Subject: [Wocky] Adium 1.2.6 connection problem

From: Robert Basch <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 18:01:33 -0400

Adium 1.2.6 (released earlier this week) apparently introduced
a bug encountered by people here, which causes an occasional
disconnect/reconnect cycle with the jabber server.  The bug is:

     http://trac.adiumx.com/ticket/10324

It is fixed in 1.2.7b1; I have been running this for a couple
hours so far without problem.

So you may want to skip 1.2.6; if you have already updated to
it, you may want to download and install 1.2.7b1:

     http://adiumx.cachefly.net/Adium_1.2.7b1.dmg

Bob

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From: Patrick McNeal <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:35:11 -0400

>     http://adiumx.cachefly.net/Adium_1.2.7b1.dmg

FWIW - Adium X 1.2.7 is out.

--Patrick

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick McNeal
Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team
Client Support Services, Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
N42-250E
Cambridge, MA 02139
+1 617 253-0196
[email-masked]

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From: Ken Raeburn <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 15:06:11 -0400

> FWIW - Adium X 1.2.7 is out.

It's looking like there may be similar problems in 1.2.7 and 1.3b7.

Actually, there are two problems:

Adium 1.2.6 and some others had some kind of memory management bug and  
would send a version string (in response to a contact's jabber  
client's request for info) that consisted of random bytes, sometimes  
including control characters which are invalid in the protocol.  Some  
servers would reject this and the client would be kicked offline, only  
to try connecting again, get queried by buddies' clients for client  
version info again, etc.  I think this is fixed in the latest  
versions.  However, as near as I can tell, the MIT server isn't  
validating the XML syntax; at least, I've been seeing control  
characters coming through in version strings from other clients.

There's also a bug in some versions of the XML parser code, where if a  
control character is received, it goes into an error state and doesn't  
recover.  So if someone else's client sends control characters (like  
Wilson's was this weekend when I was trying to go online with 1.3b7),  
your client goes offline and tries reconnecting (and then requests  
info on your contacts again, starting the cycle over and over).   
That's supposedly being addressed, but it looks to me like the current  
versions are still buggy.

Since it's dependent on random(?) strings sent by Adium clients run by  
your contacts when they're online, it's likely to appear as an  
intermittent problem where sometimes you stay online, and sometimes  
you keep going online and offline quite quickly, much to the annoyance  
of all of your contacts whose buddy list displays keep updating.

If you don't need the latest ICQ fixes, digging up version 1.2.5 might  
be preferable, if you can find it...

Ken

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From: "Jacob Morzinski" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 16:25:39 -0400

Hi,

I had noticed that my Adium 1.2.5 would occasionally disconnect and
reconnect to the server.  I'm not sure if 1.2.5 would have the same
bug that Bob found that affects 1.2.6.

Today, Adium's auto-update check notified me that 1.2.7 was released,
so I upgraded to that.  It... didn't help.  Instead of bouncing once
in a while, my Adium went into a perpetual disconnect/reconnect loop.
Constantly.  Colleagues told me they turned off audible notification,
there were too many beeps coming from me.

I'm using krb5 (gssapi) logins, not sure if that's relevant or not.  I
don't think I have enough tools to tell whether I'm seing a client
issue, a server issue, or some combination.

 -Jacob

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From: "Jacob Morzinski" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 16:30:39 -0400

I still don't know what is going on, but lxs on Zephyr suggests:
"I think the issue is who is in your buddies list and what version of
Adium they are running.  Some client versions produce bogus strings which
crash other clients.  So as people upgrade there should be fewer
connection problems.

(which would explain why it is so erratic and time-based)
"

 -Jacob

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From: "Jacob Morzinski" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:18:09 -0400

Hi once more,

Following up on the idea of corrupt buddy lists, I deleted my all my
contacts who were visible on-line.  (About 10 contacts).

After deleting them, Adium 1.2.7, which formerly had been
disconnecting/reconnecting constantly, is fine.  It connects and stays
connected.

Now I wish I had kept track of who I deleted.

But if we see people complain about bouncing disconnects/reconnects,
it may be caused by a bad buddy in the buddy list.

 -Jacob

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From: Ken Raeburn <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:24:28 -0400

> it may be caused by a bad buddy in the buddy list.

In 1.3b7, you can enable the debug log window, and buried in the  
rather voluminous information there is the details on *which*  
contact's client sent the control characters that caused your client  
to flake out.  Hunt them down and make them upgrade. :)

Ken