path issue with forms

[KM4ACK]

I was updating a friends Raspberry Pi tonight to the latest version of Pat. He was running version .10 and we installed .11. Then modified his config file to include the path to the forms and restarted the pat service to pick up the config changes. No matter what I did, Pat would not pick up the path to the forms. I went to the command line and download the forms without issue. Back in the browser, I went into compose and clicked on the templates button and still received the path error. I went so far as to delete his config file and have pat generate a new one. Added his call and restarted the Pat service again. Still got the path issue. Attaching a couple of pics for reference. This is the same procedure that I ran on 3 of my Pi's and did the video on https://youtu.be/XYWKUUGNGwQ I am at a loss as to why it isn't working on his Pi. Any help would be appreciated.

73, de KM4ACK

[Chris Keller]

Very odd, Jason. Thanks for the report. We've had a couple of other similar reports. Let me see if I can convince one of my Pi's to reproduce the issue.

Chris, K0SWE

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[Chris Keller]

So far I can't reproduce the issue. I've tried various permutations of deleting everything in .wl2k, starting with v0.10, upgrading to v0.11, and deleting everything again. I know this failure mode does happen, I just don't know how yet.

A couple of notes if you have time to debug further on your end:

• The forms_path part of the configuration file should be optional for most users and will put Standard_Forms in your .wl2k directory. The only reason you would need to specify it is to put it somewhere non-standard. Leaving it out completely should be safe.
• Double check that you're using the version of Pat you expect. If you were running the beta version before, it might be floating around on the system somewhere and getting used when you didn't mean to. If you're running v0.11.0, the "About Pat" page and "pat version" should report git commit hash eb00df2.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If that doesn't work, I might send you a development binary that has some additional logging in it to try and track the problem down. Martin, we should make a --debug flag or something.

[Chris Keller]

I did just think of one thing, Jason: did you make sure to update the forms before going to compose? The errors are not currently helpful if you try to compose before the forms are actually downloaded to the machine. That's an area we need to improve on.

[Jim Weisgram KJ7DMV]

I don't suppose there is a space between

/ and .wl2k

but what the heck.

>> Jim

[KM4ACK]

"I did just think of one thing, Jason: did you make sure to update the forms before going to compose? The errors are not currently helpful if you try to compose before the forms are actually downloaded to the machine. That's an area we need to improve on."

Yes. The forms were downloaded to ~/.wl2k/Standard_Forms when I was getting the error. I was unable to download the forms using the browser button but was successful using the command line. I even tried uninstalling and reinstalling Pat but that didn't help either. I have tried reproducing it on my Pi and can't get it to show the same behavior.

73, de KM4ACK

[Chris Keller]

Got it, thanks for confirming. Debugging today as I get time.

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[KM4ACK]

UPDATE::

Sorry for spamming you Chris. Just realized my message to you weren't posting here and wanted this info out there.

I still can't get forms working in the Chromium browser. Same path issue that I was having yesterday. During some additional testing I used the command line and successfully created an ICS213 form which posted to the outbox as expected. Going on a hunch, I installed iceweasel (Firefox browser). When I opened iceweasel and navigated to the Pat mailbox, forms worked perfectly. Nothing changed in the configuration files. Only the browser changed. Should you run into a similar issue, you might try installing a different browser to see if it helps.

[C. Matthew Curtin]

In classic fashion of software testing, I tried to replicate and isolate a problem someone else observed, couldn't replicate it, and of course found a completely unrelated issue.

I succeeded in getting forms to work in both Chrome and Chromium on Kali (Debian) Linux.

I happened to stumble across a situation, however, with the Narrative Situation Report form, where the subject appears to be looking for a variable that isn't completed in the form, thus creating something like:

Subject: TESTING SITREP  <var MsgSender> - 2021-7-14 14:35

M

[Chris Keller]

Jason, this is still on my mind. Is IceWeasel going to be a permanent solution for you, or do you want to keep tracking this down? I'm adding some logging in key locations if you're still interested in helping us reproduce the issue.

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[Mark Warrick]

I'm checking in to see if there has been a resolution to the forms path issue.  

In installed the PAT client on a Raspberry Pi today.  I also did an installation of the most recent package on the Mac.  On the Mac, I had no problem figuring out that Standard Forms were not installed and where I needed to put them.  I didn't need to specify a forms_path in the
 ./w2lk/config.json file.  It just worked once I uploaded and unziped all the latest forms to the directory "/Users/{my username}/.w2lk/Standard_Forms" 

On the Raspberry PI, I first tried adding a line in the config.json below this line, "version_reporting_disabled": false " like so (making sure to add a comma after "false" to extend that section of the json file of course:

  "forms_path": "/home/pi/.w2lk/Stanard_Forms"

And then I uploaded the forms to the path and restarted the pat http server.  There were no errors, but I still couldn't see the forms while composing and there still was no "Update Form Templates" under Action > Other stuff.

So then I did a search on the Raspberry PI to locate the config.json file and discovered that it's located here:

/root/.wl2k

So then, I thought OK I'll just copy in the folder structure how it works on the Mac and take the path variable out of the config.json file.  I made sure I had exact copies both on the Mac and the Pi in exactly the same structure of the root directory of the PAT program itself.  I restarted everything.  No luck.  I tried a different browser that had never seen the UI before.  No luck. 

So then I tried adding the forms path back.  The  bottom section of my config.json file looks like so:

  },

  "schedule": {},

  "version_reporting_disabled": false,

  "forms_path": "/root/.wl2k/Standard_Forms"

}

Last thing I tried was to complete reboot the PI and restart the pat http service.  No luck.  No change.  I can see the "Template" button in the compose windows next to "Add Attachment" on the MAC, but it's missing when I access the pat server on the PI. 

Has anyone managed to get forms to work on a Raspberry PI?  

---mark, KM6ZPO

[Mark Warrick]

Problem solved.  I didn't realize in my previous attempts to get PAT working on a PI that I was running the older v0.10.0.  I updated to  v0.11.0 and I removed the "forms_path" from config.json.  I fired up pat http and now the forms work.

So the solution it seems to use  v0.11.0 and put the standard forms within /root/.wl2k/Standard_Forms (which you will need to create).

---mark, KM6ZPO

[Chris Keller]

Ohh, I bet you (and the others seeing similar issues) are running Pat with sudo or systemctl, meaning you're the root user instead of the pi user. That in turn affects where you can store the forms.

I have an ARES activity this weekend but I'll attempt to clarify soon.

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[Chris Keller]

Glad you got it working Mark!

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[Mark Warrick]

Yes, to clarify, I was logged in as root so the path to the config.json file would be different than if somebody logged in as PI.

[Jim Weisgram KJ7DMV]

I have it working with a pre-release version. 

I believe Jason, km4ack, has run into the same issue. At least it involves the forms path not working. I believe it was a pi 3 and there was speculation that somehow pi 3 vs 4 mattered.

>> Jim

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[Jim (KJ7DMV)]

Well, crap. Please Ignore my most recent blather. It was well intentioned but I'm way out of date on this issue.

>> Jim