Traveler 8.5 does not work on Windows Mobile 6 on iPAQ 210 PDA

HCL Domino Domino Forum
1

We’ve now enabled the Lotus Traveler 8.5 server on our upgraded Notes server - a very simple install, and I was interested to try it out on my Windows Mobile 6.0 iPAQ 210 device. The old 8.0.1 Traveler client worked fine, but I especially wanted to get the new version which provides rich text in the mail client - something that was missing in the first iteration of Traveler for Domino 8.0.1.

A quick test of the old 8.0.1 Traveler client showed that the mail was arriving correctly from the new 8.5 server - a good start - but no Rich Text, so on to the installation of the new client version from the very efficiently provisioned Traveler 8.5 installation site on the server.

The outcome was initially very disappointing with the installer first reporting on the correct Windows Mobile cab version that it was a version ‘incompatible’ with my device. Persistence eventually resulted in a successful download and install for Windows Mobile 6.0 using LotusTravelerWM6_en.armV4I.cab - though it took a very long time.

At that point, I managed to re-enter the server mail parameters (we use HTTP port 8080 with no problems) and using the ‘Programs’ section of the PDA I got this version of Traveler configured against my Notes server settings.

So that had the effect of zapping all my stored Traveler mail completely and despite several frustrating attempts, no email rich or plain would arrive in the client at all. I could see the storage area alongside the others (MS Exchange for example) but it wasn’t collecting anything. An empty page of no Traveler email was the only thing to see.

Then it got worse! I found a copy of, and installed, the old 8.0.1 version of Traveler for the iPAQ PDA which at the start of the process had been working just fine with the new 8.5 server. I installed it, the program found the correct mailbox settings and then it connected and reported the download of a satisfyingly large amount of email, calendar items etc.

But then, lo and behold, in the ‘Messaging’ section on the PDA, I found that the Lotus Traveler section had completely vanished as though it had never been. (The Microsoft ActiveSync Exchange mail client is there and working perfectly of course). So Traveler email is not accessible through the Messaging interface at all. Fortunately for my organisational sanity, the calendar updates are working properly and are visible as the Calendar tool is separate from the Messaging tool.

The top level of the PDA even tells me politely how many unread emails there are in Traveler, but though I can see the Calendar just fine, no email transactions of any kind are possible.

If anyone at IBM is reading this, please can you take note? Traveler 8.5 client on Windows 6.0 (iPAQ 210) doesn’t install or work properly (on my system anyway). The plain text 8.0.1. predecessor worked flawlessly.

How can I get back to square 1 and remove all traces of Traveler on the PDA and start again? Will there be a bug-fixed version of the installer cab supplied in a Traveler Fix Pack perhaps?

David Clover

IT Development Manager

Mathematics, Computing and Technology Faculty

The Open University

Walton Hall

Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

T: +44 (0)1908 653529

W: http://mcs.open.ac.uk/dac3

W: http://safecomputing.open.ac.uk

2

Subject: RE: Traveler 8.5 does not work on Windows Mobile 6 on iPAQ 210 PDA

  1. The “incompatible” version message is coming from the OS and this is usually seen when installing the wrong platform CAB files on a device. However, you listed the correct file name. The fact that it took such a long time is not a good sign either.Searching on some websites, this appears to be a known issue with other applications being installed on WM6 devices too. Some have gotten around the problem by copying the CAB directly to the device and installing from the device (instead of downloading and installing from the browser).

  2. Between 8.0.1 and 8.5 Traveler changed the file names and the name of the inbox for Traveler. The 8.5 installer checks for the 8.0.1 client and if it is installed will create the new message store with the new name then upon completion of the installation remove the old message box if it exists. The one thing I recall in the past when testing this was once the new message box was created it would take a few minutes to start populating the new message box. Possibly you did not give Traveler enough to time to start syncing new email to the new message store and see the new message store name.

  3. Now that you installed 8.0.1 over 8.5, you probably have the 2 mail boxes and it won’t clean up properly because you went back to an older version of Traveler. And, the only way to clear the Messaging store is to hard reset the device. You can try uninstalling Traveler, soft resetting, installing 8.5, and see if that works; but if it doesn’t, I think the hard reset is the only option left to get the Messaging back into a good state.

Have you seen this problem on over devices or just this one device?

Which version of 8.0.1 did you have that was working?

3

Subject: Logs would be helpful before the hard reset

If you have logs (or created a problem report which collects all the logs), they might point to something that caused the problem or how to clean it up short of hard resetting the device. But, you’ll have to open a PMR in order to post the logs and traces for analysis.

4

Subject: Traveler 8.0.1 version reinstated - but 8.5 failure mystery remains

What I did was to use the ‘Settings’ command in the W6 iPAQ PDA and used the ‘Remove Programs’ command to delete the Traveler program completely. This seemed to be a clean process and there appeared to be no residual trace of the software on the device afterwards - so far so good.

Then I tried a completely fresh install of the new 8.5 version again. This had the result of populating the message client with the Traveler option properly. I entered all the parameters carefully, and the log suggested that a connection could not be made to the server at all.

Since our server works on port 8080 (not 80) I am suspicious that even though the client configuration suggests that you can use any port you want for http connections, there’s a programming bug in 8.5 and that port 8080 is not available to the new 8.5 W6 client.

I do now have the old 8.0.1 version back on the machine and working properly (by again deleting the 8.5 version of the program) using the ‘Remove Programs’ option and doing a clean 8.0.1 install. So I do have a reproducible fault and methodology.

As you say, a PMR required. I wonder if it is the port 8080 issue? I can see that since 80 is the normal default, some Notes Mail people won’t know that other ports don’t work because they’d have no reason to try them out.

Thanks for your useful comments - they may help others in the same situation.

David Clover