Failing push notification

[ageru]

Hi,

Sorry to create yet another bug about push...

Setup

• Server: prosody .9.12 with CA-signed TLS certificate
• Relevant modules: cloud_notify, smacks, pinger, carbons, mam, csi, filter_chatstates, throttle_presence.
• IPhone SE with latest iOS. Low battery mode off, all is ON in General Settings > ChatSecure.
• Chatsecure 4.0.8

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Chatsecure, log to server
2. Send a couple of messages to user on iPhone, they reach him, OMEMO works... Everything looks clear.
3. Confirmed push is active in the app's interface
4. Leave the app.

Actual result

• Quickly, the iPhone user shows as away on other devices, then as offline.
• Messages don't reach the device unless the iPhone's user starts the app
• The iPhone's user has to specifically open the app to get the sent messages
• Relevant portions of the server log:

  • Successfully initiating push (it seems):
    May 14 HH:MM:SS [alphanum characters] info Push notifications enabled for [ID]@[chatdomain.tld]/chatsecure (pubsub.chatsecure.org<A3486BB3-6442-4945-84E2-[more alphanum characters])

  • When trying to send a message to offline device (the last number increments with every try of the server):
    May 14 HH:MM:SS [chatdomain.tld]:cloud_notify info Got error of type 'cancel' (not-allowed) for identifier 'pubsub.chatsecure.org<A3486BB3-6442-4945-84E2-[alphanum characters]': error count for this identifier is now at 1

Expected Result
If iPhone is connected to the Internet, the iPhone user gets a notification straight away.

Bonus questions

• What does mod_pinger do? I can make an educated guess looking at the name and bits of its code, but I'm not 100% certain.
• Would it be possible to get a wiki of FAQ detailing exactly what modules in prosody are needed to use all the features of ChatSecure? @chrisballinger gives a few times his config in threads here and there, but that's hardly discoverable and probably not comprehensive or up to date.

Many thanks.

[chrisballinger]

Thanks for the thorough investigation. I've never seen that error message before from the push module. It looks like the code has been updated recently: https://hg.prosody.im/prosody-modules/file/tip/mod_cloud_notify/mod_cloud_notify.lua#l73

Perhaps try rolling back mod_cloud_notify to a (much older) commit?

[KingKili]

I have the same issue with https://trashserver.net/

[ageru]

All the modules are automatically updated weekly on my server (and I didn't have any ChatSecure user before the past week-end) so that would be consistent with your theory. As a temporary fix, rolling back to an earlier commit should be possible, I just hope it won't break things with the users running Conversations.

Would you be able to let me know what commit of this module you are using, or alternatively to date it?

By the way, when I noticed the issue, I installed mod_pinger to try to fix it, since you seemed to be using it. Is it in any way necessary to have it installed for ChatSecure and Push to work properly?

[chrisballinger]

mod_pinger shouldn't be required. Not sure the exact mod_cloud_notify commit, but I'll figure that out and test against the latest commit. Push is still working fine as of a few minutes ago on my personal server configuration.

[paskalito]

could this be avoided using this push mechanism ?
#650 (comment)

[beeloo42]

I'm also encountering this issue
I tried the 5 latest mod_cloud_notify versions without success...

[afriedmanGlacier]

We are using eJabber and have changed a bit of the underlying functionality of push, but just thought I'd chime in and say push still works ok for us. However...

@chrisballinger the one problem I have seen lately, I thought I'd add here just in case it is relevant to these issues is that our RubDub has died unexpectedly a few times. Haven't figured out why yet (and we also haven't updated to the RubDub with Rollbar yet). When this happened, eJabber could not connect to it and push stopped working. Have you seen this at all Chris? I'm not sure if you guys use the same RubDub and ChatSecure-Push-Server setup as is available on github?

If you have not had this problem, we'll just monitor it on our end, but just thought I'd add this here in case it is relevant.

[chrisballinger]

Yeah it does sometimes, but I re-provisioned our server don't see this anymore. I have an external port monitor that emails me when it goes down, and it hasn't had an issue since then. (Ubuntu 16.04 and latest Node PPA.)

[therob84]

Exactly the same problem I encounter with two of my contacts who use ChatSecure 2.0.8 (while I am using Conversations 1.18.4). All of us are using jabber.de (prosody >0.9.10)

• At iOS devices Push is active and running (as ChatSecure me confirmed).
• For about 1-2 days delivering messages to the iOS-devices works perfectly:
  • I compose a message (Conversations) while iOS-users are displayed as offline
  • triggered by the typing-notifier iOS-users are shown as "online" for some seconds
  • i send the message some time later, iOS again return to "online", receives the message, send an delivery-notifier - perfect!
• But after 2-3 days this does not work anymore and the iOS user has to reopen ChatSecure to get Push activated again (which is not very userful for long-term conversations....), otherwise the message never will be delivered.

I think it is the same problem than stated above, but I could not provide any logfile but are eager to help solving this problem.

Is the reason now already undrestood or is it still a mystery, why/when/where this happens?

I hope the best for a fix in the next release....cheers, Robert

[chrisballinger]

If the Prosody server restarts it will lose all the push tokens because they are only stored in memory. Is the server restarting on regular intervals?

…

On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 8:50 AM, therob84 ***@***.***> wrote: Exactly the same problem I encounter with two of my contacts who use ChatSecure 2.0.8 (while I am using Conversations 1.18.4). All of us are using jabber.de (prosody >0.9.10) - At iOS devices Push is active and running (as ChatSecure me confirmed). - For about 1-2 days delivering messages to the iOS-devices works perfectly: - I compose a message (Conversations) while iOS-users are displayed as offline - triggered by the typing-notifier iOS-users are shown as "online" for some seconds - i send the message some time later, iOS again return to "online", receives the message, send an delivery-notifier - perfect! - But after 2-3 days this does not work anymore and the iOS user has to reopen ChatSecure to get Push activated again (which is not very userful for long-term conversations....), otherwise the message never will be delivered. I think it is the same problem than stated above, but I could not provide any logfile but are eager to help solving this problem. Is the reason now already undrestood or is it still a mystery, why/when/where this happens? I hope the best for a fix in the next release....cheers, Robert — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#770 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAfqH-qkgi_JcevYYW7Sz54Mv7D6hIooks5r8wAvgaJpZM4NaW-w> .

[therob84]

Hm...I have to ask the guys from jabber.de. But I doubt that they would do it that often... Is there a workaround/solution if this is the problem? Is there any other idea to improve this?

[chrisballinger]

mod_cloud_notify should store push tokens in permanent storage so they persist across restarts

…

On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 11:28 AM, therob84 ***@***.***> wrote: Hm...I have to ask the guys from jabber.de. But I doubt that they would do it that often... is there a workaround/solution if this is the problem? Is there any other idea to improve this? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#770 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAfqH9QAGPhqT25-bnNlda_XVyFbrSd-ks5r8yVEgaJpZM4NaW-w> .

[therob84]

@chrisballinger
Anwser from jabber.de-guys are:

• "Server is restarted about once a month" ....so I don't think this is the explanation for me (but can't say for sure)
• they "can't find the ability for storing a session" (I guess in mod_cloud_notify)
• but they updated today the module Cloud_Notify (don't know between which versions) and I will check if it is improved (should the ChatSecure-Apps be restarted or should they use the new modul version automatically in background?)

Any more suggestion about the problem from your side?
For my information: is anywhere written how the ChatSecure-Push-Servers are working together with the iOS devices and with the jabber-servers? I can't understand how it works in principle until now...

Edit1:
5 days after the Cloud_Notify module was updated at jabber.de it seems the situation is improved (I can reach 3 contacts reliable within the last 5 days) But it is too early to say anything for long-term-stability.

Edit2:
2 weeks later I can NOT confirm any success in reaching my iOS-contacts. Only one contact is reachable anymore. But I think this is connected to the problem that ChatSecure/push-service is not restarted automatically after "restartingOS/swiping CS away/kill CS"... Which is a very deadly drawback and makes CS nearly unusable by iOS-contacts which do not care that much about "always checking if CS is launched and running" ......... :-(

[therob84]

Two more questions I want to raise:

• how does ChatSecures push-functionality behaves, after CS is activley "swiped out" in taskmanager or even forced killed?
• Or if iOS is freshly restarted an ChatSecure is not yet launched manually by user interaction?

--> Will CS (re-)establish a Push-Session in this scenarios or is there first an user activity needed (which would not be that relieable and practicable)?

[chrisballinger]

Both of those scenarios disable push until the app relauches due to limitations of the `content-available` pushes we use. There is discussion about alternative approaches but the development budget is very thin at the moment.

…

On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 1:09 PM, therob84 ***@***.***> wrote: Two more questions I want to raise: - how does ChatSecures push-functionality behaves, after CS is activley "swiped out" in taskmanager or even forced killed? - Or if iOS is freshly restarted an ChatSecure is not yet launched manually by user interaction? --> Will CS (re-)establish a Push-Session in this scenarios or is there first an user activity needed (which would not be that relieable and practicable)? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#770 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAfqH7PdOUjLI3bUwdWb5XoWsoDlLutiks5r_HeCgaJpZM4NaW-w> .