Server keeps dying...?

[audiomuze]

Just installed Ubuntu Server 12.04 64 bit on my Microserver and installed Squeezeboxserver using the following:

/etc/apt/sources.list:

# Squeezebox
deb http://debian.slimdevices.com testing main

To remove any remnants of previous installs:

sudo apt-get remove --purge squeezeboxserver && sudo apt-get install squeezeboxserver

The installation goes fine but Squeezeboxserver never comes out of a coma. Looking at /var/log/squeezeboxserver/server.log the first entry reads:

2012-05-20 10:08:32 squeezeboxserver_safe started.

following which all there is, is a continuous string of entries that read:

2012-05-20 10:08:37 Squeezebox Server died. Restarting.
.
.
.
2012-05-20 11:44:24 Squeezebox Server died. Restarting.
2012-05-20 11:44:29 Squeezebox Server died. Restarting.

It looks like it tries to restart every few seconds.

I've not idea what could be causing it, any tips?

[gharris999]

If you did the apt-get remove --purge after you installed LMS, that is a known bug in the installer. You need to remove and then reinstall LMS.

Edit: sorry, I didn't look closely enough at your post. It looks like you did everything right. Give me a few minutes to put together a debugging command line for you to try.

Edit Edit: if you're using testing main for the source, shouldn't you be installing via:

# sudo apt-get install logitechmediaserver

..rather than 'squeezeboxserver' ?? Or do they install the same package?

[gharris999]

Ok, I just installed logitechmediaserver from testing main on my Ubuntu 12.04 64 server box and it's running fine. I'm guessing that you might be missing some dependency. Try using this script to start lms from a terminal prompt.

logitechmediaserver-debug.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Script to debug startup of squeezeboxserver/logitechmediaserver

stamp(){
	DATE=$(date '+%F %H:%M:%S.%N')
	DATE=${DATE#??}
	DATE=${DATE%?????}
	echo "[${DATE}] $(basename $0) ($$) " $@
}



INSTNAME='squeezeboxserver'
INSTUSER='squeezeboxserver'
DAEMON=

for DAEMON in "/usr/sbin/${INSTNAME}" "/usr/libexec/${INSTNAME}" "/tmp/blip"
do
	if [ -x $DAEMON ]; then
		break;
	fi
done

if [ ! -x $DAEMON ]; then
	echo "Error: cannot find ${INSTNAME}"
	echo "Aborting.."
	exit 1
fi

PIDFILE=/var/lib/${INSTNAME}/${INSTNAME}.pid
PREFSDIR=/var/lib/${INSTNAME}/prefs
LOGDIR=/var/log/${INSTNAME}
CACHEDIR=/var/lib/${INSTNAME}/cache

OUTFILE=$(basename $0)
OUTFILE="${OUTFILE%.*}"
OUTFILE="${OUTFILE}.txt"


# Truncate
if [ "$1" = '--clear' ]; then
	stamp "Attempting to start: ${DAEMON}" >"$OUTFILE"
else	
	stamp "Attempting to start: ${DAEMON}" >>"$OUTFILE"
fi

if [ -e ${PIDFILE} ]; then
  rm ${PIDFILE}
fi

echo "Attempting to start ${DAEMON}.."
echo "  Console output redirected to ${OUTFILE}.."
echo "  Hit CTRL+C to terminate.."

sudo -u ${INSTUSER} /usr/bin/perl $DAEMON --pidfile=${PIDFILE} --prefsdir=${PREFSDIR} --logdir=${LOGDIR} --cachedir=${CACHEDIR} --charset=utf8 --diag --d_startup >>${OUTFILE} 2>&1
EXITCODE=$?

stamp "${DAEMON} exited, code ${EXITCODE}." >>"$OUTFILE"
echo ' '
echo "${DAEMON} exited, code ${EXITCODE}.  Examine ${OUTFILE} for details.."

That script starts logitechmediaserver with some extra startup and diagnostic debugging parameters. The output will be captured to ./logitechmediaserver-debug.txt. Examine that file for clues as to why lms keeps dying.

Edit: I've updated this script so that it works with rpm installs of logitechmediaserver too.

[audiomuze]

Thanks for the help - through sheer luck I've solved it. I've managed to solve the problem by using logitechmediaserver and installing a few extras. I'm still not entirely sure what caused the issue with SBS in the first place, but I'm sure part of the problem (at least where LMS is concerned) is that the table stuctures/ tables differ between SBS 7.6x which is what I was previously running and what LMS expects to see. A further complication (that shouldn't be) is that I use a symbolic link to point SBS/LMS to a different drive and folder that houses the DB.

As I boot my Microserver from a USB stick my SBS/LMS DB is located on a hard drive. This is achieved by symbolic linking /var/lib/squeezeboxserver/cache to /diskpool/d1/audiolib/zSqueezeDB/. I couldn't get SBS to run regardless of what I did (i.e. with or without the symlink in place). I then decided to try LMS and got the same result - it wouldn't start.

Googling for "Squeezebox Server died. Restarting." returned http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Debian_Package as a link, in which I found a solution that got LMS up:

apt-get install libgd-gd2-perl

<--- apparently this was a solution for the same problem in Ubuntu Server 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.

Following the above I reinstalled LMS and it fired up as expected. I then took it offline, deleted all my previous SBS data from /diskpool/d1/audiolib/zSqueezeDB/, moved the contents of the /var/lib/squeezeboxserve/cache/ to /diskpool/d1/audiolib/zSqueezeDB/, removed the cache folder and replaced it with a symlink to /diskpool/d1/audiolib/zSqueezeDB/. Thereafter I pointed LMS to /tmp for the library (this is to minimise the ridiculous autoscan that kicks in whilst you're still setting preferences) and proceeded to reconfigure LMS to suit my preferences. After applying all the changes (other than pointing to my music library) I stopped and restarted LMS, following which I pointed it to my library - it's now doing a rescan that reflects my preferences and is going to take the better part of 5 hours before it's useable again.

[audiomuze]

That script starts logitechmediaserver with some extra startup and diagnostic debugging parameters. The output will be captured to ./logitechmediaserver-debug.txt. Examine that file for clues as to why lms keeps dying.

immensely useful, thanks a lot.