is a pattern...

 

I am getting:

Scanning incomplete, error 515 (Piton protocol violation)

 

This is happening when I attempt to back up my wife's eMac which has client 6.0.110. I'm running Retrospect 6.0.212. We are both on MacOS X 10.4.1. There has been one successful backup since being on 10.4.1.

 

I have not tried uninstalling the client and re-installing using Configure:Clients so that is what I want to try next. Previous comments in this thread do not leave me feeling optimistic that this will resolve the problem though.

[rdzman]

Quote:

---

I've been having a problem with Retrospect Client 6.0.110 in Tiger. Occassionally, I'll open the client app and find that it has turned off because the pitond daemon has died. I took a look at the retroclient.log file the last time it happened and found the following:

 

1116545396: connAccept: close(socket) failed with error 9

1116545396: ServicePurge: service not found

1116545396: Assertion failure at pitond/object.c-477

1116545396: LogFlush: program exit(-1) called, flushing log file to disk

 

This is on an 867 MHz 12" PowerBook and I suspect that it has something to do with the reconnection to my wireless network when I wake up the PowerBook.

 

Has anyone else seen this, especially with a laptop running Tiger?

 

---

 

Yes. I have two laptops running Retrospect Client 6.1.107 and I notice that they occasionally get turned off. I just noticed one was off again so I checked the retroclient.log file and sure enough ... the same lines as quoted above.

 

This appears to me to be a bug in pitond. Has Dantz ever responded to this issue or are we still stuck with workarounds like the AppleScript posted here?

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

This appears to me to be a bug in pitond. Has Dantz ever responded to this issue or are we still stuck with workarounds like the AppleScript posted here?

 

---

 

As a unix process, pitond is fairly well "baked," as it is used in the Linux and OS X clients and has been shipping for years.

 

The log entries provided do point to a crash. But the microscopic amount of information provided so far is going to make it pretty difficult for anyone to diagnose the problem online.

 

Since this doesn't happen for the vast majority of Retrospect OS X Client users, there must be something about your configuration, either hardware, software or both, that is causing the crash.

 

And only _you_ can describe those configuration details (I could provide mine, but it wouldn't be much help as pitond stay alive across restarts and sleep cycles on my Powerbook). Heck, the original poster asked the most basic question of "especially with a laptop running Tiger?" and even that's answer isn't provided in subsequent posts!

 

This isn't an official Dantz support channel, it's a community forum of users helping users, with participation by Dantz tech support persons. But it only works if the people seeing oddities in the field provide complete information. Otherwise it's just a complaint forum.

 

You can always open a support incident with Dantz. If it's a bug that they have to fix, you can then request (and receive) a refund.

 

Dave