[tor-relays] "Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path"

[William Denton]

Lately my relay hasn't been seeing much traffic, which I didn't notice for a 
while, but now I'm turning my attention to it.  I just updated to 0.4.8.9 and 
see these notices (with some lines cut out):

[all the startup stuff looks normal, ending with success]

Nov 09 13:07:31.000 [notice] External address seen and suggested by a directory authority: 24.212.137.85
Nov 09 13:08:29.000 [notice] Self-testing indicates your ORPort 24.212.137.85:9001 is reachable from the outside. Excellent. Publishing server descriptor.
Nov 09 13:10:39.000 [notice] Performing bandwidth self-test...done.

[but then]

Nov 09 13:36:42.000 [notice] Tor has not observed any network activity for the past 521 seconds. Disabling circuit build timeout recording.
Nov 09 13:38:03.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.
Nov 09 13:38:03.000 [notice] Our circuit 0 (id: 151) died due to an invalid selected path, purpose Hidden service: Pre-built vanguard circuit. This may be a torrc configuration issue, or a bug.
Nov 09 13:39:24.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.
Nov 09 13:40:10.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.

[later]

Nov 09 14:01:27.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.
Nov 09 14:01:34.000 [notice] Tor now sees network activity. Restoring circuit build timeout recording. Network was down for 2013 seconds during 43 circuit attempts.
Nov 09 14:02:35.000 [notice] No circuits are opened. Relaxed timeout for circuit 2627 (a Measuring circuit timeout 3-hop circuit in state doing handshakes with channel state open) to 60000ms. However, it appears the circuit has timed out anyway.
Nov 09 14:02:44.000 [notice] Tor has not observed any network activity for the past 66 seconds. Disabling circuit build timeout recording.
Nov 09 14:04:03.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.
Nov 09 14:06:24.000 [notice] Failed to find node for hop #1 of our path. Discarding this circuit.

There are hundreds of those notices about failing to find a node for hop #1. (I 
don't know why it complains about the network being down to 2013 seconds (over 
half an hour), because I didn't notice anything, but there were scores of the 
same warnings before that.)

What would cause this, or what could I do to identify the problem?

Bill Denton

--
William Denton
https://www.miskatonic.org/
Librarian, artist and licensed private investigator.
Toronto, Canada
CO₂: 419.18 ppm (Mauna Loa Observatory, 2023-11-07)