The section of the ELOG Administrator's Guide https://elog.psi.ch/elog/adminguide.html describing how to build and install ELOG on a Mac OS X system has worked well for me for several years, even though there have been warnings that the "load" and "unload" subcommands of the "launchctl" command have been deprecated for some time.  After trying my luck again on a new Mac with the latest operating system, I encountered errors of the type "Load failed: 5: Input/output error" when attempting to follow these instructions.

After a bit of searching around, I used information at the page https://www.alansiu.net/2023/11/15/launchctl-new-subcommand-basics-for-macos/ to deploy the more current subcommands as follows:

sudo launchctl enable system/ch.psi.elogd
sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/ch.psi.elogd.plist 

sudo launchctl disable system/ch.psi.elogd

Once the above can be verified, perhaps the instructions in the Administrator's Guide can be updated accordingly.

Here's a more complete/correct set of the updated commands:

sudo launchctl enable system/ch.psi.elogd
sudo launchctl bootstrap system /Library/LaunchDaemons/ch.psi.elogd.plist 

sudo launchctl bootout system /Library/LaunchDaemons/ch.psi.elogd.plist
sudo launchctl disable system/ch.psi.elogd

Cheers,
Andreas

Thanks for the info, I updated the adminguide.

Stefan

Hi Stefan, Thanks a lot for implementing the updated commands. I noted that there are a few typos that could cause people confusion if not fixed:

In one case, "launchctl" is misspelled.

Confusingly, I think the two lines containing the 'enable' and 'disable' commands use the contiguous text string "system/ch.psi.elogd" (no space), whereas the two lines containing the 'bootstrap' and 'bootout' commands use the phrase "system /Library/LaunchDaemons/ch.psi.elogd.plist" (note space after 'system').

Many thanks, Andreas W.

Thanks, fixed.

Stefan

Hello,

I've noticed that many times, I start an elog and continue editing adding to a few hours later, then I submit and it deletes everything I entered after the last time a draft was saved. I paid more attention and saw that it saves a draft after about a few minutes, and if I wait too long before submitting, it doesn't let me re-save the draft. My workaround is to copy all text before I submit, so if it ignores whatever I entered after the last saved version, I can edit it and paste it back in. Is there a setting someplace that I can change to fix this problem?

Thanks!

That's strange. If you edit a message, indeed a draft is saved every ten seconds or so when you keep typing. In our installations we keep an elog entry typically open for eight hours, then save it at the end of the shift, and everything works fine. Have you tried playing aournd with your config file, like "Restrict edit time" or so? Please also make sure you have the current elog version. I sse you have 3.1.3 which is quit old.

Hello,

I started using the record date feature in one logbook, since we plan to copy over old entries Joplin/Onenote. When starting a new entry, I see that the record date is automatically set to the current date, but when I reply to an elog, the record date is automatically set to the record date of the elog I'm replying to. Is there a way to fix this?

Have you tried the config option "Preset on reply <attribute> = $date". On a reply, the <attribute> will be preset with the current date.

Stefan

Hello,
  I am using template for some elogbook entries.

Is is possible to automatically change the template using the actual date in some filed. 

Something like: the template has a place-holder <start date> and this is replaced with today's date when a new entry is created.

I already have a "date" filed which is automatically filled, but I've been asked to have the date also in the template.

Thanks in advance
Stefano

This is a nice idea, but currently no text substations in templates are implemented. It only works in attributes right now.

Stefan

> Hello,
>   I am using template for some elogbook entries.
> 
> Is is possible to automatically change the template using the actual date in some filed. 
> 
> Something like: the template has a place-holder <start date> and this is replaced with today's date when a new entry is created.
> 
> I already have a "date" filed which is automatically filled, but I've been asked to have the date also in the template.
> 
> Thanks in advance
> Stefano

> This is a nice idea, but currently no text substations in templates are implemented. It only works in attributes right now.

but can it be done by javascript injection? load a custom .js or .html file, in this file run javascript code to root down the DOM tree until you 
find the right place, replace .innerHTML with current date?

K.O.

This was given to me by Andreas Luedeke of this parish. 

In my elog.cfg file, I have the following:

Preset text = $shell(date '+[%d %b %y]')\n

and this puts at the top of every new thread I make today the following line

[09 Apr 24]

And for the same result for every reply as well, I have in elog.cfg

Prepend on reply = $shell(date '+[%d %b %y]')\n\n----------\n

with the ten dash characters to show the end of the thread, so the reply entry goes above the dashes.

Obviously time, name of day etc can be included by using the strftime codes.


> > This is a nice idea, but currently no text substations in templates are implemented. It only works in attributes right now.
> 
> but can it be done by javascript injection? load a custom .js or .html file, in this file run javascript code to root down the DOM tree until you 
> find the right place, replace .innerHTML with current date?
> 
> K.O.

Hello all,

I am installing elog on an Rocky Linux instance. Have dependensy problem. 

rpm -Uvh elog-latest.el7.x86_64.rpm 

error: Failed dependencies:

    liblber-2.4.so.2()(64bit) is needed by elog-3.1.5-1.el7.x86_64

    libldap-2.4.so.2()(64bit) is needed by elog-3.1.5-1.el7.x86_64

    libssl.so.10()(64bit) is needed by elog-3.1.5-1.el7.x86_64

    libssl.so.10(libssl.so.10)(64bit) is needed by elog-3.1.5-1.el7.x86_64

Any clues from developers to resolve it and keep the software working. Thank you in advance!

Bests, Nina

Hi Nina,

The RPM is built with Kerberos (libber*), LDAP (libldap*) and SSL (libssl*) options. These libs are missing on your system, and rpm command does not take care of dependencies.

 Try to install with yum : yum install elog-latest.el7.x86_64.rpm

Normally the missing rpm files should be dlded from RL repo if your host can access to them...

.

Laurent

Is there a way to install all dependencies automatically? Like if I install a package like "emacs" I get a list of dependencies with are automatically installed:

Dependencies Resolved

====================================================================================================================================
 Package                          Arch                       Version                                Repository                 Size
====================================================================================================================================
Updating:
 emacs                            x86_64                     1:24.3-23.el7_9.1                      rhel7                     2.9 M
Updating for dependencies:
 emacs-common                     x86_64                     1:24.3-23.el7_9.1                      rhel7                      20 M

Transaction Summary
====================================================================================================================================
Upgrade  1 Package (+1 Dependent package)

Total download size: 23 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]:

Normally it should work. Requirements are set in SPEC file.

$ rpm -qpi --requires elog-3.1.5-20240226.el7.x86_64.rpm
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
config(elog) = 3.1.5-20240226.el7
krb5-libs
libc.so.6()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.14)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.15)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.8)(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1()(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1(GCC_3.0)(64bit)
libkrb5.so.3()(64bit)
libkrb5.so.3(krb5_3_MIT)(64bit)
liblber-2.4.so.2()(64bit)
libldap-2.4.so.2()(64bit)
libm.so.6()(64bit)
libpam.so.0()(64bit)
libpam.so.0(LIBPAM_1.0)(64bit)
libssl.so.10()(64bit)
libssl.so.10(libssl.so.10)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6()(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4)(64bit)
openldap >= 2.4.1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rtld(GNU_HASH)
rpmlib(PayloadIsXz) <= 5.2-1

The EL7 binary needs the following RPM :

$ ldd /usr/local/sbin/elogd | awk '{print $1}' | while read r ; do rpm -qf /lib64/$r ; done | sort -u
erreur�: fichier /lib64/linux-vdso.so.1�: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
erreur�: fichier /lib64/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2�: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
audit-libs-2.8.5-4.el7.x86_64
cyrus-sasl-lib-2.1.26-24.el7_9.x86_64
glibc-2.17-326.el7_9.x86_64
keyutils-libs-1.5.8-3.el7.x86_64
krb5-libs-1.15.1-55.el7_9.x86_64
libcap-ng-0.7.5-4.el7.x86_64
libcom_err-1.42.9-19.el7.x86_64
libgcc-4.8.5-44.el7.x86_64
libselinux-2.5-15.el7.x86_64
libstdc++-4.8.5-44.el7.x86_64
nspr-4.35.0-1.el7_9.x86_64
nss-3.90.0-2.el7_9.x86_64
nss-softokn-freebl-3.90.0-6.el7_9.x86_64
nss-util-3.90.0-1.el7_9.x86_64
openldap-2.4.44-25.el7_9.x86_64
openssl-libs-1.0.2k-26.el7_9.x86_64
pam-1.1.8-23.el7.x86_64
pcre-8.32-17.el7.x86_64
zlib-1.2.7-21.el7_9.x86_64

Almost all of them are installed by ELOG RPM or are already installed by default Redhat profiles.

Nina, do you use right RPM version (el7/8/9) according to Rockylinux one ? El7 rpm can not be installed on RL9...

Bye

Is there an RPM available for Rocky 8 or Rocky 9?

And checking over https://elog.psi.ch/elog/download/RPMS/ , only el7 is found. Is that the right place to look for EL8 or EL9 based RPM?

Thanks,

Scott

Hi,

The ELOG website provides new link to RPM packages :

Linux binaries are distributed as RPMs.

EL8/EL9 RPM are also available.

Hi,

Thanks for the links to EL8/EL9. 

Does this package support LDAP and SSL as well?

Yes, same build options are used. 
But i can not'confirm that they are working as well as on EL7. The tests done by build script on CI/CD are quite simple and limited to rpm installation, service start and access from cmdline to elog server.
So thanks to report your personal experience with EL8/9 builds... 🤓

.

Laurent

Dear experts,
   I have a logbook which has authentication as follow

Authentication = LDAP, File
Password file = PASSWD.file
LDAP server = ldaps://it-ldap-XXX.XXX.XX:1636
LDAP userbase = ou=people,ou=RGY,o=XXX,c=XX
LDAP login attribute = uid
LDAP register = 0
Self register = 0
Allow password change = 0

Some of the my user (but not all) have issue in accessing this protected elogbook.
The ldap password is correct (we checked).
What I see in the log is as follow:

22-Feb-2021 11:25:51 [XXX.YYY.ZZZ.QQ] {Beam Run} LOGIN user "USERNAME" (attempt)
22-Feb-2021 11:25:59 [XXX.YYY.ZZZ.QQ] {Beam Run} LOGIN user "USERNAME" (attempt)

The user USERNAME is present in PASSWD.file.

For other user, for which the login works, I do see an (attempt) and then (success)

we tried the standard stuff: clear cache/cookies and with different browser. We also tried to remove the user from PASSWD.file and 
create it again, but nothing has worked.

Any suggestion how I can debug this problem?

Thanks in advance,
  Stefano

Dear Stefano,

the support for the LDAP is limited. As stated in the documentation "on an as-is basis".
We use the AD of our university, but I had to re-write a part of the elog auth.c to match the LDAP-tags, so this could also be a issue.

As for your question.
If some of the logins a working fine, then the other ones could have issues with the DN string, maybe...

Your 2 lines of the logfile output show 2 (attempt) directly after each other.
There should be some lines regarding LDAP in between.
I get the (attempt) and directly (success) case only for FILE authentication.

If you have left out these lines on purpose, ignore the following suggestion.
Is it possible that you have previously used FILE authentication for the users, who could login via LDAP successfully?
If yes, delete a user in passwd.file, which could successfully login via LDAP and let them login again.
This should prove, that there is no artifact from previous FILE authentication.

An other idea may be, check if the users have non-standard characters in their name, mail or password.
e.g. I had problems with german umlauts and your mail ends in it, so there could be some other special charaters.

I hope, I could help.
Best wishes,
Sebastian


> Dear experts,
>    I have a logbook which has authentication as follow
> 
> Authentication = LDAP, File
> Password file = PASSWD.file
> LDAP server = ldaps://it-ldap-XXX.XXX.XX:1636
> LDAP userbase = ou=people,ou=RGY,o=XXX,c=XX
> LDAP login attribute = uid
> LDAP register = 0
> Self register = 0
> Allow password change = 0
> 
> Some of the my user (but not all) have issue in accessing this protected elogbook.
> The ldap password is correct (we checked).
> What I see in the log is as follow:
> 
> 22-Feb-2021 11:25:51 [XXX.YYY.ZZZ.QQ] {Beam Run} LOGIN user "USERNAME" (attempt)
> 22-Feb-2021 11:25:59 [XXX.YYY.ZZZ.QQ] {Beam Run} LOGIN user "USERNAME" (attempt)
> 
> The user USERNAME is present in PASSWD.file.
> 
> For other user, for which the login works, I do see an (attempt) and then (success)
> 
> we tried the standard stuff: clear cache/cookies and with different browser. We also tried to remove the user from PASSWD.file and 
> create it again, but nothing has worked.
> 
> Any suggestion how I can debug this problem?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
>   Stefano

Hi,

It seems that ELOG does not support LDAPS but only simple LDAP connection.


Regards

Hi,

we use the LDAPS connection in our setup and it works without issues.
You have to specify "LDAP server = ldaps://server.tld:port" and normally it uses a different port (636) than insecure LDAP (389).

Best wishes,
Sebastian

Hi Sebastian,

Nice to hear !

So i retried some tests and in fact, as my NAS LDAP is using self-signed certificate, connexion is refused by openldap libs from ELOG (ldap_simple_bind_s Can't contact LDAP server).

By disabling certificates verification in ldap.cfg on ELOG VM, i could connect using LDAPS URL...

Maybe it should be an option to add in elog.conf... :-)

Thanks for information,

Laurent

Hi Stefano,

I also tried to set up LDAP authentication and password file-based authentication using the same settings as yours, which is not working as expected. It does work only with the LDAP authentication and not with the password file now. If I remove the LDAP-based parameters from the configuration file it works then password files start working.

I think multiple ways of authentication do not work concurrently.


Is that issue still existing for you or is it resolved?

Thanks,
Scott


----

> Dear experts,
>    I have a logbook which has authentication as follow
> 
> Authentication = LDAP, File
> Password file = PASSWD.file
> LDAP server = ldaps://it-ldap-XXX.XXX.XX:1636
> LDAP userbase = ou=people,ou=RGY,o=XXX,c=XX
> LDAP login attribute = uid
> LDAP register = 0
> Self register = 0
> Allow password change = 0
> 
> Some of the my user (but not all) have issue in accessing this protected elogbook.
> The ldap password is correct (we checked).
> What I see in the log is as follow:
> 
> 22-Feb-2021 11:25:51 [XXX.YYY.ZZZ.QQ] {Beam Run} LOGIN user "USERNAME" (attempt)
> 22-Feb-2021 11:25:59 [XXX.YYY.ZZZ.QQ] {Beam Run} LOGIN user "USERNAME" (attempt)
> 
> The user USERNAME is present in PASSWD.file.
> 
> For other user, for which the login works, I do see an (attempt) and then (success)
> 
> we tried the standard stuff: clear cache/cookies and with different browser. We also tried to remove the user from PASSWD.file and 
> create it again, but nothing has worked.
> 
> Any suggestion how I can debug this problem?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
>   Stefano

On a new MacBook Pro (Silicon M3), I installed version 3.1.5 build 23df00d9.  The application appears to work normally, except that, after a short while, the indicated attachment count (paperclips in the attachment column of the Summary view) starts to increment fairly rapidly with each time that I visit the page.  Attachment counts appear even for records that don't have any attachments.  When I access records individually, either those with or without real attachments, everything looks OK.  Any insights as to what might be causing this, and how to correct?

Installation went smoothly using the (now longstanding) MacOS installation instructions, with one small exception: When doing the "sudo launchctl load ..." step, there is occasionally an I/O error of some kind.  (Sorry, I don't have an exact transcript of the error at the moment, but it appears to refer to line 5 of a script.)

Many thanks,

Andreas W.

A quick follow-up concerning the secondary matter I mentioned in my last post, namely the issues I had with the deprecated "sudo launchctl load ..." and "sudo launchctl unload ..." subcommands currently provided in the ELOG installation instructions for MacOS.  I found a solution to this -- will post it in a separate thread.

The strangely auto-incrementing attachment counts in the Summary view are still present, and I'm curious if anyone else has experienced those.  Also, I could not find a way to customize the Summary view such that the final (rightmost) column with the attachment counts can be suppressed.  That would at least put the problem out of sight until a developer can intervene and fix the bug.

I'm traveling right now and will only next week be able to look into that, so please be patient for a few more days.

Stefan

The problem with the attachment paperclips has been fixed in the current version.

Stefan

Thanks a lot Stefan, for fixing this so quickly! I'm now running 3.1.5 fe60aaf0, with the phantom-attachment-count issue in the Summary view now resolved.  Cheers, Andreas W.

Hi Members,

I have compiled and installed ELOG in Ubuntu 22.04. My ELOG version is 3.1.5 revision fc6679b. I would like to use both the password file (../logbooks/elog.pwd) and the LDAP for authentication purpose. In addition to this, new users should be able to register and existing users should be able to reset their password.

Anyone could shed some light on how to do this in the configuration file?

Thanks,
Scott