Rockbox Utility Hosed Proxy Settings

[snoip]

I finally got tired of holding down 'left' and booting my player, and wanted to recover the extra space that rockbox is using, so I fired up the rockbox utility program a few days ago to uninstall rockbox and the bootloader.
However, upon launching it, it immediately began complaining about connectivity issues, and told me to check (among other things) my proxy setting, etc.
I have never had to do this before with the utility program, and assume it is just another bug, and since I do not connect through a proxy, it seemed strange to have to do that out of the blue, especially since nothing else on my computer was giving me any warnings at all.
After several hours of messing around with it, I had made no headway at all, and gave up in further disgust over the whole thing.
So now I am going to try again... but after reading all of the horror stories about people ending up with non-functioning devices after their rockbox experience, I am very very hesitant to try removing it at all, especially with the utility program acting up all of a sudden.
Will the uninstall utilities function even though the utility program itself is spouting off all of these warnings about connection problems (that only exist for this one piece of software)?  I ask because the update feature won't work (I try that on a fairly regular basis in the hopes some of the issues will have been fixed), and I really don't want to end up with a piece of junk because the rockbox utility program can't seem to find the internet connection.
Thank you

[Llorean]

Out of curiousity, where are these "horror stories" you mention? As far as I know, nobody has ever ended up with a non-functioning device if they followed the instructions, and no device ever has been made permanently non-functioning.

Also, why do you say it "hosed" your proxy settings? I don't see you actually mention at any point in your post that they were corrupted. Did you leave that out, or should the topic actually read something like "RButil complaining about Proxy settings"?

I opened this thread expecting perhaps a report of a problem where RBUtil had changed the proxy settings on your computer, but now I'm confused as to what you're actually trying to report.

[snoip]

Sorry... I'm not at my home computer right now, so I don't have the exact text that it was generating...
But it was putting up a message box that said it could not connect (presumably to rockbox), and that I should check my settings (in the utility program). (File / Settings / Proxy tab, if I remember correctly.)
As I never had to set any of this in the first place, and had never gotten this message before, it seemed a little strange that I would suddenly have to.  I did run a virus scan and a chkdsk just to be certain, as well as throwing any internet connection test at it that I could find.  The only evidence of any problem I could find was that the rockbox utility says there is a problem.
I tried using the 'system default settings', and briefly checked out the manual settings, but it never would launch without it.
And, nothing I tried would allow it to reinstall/update the software.

As far as following the directions... I understand that there are instructions that will walk me through removing it... my concern is, if the rockbox utility is reporting problems that I can't confirm, and isn't able to install the latest and greatest version, then can I trust it to remove the bootloader without something else going awry?

-edit- Yes, the title of the post should have been worded differently... "Rockbox Utility Proxy Settings are Hosed"

[Llorean]

Are you sure you weren't just using it when our server was down? I assumed you were talking about having done it right now, not earlier when the server was down.

We do ask that you report things that are still happening, so please verify it still happens. It sounds like what was wrong was that it really couldn't contact the server, because it wasn't there at the time...

[snoip]

My apologies.  I should have said that this was a few days ago.
I wasn't aware that the server was down.
Regardless, I will just use the manual ('sansapatcher') method just to be certain.
Thank you.

[bluebrother]

But it was putting up a message box that said it could not connect (presumably to rockbox), and that I should check my settings (in the utility program).

If you can't connect to a specific server at the internet from a random computer, would you (a) expect the network settings of that computer being messed up, especially requiring a proxy (companies and university dorms usually do) or (b) that specific server exactly that time being down? I go for (a) and exactly this is what Rockbox Utility does. It asks you to *check* the settings. It doesn't tell you the settings are wrong.

And, nothing I tried would allow it to reinstall/update the software.

That's rather obvious: if you can't get the update package (regardless if it's a network problem, a server problem or something else) you can't update to the most recent package.

my concern is, if the rockbox utility is reporting problems that I can't confirm, and isn't able to install the latest and greatest version, then can I trust it to remove the bootloader without something else going awry?

(a) you could've confirmed that problem. Rockbox Utility displays you the exact error ("Network error: blah. Please check ..."), and if that tells something about some timeout then ... well, you have an exact error. (b) Bootloader uninstallation doesn't need to retrieve files from the net, so this will work even without internet access. Besides, Rockbox Utility simply uses sansapatcher, so it work exactly the same (except for the interface ).

"Rockbox Utility Proxy Settings are Hosed"

Still wrong. No settings are hosed.

Please calm down first, then do some basic research and when asking for help state the exact problem. Exaggerating doesn't help even a tiny bit (well, it can help to annoy people -- if you're up to that).

[AlexP]

I'm still interested in these horror stories.  I, nor anyone else, have never heard of Rockbox leaving a Sansa permanently inoperable (and it is really only possible to leave it temporarily inoperable by wilfully ignoring the instructions).

[snoip]

Wow.
Ok, here it is...

Exact text of the error msgbox (as of 9:32 PM EDT tonight)

"Network error: Host www.rockbox.org not found.  Please check your network and proxy
settings.
                                  [OK]


1.  "If you can't connect to a specific server at the internet from a random computer," *Not* a random computer, this is the same home computer I have used with my player since I purchased it.
2.  "would you (a) expect the network settings of that computer being messed up"  No, because everything else on the computer can connect to the internet (including the rockbox site,) with no trouble.
3.  "or (b) that specific server exactly that time being down?"  I did not realize that the server is down.
4.  "That's rather obvious: if you can't get the update package... you can't update to the most recent package."  This goes back to the "I didn't know that the server is down..."
5.  "you could've confirmed that problem. Rockbox Utility displays you the exact error ("Network error: blah. Please check ..."), and if that tells something about some timeout then ... well, you have an exact error."  It says the host is not found.  But since I can find it with 2 different browsers, then I have only confirmed that the rockbox utility program is reporting an error that does not seem to exist outside of the rockbox utility.
6.  "Bootloader uninstallation doesn't need to retrieve files from the net, so this will work even without internet access."  I did not know that.  Which is why I asked.
7.  "Still wrong. No settings are hosed."  I stand corrected.  Again, in my defense... if my browser can connect to www.rockbox.org, but the rockbox utility cannot, then i jump to the conclusion that there is a setting messed up in the rockbox utility program.  And since it says "check your network or proxy settings", and since the rockbox utility program has network and proxy settings, and since the computer's network and proxy settings are working correctly, I assumed that there was a problem with the rockbox network and proxy settings.
8.  "Exaggerating doesn't help even a tiny bit "  I agree, and I apologize for posting the question from my work computer where I am not allowed to install the utility to duplicate the problem for accurate reporting.  (But, I was also not too terribly far off, either.)
9.  Horror stories.  There are a great deal of threads on this site where people bandy about the term "bricked", and the root cause always seems to be "not following the instructions".  As I cannot fire up the rockbox utility program without getting the error message, I did not want to 'brick' my unit by failing to ask if, while following the directions, something unexpected happened (like the rockbox utility program not being able to connect to the website.)  And yes, further reading did reveal that there are apparently a good number of resources here to step a person through recovering a botched install/uninstall... but still, just kinda scary to have to go through all that when everything isn't acting like it should.

But anyway, if it doesn't matter whether the server is down or not, then I will probably just go ahead and uninstall it tonight rather than wait.

[bluebrother]

5.  "you could've confirmed that problem. Rockbox Utility displays you the exact error ("Network error: blah. Please check ..."), and if that tells something about some timeout then ... well, you have an exact error."  It says the host is not found.  But since I can find it with 2 different browsers, then I have only confirmed that the rockbox utility program is reporting an error that does not seem to exist outside of the rockbox utility.

How do you know which *exact* host Rockbox Utility is trying to access? This is not necessarily www.rockbox.org (in fact, it also needs data from other servers). Besides, the information in your browser might be cached, plus (and that's also an important point) as your browser is working correctly the network settings of your *browser* are correct. They are not necessarily correct in Rockbox Utility. Thus, your browser working proves nothing.

[LinusN]

How do you know which *exact* host Rockbox Utility is trying to access? This is not necessarily www.rockbox.org (in fact, it also needs data from other servers).

Well, if the error message says "Network error: Host www.rockbox.org not found.  Please check your network and proxy settings.", what is he supposed to think?

[snoip]

Oh, ffs.
I really didnt come here to feed a troll.
I just wanted to ask a simple question.
Bluesbrother, you are correct.  I do not know the *exact* host that the rockbox utility is trying to access, nor was I aware that it also needs data from other servers as well.  It tells me it can't connect, and it tells me to check my network and proxy settings.  Firefox brings up www.rockbox.org, and IE brings up www.rockbox.org.  That is how I got to the forums.  I don't believe it is from the cache, as many of the items on the main page (under 'mail' and 'wiki') have current dates.  But the *exact* host?  I don't know anything other than what it reports in the msgbox.
That's what I know.  I did not know that your server is down. 
I apologize for not troubleshooting any further than I did before assuming there is a problem with the rockbox utility.  Perhaps after your server is back up, then it will no longer give me the error message.  But until then, all I know is that it says it cannot connect to www.rockbox.org, but my browsers on 2 machines (home and work) can connect to it with no problem.
Nonetheless, it is a moot point.  The manual uninstall worked fine, so there is really no reason for me to wait for your server to be back up!

[AlexP]

9.  Horror stories.  There are a great deal of threads on this site where people bandy about the term "bricked", and the root cause always seems to be "not following the instructions".  As I cannot fire up the rockbox utility program without getting the error message, I did not want to 'brick' my unit by failing to ask if, while following the directions, something unexpected happened (like the rockbox utility program not being able to connect to the website.)  And yes, further reading did reveal that there are apparently a good number of resources here to step a person through recovering a botched install/uninstall... but still, just kinda scary to have to go through all that when everything isn't acting like it should.

As you have discovered, none of them were bricked at all - people panic and jump to conclusions.  Even if they have managed to temporarily disable the Sansa by guessing and not following the instructions, it has always been recoverable.  This is why we don't like people to throw around the term bricked, it causes this kind of confusion.

Anyway, I'm glad you managed to get it sorted, even if uninstallation is the wrong choice in my opinion!

[pixelma]

The servers are back up running but I've seen the "Network error: Host www.rockbox.org not found.  Please check your network and proxy settings." message too today when I tried out RBUtil first.

After a while I found the reason, a little embarrassing for me but maybe sharing this here helps to clear things up. I was first running the rbutilqt.exe from the opened zip. It started working alright after extracting the zip first to my computer's harddisk and running the .exe there. This is what you get when just double-clicking on something...

Of course, the error message is misleading in this case but I am not sure if anything can be done about it and what and if this can be called a bug or not.

[snoip]

ummm... no.
Unzipped it to a folder on the HDD when i downloaded it, been running it from there ever since.

[Llorean]

What version are you running?