Vivaldi not syncing

LazyLama

I am on Linux (Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon) using Vivaldi 6.9.3447.46 (Stable channel) stable (64-bit).

I have noticed that Vivaldi does not sync unless connected to a VPN (I have been using tunnelbear). Without a VPN, the syncing fails. Under vivaldi://sync-internals, I can see the following error.

9/24/2024, 4:16:34 PM GetUpdates Response
Received error: Network error (ERR_TIMED_OUT)

Some additional findings:

I am able to ping the bifrost.vivaldi.com. This seems to indicate that my computer can reach the sync server.
If I boot the same computer into Windows (my computers are dual boot), syncing works fine.
So far, this only seems to happen on one network (both LAN and WIFI)

How could I diagnose this further?

LazyLama

I have now diagnosed the problem further. And it seems I was mistaken about some things above. Therefore, I am starting a new thread with a more appropriate title here:

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/101402/vivaldi-only-syncing-when-on-vpn

@mib2berlin, thank you for your input and help.

DoctorG

@LazyLama said in Vivaldi only syncing when on VPN:

Network error (ERR_TIMED_OUT)

Could be this bug
VB-92792 "Syncs often fail (not always) on upload data because of network error" - Confirmed.

Had you checked your Linux and router firewall log for blocked traffic?

DoctorG

@LazyLama Blocked by Internet Service Provider when not on VPN?
Vivaldi Sync server does not block users, IPs or countries.

LazyLama

@DoctorG , thanks for the reply.

I checked my router for anything that could be blocking traffic. But I couldn't find anything. I can also ping the sync server, which seems to show that traffic is not blocked. My firewall seems off:

sudo ufw status
status: inactive

I couldn't find a link or description for the known bug you mentioned. However, going on the title, it doesn't seem to be what I am experiencing. Both upload and download fail.

LazyLama

@DoctorG said in Vivaldi only syncing when on VPN:

@LazyLama Blocked by Internet Service Provider when not on VPN?
Vivaldi Sync server does not block users, IPs or countries.

The weird thing is that the same computer connected to the same network booted to Windows doesn't have a problem to sync.

DoctorG

@LazyLama I can not imagine that it is a Vivaldi bug.
My 6.9.3447.46 on Mint 21.3 Cinnamon connects and syncs.

Is Vivaldi installed by a Snap package or a deb package?
Do you connect by IPv4 or IPv6?
What happens with a fresh profile, started from shell as
vivaldi --user-data-dir="/tmp/TESTVIVTEST
and no settings done and extensiosn installed?

Pathduck

@LazyLama said in Vivaldi only syncing when on VPN:

I can also ping the sync server, which seems to show that traffic is not blocked.

Being able to ping a host on the internet has no relevance to whether the service is connectable from your end, in this case HTTPS over TCP/443.

The only thing ping shows is if the host is up and responds to ICMP echo requests.

If going to
https://bifrost.vivaldi.com/vivid-sync
in the browser returns a 404 Not Found means the server is connectable on HTTPS.

You can test this also using curl from the shell, or using numerous other tools.

$ tcping bifrost.vivaldi.com 443

Probing 31.209.137.10:443/tcp - Port is open - time=56.569ms
Probing 31.209.137.10:443/tcp - Port is open - time=56.625ms
Probing 31.209.137.10:443/tcp - Port is open - time=56.712ms
Probing 31.209.137.10:443/tcp - Port is open - time=56.862ms

Ping statistics for 31.209.137.10:443
     4 probes sent.
     4 successful, 0 failed.  (0.00% fail)
Approximate trip times in milli-seconds:
     Minimum = 56.569ms, Maximum = 56.862ms, Average = 56.692ms

As to why it fails on your end, I have no idea.

LazyLama

@DoctorG, on the computer connected to the network, I have a problem; I can not not install the required package to run tcping. There is no installation candidate for the package in snap.

However, I could install the package through snap on my laptop. At this time, my laptop is connected to a different network so it can sync. However, running the command yields an error (I've tried this on two different networks):

$tcping bifrost.vivaldi.com 443
17:58:11.961 [main] INFO com.ngm.Main -- Invalid port was specified, exiting...

So, the command fails, although I can sync on this computer. I couldn't find a manual for the command so I am not sure whether I am using the command wrong.

I did try this. Not sure whether this tells us anything.

telnet bifrost.vivaldi.com 443
Trying 31.209.137.10...
Connected to bifrost.vivaldi.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

LazyLama

@DoctorG said in Vivaldi only syncing when on VPN:

Is Vivaldi installed by a Snap package or a deb package?

deb downloaded from the Vivaldi website

Do you connect by IPv4 or IPv6?

According to whatsmyip, I am connected using IPv4

What happens with a fresh profile, started from shell as
vivaldi --user-data-dir="/tmp/TESTVIVTEST
and no settings done and extensiosn installed?

This command did not work. It just hung without bringing up the browser. So, I purged Vivaldi from my system and deleted the config files. Then, I reinstalled Vivaldi and created a new profile (new name, new password). This resulted in Vivaldi being stuck at "Initializing sync."

So, a new profile and no extensions don't help.

Then I installed the tunnelbear extension, switched on the VPN, logged into my own account, and presto: syncing happened .

irz

@Pathduck
Hello, I encountered the same issue on Debian 12.

When I visited https://bifrost.vivaldi.com/vivid-sync, the request remained pending and eventually returned a status of (failed) net::ERR_TIMED_OUT, as seen in the Network panel of the Dev Tools.

I ran the command tcping bifrost.vivaldi.com 443, and the results showed that the port was open.

However, I was also able to connect to the sync service using a VPN.

Could you also provide me with some suggestions to resolve this issue? I would really appreciate it.

DoctorG

@LazyLama Sorry i forgot the " at end , the correct command is:
vivaldi --user-data-dir="/tmp/TESTVIVTEST"

DoctorG

@LazyLama said in Vivaldi only syncing when on VPN:

The weird thing is that the same computer connected to the same network booted to Windows doesn't have a problem to sync.

Then your Debian/Mint could have a network configuration issue.

Pathduck

@irz Hi, just use some basic logic.

If it times out in the browser but connects from the shell, what could cause the browser to time out?

Do you have any software that would block the browser process from connecting?
Does it work in other browsers?
If it works in other browsers, are these browsers configured differently?
Does the bifrost host resolve to the correct IP in the browser?
Try vivaldi://net-internals/#dns to test the resolve
The resolved IP will also show in the dev.tools for the request.
Are you using any proxies or VPN?

irz

@Pathduck Thanks for your reply.

It seems like this might be a Chromium issue, rather than something specific to Vivaldi.

I was able to open https://bifrost.vivaldi.com/vivid-sync in Firefox, and it returned Not found. But in Chromium, the result was the same as in Vivaldi.

Interestingly, after I opened it in Firefox, I was able to sync in Vivaldi. However, the sync only lasted for about 5 to 10 minutes.

LazyLama

@DoctorG said in Vivaldi only syncing when on VPN:

Then your Debian/Mint could have a network configuration issue.

Weirdly (and similar to @Pathduck), I can visit https://bifrost.vivaldi.com/vivid-sync in Firefox. However, in Vivaldi, visiting the same address times out. However, after visiting the URL using Firefox, I can reach the same site using Vivaldi and syncing happens.

Pathduck

@LazyLama Sounds to me (just theorizing wildly) a DNS issue.

Chromium browsers use DNS-over-HTTPS by default, that might be what's causing the issue.
It will try to "guess" your preferred DoH provider based on for instance your OS/resolv.conf. I have no idea what happens if it can't guess - possibly it falls back to using Google's DNS or falls back to your OS DNS resolver.

For instance for me on Windows, I have 1.1.1.1 set as my DNS primary. This results in all Chromium browsers defaulting to Cloudflare unless DoH is explicitly disabled. Which I do, as I want browsers to use my OS DNS provider not DoH which I believe is just another potential failure point.

Possibly it resolves the bifrost IP to the wrong address. So do what I said and test what IP the browser thinks Bifrost is.

DoctorG

Name: bifrost.vivaldi.com
Address: 31.209.137.10

LazyLama

Possibly it resolves the bifrost IP to the wrong address. So do what I said and test what IP the browser thinks Bifrost is.

@Pathduck, so I put bifrost.vivaldi.com in the field on vivaldi://net-internals/#dns, this is what happens:

Resolved IP addresses of "bifrost.vivaldi.com": ["31.209.137.10"].
No alternative endpoints.

Still no syncing.

irz

Update:

No need to open https://bifrost.vivaldi.com/vivid-sync in Firefox

Just run curl https://bifrost.vivaldi.com/vivid-sync in terminal

Then sync is working again

I am still trying to find the cause of this issue