ISY Finder question

[Balok]

I upgraded my firmware from 4.9 to 5.3.3 and it seems to work. I got a finder which looks different (smaller font) from the old finder, and has a white splash screen with Universal Devices. Choosing Help -> About shows 5.3.3 for both the Firmware and the UI. This finder automatically opens the ISY (since I have only one, this makes sense).

I then had my brother (we live in the same house) clear his Java cache and sent him to https://isy.universal-devices.com/start.jnlp to get a new admin console for his desktop. Since the ISY was at that point updated to firmware 5.3.3 I used that link. When I updated it, I used http://isy.universal-devices.com/994i/5.3.3/admin.jnlp since at that time I was updating from 4.9.

His finder is larger and has the older blue square "UD" splash screen. In addition, it does not automatically open the ISY admin console as mine does. But  when he logs in and chooses Help -> About, his About box also shows 5.3.3 for both the Firmware and the UI.

It looks like he got the new UI, but an old finder. What did I do wrong and how can I fix this for him?

(I tried launching the admin console from the direct link, but this does not work. It just tries to save admin.jnlp and when I do that, that icon produces only an error message.)

Thanks.

[DennisC]

If you went up to v5.3.3, you should upgrade all the way to the latest v5.3.4. You will find the link to the correct Launcher on the upgrade page. Best to download it from there.

[Geddy]

13 hours ago, Balok said:

I then had my brother (we live in the same house) clear his Java cache and sent him to https://isy.universal-devices.com/start.jnlp to get a new admin console for his desktop. Since the ISY was at that point updated to firmware 5.3.3 I used that link. When I updated it, I used http://isy.universal-devices.com/994i/5.3.3/admin.jnlp since at that time I was updating from 4.9.

I agree with @DennisC, you should upgrade to 5.3.4. It's the most recent supported firmware for ISY994i. While there might be very few changes from 5.3.3 to 5.3.4 it's enough that it would be the first step in further troubleshooting any other issues you have.

As do your exact experience - your brother has the "Launcher" which loads the finder and allows the computer to download the UI to properly match the firmware with every launch. (Thus, "Launcher")

You downloaded the admin console for the direct version you installed. It would be just as though you downloaded admin.jnlp from the ISY994i directly. 

These two routes to access the Admin Console act differently, but they are in fact the same once you access the ISY994i. 

Since the Launcher was introduced in 2018 that is the most often suggested and the recommended process for accessing the ISY994i admin console. It was designed with 5.x in mind as beta builds were being released so users would always have firmware/user interface matching. 

So nothing is "wrong" in your setup.  You're just taking different routes to get to the same destination. There have been a lot of reports of the font/display to be different as we moved into 5.x. You can change those settings, but odds are they won't stay for long as they tend to be dropped and need to be reset.

But, be sure to go ahead and upgrade to 5.3.4 (since you're so close it should be very quick and not require any additional effort, but be sure to follow the steps as outlined on the release post.

 

[Balok]

4 hours ago, Geddy said:

As do your exact experience - your brother has the "Launcher" which loads the finder and allows the computer to download the UI to properly match the firmware with every launch. (Thus, "Launcher")

You downloaded the admin console for the direct version you installed. It would be just as though you downloaded admin.jnlp from the ISY994i directly. 

These two routes to access the Admin Console act differently, but they are in fact the same once you access the ISY994i. 

Since the Launcher was introduced in 2018 that is the most often suggested and the recommended process for accessing the ISY994i admin console. It was designed with 5.x in mind as beta builds were being released so users would always have firmware/user interface matching. 

So nothing is "wrong" in your setup.  You're just taking different routes to get to the same destination. There have been a lot of reports of the font/display to be different as we moved into 5.x. You can change those settings, but odds are they won't stay for long as they tend to be dropped and need to be reset.

But, be sure to go ahead and upgrade to 5.3.4 (since you're so close it should be very quick and not require any additional effort, but be sure to follow the steps as outlined on the release post.

 

I already had 5.3.3, and when I looked at 5.3.4 I decided the single identified and fixed issue wasn't worth a new download, that's all. I really don't think upgrading to that is going to fix this problem.

I believe my brother and I both use launchers. When I click the icon, I see a white rectangle splash screen which reads "Universal Devices", similar to what's on the ISY enclosure. That then loads "ISY Finder" which displays a line for the single ISY I have, and second or two later automatically starts the admin console for that ISY. My brother's icon starts a launcher with a blue square splash screen with "UD" similar to what's at the top of this page. It also launches a finder, but that finder has a larger font and does not automatically start the admin console. He has to click the single line, then select how he wants to connect.

Neither of us is launching the Admin Console directly (http://<ip address>/admin.jnlp). That does not work for me. It wants to download "admin.jnlp". Attempting to run that, from a shortcut or a browser, does not work for me. I get "Unable to launch the application", and the name, publisher and URL it attempted. I also tried "http://<ip address>/" in a browser. That connects, but not to the admin console. And when I try to open the admin console from that page, I get a page that tells me to leave it open and... nothing else happens. I have ad blocking and anti-virus software running; it could be these links will not work for me because of that. In short, the only way I can open the admin console is through the finder.

It does not seem that this is a common problem. Thanks for looking at it.

[Geddy]

22 hours ago, Balok said:

It does not seem that this is a common problem.

I don't see there being a problem. I explained that you're doing two different things to achieve the same result. 

Your original question...

On 1/31/2022 at 10:20 PM, Balok said:

It looks like he got the new UI, but an old finder. What did I do wrong and how can I fix this for him?

The answer (to "what did I do wrong") would be for both of you to download the exact same link (https://isy.universal-devices.com/start.jnlp). I pointed out that your brother downloaded a launcher link and you downloaded the admin link specific to 5.3.3. Those are in-fact different ways to access the admin console of the ISY994i. Once you both use the same process your observations should be identical. That process is suggested to be the ISY Launcher link (the one you had your brother download).

Here is a visual for you to consider:

The left is what you get when you use the suggested ISY Launcher link. The right is what you downloaded for the direct admin.jnlp file for your 5.3.3 firmware. They look and behave exactly as you're describing. So, there's no issue here. You didn't do anything wrong and nothing is in error. If both of you downloaded the same link (the launcher) then you would have the icon on the left and it should look and operate the same for both of you.

 

22 hours ago, Balok said:

I decided the single identified and fixed issue wasn't worth a new download

That's entirely your prerogative, but should you need other troubleshooting the first step would be to update your system to the current release and attempt to replicate any issue. So that's why both replies above suggested going ahead and updating now. It takes maybe 20 seconds for the download and probably less than 15 minutes to update (depending on your system). 

 

[MrBill]

to reiterate what @Geddy already said...

Files named admin.jnlp (such as the file retrieved from http://isy.universal-devices.com/994i/5.3.3/admin.jnlp ) are a specific version of the admin console.  admin.jnlp can also be downloaded from the ISY994 using the url http://<IP.OF.THE.ISY>/admin.jnlp.  Each version of the ISY firmware has a matching admin.jnlp that is only designed to work with that firmware.

start.jnlp (as downloaded from https://isy.universal-devices.com/start.jnlp ) is the ISY Launcher.  The first time it is run it will install a Launcher Icon on the desktop.  This is different than admin.jnlp   When the launcher is used to correct version of the admin console is determinded and downloaded each time the admin console is opened either from a cloud source (udi server) or from the isy itself. 

Both of these methods rely on ISY Finder, however ISY Finders behavior is slightly different depending whether its being launched by admin.jnlp or ISY Laucher (which was installed on the desktop via start.jnlp)

The Launcher is a newer method which was created to solve two problems: 1) browsers that block java due to security concerns 2) users mixing up versions of admin.jnlp and running the wrong version.   

If using Windows, ISY Launcher is definitely the best method.  Some Mac users report issues when using ISY Launcher and report that continuing to use admin.jnlp works better for them.  When using ISY Launcher on Windows it's really not even required to jump through the java cache clearing hoops with upgrading firmware because a fresh copy of the admin console is downloaded each time ISY Launcher is clicked from the desktop.  

It should be noted that "ISY Launcher" that appears on the desktop is not simply the file start.jnlp saved to the desktop, it was installed by start.jnlp but its not start.jnlp anymore.

[Balok]

Okay, thanks. This has answered my question. I got us both doing the same thing, using the launcher instead of directly accessing the admin console.