Can connect with URL links, but not via config (Windows 11, Halloy v2024.14)

[Alcatraz077]

Hello,

I just downloaded Halloy and attempted to use it. Clicking an IRC URL (ex. irc://irc.snoonet.org/reddit) will connect me. I'm unable to connect to Librachat's #halloy channel, as it doesn't seem to exist if I search for it via Librachat's own site. Hence, I'm making an issue here. I've changed the channel in my config to #linux, due to this, but I'm still unable to make a connection. If I use the default config that comes with Halloy, with the only change being my username; it will not connect. It simply shows connecting to server... over and over. As a note, the config is as follows:

# Halloy config.
#
# For a complete list of available options,
# please visit https://halloy.squidowl.org/configuration/index.html

[servers.liberachat]
nickname = "Alcatraz"
server = "irc.libera.chat"
channels = ["#halloy"]

Logs:

01:00 INFO  RouteRecived: "ircs://irc.libera.chat/#halloy"
01:00 DEBUG loaded metadata for server on libera
01:00 DEBUG loaded history for server on libera: 0 messages
01:00 DEBUG flushed history for server on libera
01:01 INFO  dashboard saved
01:01 INFO  RouteRecived: "ircs://irc.libera.chat/"
01:01 DEBUG closed history for server on libera
01:01 DEBUG loaded history for server on libera: 1 messages
01:01 INFO  dashboard saved

This is on Windows 11, using version Halloy 2024.14 that was installed via the winget method as noted in the documentation. I thought perhaps it was just a Windows firewall issue, so I've gone ahead and made explicit rules to allow Halloy to connect. No dice.

It's possible that this is user error, however, considering I'm using the default configuration I don't think that's the case. I also don't think it's a Windows or ISP issue, since clicking IRC URLs works without issue. Please let me know what other information I can provide to help resolve this, as it seems odd to me that I'm running into this issue.

[casperstorm]

@KaiKorla Do you have any idea about this?

[KaiKorla]

Sounds like a network issue. @Alcatraz077: Could you provide how you are connecting to the Internet? Direct connect or any use of a proxy? Try to ping the server from the command line "ping irc.libera.chat" and provide the output. tyvm.

[edassis]

Hi,

I'm having the same reported problem. I'm able to connect using another IRC client. Direct connection to ISP.

[KaiKorla]

I cannot reproducing it for now. I installed via winget on a fresh windows 11 and it's just connecting and working. Make sure not using any proxy, TOR connection or anything like this. Could you try another server:port (see https://libera.chat/guides/connect). tyvm.

[edassis]

I think maybe some another app or lib installed can be causing incompatibility with halloy. Just now, I tried using others server:port combinations in halloy without success.

Hexchat connects to libera.chat without problem:

[KaiKorla]

Hello @edassis, tyvm for reporting back. I'll try to help you further and find a solution. I need some more information:

• Did you install Halloy by the Windows Installer or by WINGET?
• Could you provide which Windows Build you're using? (If you don't know how to achieve this, just press the "Start" button and type "winver" and press return. Then a window with the Windows version information pops up.)
• Which anti-virus and/or firewall solution is installed and active?
• Post the output of "netsh winhttp show proxy". It will show if any proxy is active.

regards
Kai

[Alcatraz077]

Sounds like a network issue. @Alcatraz077: Could you provide how you are connecting to the Internet? Direct connect or any use of a proxy? Try to ping the server from the command line "ping irc.libera.chat" and provide the output. tyvm.

Apologies for the delay. Just connected straight to my ISP. Ping results:

Pinging irc.libera.chat [82.96.96.60] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.96.96.60: bytes=32 time=287ms TTL=53
Reply from 82.96.96.60: bytes=32 time=293ms TTL=53
Reply from 82.96.96.60: bytes=32 time=310ms TTL=53
Reply from 82.96.96.60: bytes=32 time=291ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 82.96.96.60:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 287ms, Maximum = 310ms, Average = 295ms

Since you asked edassis, I'll answer those same for me.

• Winget
• Windows version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.4602)
• Default Windows Defender
• Output of the netsh winhttp show proxy command:

Current WinHTTP proxy settings:

Direct access (no proxy server).

[KaiKorla]

@Alcatraz077 Please do the following:

• close Halloy
• delete the halloy.log file from the configuration directory (C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\halloy\halloy.log)
• start Halloy
• wait 60s
• close Halloy
• attach halloy.log

tyvm

[Alcatraz077]

Sure, attached.

halloy.log

[KaiKorla]

If you haven't done it yet, please add the port configuration field (https://halloy.squidowl.org/configuration/servers/index.html#port) in the Halloy configuration file and try on different ports then the default (which is 6697). Libera provides the following usable ports:

Plain-text | 6665-6667, 8000-8002
TLS | 6697, 7000, 7070

I suggesting to try a plain-text (for testing purpose) first and then the alternate TLS ports (7000, 7070).

Looking forward to your results.

regards Kai

[Alcatraz077]

Kai,

Did so, and between each port change I restarted Halloy and no dice.

[edassis]

Hello @edassis, tyvm for reporting back. I'll try to help you further and find a solution. I need some more information:

* Did you install Halloy by the Windows Installer or by WINGET?

* Could you provide which Windows Build you're using? (If you don't know how to achieve this, just press the "Start" button and type "winver" and press return. Then a window with the Windows version information pops up.)

* Which anti-virus and/or firewall solution is installed and active?

* Post the output of "netsh winhttp show proxy". It will show if any proxy is active.

regards Kai

• Re-installed now using Winget just to make sure
• Windows 11 version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.4602)
• Default Windows Defender
• Output of the netsh winhttp show proxy command:

Current WinHTTP proxy settings:

Direct access (no proxy server).

halloy.log

[KaiKorla]

I have no further ideas, as id dont know whats happen at connection level. :-(

@casperstorm: Is there a way to get more DEBUG/TRACE output from Halloy? Would be good to know whats happen at connection level (TcpStream/TlStream).

[casperstorm]

To me it sounds like a issue on your ISP end 🤔
Are you able to test using a different ISP, eg with your mobile phone as hotspot?

[edassis]

Tried connecting using my mobile internet, Hexchat connected, Halloy not (same symptom). Tried in another Windows 11 PC around here, same version than mine, same network, different user and apps, Halloy installed via winget, didn't work.

I have a Windows 10 boot, will give it a try later and update the post.

[Alcatraz077]

I've got a VPN back to a different ISP, and no change. I'll also second edassis that testing with a different IRC client (Hexchat, in my case) works on both ISPs using the same machine. I can spin up a Windows 10 VM sometime today and test. Jan 12, 2025 9:41:49 AM Eduardo Assis ***@***.***>:

…

Tried connecting using my mobile internet, Hexchat connected, Halloy not (same symptom). I have a Windows 10 installation, will give it a try later and update the post. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub[#678 (comment)], or unsubscribe[https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFB2YXRTQTYSNNXFRNZPHDL2KKELZAVCNFSM6AAAAABTXX3P3SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDKOBVG44DGOBVGY]. You are receiving this because you were mentioned. [Tracking image][https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AFB2YXTOFFTZCZ5VA22EZID2KKELZA5CNFSM6AAAAABTXX3P3SWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNMJFZXG5LFINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTU2D7XDA.gif]

[KaiKorla]

Another hint: Please make sure that there is no config.toml in the directory where Halloy.exe is in.

[casperstorm]

Thanks for these updates. Will investigate. I'm on Windows 11 with Halloy as my daily driver without any issues so it's a bit strange. Sorry for the troubles.

[edassis]

Thanks for these updates. Will investigate. I'm on Windows 11 with Halloy as my daily driver without any issues so it's a bit strange. Sorry for the troubles.

Ok. No problem :).

I booted on Windows 10 (22H2 1945.5247) today, did a fresh (and first) of the halloy using winget:

PS C:\Users\eduardo> winget install halloy
Encontrado Halloy [squidowl.halloy] Versão 2024.14.0
Este aplicativo é licenciado para você pelo proprietário.
A Microsoft não é responsável por, nem concede licenças a pacotes de terceiros.
Este pacote requer as seguintes dependências:
  - Pacotes
      Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64
Baixando https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/releases/download/2024.14/halloy-installer.msi
  ██████████████████████████████  13.9 MB / 13.9 MB
Hash do instalador verificado com êxito
Iniciando a instalação do pacote...
Instalado com êxito

And it worked xD.

config.toml (same of win11):

[servers.liberachat]
nickname = "usertest-win10-678"
server = "irc.libera.chat"
port = 6697
use_tls = true
channels = ["#halloy"]

Halloy - libera.chat connection:

One thing that came to my mind was this dependency installed on windows 10: Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64. I will check if I have it on Windows 11.

[KaiKorla]

Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64 should be installed via WINGET automatically. Halloy will not start if this package is not installed anyway. This looks like this:

We are not bundling this with the Halloy installer.

@Alcatraz077 & @edassis please try the following:

• open a administrative windows cli (right click on Terminal application and start as admin)
• execute
  netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Halloy" dir=out action=allow program="%ProgramFiles%\Halloy\halloy.exe" enable=yes
• restart Halloy and try to connect

regards
Kai

[edassis]

Did netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Halloy" dir=out action=allow program="%ProgramFiles%\Halloy\halloy.exe" enable=yes. Restarted the PC (just to make sure).

netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name="Halloy"

Nome da Regra:                        Halloy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Habilitado:                           Sim
Direção:                              Saída
Perfis:                               Domínio,Particular,Público
Agrupamento:
LocalIP:                              Qualquer
RemoteIP:                             Qualquer
Protocolo:                            Qualquer
Travessia da borda:                   Não
Ação:                                 Permitir
Ok.

No luck. No connection through Halloy.

[Alcatraz077]

After running the netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Halloy" dir=out action=allow program="%ProgramFiles%\Halloy\halloy.exe" enable=yes command, I restarted Halloy and my computer. No change.

[KaiKorla]

@Alcatraz077 + @edassis: Could you retry with the current release, please. Make sure that prerequisites are installed:

winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64

tyvm.

[edassis]

Installed the new version (2025.1) from the .msi file available here on GitHub. No luck, same symptom.

Tried a clean install. Assured the dependency was installed too. Also tried to install it in a folder different from Program Files to see if it was something related with folder privileges.

halloy.log

[casperstorm]

@edassis Does it crash at launch? It seems so from the halloy.log. Have you seen what is in the Event Viewer application? Could you post that to this thread?

See: https://community.microcenter.com/kb/articles/733-how-to-use-event-viewer-in-windows-11

[edassis]

Does it crash at launch?

No. Stays this way:

From the Administrative Events:

Error - System restore - 12:58:40 04/02/2025
Falha ao criar ponto de restauração (Processo = C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /V; Descrição = Installed Halloy; Erro = 0x80070422).

Warning - Kernel-EventTracing - 12:58:38 04/02/2025
Como o arquivo de backup da sessão em tempo real "PCA file tracing session" atingiu o tamanho máximo, os eventos novos não serão registrados nessa sessão até que haja espaço disponível. Esse erro costuma ocorrer quando uma sessão de rastreamento é iniciada no modo de tempo real sem nenhum consumidor em tempo real.

Around this time (12:58) was when I installed the new version of halloy I did the test from earlier.

These logs are the only ones that seems related with halloy.

If you want me to send some specific log event let me know.

[casperstorm]

I think it is Windows blocking the connection for some reason then.
You could, temporary, try to disable the Windows Guard and see if it does anything.

Perhaps we need to ask for firewall or network permissions when connecting the first time on Windows to get some elevated permissions for Halloy 🤔

[casperstorm]

@KaiKorla I just investigated this some more, and currently i think the issue is we dont request elevated permissions for any Inbound Rules for Windows Defender Firewall. I noticed other clients request it either on installation or when you connect the first time.

Eg. take a look at Win + R -> wf.msc -> Inbound Rules.

Below is AdiIRC:

It requests Inbound rules for both TCP and UDP for all ports.
I wonder if you know a way we could perhaps bake this into the .msi installer with wix or we need to add a way to do the popup through Halloy?

[casperstorm]

@edassis, if you have time - could you test below Windows installer and see if it let's you connect with the following config:

[servers.liberachat-test]
nickname = "edassis"
server = "irc.libera.chat"
channels = ["#halloy"]

halloy-installer-firewall.zip

[KaiKorla]

@KaiKorla I just investigated this some more, and currently i think the issue is we dont request elevated permissions for any Inbound Rules for Windows Defender Firewall. I noticed other clients request it either on installation or when you connect the first time.

Eg. take a look at Win + R -> wf.msc -> Inbound Rules.

Below is AdiIRC:

It requests Inbound rules for both TCP and UDP for all ports.
I wonder if you know a way we could perhaps bake this into the .msi installer with wix or we need to add a way to do the popup through Halloy?

Dont know why open all ports for both UDP and TCP. Maybe for DCC? I wouldnt recommend this.

[edassis]

could you test below Windows installer and see if it let's you connect with the following config:

Hi, of course. Did the tests. Desinstalled my previous halloy installation and did a new one using the provided zip. No difference. Halloy doesnt connect.

Details

I think it is Windows blocking the connection for some reason then.
You could, temporary, try to disable the Windows Guard and see if it does anything.

Tried it. Disabled antivirus realtime protection and the windows firewall for testing. No difference.

Maybe it isn't related to the Windows network (firewall rules, antivirus) and be some other thing? I don't know, but it seems that what we could test related to network configs we did. A clean install on Windows 10 using 2024.14.0 worked without any intervention from my part. This leads me to believe that has something conflicting/broke with Halloy when running specifically on Windows 11.

[casperstorm]

Maybe it isn't related to the Windows network (firewall rules, antivirus) and be some other thing? I don't know, but it seems that what we could test related to network configs we did. A clean install on Windows 10 using 2024.14.0 worked without any intervention from my part. This leads me to believe that has something conflicting/broke with Halloy when running specifically on Windows 11.

I run Windows 11, without any issues.
Is it only libera? Have you tried quakenet, efnet or dalnet?

[edassis]

I run Windows 11, without any issues.

Yeah, what leads me to believe that this is probably something related to my Windows installation. But what? And, when I start to think of this way, I have the counterargument that: in another Windows 11 install, managed by another user but in the same LAN, the Halloy also didn't work. Can be the case that both of us have the same problematic agent on both systems (something like a program that both of us uses?). A hard case to analyze, I would say. I don't know what else I can try.

I was giving a look in tracing/sys tools to help me diagnose the halloy execution and try to understand better what is happening. But I'm pretty novice on these themes and don't figure way to do it yet.

Is it only libera? Have you tried quakenet, efnet or dalnet?

Connections to EFnet and QuakeNet returned me some errors:

Details

[casperstorm]

Connections to EFnet and QuakeNet returned me some errors:

Details

Can you try with the following server config:

[servers.quakenet-test]
nickname = "foobar5123"
server = "underworld2.no.quakenet.org"
port = 6667
use_tls = false

[casperstorm]

@edassis Let me know the result once you have tested the above quakenet server :)

[edassis]

Thanks for pinging me.

Without TLS the connection succeeds:

Details

Worked on EFnet too.

[casperstorm]

I believe we have fixed this now. I have merged a fix to main, which will be released in next version (2025.2).
Currently awaiting a build to finish, then ill also make a .msi installer which ill add here.

[edassis]

Worked! Thank you all for sorting this out!

I would like to make a suggestion, maybe this motivates a future PR: During the tests, we saw the need to setup the Windows' firewall to permit inbound connections. As discussed here:

I just investigated this some more, and currently i think the issue is we dont request elevated permissions for any Inbound Rules for Windows Defender Firewall. I noticed other clients request it either on installation or when you connect the first time.

I noticed that the programs who needs to create inbound rules do it when trying to access the internet. I reseted my firewall rules during the tests for this issue and, when I opened Intellij per example, the UAC prompted asking if I want to permit said app to make connections on my network (public, private). This check happens every time I open the app, so if I clean the rule for it in the firewall and open it again, I will receive a UAC prompt again asking what to do. Like this one:

Maybe it's feasible to implement something similar here.

Congrats per the project :)