Connection issues at work on Mac OSX Yosemite connecting to Win7 at home

Hello Bern

Thanks for the report. So it seems like there are two separate issues, and maybe they are related (and maybe related to your dual connections).

To start, if I can grab a couple of details that would really help.

- I assume that you are using the latest version (2.1.1)? You can confirm that in the Wayk Now menu > About Wayk Now
- It would be really helpful to see the crash report from your Mac. If you open console.app, application crash reports are listed under "User reports". You should find one or more with the name starting "WaykNow...". You can right-click > Reveal in Finder and send me the file(s) either here in the forum or via PM. That would be incredibly helpful!

Thanks,

I am using 2.1.1

Attached is the most recent crash log. If you need anything else like a debug log ot the like, let me know.

Hello Bern

Thanks for the crash report. It is a little confusing, but it points to the connection failing in an unexpected way that causes the macOS client to crash.

I will take you up on the offer of grabbing a debug log, from both machines if possible?

In the Wayk Now options, go to the "Advanced" page and turn the logging to TRACE. You will need to restart the app for the setting to take effect. Then you can try to reproduce both issues (the connection to Wayk Den on the Mac, and the connection and crash to your Windows box). Afterwards either attach the log files here or send them to me by PM.

The log files are located:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Wayk/logs/WaykNow.log
Windows: %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\Wayk\log\WaykNow.log

That would be really appreciated. Any other question or problem let me know!

Here are the debug logs from my Mac at work and my Win7 system at home.

The Win7 system always connects to the den, and does not crash when trying to make a connection, so there is no crash log for that.

On the Mac, I tried to connect to the win 7 system while showing no den connection (no green light and connection to den disables message showing), and was prompted for my password at home, but immediately upon connection, the mac client crashed, and the same results happened after I toggled the the den enable setting and got the green connection light, so the mac log will probably show 2 failed connection attempts.

I am also attaching both of the mac crash logs, just in case having the debug log enabled causes some additional information to be logged in there.

I just noticed that it was the debug level I had enabled, and you asked for trace. Do you need me to re do this test with the trace level enabled.

Thanks a lot, Bern.

For now the debug should be enough, I think. I will look into the log files.

Thanks again,

Hello Bern

I was able to reproduce the crash that you are experiencing when connecting from your Mac. An Apple API that we use is behaving strangely on macOS 10.8 - 10.10 (I note that you are running 10.10.5). It seems like an Apple bug but, regardless, I have fixed it internally and that will be resolved in the next release. It is an issue related to the UI and not Wayk Den or your network setup.

The other issue seem to be that Wayk Den is not connecting reliably until you manually toggle the setting on-and-off again. However, what is very strange, is that in your last message you mentioned you were able to start the connection to your Windows box despite no green light and a "disabled" message. The log file you provided also demonstrates that this is the case.

I suppose that actually it is working ok, but either the UI is not properly reflecting the state of the Den connection, or your connection is somehow in "On Demand" mode. I tried to reproduce these circumstances but wasn't able to.

It would help me greatly if you could provide another log file, this time with the level set to TRACE. It's only necessary for the macOS system.

Thanks, and have a great weekend

Here is the TRACE level log from the Mac system.

Hello Bern

Thank you. The log file gave me the clue I needed to figure this out.

As I suspected, Wayk Den *is* connected successfully when you start the client on your Mac. There is no conflict with your network setup.

I found and fixed a condition where the initial UI update could happen after the Den connection succeeded, resetting the status incorrectly. This fix will be available in the next release.

Thanks again for your patience and help isolating that :)

Hi Bern
Wayk Now 2.1.2 is now available for download, and includes a fix for this specific issue. Let us know if you have further issues, comments or suggestions
Thanks again,

Thanks. Initial tests look like it is functioning correctly. I will give it a whirl and let you know if I discover anything else. I have also now installed it on another couple of macs belonged to a co-worker to get him to test it as well. Hopefully it all goes ok.

I just wanted to report that I have used WaykNow to do a little remote session from my Win7 system to my Mac at work, so that I could web gui and terminal into a linux server over the office LAN. I am amazed at how much more responsive WaykNow is compared to Teamviewer, LiteManager, DWService, and VNC. All of my WaykNow tests prior to you fixing the little mac bug I identified, were between systems on my own network at home. This was the first one over the internet.

Great work and hats off to all the developers from a fellow Canadian, for the great product and great support. If this is any indication on what we can expect as development progresses, I thing we are in store for wonderful things.

Hello Bern

Thanks again for the great and encouraging feedback. It has been shared with the whole team!

I'm glad also that the issue is resolved. Please let us know if you have further problems, comments or suggestions :)

So I came into work and decided to reverse the connection, from my Mac to my home Win7 system, and WaykNow crashes on the Mac after a shot period. Previously it would happen as soon as the connection was made. but this time I can see my home system desktop, but the crash happens after 5 to 10 seconds and a few mouse clicks. I am attaching the current trace log from the Mac.

Hi Bern

That is strange indeed. I will take a look into that. Can I also ask you for the crash report from your Mac? I mentioned the steps to retrieve that in my first reply on this thread (via console.app > User Reports).

Thanks again,

Sure thing. Here is the crash report.

Hi Bern

Thanks a lot! I'm able to reproduce the issue here, but it's very strange. I'm trying to determine exactly why this is occurring (it relates to the system, since I can only reproduce on a 10.10 system, some of the time).


I will write back here when I have more information.

Thanks again,

Hello again Bern

I just wanted to let you know that we are working on this, the issue is very strange.

Can you supply a system report from your Mac? Apple Menu > About This Mac > System Report. When the system information window is up, you should be able to 'Save' it as an .spx file.

Any questions or problems, please let me know!

Thanks and have a nice weekend

No problem.

spx file attached

Hello Bern

I tracked this issue down to a bug in Apple's implementation of a particular syscall on certain macOS versions :)

This will be fixed in the next release. Thanks once again for your patience,

Thanks Richard, I'm glad to help out.

Hi Richard, I just thought I would touch base regarding this win to mac connection issue I am still having intermittently and report an observation in case it helps a little.

I have noticed that on the mac, if the wayknow window is closed but the app is still running in the menu bat, it sometimes looses its connection to the den. Simply opening the window and causes it to re-connect to the den and then things start to work.

Once again, I realize this may be isolated to running yosemite, and may not be a problem with all the OS versions, but my relatively limited programming background has taught me that sometimes one problems symptoms can point to problems elsewhere, so if there are any other mac os issues you are chasing down, this information may help in finding them too.

Hi Bern

Thanks for the update, it's a helpful observation.

My initial thought is that the app may be falling into "App Nap" (https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Performance/Conceptual/power_efficiency_guidelines_osx/AppNap.html) if the main window is not visible and not interacted with for some time. In "App Nap", the OS throttles back timers and other system resources to save power, which could conceivably mess with the Den connection.

I also note believe that "App Nap" was introduced in 10.10, so it's behaviour may not be the same as on newer systems.

I will investigate with this new information and get back to you!

Thanks once again,

I actually have no app nap option showing on this system, but I'll do a little more digging when I get a chance later today.

Hi Bern

A correction to my last post, App Nap is a feature since 10.9 Mavericks.

It's not something the user can opt in-or-out of. You can view the "Energy" tab in Activity Monitor, and see which applications are napping. If you minimize the Wayk window and don't interact with it for a few minutes, you'll see the App Nap status turn to "Yes" (and it will go back to "No" once you restore the window).

A quick test over here seems to indicate that is not the issue, however. I will keep digging with the new information you provided!

Thanks again,

Hi Bern

I did some testing on this issue on macOS 10.10 and I'm struggling to reproduce the problem.

If my Wayk Now main window is closed / hidden, and the Den connection gets closed, it reconnects successfully before I restore the main window. So there must be some piece of the puzzle that is missing.

Can you leave your log level at DEBUG, and the next time this happens, send me the log file?

Thanks in advance,

No Problem Richard. I have the log set at DEBUG and will send it along the next time this happens.

Here you go. One log resulting from showing the wayknow window allowing a connection to the den and a remote dektop connection.

Got it! I guess that you have the setting "Show main window on application start" unchecked?

There was a code path that depends on the main window being displayed, instead of just initialized (which always happens).

I have fixed this, and will be available in the next release.

In the meantime, a workaround is to enable the option mentioned above, and manually hide or close the main window once the application starts.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you very much for the log file which led me to figure that out.

Have a great evening,

No problem Richard. Once again, I'm glad to help.