Problems opening remote shell to Distillery release

I’m trying to set up a remote shell connection to an externally running node.
This node runs a release made using Distillery.
Rather than SSH-ing to the node and running /app/location/bin/appname remote_console, I want to run IEx locally, so that I can e.g. use :observer
However, running locally iex --name qqwy@Mycomputername --cookie mysecretcookie --remsh appname@12.34.56.78 returns the following unhelpful stack trace:

(Note: Since this is a live server with important data, I have replaced the real names, cookies and IP-address with placeholder ones.)

2017-10-08 16:21:20 crash_report        
    initial_call: {supervisor_bridge,user_sup,['Argument__1']}
    pid: <0.54.0>
    registered_name: []
    error_info: {exit,{badarg,[{ets,lookup,[elixir_config,identifier_tokenizer],[]},{elixir_config,get,1,[{file,"src/elixir_config.erl"},{line,22}]},{'Elixir.Macro',classify_identifier,1,[{file,"lib/macro.ex"},{line,134}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,1,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,79}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,65}]},{'Elixir.Kernel',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/kernel.ex"},{line,1698}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',tty_args,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,84}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',start,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,54}]}]},[{gen_server,init_it,6,[{file,"gen_server.erl"},{line,352}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,247}]}]}
    ancestors: [kernel_sup,<0.34.0>]
    messages: [{'EXIT',#Port<0.677>,normal}]
    links: [<0.35.0>]
    dictionary: []
    trap_exit: true
    status: running
    heap_size: 987
    stack_size: 27
    reductions: 465
2017-10-08 16:21:20 supervisor_report   
    supervisor: {local,kernel_sup}
    errorContext: start_error
    reason: {badarg,[{ets,lookup,[elixir_config,identifier_tokenizer],[]},{elixir_config,get,1,[{file,"src/elixir_config.erl"},{line,22}]},{'Elixir.Macro',classify_identifier,1,[{file,"lib/macro.ex"},{line,134}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,1,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,79}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,65}]},{'Elixir.Kernel',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/kernel.ex"},{line,1698}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',tty_args,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,84}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',start,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,54}]}]}
    offender: [{pid,undefined},{id,user},{mfargs,{user_sup,start,[]}},{restart_type,temporary},{shutdown,2000},{child_type,supervisor}]
2017-10-08 16:21:20 crash_report        
    initial_call: {application_master,init,['Argument__1','Argument__2','Argument__3','Argument__4']}
    pid: <0.33.0>
    registered_name: []
    error_info: {exit,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,user,{badarg,[{ets,lookup,[elixir_config,identifier_tokenizer],[]},{elixir_config,get,1,[{file,"src/elixir_config.erl"},{line,22}]},{'Elixir.Macro',classify_identifier,1,[{file,"lib/macro.ex"},{line,134}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,1,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,79}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,65}]},{'Elixir.Kernel',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/kernel.ex"},{line,1698}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',tty_args,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,84}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',start,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,54}]}]}}},{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}},[{application_master,init,4,[{file,"application_master.erl"},{line,134}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,247}]}]}
    ancestors: [<0.32.0>]
    messages: [{'EXIT',<0.34.0>,normal}]
    links: [<0.32.0>,<0.31.0>]
    dictionary: []
    trap_exit: true
    status: running
    heap_size: 987
    stack_size: 27
    reductions: 191
2017-10-08 16:21:20 std_info            
    application: kernel
    exited: {{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,user,{badarg,[{ets,lookup,[elixir_config,identifier_tokenizer],[]},{elixir_config,get,1,[{file,"src/elixir_config.erl"},{line,22}]},{'Elixir.Macro',classify_identifier,1,[{file,"lib/macro.ex"},{line,134}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,1,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,79}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/inspect.ex"},{line,65}]},{'Elixir.Kernel',inspect,2,[{file,"lib/kernel.ex"},{line,1698}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',tty_args,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,84}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',start,0,[{file,"lib/iex/cli.ex"},{line,54}]}]}}},{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}
    type: permanent
{"Kernel pid terminated",application_controller,"{application_start_failure,kernel,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,user,{badarg,[{ets,lookup,[elixir_config,identifier_tokenizer],[]},{elixir_config,get,1,[{file,\"src/elixir_config.erl\"},{line,22}]},{'Elixir.Macro',classify_identifier,1,[{file,\"lib/macro.ex\"},{line,134}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,1,[{file,\"lib/inspect.ex\"},{line,79}]},{'Elixir.Inspect.Atom',inspect,2,[{file,\"lib/inspect.ex\"},{line,65}]},{'Elixir.Kernel',inspect,2,[{file,\"lib/kernel.ex\"},{line,1698}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',tty_args,0,[{file,\"lib/iex/cli.ex\"},{line,84}]},{'Elixir.IEx.CLI',start,0,[{file,\"lib/iex/cli.ex\"},{line,54}]}]}}},{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}}"}
Kernel pid terminated (application_controller) ({application_start_failure,kernel,{{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,user,{badarg,[{ets,lookup,[elixir_config,identifier_tokenizer],[]},{elixir_config,ge

Crash dump is being written to: erl_crash.dump...done

The cookie in my command matches the one set in the settings, and running /someplace/appname/bin/appname describe shows indeed this cookie, as well as the name appname@127.0.0.1.

What is going on?

Is your release and client running on same erts version?

Yes, the release was made locally, on the computer that runs the client and then moved to the server.

@Qqwy Did you ever figure this out?

No, I did not. In the end, I wrote a script that SSH’d to the remote location and inside SSH started a local ‘remote’ shell.