Broker Problem with connect to Mac from Visual Studio 2019 Xamarin.iOS

Question

After updated mac OS to Catalina 10.15.4 and XCode 11.4 and VS 2019 16.5.1
I can't pairing to mac from VS, there is getting the error in VS:
"An error occurred while trying to start Broker ...".

Info at log file:
"Broker could not be installed.
A connection is established to "192.168.233.1" ...
Server changes from ConnectingState to DisconnectingState to 192.168.233.1 (192.168.233.1).
Disconnecting from 192.168.233.1 ...
Server changes from DisconnectingState to DisconnectedState to 192.168.233.1 (192.168.233.1).
Connection to "192.168.233.1" is established.
An error occurred while trying to start Broker ...
Client vs - No packet has been sent in 30 seconds.
Sending Ping to Server to maintain Keep Alive"

I think the problem with connecting to macOS, because
Apple replaced bash with zsh as the default shell in macOS Catalina.

I tried to do next steps to resolve it:
1) Remove XMA folder on Mac and Windows:
On MacOs: open "$HOME/Library/Caches/Xamarin"
On Win: %localappdata%\Temp\Xamarin\XMA

2) I accepted XCode agreement on MacOS:

sudo xcodebuild -license accept

3) Then I tried connect to MacOS and I got the error:
"An unexpected error occurred while checking the SSH configuration "192.168.233.1". An item with the same key has already been added."

I fix it by deleted the hosts.key file in this directory:

 %LOCALAPPDATA%\Xamarin\MonoTouch

And again I got the same error: "An error occurred while trying to start Broker ..."

4) I checked ping with Mac ping 192.168.233.1 - works ,

ssh username@192.168.233.1 

This command gave the message:
"The default interactive shell is now zsh. To update your account to use zsh, please run chsh -s /bin/zsh. For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050."

Please give any advice how to fix problem with Broker to pair Visual Studio to MacOS with Catalina.

Answer 1

Delete or rename folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Xamarin\MonoTouch\ on windows pc

Delete or rename folder ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on mac

Delete connection for mac in visual studio and add new connection again

Answer 2

I am adding to Alex's answer as I cannot comment yet.

After deleting %LOCALAPPDATA%\Xamarin\MonoTouch\, I also deleted %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\Xamarin\XMA and then deleted the authorized keys from my Mac's .ssh folder.

That worked for me and I was able to get it to build to my Mac again from my Windows machine.

Answer 3

I found the solution:

1. Copy the content from id_rsa.pub, it location here:

   %LOCALAPPDATA%\Xamarin\MonoTouch\

2. Paste it into mac ~/.ssh/authorized_keys in a New Line.
   

3. Download the attached scp.zip binary to Download folder on Mac and decompress it.
   

4. Need temporarily disable the System Integrity Protection (SIP):
   

• Reboot the system and hold down Command+R (⌘+R) keys simultaneously when you hear the startup chime; this will boot macOS into Recovery Mode
  

• Once in Recovery mode, open a Terminal window from the Utilities drop-down menu at the top of the screen. Type command in the Terminal and execute it:
  csrutil disable

• Type in the Terminal reboot
  

5. When Mac will restart, executed in the Terminal next commands:
   

   sudo mount -uw /

Backup old SCP:

sudo cp /usr/bin/scp /usr/bin/scp.bak

Replace SCP:

sudo cp ~/Downloads/scp /usr/bin/scp

Try now connection and it should work.

6. Re-enable SIP after installation:
   Reboot into Recovery Mode again (⌘+R at system chime).
   Open a Terminal and enter:
   csrutil enable

   Reboot

Answer 4

Just need to do these 2 steps

On Mac:

1. Run the following command in Terminal
2. open "$HOME/Library/Caches/Xamarin"
3. Delete the XMA folder

On Windows:

1. Run CMD as Admin and run the command below
2. del %localappdata%\Temp\Xamarin\XMA

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/get-started/installation/windows/connecting-to-mac/troubleshooting#clearing-the-broker-idb-build-and-designer-agents-on-the-mac