Mac Build Agent no longer connecting/building

Question

Worked fine for the last two months (after having manually installed Xamarin on the Mac because the VS/SSH install didn't work), something has broken. OS X and Xamarin were both updated but I thought in minor ways. Guess that's the last time I take updates I don't have a reason for!

Anyways, here's the relevant %LOCALAPPDATA%\Xamarin\Logs\14.0 log entries:

Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:28.6561] Starting connection to Mac macmini...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:30.6133] Starting Broker 4.2.1.73 in port 59693...
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:32.9003] MacServer State transition from SshConnectingState to SshConnectedState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:33.2553] Connection successfully established with the Mac macmini:59693
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:33.5408] MacServer State transition from SshConnectedState to AgentsStartingState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:33.7448] Starting agents on Mac macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:34.5553] Starting Agent IDB 4.2.1.73...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:34.7538] Starting Agent Build 4.2.1.73...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:35.6074] Starting Agent Designer 4.2.1.73...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:36.8564] Agent Build 4.2.1.73 is running
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:39.9828] Agent IDB 4.2.1.73 is running
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:41.2470] MacServer State transition from AgentsStartingState to DisconnectedState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:41.4320] Disconnected from Mac macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:41.6010] The underlying client has been closed
Xamarin.Messaging.Client.Ssh.SshCommandRunner Warning: 0 : [2016-12-17 00:06:41.8105] Exception executing 'ls "/tmp/com.xamarin.2016-12-16__23-07-38.43884.designer"'
Renci.SshNet.Common.SshConnectionException: Client not connected.
at Renci.SshNet.Session.WaitOnHandle(WaitHandle waitHandle, TimeSpan timeout)
at Renci.SshNet.Session.Renci.SshNet.ISession.WaitOnHandle(WaitHandle waitHandle)
at Renci.SshNet.Channels.ChannelSession.Open()
at Renci.SshNet.SshCommand.BeginExecute(AsyncCallback callback, Object state)
at Xamarin.Messaging.Client.Ssh.SshCommandRunner.<>c__DisplayClass6_0.b__0(AsyncCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskFactory1.FromAsyncImpl(Func3 beginMethod, Func2 endFunction, Action1 endAction, Object state, TaskCreationOptions creationOptions)
at Xamarin.Messaging.Client.Ssh.SshCommandRunner.d__6.MoveNext()

As you can see, SSH itself is working fine. And I can SSH in and access those paths just fine as the same user I'm providing to the Mac Agent login. I've tried deleting Mac's XMA folder and PC's MonoTouch, but with no effect.

I also tried installed the 8.2.1 XCode update and it did something, but I eventually ended up back in the same state as above. Here's what was temporarily different. Note how no error is reported, it successfully setup for a second, but then closed the Build Agent window and went back to complaining about ls.

Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:19:56.3313] MacServer State transition from DisconnectedState to SshConnectingState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:19:56.5134] Starting connection to Mac macmini...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:05.6625] Starting Broker 4.2.1.73 in port 55623...
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:11.5814] MacServer State transition from SshConnectingState to SshConnectedState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:11.7629] Connection successfully established with the Mac macmini:55623
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:11.9821] MacServer State transition from SshConnectedState to AgentsStartingState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:12.1686] Starting agents on Mac macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:13.7446] Starting Agent IDB 4.2.1.73...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:13.9521] Starting Agent Build 4.2.1.73...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:16.3318] Agent Build 4.2.1.73 is running
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:19.6409] Starting Agent Designer 4.2.1.73...
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:31.1329] Agent IDB 4.2.1.73 is running
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:32.3954] Agent Designer 4.2.1.73 is running
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:32.6164] MacServer State transition from AgentsStartingState to ConnectedState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:32.7889] Connected to the Mac macmini (192.168.1.88) with Full support.
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:33.7967] MacServer State transition from ConnectedState to DisconnectedState on macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.VisualStudio.IOS.Messaging.State.ServerStateContext Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:34.0062] Disconnected from Mac macmini (192.168.1.88)
Xamarin.Messaging.VisualStudio.MessagingService Information: 0 : [2016-12-20 00:20:34.1737] The underlying client has been closed

When I try to run the build manually with MSBuild, this is the error I get. Note that Info.plist is present in the 8112c4... directory but the entire bin subtree is missing.

"c:\src\GitHub\SarTag\SarTag.sln" (default target) (1) -> "c:\src\GitHub\SarTag\Beacon\Beacon.iOS\Beacon.iOS.csproj" (default target) (11) -> C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Xamarin\iOS\Xamarin.iOS.Common.targets(662,3): error : Could not load Info.plist: Could not find a part of the path "/Users/eliot/Library/Caches/Xamarin/mtbs/builds/Beacon.iOS/8112c45fa1883d91f42789034e2e3d3c/bin/iPhoneSimulator/Debug/Beacon.iOS.app/Info.plist". [c:\src\GitHub\SarTag\Beacon\Beacon.iOS\Beacon.iOS.csproj]

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! I'm going a little crazy here.

Answer 1

FINALLY got this working by getting a compatible version of Xamarin.iOS installed on my Mac. I had tried downgrading my PC version, but that didn't work. I found a working version on Xamarin's site, clicking View All Versions, then choosing 10.3 under Xamarin.iOS --> OS X.

Answer 2

Try to kill Xamarin process on Mac (Xamarin broker):

kill -9 {Xamarin PID}

to display list of processes use :

ps aux