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Metadata download fails midway and gets stuck in endless loop

by Guest on 2023/08/09 09:15:50 PM

Hola!

I'm having a Tixati Metadata issue where I can only partially download about 80% of Metadata (80% full showing on bar chart)

hash-link is pasted in and waiting for magnet link to change into a download... Except it just doesn't.

I've debugged this issue and it IS definitely a problem but I'd like to see if any others can replicate this please?

I discovered I can bypass this issue if I can get hold of the torrent file. (bypassing Metadata exchange)

This is really strange here are Tixati logs (DEBUG: level4)

OK so this meta data seems to consist of '6' pieces (numbered 0-5 ?) I am being given pieces 0,1,2,3,4 BUT piece 5 is 'stuck' (see logs)

This happens to me very frequently and the PEER is always a Transmission 2.x.x (OR) 3.x.x (OR) 4.0.x

VERY NOTICEABLE especially when only ONE peer or ONLY Transmission peers are online.
When additional NON Transmission clients come along it seems to let me have 'piece 5' and the download starts and works 100%

This feels like a compatibility problem - does anyone else have this??? It is causing me so much grief.

Again, if someone sends me the .torrent file and I drop it on Tixati it can downloads fine from any peer, including Transmission peers.
Again, if a NON Transmission peer is online, it lets me have piece 5 and starts downloading.

You can reproduce in Tixati using 'ignore peer' and 'unignore peer' to get the right conditions.

Thanks if anyone spends this kind of effort debugging stuff as I do.

[19:13:44]  remote is partial seed
[19:13:48]  remote unchoked local
[19:13:52]  log detail level set to 4
[19:14:11]  requested metadata piece 0
[19:14:15]  received metadata for index 0
[19:14:15]  requested metadata piece 4
[19:14:19]  received metadata for index 4
[19:14:19]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:14:22]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:14:42]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:14:44]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:15:05]  requested metadata piece 1
[19:15:09]  received metadata for index 1
[19:15:09]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:15:12]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:15:32]  requested metadata piece 2
[19:15:36]  received metadata for index 2
[19:15:36]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:15:39]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:16:00]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:16:04]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:16:24]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:16:27]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:16:48]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:16:52]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:17:12]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:17:16]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:17:36]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:17:39]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:18:00]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:18:04]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:18:24]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:18:27]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:18:35]  error: Remote disconnected
[19:18:35]  stopping
[19:18:38]  starting
[19:18:38]  initiating connection
[19:18:38]  securing connection
[19:18:39]  sent handshake
[19:18:39]  logged in
[19:18:39]  sent bitfield
[19:18:40]  remote is partial seed
[19:18:40]  received PEX message
[19:18:48]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:18:49]  remote unchoked local
[19:18:52]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:19:12]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:19:16]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5
[19:19:36]  requested metadata piece 5
[19:19:40]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 5

Using Tixati 3.19 on Win 11

by Guest on 2023/08/17 12:35:03 AM

Could be more evidence of "compatibility problems" with Metadata exchange

A problem only ever seen with Transmission clients ?

Other way round this time:

Tixati 3.19 is 100% seed - no other seeds online
Transmission 3.00 has 0% - appears to be looking for Metadata from Tixati

This has been happening for hours (repeat loop)

[18:05:34]  starting
[18:05:34]  initiating connection
[18:05:34]  securing connection
[18:05:35]  sent handshake
[18:05:35]  logged in
[18:05:35]  sent bitfield
[18:05:36]  remote has no pieces
[18:05:44]  remote interested in local
[18:05:47]  local unchoked remote randomly
[18:06:32]  error: Metadata request overflow     <---------- Metadata problems with another Transmission Client.
[18:06:32]  stopping

Transmission is a really problematic peer when involving Metadata.
Once you get past the Metadata stage everything will work well usually.

These issues just gets stuck in an endless loop for some reason.

by Guest on 2023/09/02 05:23:45 PM

Tumbleweed from you guys lol ....... Testing Tixati again today for this issue. Thought you might be interested in the results...

This problem seems to be getting WORSE and WORSE with Transmission peers.

This is getting seriously annoying.

I have no idea why other people are not seeing this? This cannot just be "my problem"
I am encountering this issue with about a 15% reproduction rate.

After spinning up some virtual machines today, I've installed various OS's, various Torrent client programs and I've tested dumping a list of hash-links for hours.

The hash-links chosen are random, lesser seeded, but they ARE definitely seeded.

Conclusion: This is NOT a Tixati bug. This is entirely a software bug in Transmission side. A really horrendous one as well.

Testing FYI:

Indeed this SOFTWARE BUG is genuine and reproducible in a Data Center between VM's Public IP's on quite different subnets.

EXAMPLE seen in Tixati

Test Conditions:

01) Tixati (and other clients each separately spun up differently) each only have knowledge of the hash-link/magnet link (no files, no .torrent)
02) Availability online is 1 Transmission full SEED
03) Transmission SEED has 100% file availability (some public, 1x I am hosting for testing)
04) Transmission v2, v3, v4 even latest v4 release affected
05) Problem is ONLY visible when Transmission tries to "serve" its Metadata to any peer with zero Metadata.

06) If you give any third party peer the Metadata (.torrent) it will download the file from Transmission absolutely perfectly. So the machine is not a spoof or broken. Downloaded Files confirmed genuine.
07) Rebooting Transmission or the Operating System DOES NOT fix the problem with Transmission when self-hosted with bug condition.
08) Changing Transmission ports/settings DOES NOT fix the problem with it refusing to serve the Metadata out to Tixati etc
09) hash-links / Metadata affected are random and I do not know why
10) Metadata is broken into "pieces"... Let's say 5 pieces (index=0 to 4?). All Metadata pieces download APART FROM 1 PIECE, so only 80% of Metadata is obtained. Not enough to start download. (Client aborts)

FORCE FIX 1

11) I can force fix the issue giving ANOTHER brand of client the Metadata (in form of .torrent file)

a) Then (qbit/utor) downloads the files perfectly OK from Transmission.
b) qbit/utor will serve Tixati the Metadata - that Transmission refuses to
c) Tixati will download the Metadata from qbit/utor and the files from Transmission as perfectly normal now.

Essentially this bug condition is only prevalent when Transmission is the only SEED and nobody can get started.

TIXATI LOG:

Connecting to Transmission with METADATA BUG CONDITION = true

[12:01:07]  log detail level set to 4
[12:01:26]  starting
[12:01:26]  initiating connection
[12:01:26]  securing connection
[12:01:27]  sent handshake
[12:01:27]  logged in
[12:01:27]  sent bitfield
[12:01:28]  remote is partial seed                          <---------- Transmission peer (mentioned here) is actually 100% complete. 
[12:01:28]  received PEX message
[12:01:28]  requested metadata piece 2
[12:01:30]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 2
[12:01:35]  remote unchoked local
[12:01:51]  requested metadata piece 2
[12:01:55]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 2
[12:02:16]  requested metadata piece 2
[12:02:19]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 2
[12:02:40]  requested metadata piece 2
[12:02:42]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 2
[12:03:03]  requested metadata piece 2
[12:03:06]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 2
[12:03:27]  requested metadata piece 2
[12:03:29]  remote rejected request for metadata at index 2

Above shows Transmission REFUSING to serve one tiny piece of the Metadata. This is a really horrendous bug and I'm seeing it in ALL versions of Transmission including latest build.

Thought you might be interested that this issue exists. Anyone who experiences "Waiting for Metadata..." from a Transmission Seed - please add to the thread...

by Guest on 2023/09/02 10:11:54 PM

Another Tixati downloading from Transmission 4.x.x Update - FYI this is SOLVED

This is a confirmed BUG in Transmission code build with faulty implementation of BitTorrent BEP0009 standard (Metadata)
All but 'one piece' of Metadata was being exchanged and thus incomplete and insufficient for Tixati to start a download.

Transmission Devs confirm this was broken and unable to send the Metadata to Tixati or any other client.
The reason it somewhat 'worked' was another seed/peer client program in the swarm would send Tixati the Metadata - hence the problem was often being masked.

KH the Tixati Dev certainly knows how to implement his BitTorrent standards very well indeed.
All I can say is the logs in Tixati are superb for debugging.

I had time to deploy another Transmission 4.0.4 machine.

1) All Tixati machines immediately fetched Metadata from Transmission 4.0.4 (4.0.0 --> 4.0.3 affected and faulty)
2) Tixati user popup screen then commenced as expected
3) Tixati downloaded successfully every time (before it was random)
4) I am happy Tixati works great (no fault with Tixati)
5) Tixati and other users need to be aware they might have issues when ONLY transmission seeds are available

Transmission Release Notes:
What's New in 4.0.4
All Platforms
Fixed bug in sending torrent metadata to peers. (#5460)    <-------- THIS IS THE BUGFIX

Thanks guys, I hope this helps someone else from wasting time.

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