Comments on: Configuring Unison on Windows

By: Tao

Tao — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:45:02 +0000

Just to confirm: unchecking “Use new console Engine” made the difference for me! Thanks!

By: Norman

Norman — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:45:05 +0000

Solution for “Contact Server…” Freeze is to set the HOME environment Variable.

If HOME Variable dont help check ur FreeSSH Settings.

Goto SSH Tab and uncheck “Use new console Engine” this helped for me.

After that Unison rocks!

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:50:15 +0000

I have the same problem as well… “Contacting Server” and freeze there… Please help with a solution.

By: Colin

Colin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:54:12 +0000

As with Opher, bbqchickenrobot, and Steve, I too am experiencing the freezing at “Contacting Server”. I’m on Windows 7 RC1. A solution would help me tremendously.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:54:50 +0000

I get the same error as Opher and bbqchickenrobot, would love to know the solution if anyone has one.

By: bbqchickenrobot

bbqchickenrobot — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:27:11 +0000

I’m getting same error as Opher – if you look at the freesshd.log file it shows that the user has successfully established an SSH connection, but then the log stops there. It’s almost like the command is not being sent or something…

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:48:24 +0000

Well I never had that problem, so not sure what it could be! But if you can log in to the remote machine with SSH manually, my guess is your local machine’s Unison install can’t find the SSH executable.

Make sure that you did step 5 above. And when I say make sure the executables are in the path, make sure it’s the system path, not a user one.

By: Opher

Opher — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:00:18 +0000

Hey Mike,
This was the thoroughest guide I could found online. Great job!
I’ve been battling with configuring unison to work between two XP machines for the past day oh so and I’ll appreciate your input.
I have freeSSHd running on the server machine and I can log in using SSH perfectly. The paths are all set up on the server so if I login to shell using ssh and type “unison -version” I get the right output. However when attempting to test unison with SSH it just gets stuck on “Contacting server…” and stops there, nothing happens.
I ran it again using debug -all and I got this:
[remote] Shell connection: ssh (ssh, , -e, none, -l, , -pw, unisont, -server)

Nothing more.
I’m at a loss… any suggestions?

By: bryan

bryan — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:22:30 +0000

Thanks Mike, I had the same problem as Chris and it was the environment variable

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:44:03 +0000

On your Windows machine, you need to give Unison a place to work from. Right click My Computer, go to Properties and on the Advanced tab there should be a button for Environment Variables. Add a new system variable called “HOME” and set it to a directory on your computer; I just used “C:\” because the directory structures on both my machines are exactly the same. Not sure what will happen syncing between Linux and Windows, as far as where it will put files, but some experimentation should get you on the right track.

Vancouver Island is very nice; some amazing beaches in the middle of nowhere, giant millennia-old forests, and lots of caves too. There are places in Canada that are more wild and remote than you can believe. In Europe it’s tough to get more than 20 miles from the nearest restaurant! That said, I should get back to Ireland one of these years, I miss it!

By: Chris Eadie

Chris Eadie — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:18:04 +0000

Hi Mike,

I came across your site while trying to set up Unison. I have been trying with no joy now for almost a week so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here is what I would like to do – hopefully you will be able to help, I have a shared Windows XP Prof. Computer at home but I do most of my work on a linux laptop. I would like to use Unison to sync between the two. I work almost excusively on the laptop so the home windows is no more than a back up.

I have installed freeSSHd on the windows machine and have been able to ssh into it from my linux Laptop. I added the path for Unison and freeSSHd in my environment variables and set Home as C: as suggested. However I am getting the following error when trying to sync a dummy file : Environment variable HOME unbound: executing server in current directory13\

Have you any idea how to fix this any suggestions would be great.
By the way I am from Northern Ireland and have an Uncle living on Vancouver Island – I must visit him someday the photgraphs he sends me are fantastic looking

Thanks a lot