Network Ports disappearing

[sundeepgoel72]

Platform

• Hardware: ESP-12
• Core Version: 2_5_0_BETA2
• Development Env: Arduino IDE (v1.8.8)
• Operating System: Windows

Settings in IDE

• Module: Generic ESP8266
• Flash Mode: DIO
• Flash Size: 1MB
• lwip Variant: v2 Lower Memory
• Reset Method: ck
• Flash Frequency: 40Mhz
• CPU Frequency: 80Mhz
• Upload Using: OTA
• Upload Speed: NA

Problem Description

I have multiple esp modules with OTA configured, all network ports are appearing fine on the bonjour browser. However, on the IDE on startup, all network ports appear but soon except one or two, all others disappear. These is no pattern to the ones which remains, it appears to be random.

Seems to be an IDE / mDNS issue rather than code / sketch related.

MCVE Sketch

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <ESP8266WiFiMulti.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <ESP8266mDNS.h>
#include <WiFiUdp.h>
#include <ArduinoOTA.h>

ESP8266WiFiMulti WiFiMulti;
WiFiClient espClient;

void setup() 
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  delay(1000);
  WiFiMulti.addAP("SG-GF","xxx");
  Serial.println();
  Serial.print("Connecting to Wifi: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.SSID());  

  while(WiFiMulti.run() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }

  if(WiFiMulti.run() == WL_CONNECTED) {
    Serial.println("");
    Serial.print("WiFi connected. ");
    Serial.print("IP address: ");
    Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
  }

  ArduinoOTA.setHostname("myesp8266Roaming2");

  ArduinoOTA.onStart([]() {
    String type;
    if (ArduinoOTA.getCommand() == U_FLASH) {
      type = "sketch";
    } else { // U_SPIFFS
      type = "filesystem";
    }

    Serial.println("Start updating " + type);
  });
  ArduinoOTA.onEnd([]() {
    Serial.println("\nEnd");
  });
  ArduinoOTA.onProgress([](unsigned int progress, unsigned int total) {
    Serial.printf("Progress: %u%%\r", (progress / (total / 100)));
  });
  ArduinoOTA.onError([](ota_error_t error) {
    Serial.printf("Error[%u]: ", error);
    if (error == OTA_AUTH_ERROR) {
      Serial.println("Auth Failed");
    } else if (error == OTA_BEGIN_ERROR) {
      Serial.println("Begin Failed");
    } else if (error == OTA_CONNECT_ERROR) {
      Serial.println("Connect Failed");
    } else if (error == OTA_RECEIVE_ERROR) {
      Serial.println("Receive Failed");
    } else if (error == OTA_END_ERROR) {
      Serial.println("End Failed");
    }
  });
  ArduinoOTA.begin();
  
}

void loop() 
{
  if (WiFiMulti.run() != WL_CONNECTED)
  {
    Serial.print("Reconnecting to WiFi ");
  }
  ArduinoOTA.handle();
}

Debug Messages

Serial output on startup ---------------------
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for host domain detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for service domain myesp8266Roaming.arduino.tcp detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for host domain detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for service domain myesp8266Roaming.arduino.tcp detected while probing.

[devyte]

@sundeepgoel72 you ignored the issue template. Which core version? What is yourr platform? What is the MCVE sketch to reproduce? Etc.
Please edit your post and add the required fields.

CC @LaborEtArs .

[sundeepgoel72]

@sundeepgoel72 you ignored the issue template. Which core version? What is yourr platform? What is the MCVE sketch to reproduce? Etc.
Please edit your post and add the required fields.

CC @LaborEtArs .

apologies for missing, its my first post here. Have updated the issue based on template

[devyte]

The request is for an MCVE sketch, where M means Minimal. Could you please reduce? e.g.: remove thingspeak, sensors, etc and provide as small a sketch as possible that shows your probe issue.

What happens if you remove that delay(50) in the loop for all devices?

Side note: your timing calc millis() > nextTx won't work as expected on rollover. I suggest using the periodic polledTimeout instead. There are examples and device tests you can check out for usage.

[sundeepgoel72]

The request is for an MCVE sketch, where M means _M_inimal. Could you please reduce? e.g.: remove thingspeak, sensors, etc and provide as small a sketch as possible that shows your probe issue.

What happens if you remove that delay(50) in the loop for all devices?

Side note: your timing calc millis() > nextTx won't work as expected on rollover. I suggest using the periodic polledTimeout instead. There are examples and device tests you can check out for usage.

Hi, updated issue with Minimal sketch, Same issue persists.

Serial output
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for host domain detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for service domain myesp8266Roaming2.arduino.tcp detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for host domain detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for service domain myesp8266Roaming2.arduino.tcp detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for host domain detected while probing.
[MDNSResponder] _parseQuery: Possible race-condition for service domain myesp8266Roaming2.arduino.tcp detected while probing.

[LaborEtArs]

When using the mDNSResponder you should add MDNS::update() in the loop.
The race condition might be because two or more devices in your network are using the same hostname (or are trying to do so). I can‘t see the probe callback in your MCVE code... how do you resolve hostname conflicts?

[devyte]

@LaborEtArs the ArduinoOTA.handle() call internally calls MDNS.update().

[devyte]

From the MCVE:

ArduinoOTA.setHostname("myesp8266Roaming2");

Are all ESPs setting the same hostname?

[sundeepgoel72]

From the MCVE:

ArduinoOTA.setHostname("myesp8266Roaming2");

Are all ESPs setting the same hostname?

No, all have different hostnames.

[LaborEtArs]

The race conditions are detected, when some other network member queries for our domain name, while we're not yet done with probing for this name. In your case, this might be a 'old' user of your device asking for the IP address (or someone who tries to update a DNS cache), while the device is restarting (an the mDNS responder is probing for the hostname). However, this shouldn't lead to a problem, IF the tiebrake is successfully handled.
You do see these two messages, as I forgot to remove two non-DEBUG_EX_...-encapsulated messages for exactly this situation... sometimes even errors may have their use....
Unfortunately I wasn't able to create a really reproducible test case for the tiebrake code; maybe you succeeded now ;-)
It would be great, if you could enable the debug messages in the tiebraking code blocks to see what happens there.
LEAmDNS_Control.cpp, lines 345ff.
LEAmDNS_Control.cpp, lines 435ff.
LEAmDNS_Control.cpp, lines 510ff.

[reaper7]

I have the same problem on win 10.
I tried different configs:
Arduino IDE 1.8.7/1.8.8
Core 2.4.2 stable/2.5.0b2/2.5.0dev

Bonjour browser shows all my esp devices
but on arduino ide they appear and disappear at random.
I rarely see all of them, most often appear individually.
The sketch seems irrelevant, the same is happening in my own sketch
but also on external projects like sonoff-tasmota, espurna and any others.

Devices appear frequently when I use "compile" button
but when I try flash it turns out that the device is no longer visible.

This is very annoying, considering the time devoted to compilation.
I do not know the process of OTA device detection/refresh in IDE
but maybe it should be done more often?

[d-a-v]

This is very annoying, considering the time devoted to compilation.

While waiting for new mDNS to be debugged, you can start arduino OTA by hand:

# This script will push an OTA update to the ESP
# use it like: python espota.py -i <ESP_IP_address> -I <Host_IP_address> -p <ESP_port> -P <Host_port> [-a password] -f <sketch.bin>

[samlof]

Yeah same problem. I can take the esp8266-id.local address from Bonjour Browser and use that with espota.py and I can upload thru net.
Doesn't show up in Ports. Using Arduino ide 1.8.8 with 2.5.0-beta2, with nodemcu v2. Using the BasicOTA example sketch.
I tried 2.4.0 core but that didn't work either. No idea is the problem here or with Arduino Ide

Edit: I slept thru the night and waking up, it does now show up on arduino ide too. Just had computer on sleep mode, so no rebooting.

Edit2: disappeared from Arduino Ide again as I tried a new chip. However vMicro shows it and works with Visual Studio just as expected. I'm thinking it's a problem with Arduino IDE and not the esp8266 core?

[LaborEtArs]

If the problem exists with v2.4.x core as well as with the v2.5.x core, the reason can‘t be the new mDNS responder, as it was introduced with 2.5 only. At least it can’t be the only reason...
Has someone tried the old responder in the v2.5 core?
However the new mDNS responder had had a bug, that caused the ESP to get lost in ZeroConf in some configurations after the first host domain timeout (TTL, 120s) was reached. The PR for a fix is running right now...

[pfeerick]

I may (or may not!) be be suffering the same issue. I'm using both the Arduino IDE (at times, when I'm lazy) and PlatformIO. The Arduino IDE is using 2.5.0 beta2, and PlatformIO is still using core 2_4_2. I've noticed of late only one or occasionally two/three mDNS discovery devices are showing up on the Arduino IDE, although that hasn't really bothered me, as it was just one more reason to be using PlatformIO as it is seeing them all fine! :-/

I found out at one point that disabling and re-enabling my ethernet connection seemed to wake the Arduino IDE up (sometimes, but doesn't seem to of late). This is when both PlatformIO and zeroconf browser (as I found bonjourBrowser a bit buggy at times) could see all the devices just fine.

A side note - I noticed that the three devices not visible to the Arduino IDE have 'board' set to PLATFORMIO_OAK rather than ESP8266_OAK... related? Relevant?