I have been trying to download the Astrometry files on a new install of Kstars. All worked great for downloading 8 of the files.
The system responded correctly. But when I tried to download additional files (Index 4209, 08, 07 and 06) it would just hand up after the download was complete.
After a few minutes I would get an error message stating that the Download times out. But then it would lock up EKOS and KSTARS forcing a reboot.
I tried this over two days with my internet working well. Each time it seemed to download correctly - but then the above would happen each time. I tried changing the order in which I downloaded the files. No effect. Lock up!

Anyone ever seen this and can offer a solution?

Ekos downloader does not download index files with large file size. (bug?)

www.indilib.org/about/ekos/alignment-module.html

Please download and install the necessary index file from.

The issue has been discussed numerous times. Like here, for instance:

indilib.org/forum/general/3790-astrometr...n-problem.html#28823

Forgive me my sarcasm but I don't know why we teach people how to not use a feature instead of making it work. Kidding aside, I'd suggest to remove the download buttons that we know don't work because people keep stumbling upon it (like PK and I did) and bug reports keep coming in on a regular basis.

I made the downloader last year because I thought it was a feature KStars really needed for Mac OS X. It was primarily intended for that audience because there really is no package installer for them like there is in Linux. Then it was suggested that I could make the feature work on Linux as well, but the issue is that on Linux the folder the astrometry files install to is write protected. KAuth is required to make them install in that location. I am not an expert on KAuth and as far as I know it should work correctly because I followed the instructions for using it as best I could. It often works but sometimes KAuth gives problems. So yes there are issues on Linux with that. I would like to resolve the Linux issues but I am not sure I can do anymore unless somebody who has experience with KAuth works on it.

The index file downloader should not have issues on OSX which is what I originally intended the download function for. PK, were the issues encountered on OS X or Linux? If on OS X do you have logs?

Hey Jasem,
I was doing this on Lubuntu 16.04. I didn't have log anything, but can next time.
I went ahead and downloaded the files outside of Kstars and manually added them to the proper location.
PK

Robert, many thanks for the explanation. I can see where you're coming from. Basically KAuth works. Once a download is requested a window opens where you have to enter the root password. The download is then started correctly. However, that only works for the smaller files. With larger files KAuth shows an error message that is related to D-Bus. (I've read Jasem was recoding dbus management. Could that fix the problem incidentally?)

Anyway, the error message is
"KAuth returned an error code: 8 Fehler im D-Bus-Hintergrundprogramm: Hilfsanwendung kann nicht kontaktiert werden. Verbindungsfehler: Not connected to D-Bus server. Nachrichten-Fehler:"

To me this suggests it isn't necessarily KAuth that fails but some other programm that is invoked by it and cannot be contacted since either KAuth or the other program is not connected to D-Bus server.

Could the download feature be removed in linux builds (at least stable versions) until all files can be downloaded?

Another suggestion: Have all index files reside in an unrestricted directory and adjust the astrometry configuration accordingly. By doing so we could get rid of KAuth trouble altogether.

Is this on nightly PPA? I increased the DBus timeout to 15mins.. were any of the downloads taking more than that?

What's the significance of adding any time limit? Us living in third world countries may not the luxury of high speed internet. Is there a reason a time limit is needed?

There is no limit in KStars per se. I think it's related to DBUs somehow timing out, so I tried to increase the timeout value. Not even sure if this is the actual problem.

You're saying that kauth is in fact working and that the problem is not with kauth? When I was having this same problem, I changed permissions to /usr/share/astrometry to 777 and the problem went away. I'll try it again and report back.

John

I just ran some quick tests with /usr/share/astrometry permissions at 777 - So far from within ekos/align/options I've been able to download index-4204 through index-4213 and index-4107 through index 4113 with zero problems. In a terminal, nethogs was showing about 2.5 to 3 MB/sec throughput. While typing this, I started index-4203 and its moving along at about 2MB/sec. I allowed it to finish, which it did normally.
I can try these tests with /usr/share/astrometry at its default permissions (755) if that's of interest. Also, If it matters, this is an Ubuntu 16 VM with all the latest patches but not upgraded to 18. 4GB ram and 50gb disk

Yes, nightly and no, downloads don't take more than 15mins. I did a screen recording of what happens...