Update problem - Failed update while auto update is turned off

[Poonsta]

Pre-Submit Checklist:

• Check applicable sources for existing issues:
  • Windows Known Issues
  • Linux Known Issues
  • Github Issues

What happened:
Portmaster notifier did not start. I could not start the notifier and the UI at all. Restarting the computer did not help.
I noticed that the Portmaster core in Task Manager showed a new name: portmaster-core_v1-6-2.exe
Looks like Portmaster did a failed update, even though I disabled auto update in general settings.
I downloaded the new version of Portmaster, and tried to install it. The installation started but failed at downloading the 300MB part. I tried installing it a few times, same result each time.
I uninstalled Portmaster completely, removed every remnant of it from the system manually. This time the install went through, notifier starts automatically, and can start the UI.

What did you expect to happen?:
No update until I check manually, and when I do, it updates with no problem.

How did you reproduce it?:
I did not reproduce it, I don't know how to.

Debug Information:

It is from the newly installed version, not sure how much help it is.

Version 1.6.2

Portmaster
version 1.6.2

commit tags/v1.6.2-0-ge6aba884ae7e4cd49cc02d150807cfd016338073
built with go1.21.2 (gc) windows/amd64
  using options 
  by user@docker
  on 01.12.2023

Licensed under the AGPLv3 license.
The source code is available here: https://github.com/safing/portmaster

Platform: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19045 Build 19045

System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro windows (Standalone Workstation) 10.0.19045 Build 19045
Kernel: 10.0.19045 Build 19045 x86_64

No Module Error

Unexpected Logs

231211 15:13:45.719 tel/entity:253 > WARN 002 intel: failed to get location data for 2606:4700:4700::1111: geoip database not available
231211 15:13:50.192 olver-mdns:114 > WARN 004 intel(mdns): failed to create udp6 listen multicast socket: listen udp6 [ff02::fb]:5353: setsockopt: not supported by windows
231211 15:55:00.176 CURRENT TIME

Status: Online

OnlineStatus:          Online
CaptivePortal:         

SPN: disabled (module disabled)

HomeHubID:    
HomeHubName:  
HomeHubIP:    
Transport:    
---
Client:       true
PublicHub:    false
HubHasIPv4:   false
HubHasIPv6:   false

Resolvers: 8/8

Cloudflare (dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config)
  dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config
  Failing: false

Cloudflare (dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config)
  dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config
  Failing: false

Cloudflare (dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config)
  dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config
  Failing: false

Cloudflare (dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config)
  dot://cloudflare-dns.com:853#config
  Failing: false

2606:4700:4700::1111 (dns://2606:4700:4700::1111:53#system)
  dns://2606:4700:4700::1111:53#system
  Failing: false

2620:119:35::35 (dns://2620:119:35::35:53#system)
  dns://2620:119:35::35:53#system
  Failing: false

1.1.1.1 (dns://1.1.1.1:53#system)
  dns://1.1.1.1:53#system
  Failing: false

208.67.222.222 (dns://208.67.222.222:53#system)
  dns://208.67.222.222:53#system
  Failing: false

Config: 9

core/automaticUpdates: false
core/expertiseLevel: expert
core/metrics/instance: [redacted]
dns/nameservers: [redacted]
dns/noMulticastDNS: true
filter/defaultAction: ask
filter/endpoints: [redacted]
filter/lists: [TRAC MAL BAD WSP UNBREAK]
spn/enable: false

Updates: stable (13/31)

Active:
all/intel/geoip/geoipv4.mmdb.gz: 20231201.0.1
all/intel/geoip/geoipv6.mmdb.gz: 20231201.0.1
all/intel/lists/base.dsdl: 20231201.0.7
all/intel/lists/index.dsd: 2023.6.13
all/intel/lists/intermediate.dsdl: 20231210.0.4
all/intel/lists/urgent.dsdl: 20231211.9.42
all/intel/portmaster/news.yaml: 20231201.10.3
all/intel/portmaster/notifications.yaml: 20231211.13.25
all/ui/modules/assets.zip: 0.3.1
all/ui/modules/portmaster.zip: 0.8.2
windows_amd64/core/portmaster-core.exe: 1.6.2
windows_amd64/kext/portmaster-kext.sys: 1.1.2
windows_amd64/start/portmaster-start.exe: 1.0.13

Selected:
all/dashboards/hubs.json: 0.0.2
all/intel/geoip/geoipv4-mini.mmdb.gz: 20231201.0.1
all/intel/geoip/geoipv4.mmdb.gz: 20231201.0.1
all/intel/geoip/geoipv6-mini.mmdb.gz: 20231201.0.1
all/intel/geoip/geoipv6.mmdb.gz: 20231201.0.1
all/intel/lists/base.dsdl: 20231201.0.7
all/intel/lists/index.dsd: 2023.6.13
all/intel/lists/intermediate.dsdl: 20231210.0.4
all/intel/lists/urgent.dsdl: 20231211.9.42
all/intel/portmaster/news.yaml: 20231201.10.3
all/intel/portmaster/notifications.yaml: 20231211.13.25
all/intel/spn/main-intel.yaml: 20231103.10.14
all/ui/modules/assets.zip: 0.3.1
all/ui/modules/base.zip: 0.2.11
all/ui/modules/console.zip: 0.1.11
all/ui/modules/monitor.zip: 0.2.4
all/ui/modules/portmaster.zip: 0.8.2
all/ui/modules/profilemgr.zip: 0.1.7
all/ui/modules/settings.zip: 0.1.8
windows_amd64/app/portmaster-app.zip: 0.2.6
windows_amd64/core/portmaster-core.exe: 1.6.2
windows_amd64/hub/spn-hub.exe: 0.7.3
windows_amd64/jess/jess.exe: 0.3.2
windows_amd64/kext/portmaster-kext.dll: 1.0.14
windows_amd64/kext/portmaster-kext.pdb: 1.1.2
windows_amd64/kext/portmaster-kext.sys: 1.1.2
windows_amd64/notifier/portmaster-notifier.exe: 0.3.6
windows_amd64/notifier/portmaster-snoretoast.exe: 0.6.0
windows_amd64/notifier/portmaster-wintoast.dll: 0.1.4
windows_amd64/packages/portmaster-installer.exe: 1.0.13
windows_amd64/start/portmaster-start.exe: 1.0.13

[github-actions]

Greetings and welcome to our community! As this is the first issue you opened here, we wanted to share some useful infos with you:

• 🗣️ Our community on Discord is super helpful and active. We also have an AI-enabled support bot that knows Portmaster well and can give you immediate help.
• 📖 The Wiki answers all common questions and has many important details. If you can't find an answer there, let us know, so we can add anything that's missing.

[dhaavi]

Hey @Poonsta, thanks for reporting this.

It would be great to know what you're previous version of Portmaster was.
There recently was a bug in the update system that we fixed some time ago.

I myself have (software) auto updates disabled to make sure it works correctly and it definitely does for me.

[Poonsta]

Hey @dhaavi, I believe it was 1.5.1 (1.5.x for sure).

I was wondering, would it be possible in the future to have offline installers as an option to download from your website? That way it is possible to install/update without having to connect to the internet without a working firewall.

[Terrance]

I think I also hit this (neither the tray icon nor the UI would show, despite any attempts to restart the core service or the UI, or a reboot), and similarly had to reinstall to get things working again. Unfortunately I did that before finding this issue so I also can't poke the old version any further.

Looking in the logs folder, it does appear to have jumped from 1.5.1 to 1.6.2 with automatic updates disabled.

[dhaavi]

I checked and the bug in the auto-updating was already fixed in v1.5.x.
So, I am not sure what happened here.

Please note that Portmaster has two settings for auto updates. One is for software, the other for intelligence data.
Also note that changing the release channel also forces an update to get the right version for the selected channel.

As long as one update option is enabled, Portmaster will automatically check for new versions, but will only download the data enabled for automatic updates.

Please monitor the situation and report back how things go with the next version.

Someone from the community started work on an offline installer, but I don't know when we will have time to integrate that into our workflow. But, things are moving and we'll get there eventually.

The broken updates could stem from our update servers being overloaded and downloads being really slow. Failed downloads however, should not be a problem, because they would never pass the signature check.

[Poonsta]

Hey @dhaavi

Same thing happened again, Portmaster updated to the new version (1.6.5) automatically, even though auto update is off.
Seems like the update is not complete though, I cannot open the app, just like before. The only thing I can do from the notifier (its context menu) is to turn off Portmaster, but that does not turn off the Portmaster service, only the 4 portmaster processes. After turning Portmaster off, I cannot start it again, have to restart Windows. Even after the restart I cannot open the portmaster app.

Update:
I downloaded the new version and installed it over the old version, now it is working, I can open the app from the start menu and also from the Notifier.

[Terrance]

My installation is similarly broken again; same state as I reported above.

DNS itself seems to be working normally, so I've left it as-is in case there's something useful I can provide for investigation, though no core logs have been generated today so I can't actually tell what version I have installed now (on last boot it was 1.6.2).

[Raphty]

Some people seemed to have issues updating electron.

we got a report that leaving it blank and letting electron do its thing will end up in the UI loading as normal, no need to reinstall anything.

[Terrance]

For what it's worth, I've left it alone since my previous comment, but the UI still remains unopenable. Connection prompts continue to show and seemingly work (but I can't check for the newly-added rule without the UI).

It would be interesting to understand what the issue with those couple machines is.

If you're waiting for us to provide something, you'll need to tell me what more I can give you.

So far I've found this output when trying to launch the UI manually:

PS C:\ProgramData\Safing\Portmaster> .\portmaster-start.exe app --data=C:\ProgramData\Safing\Portmaster
[pmstart] 2024/02/04 17:51:05 WARNING: portmaster-start is marked as a GUI application in order to get rid of the console window.
[pmstart] 2024/02/04 17:51:05 WARNING: CTRL-C will immediately kill without clean shutdown.
[pmstart] 2024/02/04 17:51:05 app/portmaster-app.zip failed with: could not get component: the requested file is not available locally
Error: could not get component: the requested file is not available locally

[Raphty]

did you try re-installing Portmaster?

[Terrance]

That got things working last time and presumably will this time too, but that just delays the problem until your next update ignores auto-update and breaks it again.

It sounds like you've not been able to reproduce the problem on your end so far?

[Raphty]

I seems this issue has evolved away from the original topic of updating while auto update is turned off.

I will close the issue for now, if there is more to add regarding the auto update situation pleas comment and I will reopen it.

@Terrance your sub issue seems to be a configuration issue, that I have not seen before, pleas ask the community for help with your specific setup.

[shaund]

I have what sounds like a similar issue. Auto-updates disabled, on Windows 10 Enterprise, official exe installer.

If I minimize the main portmaster window, I can't open it from the taskbar icon (right clicking doesn't pop up a menu, double-clicking does nothing). It's still running and connection notifications continue, but no matter what I do I can't get the main portmaster window to open. If I kill portmaster-core_v1-6-5.exe, portmaster-notifier_v0-3-6.exe, and the two portmaster-start.exe (one with the portmaster core service under it), then try to restart Portmaster, nothing works and I have to restart the entire computer.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but the problem persists.

I've had this problem since I first installed portmaster back in Feb 2023, not sure what version that was.

[Terrance]

The notifier app's tray icon becoming unresponsive is a long-standing issue (see also #1105) and probably unrelated to this, unless opening Portmaster from the Start menu also doesn't work.

If that is the case, try launching the UI manually from a console and see if you get a similar error message (NB. This was before the portmaster-start.exe version mismatch woes reported later in here).

[Terrance]

I had been holding off on updating since 1.6.5, and on my end it has correctly refrained from automatically updating when automatic updates are disabled, so hopefully that option is now working as intended.

I did however get a repeat of #1383 (comment) which I've moved to a separate issue #1563.