BuildOS - What is status of Proxy?

[beluczywo]

Thanks to those who work on BuildOS.

The latest release here http://ppckitchen.org/joomla/index.p...page&Itemid=55
mentions "added firewall/proxy support". I've played and played with the parameters in the updater directory (settings.ini) and can't get any proxy stuff to work.

[PROXY]
type=automatic
username=
password=
http=
ftp=
autoconfigurl=

I assume these are also used when BuildOS itself executes (I can't find anywhere different where there would be another set of parameters for BuildOS separate from updater). Our firewall is a standard http proxy with basic authentication.

Can someone confirm if this functionality is supposed to work yet, and possibly give a short writeup on expected syntax?
Options for type
Do you include the "http://" in the http line?
Does the port need to be there (:80)?
Do you need quotes around things?
Can you speficify auto in addition to the proxy address or does one supercede the other?

If not yet implemented, is there a time estimate?
Pending implementation, is there an ini file workaround to bypass the login code that could be used while the kinks are worked out and this option removed once proxy is verified to work? (I've read the whole flame war on this topic and I'm not asking why or questioning the need, just asking if there is a way to function standalone while development of this feature/requirement is ongoing).

Thanks -- not trying to nag, I understand very well the fact that this is "free" and that it is a labor of love. I am very happy with having anything at all, it's just that it was so nice to do some hobby stuff during lunchtime and not have such an impact on "family time". I miss being able to work from behind a firewall. You guys have spoiled me!

[GigityC6]

I know this is not an answer to your question but Im am trying to be helpful, Have you tried tethering your pc to your phone for internet access long enough to log into Buildos? You can download updates also over your phone. Once its running it should not need internet access to complete a build. Possible work around for you.

[azclown]

The updater should be able to run and update even behind a firewall, and the updated BuildOS will try to authenticate, and fails behind my firewall, but should still run anyway....

[gguruusa]

Originally Posted by beluczywo

Thanks to those who work on BuildOS.

The latest release here http://ppckitchen.org/joomla/index.p...page&Itemid=55
mentions "added firewall/proxy support". I've played and played with the parameters in the updater directory (settings.ini) and can't get any proxy stuff to work.

[PROXY]
type=automatic
username=
password=
http=
ftp=
autoconfigurl=

I assume these are also used when BuildOS itself executes (I can't find anywhere different where there would be another set of parameters for BuildOS separate from updater). Our firewall is a standard http proxy with basic authentication.

No, that file is for updater only. Buildos only uses Automatic configuration at this time. The only time I've seen this fail is w/ early .Net implementations...verify that your .Net is current...and overly restrictive firewalls/security settings.

I'll try to build a small test app over the next few days that you can run to help determine where the failure is occurring.

[beluczywo]

Interesting. I'm sure that when BuildOS fails it is catastrophic -- will not open the selection screen. I'll pay closer attention to the error message tomorrow and post more specifics -- I had assumed the proxy just wasn't working. I also was pretty sure I was up-to-date and fully patched with dot net. I know through Microsoft Update I have run every patch -- security, required, optional, and hardware. I know I've seen several dot nets up at least through dot net 2 (can't remember if there is a 3 or not) but I'll seach and make sure I am running the latest dot net.

Our firewall is not SOCKS, but is straight HTTP. This is not quite as common but still very common. Can you tell me where it stores the credentials after the first time you type them in? It is assuming credentials are "mypc\myid" when in fact the right credentials for the firewall is "mydomain\myid". I am overtyping the pre-filled in box which is what I do all the time with Internet Explorer which is configured and works properly -- if you are reusing IE internet connection settings, I would think it would work.

Very strange, but thanks for the leads -- lets me know I need to do more troubleshooting. If you get a test app, I'd be more than happy to try it and get the results back to you. Thanks.

[gguruusa]

.Net tries to use the credentials of the currently logged in Windows user. How it (.Net) determines the proxy settings is complicated.

[beluczywo]

Turns out I had dot net 3.0 (latest is 3.5) installed on my machine.

With 3.0, the message I get from BuildOS is "Server Unavailable, The request failed with HTTP status 407: Proxy Authentication Required". I was never prompted for credentials by the tool. When I click the OK button, I get a message that says "Login has expired". Clicking OK again, BuildOS terminates -- I'm not seeing what others said here which is that BuildOS would continue on and run anyway.

In Updater, with no manually entered settings (only automatic chosen in the list above), I get the following: updatere pops up with a window "Authentication Needed" and a place for an ID and password. I fill them in as documented in my last message (mydomain\myid, password). If I tick "save credentials" it does in fact copy what I've typed into settings.ini in unencrypted plain text. After clicking "OK" I get a message "Can't connect to server". Hitting "more" shows the message "Probably the server that is hosting the update is offline or unreachable. Please try again at a later time." Clicking OK here ends updater.


I'm DL'ing 3.5 now and will post if symptoms are different on it.

It seems obvious to me that it is not happy talking to the proxy for some reason. I know we use a firewall called "CHECKPOINT" and there is nothing fancy in the Internet Explorer/Microsoft internet options firewall settings.

[gguruusa]

Originally Posted by beluczywo

Turns out I had dot net 3.0 (latest is 3.5) installed on my machine.

With 3.0, the message I get from BuildOS is "Server Unavailable, The request failed with HTTP status 407: Proxy Authentication Required". I was never prompted for credentials by the tool. When I click the OK button, I get a message that says "Login has expired". Clicking OK again, BuildOS terminates -- I'm not seeing what others said here which is that BuildOS would continue on and run anyway.

It will only continue if you've successfully logged in recently.

[beluczywo]

I just finished testing with dot net 3.5 and symptoms were exactly the same.
Regarding gguru's comments about "recently":
So if I've never tethered/logged in on this pc because of the firewall issue, it has never seen a successful login and therefore will always exit BuildOS.

The credential issue is exactly what I would expect and I hope overtyping the default actually works -- you might double-check the code to make sure that it truly uses overtyped login info (no place that I know of in BuildOS, but even Updater doesn't work with overtyped credentials -- might be a clue of where the problem is). Any way to have BuildOS prompt for login like Updater does so it is more explicit as to what is occurring?

I can also easily believe that dot net and proxy is, to use your word, "complicated". If there is a choice, using the "internet connection" information seems the MOST global within windows (but not the only for sure). If there is a selection box of where to look in the API, that would probably be the most robust for the most users as opposed to assuming SOCKS or something else.

It sounds like if I tether/login (might not be possible, I don't get good phone signal at my desk), I could login once and then potentially use BuildOS for "a while". I hesitate to ask and I'll understand if your answer was deliberately vague, but it seems to beg the question -- how long is "recently"? Feel free to say "that's need to know".

Probably the next step if you are willing, is to try the little app you mentioned and give you more detailed trouble-shooting info. If not, I guess I'm just doing things at home or taking new kitchens and whacking them to work with old BuildOS code.

Thanks for the continued help and suggestions. Have we ruled out a temporary work-around pending debugging?

[gguruusa]

It's 1 or 2 weeks, I forget which.