'rsync' failure trying to install MacPorts 1.6.0 - SOLVED!

[Dushan Mitrovich]

William Siegrist <wsiegrist at apple.com> wrote:
> Are you behind a firewall or proxy? You need to be able to get to port
> 873/tcp on rsync.macports.org.  If you have trouble with that, you
> should be able to use subversion instead to get the updated ports tree.

Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> Same question to you that I asked to Bill.  Does your network allow
> traffic on the rsync port?

Bill and Ryan,

Thanks to your prodding questions, I got the rsync problem fixed, as well
as another one (no FTP) that has bugged me for months.  The problem in my
case turned out to be the firewall in my GT-701 ActionTec DSL modem.

I called up ActionTec Support in near-desperation just to see if they
might have any ideas, and described the problems I'd been having.  The
response was that those were exactly the problems I'd get with the fire-
wall turned on, and that I should turn it off completely.  There were
four settings, High, Medium, Low, and Off, and mine had been set to High.

He explained that I was still protected from Internet mischief by the SPI
(Stateful Packet Inspection).  I'd never heard of SPI before, but looked
it up and found a Wiki explanation about it being a recent type of fire-
wall that checks to make sure that incoming packets really do belong in
the accepted incoming stream.  Ones that don't are rejected.

So I turned the ActionTec firewall off, and Bingo!, the MacPorts install
went to completion.  Even more cheering for me was that now FTP worked on
the Mac - tho it has been working fine all along from the Parallels Vir-
tual Machine running eComStation 1.2.  I certainly don't understand the
mechanics of all this, but am delighted that things now work.

I hope these observations are helpful to others as well.  Thanks much
for directing me to the relevant issue.

- Dushan


----------------------
>On Mar 11, 2008, at 2:58 AM, Dushan Mitrovich wrote:
>> I had downloaded the MacPorts-1.6.0.dmg file but failed trying to
>> install it on my Mac Pro system (4 processors), apparently because
>> 'rsync' failed.
>>
>> This appears to be the same problem that Bill Hernandez wrote about
>> earlier, but I didn't see any solution offered.  Is there one?
>>
>> Below are the particulars of my system, and what I've tried.  Thanks for
>> all help and suggestions.
>>
>> - Dushan Mitrovich
>>
>>                ===========================================
>>
>> I'm running OS X.4.11, build 852167, and have installed both X11 (from
>> the Mac OSX install disk) and Xcode 2.5 (downloaded from the Apple
>> site), in that order.  X11user and X11sdk both show up in the
>> /Library/Receipts directory.  The result of typing 'uname -a' in
>> Terminal (for clarity the lines are indented and wrapped, with the
>> continuation lines indented an extra 2 spaces; the first line and the
>> '=>' on the second are part of the prompt):
>>
>>             --------------------- begin ----------------------
>>  [~]$
>>  => uname -a
>>  Darwin Mac-Mar08 8.11.1 Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.1: Wed Oct 10
>>    18:23:28 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.25.20~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 i386
>>              --------------------- end ----------------------
>>
>> Neither '/usr/local' nor '/sw' directories exist.
>>
>>
>> During the MacPorts install (I have an admin account) the progress bar
>> went quickly to about the 80% point, then stalled, and then gave way to
>> a message that there was an error during the install and to try again.
>> Here are the contents of the MacPorts install log file:
>>
>>             --------------------- begin ----------------------
>>  Mar 10 11:55:30 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer scripts detected in
>>    the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Switching to compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:55:42 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer scripts detected in
>>    the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Switching to compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:56:21 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer scripts detected in
>>    the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Switching to compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:56:21 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer script preflight
>>    found in the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Using compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:56:21 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer script postflight
>>    found in the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Using compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:56:22 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer script preflight
>>    found in the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Using compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:56:22 Mac-Mar08 : Localized installer script postflight
>>    found in the MacPorts-1.6.0 package. Using compatibility mode.
>>  Mar 10 11:57:39 Mac-Mar08 : Install failed: The following install
>>    step failed: run postflight script for MacPorts
>>               --------------------- end ----------------------
>>
>>
>> Next I tried to execute the 'postflight' file manually from Terminal.
>> That also failed.  Here is the transscript of that attempt (the first
>> line below shows the directory):
>>
>>              --------------------- begin ----------------------
>>  [/Volumes/MacPorts-1.6.0/MacPorts-1.6.0.pkg/Contents/Resources/English.lproj]$
>>  => ./postflight
>>
>>  Checking the shell environment for user "dushanm"...
>>
>>  /bin/bash: line 11: 0: command not found
>>  Your shell already has the right MANPATH environment variable for
>>    use with MacPorts!
>>  Your shell already has the right DISPLAY environment variable for
>>    use with MacPorts!
>>
>>  Synchronizing the MacPorts installation with the project's rsync
>>    server...
>>
>>  Synchronizing local ports tree from rsync://rsync.macports.org/
>>    release/ports/
>>  rsync: failed to connect to rsync.macports.org: Operation timed out
>>    (60)
>>  rsync error: error in socket IO (code 10) at
>>    /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-24.1/rsync/clientserver.c(94)
>>  Error: /opt/local/bin/port: port selfupdate failed: Couldn't sync
>>    the ports tree: Synchronization the local ports tree failed doing
>>    rsync
>>  An attempt to synchronize your recent MacPorts installation with
>>    the project's rsync server failed!
>>  Please run 'port -d selfupdate' manually to find out the cause of
>>    the error.
>>               --------------------- end ----------------------
>>
>>
>> When I ran 'port' from the /opt/local/bin directory, I got:
>>
>>              --------------------- begin ----------------------
>>  [/opt/local/bin]$
>>  => ./port -d selfupdate
>>  DEBUG: Rebuilding the MacPorts base system if needed.
>>  DEBUG: Synchronizing ports tree(s)
>>  Synchronizing local ports tree from rsync://rsync.macports.org/
>>    release/ports/
>>  DEBUG: /usr/bin/rsync -rtzv --delete-after rsync://
>>    rsync.macports.org/release/ports/
>>    /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports
>>  rsync: failed to connect to rsync.macports.org: Operation timed out
>>    (60)
>>  rsync error: error in socket IO (code 10) at
>>    /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-24.1/rsync/clientserver.c(94)
>>  DEBUG: Couldn't sync the ports tree: Synchronization the local
>>    ports tree failed doing rsync
>>      while executing
>>        "macports::selfupdate [array get global_options]"
>>  Error: ./port: port selfupdate failed: Couldn't sync the ports
>>    tree: Synchronization the local ports tree failed doing rsync
>>               --------------------- end ----------------------