Can't login from Mac, "WatchDog Process - no connection to server"

[davidmac]

I'm having a problem logging into Boxee from Mac OS X 10.5.5. Login DOES work from Apple TV and it also works from a separate virgin Mac account on the same computer as the failing account login; login account should be o.k. then.

I have tried:

deleted ~/Library/LauchAgents/tv.boxee.helper.plist
deleted ~/Library/Application Support/BOXEE
deleted /private/tmp/boxee
force quit 3 processes: boxee, boxee-rtorrent, boxeeservice
uninstalled boxee application
turned off Little Snitch
enabled OS X Firewall for 3 services: Boxee.app, boxee-rtorrent (listed twice)
deleted 2 boxee keys in Keychain
rebooted Mac
reinstalled Boxee from scratch for version boxee-0.9.4166

started Boxee
tried to login using the same login that works successfully on the SAME Mac using a virgin account (i.e. account is good)
get a "Password incorrect, please try again" error message.

The only tell tale sign I see is in the ~/Library/Logs/boxee.log I see the following message every 3 SECONDS:

"WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server"

I do not see any such message on the successful virgin Mac account that can successfully login from the same Mac in the boxee.log.

I have checked permissions on dirs and files and they appear to be identical between the 2 accounts other than the owner is the correct respective user account.

Any ideas on how to fix this Watchdog process?

[marcel]

can you login to the boxee website (http://app.boxee.tv) with your user credentials..

[davidmac]

Marcel,

Yes, I can login to app.boxee.tv. You actually have my username/password from a previous debugging attempt at fixing this problem:

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php...rrect+password

The boxee account is not the problem. There is something port related specific to the failing Mac user account. Note that the same Boxee user credentials work from the same iMac machine but from a virgin Mac account and also from apple tv and also from app.boxee.tv. The boxee user account is not the problem.

As soon as I start Boxee from the failing Mac user account, I get the following entry EVERY 3 SECONDS in the ~/Library/logs/boxee.log:

"WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server"

Boxee is apparently polling for a connection to some server on a port every 3 seconds. I think this is the key to fixing this problem.

I did notice a peculiar scenario last night. On a whim, I tried using my apple remote for Front Row with my iMac. When I pressed the apple remote's "menu" button, Boxee launched instead of Front Row. As soon as this launched, Little Snitch (which I had turned back on after I couldn't login successfully to boxee) reported that boxee was now trying to access port 1935 and port 443 to a197.v9950c.c9950.mm.vi5.akamaistream.net. I added these ports as approved ports to Little Snitch's rules. I then successfully logged into my boxee account via the Boxee Mac application and was able to run Boxee to watch content.

I had saved my credentials in Boxee so that I wouldn't need to retype them again. I noticed that the boxee.log was NO longer showing any of the previously failing polling messages "WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server". Apparently, there is some Boxee dependency on Front Row which allowed a port connection that helped Boxee to contact the server.

However, I didn't like that I could no longer access Front Row with my iMac's apple remote so I found this article:

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php...ight=front+row

I found an entry from user "willmc" for fixing the Front Row bug and followed this instruction:

"In Boxee, go to Settings > System > Remote and uncheck "Always Running", then quit Boxee"

After following this, I pressed the "menu" button on my apple remote on my iMac and Front Row was now correctly launching again instead of Boxee. I then relaunched Boxee which had my previously successful user login stored - in the Boxee login screen, my Name was now listed as a button above the normal "Add New..." button. When I clicked it, it now immediately goes back to my original problem with message "Password incorrect, please try again".

I also noticed in boxee.log that the polling message every 3 seconds has now returned:

"WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server"

So this leads me to believe that Boxee has a failed polling server connection every 3 seconds which is somehow dependent on a port connection in common with Apple's Front Row. When the Boxee preference for "always running" is turned OFF in Boxee's preferences (to allow Front Row to operate as the default application for the Apple Remote), this somehow disables or prevents the port connection that is needed by Boxee's polling server connection. Since I can no longer login to Boxee again, I cannot turn the Boxee preference back ON so that Boxee works again. i.e. turning the preference to OFF is a one way operation that cannot be reversed.

There appears to be nothing wrong with the Boxee user credentials since it did work temporarily above and was even saved by the Boxee application. The "Password Incorrect" message is just a symptom and not the root cause. The root cause is almost certainly a dependency on a port shared in common with Front Row.

I see the following in boxee.log right before the Watchdog failures:

06:58:32 T:2686398368 M: 45699072 NOTICE: Webserver: Starting...
06:58:32 T:2962808832 M: 45723648 INFO: WebServer: Server starting using /Applications/Boxee.app/Contents/Resources/Boxee/web on 192.168.168.196:8800
06:58:32 T:2962808832 M: 45703168 NOTICE: Webserver: Started
06:58:33 T:2686398368 M: 45694976 NOTICE: ES: Starting event server
06:58:33 T:2963341312 M: 45674496 NOTICE: ES: Starting UDP Event server on 127.0.0.1:9770
06:58:33 T:2963341312 M: 45670400 NOTICE: UDP: Listening on port 9770
06:58:34 T:2956128256 M: 35352576 WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server
06:58:35 T:2686398368 M: 35983360 INFO: GL: Enabling VSYNC
06:58:37 T:2956128256 M: 60399616 WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server
06:58:40 T:2956128256 M: 60379136 WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server
06:58:43 T:2956128256 M: 60166144 WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server
06:58:46 T:2956128256 M: 60096512 WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server
... (Watchdog repeats indefinitely every 3 seconds until Boxee is quit)

Is there something else in boxee.log I can check? Is port 9770 indicated above the failing port? Perhaps some setting cached by Front Row that Boxee uses is corrupt? Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help. Let me know if you want me to run a test scenario.

David

[marcel]

I know you have done it but please rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/BOXEE confirm this has been removed (no permission errors etc ) restart boxee again..

[davidmac]

Marcel,

Thanks for your response. I did as you instructed by executing the unix "rm -rf" command. I am very familiar with unix. Unfortunately, there is nothing different about issuing this command vs. the Finder's delete dir command unless you are hiding "dot" files one level up. I've done both types of delete at least 20-25 times without success.

I had previously run multiple Spotlight searches including all system files and deleted all files and dirs beyond the BOXEE dir you mentioned, multiple times without success. Even with the BOXEE dir deleted, the boxee.log file immediately reports:

"WARNING: WatchDog Process - no connection to server"
every 3 seconds even BEFORE I attempt to login.

I'm pretty certain that the problem is not the login and is instead in a port access that is not successful. Please read my very detailed previous entry that explains the scenario.

1) Please tell me what port this watchdog process is trying to access.

2) Please tell me how I can enable the following setting in your XML file:
Settings > System > Remote and turn ON "Always Running"; this would reverse the Boxee always running setting where the login worked (as detailed in my previous post) successfully when combined with Front Row.

Please advise...

David

[davidmac]

Marcel,

I still can't login from my Mac. See previous detailed troubleshooting info. Do you have any other suggestions?

David