iOS Question B4i-Bridge installation on device

[Leviathan2040]

I have lost 3 days attempting at installing the B4i-Bridge on the actual device and I am about to give up.

My system is a MacBook Pro 2018 with 16 GB ram, B4i v4.30 installed on Windows 10 Enterprise running under Parallels Desktop 14.10, Build Server v4.30 installed on Mac side and attached to IP 192.168.0.5 on the usual ports 51041 and 51042

Followed all the step to request certificates etc, built the B4i-Bridge as 64 bits and on the port 51041. I scanned the QR code and on Mobile Safari I can see the page with the circular button on my iPhone 6 Plus 128GB with iOS 12.1.2. When I click it, after a couple of seconds I see a dialog box with "Cannot connect from 198.168.0.5".

I tried to debug the connection and saw that the button redirects the browser to
"itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://192.168.0.5:51042/download?type=manifest_b4i_default"

if I insert the same URL manually on Mobile Safari, nothing happens, if I shorten it to "https://192.168.0.5:51042/download?type=manifest_b4i_default", Mobile Safari just tries indefinitively to load the URL without success.

I checked all logs on Mac and no errors are reported, no feedback from the Build Server console either.

Can anyone please help?

 

[Erel]

1. It is easier to start with the hosted builder. Contact [email protected] and we will send you a temporary account if needed.

2. B4i v4.30 is an old version now. It will not work with Xcode 10.1 which is required by Apple.

 

[Leviathan2040]

Hi Erel,

thanks for the tips, got my temp hosted builder keys and everything worked as expected, I was able to build and install the Bridge app and also the examples. I also received the link to v 5.50 of B4i and Builder, installed them but the issue stays the same, as described in my original post. I even tried to to switch to Mac hosted builder when the Bridge app was already running and connected to the host machine, no joy.

Any plan to release a fixed version of the hosted builder or is there an interim suggestion? Like dowdowngrade XCode to a suitable and compatible version? (I don't need iOS 12.0 features at the moment, so it would be ok for me)

 

[Leviathan2040]

Further to my post, I noticed that for some reasons, if I try to use the local Builder Server and Microsoft Outlook is also open, it reset itself and forgets all passwords for the the accounts, weird!

 

[Leviathan2040]

I managed to find an older MacBook Pro with macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and Xcode 9.4.1. I reinstalled everything, recreated every key, certificate and provisioning, exactly the same story. What I have noticed is that if I tried to connect to the machine from another one using a normal browser, it seems that the HTTPS connection is blocked because it is not supported by a valid certificate. In fact, from Chrome, this is what I get (see picture below) and I wonder if the issue is the lack of a SSL certificate installed on the machine which prevent HTTPS connections from the BuildServer; this is not noticeable when using hosted builder as the remote server has a proper SSL certificate installed for the HTTPS connection. I am now trying to generate an SSL certificate and install it, will keep this updated if I succeed (or not...)

 

[Erel]

Just follow the tutorial. You need to install and trust the B4I certificate on the device.

 

[Leviathan2040]

Profile installed and trusted on day one, that’s not the issue.

 

[Erel]

Check this setting page:

 

[Leviathan2040]

Hi Erel,

thanks for that, you have fixed the problem! To be fair that additional step is not mentioned in the instructions booklet (I have the V1.4) and it is not a common thing to install certificates on an iPhone, even for development, may be a couple of lines would have saved some time and frustration

 

[Erel]

I will add this screenshot to the tutorial: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/installing-b4i-bridge-and-debugging-first-app.45871/

It is always best to follow these tutorials as they are the most updated resource.