Eddie run/connection problem

[Terry Stanford 11]

I have two admin level users on my Mac. I have Eddie running in both users.

1. When I switch users, the one which is no longer in use automatically disconnects from VPN. This is frustrating as I have an upload running which keeps stopping when I switch user. Is this normal behaviour or a bug I need to try and fix?

2. I have a lot of trouble getting eddie to start (in both users). It often hangs/freezes on the message "Connect with daemon for system privelges.". For example just now it sat with that displayed for 20 minutes, all the while my network connection is exposed as KillSwitch is not yet enabled. Interestingly, I pulled the ethernet cable out (my reliable kill switch!) and instantly the raise sys priveleges message disappeared and it prompted for password. I have the option set to not ask for elevated priveleges every time (install launchd), so why is this happening?

Thanks

[Terry Stanford 11]

PS I just switched users and Eddie has crashed. The menu bar item is yellow (disconnected), and if i hover over it, it has the spinning beach ball (meaning it has frozen). This seems to happen nearly every time I switch users

[Terry Stanford 11]

I kept getting "unexpected crash of elevated helper tool". I have changed the setting to "no password". Not sure what the risks are of doing that, but Eddie is loading faster now and therefore not crashing.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Oh FFS. Well that didn't help. Instead Eddie just crashed while I was just browsing the web - error -https://ibb.co/fQ0w8xH

Completely crashed the whole app leaving me totally exposed.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

4 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

1. When I switch users, the one which is no longer in use automatically disconnects from VPN. This is frustrating as I have an upload running which keeps stopping when I switch user. Is this normal behaviour or a bug I need to try and fix?

Why do you bother having two admin users like that?
 

4 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

2. I have a lot of trouble getting eddie to start (in both users). It often hangs/freezes on the message "Connect with daemon for system privelges.". For example just now it sat with that displayed for 20 minutes, all the while my network connection is exposed as KillSwitch is not yet enabled. Interestingly, I pulled the ethernet cable out (my reliable kill switch!) and instantly the raise sys priveleges message disappeared and it prompted for password. I have the option set to not ask for elevated priveleges every time (install launchd), so why is this happening?

Give us a system report (Eddie > Logs > lifebelt icon) and we might even get a shot at answering this last question.

[Terry Stanford 11]

I need two users, separate environments, both admin.

I don't know what private info is in the logs, do you have an email i could send it to rather than putting it on the pubilc forum please?

PS - I have spent literally hours just trying to get it to run so I can find the logs. Some screenshots of the various errors...

[Terry Stanford 11]

It can hang on "Connect to daemon for system priveleges" for hours. I have played with all settings, turned off profile protection completely, tried using Mac Keychain, tried with password. no matter which one i try, it still prompts for a password (eventually, sometimes never and have to force quit).

[Terry Stanford 11]

It looks like every time I switch user on my imac, the other user's Eddie crashes with these various errors, usually elevated helper crashed or similar.
Surely I am not the first person to want to use VPN on two users on the same machine?
I did try to set up another VPN (VPN.ac) on the second user, just to simplify things and avoid any conflicts but Eddie destroys the kill switch of the other VPN, as it writes firewall rules which stop the other VPN app's kill switch working! Quite tricky to sort this but I would ideally like to run Eddie on both accounts, if that's possible without the freezing/crashing.
I did notice something strange (but a bit reassuring in a way). When Eddie totally crashes (and quits, as it does when the above elevated helper tool errors occur), I check my IP (with eddie no longer running at all) and it still shows that my IP is one of eddie's VPN server locations! Not sure how, but I tested it over and over and it's definitely the case

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Yeah, well, let me direct you to mentioned support, then. If it spits errors all around, it's best the developers look at it.

[Terry Stanford 11]

I will submit logs to a support ticket

[Terry Stanford 11]

I found two things I can log. The logs, and a system report. I ran the system report and it has been stuck on "Performing tests" for a good long while now.
Also, about 20 times so far today all internet activity stops. I look at Eddie and it shows no traffic but shows i am connected, i have changed servers every time and then it works, for a while, then all stops again. Very strange!

[Terry Stanford 11]

Well, an entire DAY messing around just trying to get working, and I MAY have a clue as to what's going on! I raised a support ticket earlier but I still couldn't get a reliable connection (all stop every 10-20 minutes, needing a reconnect or usually a total reboot of machine) so I decided to dig around with my limited knowledg and look for anything obvious.

I THINK what's going on is this....

I am running Eddie on my iMac, which has TWO users, and I want to use Eddie on BOTH accounts. I certainly want to use a VPN on both, but I tried Eddie on one, VPN.ac on the other, and Eddie broke the other one's network lock function so it wasn't a viable setup. My wife has a macbook and I installed on VPN.ac on there, and she also has two users (one for my son). They are doing the same thing fine, I just tested it and the network lock and all working nicely. One user can connect to, say, Latvia, the other can connect to Sweden, and both users have separate VPN profiles/choices, while both using the same app (VPN.ac).

What I found, through lots of trial and error, is that if I start my machine and log into User 1 (before logging into User 2), Eddie starts up fine, it doesn't hang (although it always takes a very long time to do the "check recovery status", but the raising priveleges thing doesn't take as long as before (i.e. half an hour or crash!). I can then connect Eddie, and it all works as it should

But then I switch user/log in to User 2, Eddie starts (set to auto run at startup), and it hangs when trying to raise priveleges. I know it won't complete so I force quit several times and relaunch Eddie, then after a few goes it will usually start up and finally connect to a server. So, User 2 is connected, BUT... User 1 is no longer connected! I have worked this out by going back and forth. When I switch back to User 1, it shows the error, something like "elevated helper crashed" or similar. It happens EVERY time without fail, as soon as a second user uses eddie, the first user's Eddie crashes. That error has an "ok" button, and when I click that Eddie completely quits, which I thought left me exposed, so I was pulling the ethernet cable out. But this time I didn't. I ran some pings and checked my IP in a browser and whilst I was connected, I was still showing an Air server IP address. This got me wondering if both Users can only run the same config, same server connection etc, at any one time.

That looks to be the issue. On this account I am using now, Eddie is showing as connected to Bulgaria, but no data up/down showing. Yet I am online. This confused me until I worked out the above. It's connected via the profile in the other User. I am not sure what will happen when I log out, maybe it will crash and maybe that's why Eddie kept crashing constantly earlier. Here is a screenshot showing what I mean. Eddie overlaid over a browser tab at whatismyip.com - Clearly showing my connection is through Brussels, , not Sofia, Bulgaria.



So... Maybe I actually AM the first person to try running Eddie in 2 user accounts on the same machine. It looks like it can't work, but I hope someone can prove me wrong and show me how to make it work! I really want to use AirVPN on this machine, for both users. I thought I could use it on one, and use VPN.ac on the other, to get around this problem. But that's not possible as I think they both try to rewrite firewall rules and end up exposing me on both ends!
Any thoughts/tips very welcome! Otherwise I will just wait for support to come back to me. Thanks either way.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I'm sorry, I still don't get the idea of your setup. Why do you want both users to connect? There's only one routing table in the system, and it should extend to all users, meaning, any other user will use those routes, anyway.
I mean, you're on a Unix system, so there are similarities to Linux. If I do that on Linux, the formerly connected client will time out because another OpenVPN client pushed its own routes.

Let me ask you this. Connect with account 1, then switch to account 2 and check the routing table if the routes are already there. Use netstat -rn in a terminal for this. Post them if you don't know what you're looking at there.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Thank you for this. It's a bit beyond me the way you explained it (don't know what routing tables are, but I can take a guess :D) but, BUT.... I think I sussed what you're saying through testing for the last hour here. I now realise that if User 1 is running eddie, User 2 has the same IP address even if Eddie doesn't run. I didn't know the users were connected. I have used VPN.ac across two accounts on the same machine, and that works fine, independently of each other.

I don't want to run Eddie on User 1 but not on User 2, as I need to KNOW when it crashes and I am exposed, and eddie does crash/hang a lot, so if I am working in User 2 (all day long) then I won't know if eddie crashed (in User 1) many hours ago, leaving me exposed. I need to SEE the app in my menu bar to know I am protected, and also to change servers when I want to (I do this regularly and need to for my work).

I have an idea and maybe you can comment:

What if I uninstall Eddie completely, reinstall but this time instead of installing in the global (system) Applications folder, maybe I coud install TWICE, separately, and run it from each USER's applications folder. My thinking is that this will cause a defaul.profile to be created and stored in each user's .config folder, and effectively it would mean eddie CAN actually run twice, and separately. IF that idea will work, I will just whitelist different servers in the two instances of Eddie, so no conflicts ever take place due to connecting to the same servers.

Does that sound like a plan?!

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

22 hours ago, OpenSourcerer said:

I'm sorry, I still don't get the idea of your setup. Why do you want both users to connect?

[Terry Stanford 11]

I don't really understand what you don't understand!

1. I will not use the internet without vpn
2. I need two user accounts to separate business work from personal browsing and activity.

Thus I need two accounts using the internet, and thus using VPN.
 

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

For #2, have you tried macOS Mission Control, formerly Spaces? This looks like virtual desktops on Linux and is the way I'd separate the two environments.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Yes i have used that, no use for this purpose. I have separate Mail profiles, photo libraries, app profiles/settings, firefox profiles, files and data... its two very separate areas which I had two separate computers for until recently!

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Was support able to help you further, by the way?

[Terry Stanford 11]

Yes, in a way. They didn't need to do anything, they just explained that running Eddie from two users on the same machine is not possible, as only one can modify the routing table so running it again will always be problematic.
I have now changed my way of working. I have a physical ethernet switch to disconnect machine from the router with a button on my desk. I turned off autorun for Eddie, and I open it manually in whicheve user I am using, then I log off rather than switching users, when I need to change to the other one. No ideal but it's a nature of VPNs so not Eddie's fault, he's a good guy

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

You will note that I wrote this earlier in reference to Linux:

On 3/23/2021 at 11:49 PM, OpenSourcerer said:

If I do that on Linux, the formerly connected client will time out because another OpenVPN client pushed its own routes.

But, glad you found a workaround.