Erlang Networking fixed on Windows XP

Posted by Mickaël Rémond on January 19, 2007

A Windows API change have prevented Erlang to work on a noticeable number of Windows XP/2003 machines. The problem is now fixed, following our task force on the topic.

The issue

Since 2004, an undocumented change in Windows XP/2003 Winsock API lead many Erlang installations to be unable to listen on network socket. This bug was not triggered on all Windows machines and we still do not know yet the cases where the system was failing or working.

This bug have been around for a long time and was a a big problem for us. Whereas, we do not recommand people to deploy our system on Windows servers, many users are first trying Erlang or ejabberd on their Windows workstation. This cryptic problem was making Erlang and ejabberd useless in their testing environment and was not allow them to assess the quality of our work.

In december 2006, we decided to launch a call to find a solution to this issue: Erlang mailing list: Sponsoring: Looking for a Windows network developer.

The solution

Several people have responded to our call and we received help to analyse the problem from Michael Fogeborg, Jani Hakala and Kenneth Lundin. With their help, we managed to identify the problem and to provide the OTP team enough input to build a fix.

The problem was that the duplicateHandle winsock call fail under unknown condition on Windows XP. A workaround was found by avoiding using this method.

We have testing the fix that will be included in the upcoming Erlang R11B-3 and it is working like a charm. Erlang can now start in cluster mode and listen to sockets on any Windows XP machine we found.

So, thank you very much to Michael Fogeborg, Jani Hakala, Kenneth Lundin for investigating with us and fixing the problem.

Next steps

The next steps are the following:

  • We are working on a new Windows installer that include the fix. We are about to release it in the next couple of days.
  • The OTP team is about to release Erlang R11B-3 which solves the problem in Erlang.


Categories: Jabber / XMPP  ejabberd  Erlang  
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Comments

anonymous avatar

Hi there!

Any news on when we can expect that new windows installer?

I keep popping back to check the site but no updates yet :)

Posted by Alan Oliver on 26 Jan 2007 at 16:23



 
Mickaël Rémond's avatar

Hello,

The new installer is nearly ready. We are taking the opportunity to add service addition. It is currently being tested and tweaked. If everything goes well, we will publish it today.

Posted by Mickaël Rémond on 26 Jan 2007 at 16:28



 
anonymous avatar

Thanks for the info. Offhand, do you know if this might have been responsible for problems installing YAWS on WinXP (without cygwin)? Just curious because I could never get it to work when I wanted to experiment with Erlang/YAWS a few months ago.

Posted by wcyee on 26 Jan 2007 at 19:12



 
Mickaël Rémond's avatar

Actually, Yaws can work on Windows without Cygwin.
Maybe, you could try using CEAN, the Comprehensive Erlang Archive Network:
http://cean.process-one.net/

It is still beta but it should work.

Posted by Mickaël Rémond on 26 Jan 2007 at 19:52



 
Mickaël Rémond's avatar

As promised, here is the new installer:
http://www.process-one.net/en/news/article/new_ejabberd_windows_installer/

Posted by Mickaël Rémond on 26 Jan 2007 at 23:29



 
anonymous avatar

Thats great! works like a charm. Thank you very much for your support and hard work on this.

Posted by Alan Oliver on 29 Jan 2007 at 16:44



 
anonymous avatar

the version ejabberd-1.1.2_2-windows-installer works but the latest one ejabberd-1.1.4_2-windows-installer doesnt!!

is it the same with others?

Posted by ochomo on 15 Nov 2007 at 14:51



 
Mickaël Rémond's avatar

Hello Ochomo,

we would appreciate a description of your problem with the latest Windows version.
It should work and works in our test environment.

Posted by Mickaël Rémond on 15 Nov 2007 at 14:54



 
anonymous avatar

iv tried an several PCs in the lab.

The OS tried so far: Microsft Window 2000 5.00.2195 Service Pack 4

- Microsoft Windows XP 2001
- Microsoft Windows XP 2006 Service Pack 2

during installation, i provide password for admin. but when i start the ejabberd, the login is declined

When I used the old version, all went well.

Posted by Ochomo on 16 Nov 2007 at 13:52



 
anonymous avatar

i’m trying to install the windows version ejabbered (1.1.4.2) into my widows xp professional sp2 PC.
The installation are ok but i fail to login. the login window keep on pop out and i’m very sure that i enter the correct admin username and password

Posted by teh on 27 Dec 2007 at 10:05



 
anonymous avatar

I’m having exactly the same problem - u/p requested but can’t get in to admin interface. Machine is WinXP sp2 PC

Posted by Mike on 01 Feb 2008 at 21:10



 


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