Updating Companion App

I cannot update my MITAICompanion app in Aistarter app. From the browser, I went Help-Update Companion App. In my screen I authorise the new install and also got a message saying installation successful then I reset the connection and I am seeing this error in my aistarter. I am running this on Aistarter 2.3.0. I also ran the update via cmd and tried the companion version 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7. 2.5 and 2.6 showed an error and had to force close the app, I downloaded the 2.7 from the link in MIT website and when I tried to install, it gives an error missing file!

I also tried the 30.265 but it is not able to load emulator and the AIstarter is in continuous loop of connecting. But when i run the cmd adb devices, nothing shows up!

So, if someone could please assist me in resolving this, that would be great? OR any other alternatives to get my aistarter working with my app design in website.
Thank you!

Thanks ABG for your response. For me the simple drag and drop didnt work anyway I manually updated the MITAI2Companion but still no luck.
One issue I found in my Aistarter ver.30.265 is with the same version running in my PC everything works fine but the same version in my VM OS, it is stuck on continuous loop of trying to start emulator but fails eventually! In the aistarter cmd, i can see successfull connection of HTTP 200 39. I ma not sure whats the issue here?

I have tried multiple times with unistalling and reinstalling the application and different version!

aistarter is tricky.

I find it easier to avoid it entirely, and just use whatever Android emulator I can find along with the Companion .apk file from MIT, using a Connect->Companion sequence after manually starting whatever emulator I have and the Companion app on that emulator.

(I am currently on BlueStacks on my desktop PC, and MemuPlay on my laptop.)

Here's what we have on emulators:

Version 30.x uses Intel's HAXM virtualization technology, so it will not run nested within another VM. Is there a reason why you are trying to do this?

Hi @ewpatton , Thanks for the update about the VM. I just found out about that as well!

The reason we are using the VM is, our college have Aistarter 2.3 available but even in that version we were not able to sync our screen in the MIT create apps to the emulator. I found out it was running AICompanion 2.1 or 2.2. So i tried updating using Help-Update the Companion. In the emulator screen it said installation successful but then when it restarted, it showed an error in emulator screen. I have attached the screenshot of the error.

Now, I guessed it might be some firewall restrictions in our network so gave a try in VM, but no luck in this as well.

Is it possible to narrow down the error so that I can request our network team, if the issue is in firewall side?
or if any other issue?

Also, if i continue with the AIcompanion that comes with the Aistarter we have installed it is not abl to replicate the screen as we see in our desing at website!:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Hmm. It is possible that there is some sort of SSL monitoring utility on the network that is intercepting outbound SSL traffic and breaking the emulator's ability to talk to the server. There is a built-in browser on the emulator, if you point it at https://ai2-appinventor-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/companions/Emulator.apk, does it also give you an error? This is the APK file the emulator is attempting to download.

Hi @ewpatton , yes so there is an issue with the connection to that site as well. I have attached the screenshot for your reference!

Any suggesstions!

Hmm. You could try falling back to HTTP rather than HTTPS. Try:

http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/companions/Emulator.apk

Yes, so using http managed to download the application and like i mentioned previously, the installation was successful then I get an error message in screen where AI2 Companion failed to start and had to force close. After that the second error in my browser. (error3)


error3

Hmm. My current hypothesis is that the emulator image may be running out of storage space. You could try to use the Hard Reset option to wipe the emulator and then install the downloaded update again and see if the issue persists.

So I tried that step and looks like it broke sth at the back end. As I had to restart the host PC before I could get emulator running again. And I could see it still had the AICompanion 2.7 but was shutdown unexpectedly. I then hard reset the emulator and now when I tried connecting using emulator it is going on continuous loop. And the emulator has not started. I am pretty confident I can get it up where i can at least see the android screen in my device just by restarting but then if i do hard reset, it is going to take me in the same error loop!

Is there any other suggesstion I can try? Or may be like old version of AICompanion app I can install. 2.6 or 2.5! I found some on internet but not sure if they are genuine and since this is in school network we have limitation as an user!

You can use adb.exe install -r Emulator.apk while the emulator is running if you download the Emulator.apk to Windows machine. Replace the filename with the full path to where you download the APK File.

Unfortunately, I'm traveling until next week and do not have a Windows machine on me. I should be able to help more once I'm back in the office.

The emulator you are running looks old .

Hi @ewpatton , I tried that as well but still the issue persists. Especially in aistarter 2.3 with companion running 2.11 every time I tried to update the companion app from MIT website, it crashes the companion app in the emulator!

We redeployed the application to the PC, used the apk file and installed using cmd but all leads to same result!

HI @ABG , I understand that and I also thought it could be the case. But since the app is deployed in our school PC, redeploying the new version consumes more time like months as it has to go through policy and security check. And we needed this to be functional in like weeks if possible!:sweat_smile:
And also I couldn't find any documents where it mentions aistarter 2.3 cannot run 2.7u companion app!:worried:

You mentioned that yours is a college environment.

I would expect students in such an environment to own Android phones that could download and run the Companion app, and not to need any emulator.

Why make things complicated?

I totally agree @ABG . its just that some of our students deny it. And as a institution we are obliged to ensure the infrastructure we have is able to match our course structure!

As a troubleshooting the problem, i totally support this!:+1: But ofcourse not everyone agrees with the alternatives!:unamused:

An Android device costs less than a textbook, if you go refurbished and stick to WiFi, no cell service.

You might get more cooperation from the college bookstore than your IT crowd.

Alternatively, I have bought used phones from TracFone for pennies.
They sell the minutes used and I am a frugal hermit, so they hate me.

P.S. Somewhere in my storage room there is a little plastic case of precise weights I had to buy for my college chemistry course a really long time ago.

Here is a list of other Android emulators you can bounce off your infrastructure people:

Using another emulator with the Companion is this easy, without AIStarter:
Connect Companion

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