If one of these comments is yours, and you are still experiencing the problem, please file a proper bug report. --Joey

Following your news on kickstarter downloaded the .apk, and installed it. Upn start I just got a terminal window with

link busybox: Read-only file system

[Terminal session finished]

That is on Galaxy Note

Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Thu May 16 20:55:45 2013

The Android app works on many non-rooted Android systems.

The "link busybox: Read-only file system" means that /data/data/ga.androidterm/lib/lib.busybox.so cannot be hard linked to /data/data/ga.androidterm/busybox. That's not normal. I'd appreciate if you could provide more information on your Android device, like Android version and model number.

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Fri May 17 22:28:34 2013

Sorry for the delay: my android is stock Samsung-tuned Jelly beans. Android 4.1.2 Baseband version N7000XXLSO

not sure if that would be of any use :-/ nothing in the logs (aLogcat) if I filter by annex -- should there any debug output? what should be a key to search by?

Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Sat May 18 01:23:28 2013

I just tried to run this on my Nexus 7 which has Android 4.2.2, and I received the following: http://hodapple.com/files/Screenshot_2013-05-19-09-49-53.png http://hodapple.com/files/git-annex-error.txt

In spite of that, though, the URL provided still worked.

@Chris, that is a known bug: Android app permission denial on startup
Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Sun May 19 19:46:14 2013

@yarikoptic, there is a process you can perform that will help me determine what's going on.

You should be able to get the git-annex app to let you into a shell. You can do this by starting the app, and then going into its configuration menu, to Preferences, selecting "Command Line", and changing it to run "/system/bin/sh"

Then when you open a new window in the git-annex app, you'll be at a shell prompt. From there, you can run:

ls -ld /data/data/ga.androidterm

I'm interested to know a) whether the directory exists and b) what permissions and owner it has. On my tablet, I get back "drwxr-x--x app_39 app_39" .. and if I run id in the shell, it tells me it's running as app_39.

My guess is the directory probably does exist, but cannot be written to by the app. If you're able to verify that, the next step will be to investigate if there is some other directory that the app can write to. It needs to be able to write to someplace that is not on the /sdcard to install itself.

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Sun May 19 20:06:56 2013
Hi, I have exactly the same problem with the link that fails on my phone. However, I checked the permissions and they are as you describe on your tablet (except for the app number). At the same time, everything is fine on my tablet... The phone runs an old Cyanogenmod 7.2.0 (Android 2.3.7) while the tablet is a more recent Asus TF700T (Android 4.1.1). Let me know if you want me to run tests.
Finally got to check it out: so indeed hardlinking fails but not because of permissions but "link failed Cross-device link" that lib is -> /mnt/asec/ga.androidterm-1/lib which resides on a different partition (vfat, /dev/block/dm-2, ro) from /data (ext4, /dev/block/mmcblk0p10)
Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Thu May 23 13:27:39 2013

@yarikoptic you said before the error was "Read-only file system". Now you're saying it's "Cross-device link". I'm slightly confused.

I've reworked the android app to not need any hard links. Try the current autobuild: http://downloads.kitenet.net/git-annex/autobuild/android/git-annex.apk

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Thu May 23 18:44:46 2013

you said before the error was "Read-only file system". Now you're saying it's "Cross-device link". I'm slightly confused.

;-) Sorry for confusion, here are the details:

"Read-only file system" -- that error appeared when I started "stock git annex", i.e. from running /data/data/ga.androidterm/lib/lib.start.so . Since you have suggested that it might be coming from hard linking command, I have ran that one manually, and that is when I got "Cross-device link" error, which suggests that hard linking is not the one at fault here.

I will try fresh build now Cheers,

Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Fri May 24 03:11:50 2013

With fresh build got:

u0_a39@android:/ $ git annex webapp /system/bin/sh: git: not found

the PATH is /sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin

where should git (and ga) reside now ? (/data somehow is not accessible now to u0_a39)

Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Fri May 24 03:21:29 2013

You should be able to run /data/data/ga.androidterm/runshell even if you cannot ls /data. This adds /data/data/ga.androidterm/bin to PATH

However, the shell that the app starts is started by runshell anyway, so I don't understand how this could happen.

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Fri May 24 03:26:33 2013
Hi, thank you for addressing this issue! I installed the new release but now it fails in another way: the message is just "In mgmain NJI_OnLoad" then the terminal says that the session is closed.
Hi Joey -- there is success here... previous installation was "updated" by installing the new package without uninstalling previous one, and that apparently didn't work correctly (I didn't even have bin/ directory you mentioned). So I have removed previous installation and reinstalled it again -- it starts now! Thanks ;)
Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Fri May 24 23:29:52 2013

Hi again.

talking about 4.20130523-gcfe07a2 version:

  • because working in the terminal to interact with git-annex probably should not be a common case on Android, may be it is worth making default type of new added repository to become a full backup? I have initiated a new one, attached a remote one, it said "synced" but all the files were just containing symlinks and were not usable. I had to switch to "full backup" (or whatever that name) to finally get directory synced

  • log file might grow too large simply because of containing numerous entries for attempting connect remote repository while offline, e.g.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists. ssh: Could not resolve hostname onerussian.com: No address associated with hostname fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

IMHO those should not be there at all, e.g. if it is known that ATM there is no network connectivity

  • In addition to two existing repositories (1 local /sdcard/annex, which is also avail at/storage/sdcard0/annex + 1 remote) I have added one more local (and said to keep it in sync with original local). But it didn't work -- it "Synced with onerussian.com_annex but not with Annex" and claimed that the /external/extSdCard/Annex doesn't exist, although it is there (and with .git generated etc). When I restarted the deamon I got into a "new" Repository: /storage/extSdCard/Annex which also listed the 1st local but with "Failed to sync with localhost" message -- no remote one listed. Whenever I try to "Switch repository" to /sdcard/annex (the original local) -- it starts loading a new page but gets stuck right there. The only way to revive webui is to go back to Dashboard. Log there says (retyping from the screen so typos might be there):

error: cannot run git-receive-pack '/storage/sdcard0/annex': No such file or directory fatal: unable to fork

Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Sat May 25 15:35:46 2013
joey -- any additional information could I provide to troubleshoot the issue? original repository seems to sync ok, but I can't "administer" it if I can't even switch to it...
Comment by http://yarikoptic.myopenid.com/ Wed May 29 02:43:29 2013

I too get the 'link busybox: Read-only file system' message. Here is my phone info:

Phone: Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360 (rooted)
Android: 2.3.6 Gingerbread
BusyBox path: /system/xbin/

Androids own terminal seems not to understand the d argument (-ld: No such file or directory) but over ssh 'ls -ld /data/data/ga.androidterm' returns

     drwxr-x--x    1 app_97   app_97           0 May 30 12:57 /data/data/ga.androidterm/
Comment by http://aap.liquidid.net/ Thu May 30 11:23:58 2013
@joey should I be using the nightlies to see that? Under "Adding a remote server using ssh" I only see Host name, user name, directory, and port. Will it only be an option after I type in a password?
Comment by http://afoolishmanifesto.com/ Wed Jul 17 22:56:37 2013
@frioux it will automatically generate a new ssh key and configure the server to use it, once you submit the form and enter the password to let it into the server.
Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Wed Jul 17 23:25:21 2013
@joey: ok, I got it to connect and it indeed sent over a key etc. For some reason now though git-annex (on android) "crashes" shortly after starting. To be clear, the web app says that the program crashed, the console is still there. I suspect that it may have something to do with my largish remote repo and the time required to sync just the metadata, but I can't tell. Any ideas what I should do next? (Note that I did change it to manual mode because my phone doesn't have 30G of storage :)
Comment by http://afoolishmanifesto.com/ Thu Jul 18 02:01:28 2013

ok, it eventually got the details from the remote server, but now I'm getting some other oddities. here is some of my log that shows what I am running into

Watcher crashed: addWatch: does not exist (No such file or directory) [2013-07-18 06:22:46 CDT] Watcher: warning Watcher crashed: addWatch: does not exist (No such file or directory) (scanning...) [2013-07-18 06:23:19 CDT] Watcher: Performing startup scan Watcher crashed: addWatch: does not exist (No such file or directory) [2013-07-18 06:24:28 CDT] Watcher: warning Watcher crashed: addWatch: does not exist (No such file or directory) (scanning...) [2013-07-18 06:24:31 CDT] Watcher: Performing startup scan Watcher crashed: addWatch: does not exist (No such file or directory) [2013-07-18 06:25:44 CDT] Watcher: warning Watcher crashed: addWatch: does not exist (No such file or directory)

Comment by http://afoolishmanifesto.com/ Thu Jul 18 11:35:06 2013

frioux here (something messed up with myopenid or something)

So I deleted the repo on my phone (via the CLI since the web app seemed hung) and recreated it; this time making sure that I set things to manual mode ASAP. It didn't have the problem it was having before, but now what seems to have happened is that it fetches from the remote, commits to the local repo, and then immediately fetches and commits again. It looks like it's about a 4s repeat loop. Any ideas what I should do next?

@Frew, you should file bug reports when you have a bug.

One problem you mentioned had already had a bug report filed by someone else: http://git-annex.branchable.com/bugs/Watcher_crashed:_addWatch:_does_not_exist/ So you can post your details there.

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ Thu Jul 18 17:07:27 2013

In webapp UI, added on first install, the location for repository: /storage/sdcard1

!warning

Watcher crashed: addWatch:

permission denied (Permission denied)

[Restart Thread]

:Performing startup scan

In terminal Window 1:

nex webapp <

Detected a crippled filesystem.

Enabling direct mode.

Detected a filesystem without fifo support.

Disabling ssh connection caching.

Android 4.1.1 Huawei Y300 Annex.apk v1.0.52 version 4.20130723

Phone: HTC EVO 3d 4g Model Number: pg86100 Android Version: 4.0.3

Comment by Jonathan Mon Jul 29 20:08:12 2013
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