Hello Everyone,

 

I decided to make this thread to try and solve some of the mroe basic issues with plugins, because I seem to be coming across the same issues over and over again.  This is helpful for my plugins but may also work to solve issues with other dev's plugins possibly also, depending on the root cause of the issue.

 

There are two problems typically, either the application won't install, or the application won't start after it's installed.

 

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Problem: The application won't install

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Solution 1:

If you use unmenu, there is a chance you have the optional package gcc-x.x.x-i486.txz installed.  This package installs a few other sub packages it requires, specifically one called GLIBC-2.7-i486.txz.  This package is used for compiling source code into binary files that can run on Linux.  Unless you are compiling your own applications, this should typically not be installed.  This glibc package breaks one of the dependencies used by some of my plugins called BinUtils.

 

Specifically, in BinUtils is a program called AR which is short for "archive".  This program is used to extract the downloaded DEB file that a few applications are released in.  If Unraid is unable to run AR to extract the DEB file, then your application will not be installed and my plugin will not notice any errors due to the nature of how AR gets broken.

 

To fix this, go to your USB/packages folder (in unraid its /boot/packages) and delete gcc-x.x.x-i486.txz and glibc-2.7-i486.txz then reboot your server.  You may also want to go into the unmenu package manager and make sure GCC is not set to reinstall after reboot.  After a reboot, check to make sure those packages didn't return. If they did, you need to locate a plugin that is installing them and find out why that plugin needs them.

 

Solution 2:

Your application may not have downloaded the install file properly.  Unfortunately, I have not yet implemented an MD5 check on all downloads for all of my plugins yet, but it's in the works where possible.  In this case you will need to try the install process again, or in the case where the file is downloaded and saved on the USB stick, you should locate the install file in /boot/packages and delete it.  Then try the install process again.

 

Solution 3:

The other reason may be that the download link no longer works.  If this is the case, I will likely find out and update the plugin to resolve this problem.  That is, unless the site is just unreachable in which case I have no control over that.

 

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Problem: The application won't start

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Solution 1:

If you use unmenu, there is a chance you have the optional package gcc-x.x.x-i486.txz installed.  This package installs a few other sub packages it requires, specifically one called GLIBC-2.7-i486.txz.  This package is used for compiling source code into binary files that can run on Linux.  Unless you are compiling your own applications, this should typically not be installed.  This glibc package breaks one of the dependencies used by some of my plugins called BinUtils.

 

Specifically, having GLIBC installed breaks the ability to set the locale which a few of the applications need to have set in order to function.

 

To fix this, go to your USB/packages folder (in unraid its /boot/packages) and delete gcc-x.x.x-i486.txz and glibc-2.7-i486.txz then reboot your server.  You may also want to go into the unmenu package manager and make sure GCC is not set to reinstall after reboot.  After a reboot, check to make sure those packages didn't return. If they did, you need to locate a plugin that is installing them and find out why that plugin needs them.

 

Solution 2:

It is possible another plugin installed an older or newer dependency which clobbered the one installed by my plugin. You can either look at my plugin at the top to see the dependencies needed, and then check your other plugins to see if any of them use the same dependencies. If you find another plugin that uses a dependency similar to my plugin but a different version, that is likely the problem.

 

To fix this, you need to remove the affecting plugin, or see if the dev can adjust theirs to use the same version as my plugin.  In some instances, I might adjust my plugins to accomodate theirs, but it depends on how many of my plugins rely on that dependency. 

 

A quick and dirty solution is to delete everything in your /boot/packages folder and then reboot the server. After the reboot, go back into the /boot/packages folder to see if there are two similarly named packages.  If so, you have dependency problem and need to locate which plugin is the cause of that.

 

Solution 3:

A dependency is missing.  This can happen if the download fails the MD5 check, its not common but it happens. Reboot your server or reinstall the plugin manually (by command line) to attempt to redownload the dependency. Sometimes a plugin might leave a bad download in the /boot/packages folder.  Delete the contents of that folder and reboot your server and it will force all plugins to redownload their dependencies on startup.

 

Solution 4:

You've installed your application install or config folder on your USB stick. This can actually stop certain programs from starting because a USB stick cannot respond fast enough.  They are much slower that hard drives or RAM drives. 

 

To fix this, install the 'install' directory to /usr/local/appname.  This folder will reinstall each reboot keeping it nice and clean, and the install files do not need to be persistent after a reboot.  As for the 'config' directory, install that to a physical hard drive, either one that's part of the array, or one that is not, or a better choice is to the cache drive if you have one available.

 

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Problem: None of those solutions helped

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It happens. I make my plugins work on fresh VM installs but not everyone has a fresh Unraid install and other junk or leftover files could be scattered all over the place.  Well, if this happens and the above solutions didn't seem to fix the problem, post on my plugins thread and see if I can help. I check every day or two typically (at least for now) and other Unraid users may also be able to assist.

 

-=PhAzE=-

 

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Donations are greatly appreciated but never required: PayPal

Great write up, my only suggestion would be to put the the latest version number next to each plugin on your other thread.  I know it would be a pain but that way if someone has issues they could at least see what the latest version is incase the plugin doesn't update.

 

Great work and much appreciated.

Great write up, my only suggestion would be to put the the latest version number next to each plugin on your other thread.  I know it would be a pain but that way if someone has issues they could at least see what the latest version is incase the plugin doesn't update.

 

Great work and much appreciated.

Good idea, I'll do that

Great write up, my only suggestion would be to put the the latest version number next to each plugin on your other thread.  I know it would be a pain but that way if someone has issues they could at least see what the latest version is incase the plugin doesn't update.

 

Great work and much appreciated.

Good idea, I'll do that

 

I really want to try these plugins but I am having an issue with installing them.  It looks like you are doing a ping to test network connectivity?  However it hangs up there for me probably because of my firewall.  The unplugged ones work fine but they don't have the network check.  I am guessing I can just remove it from your but anyway you would add a skip or continue anyway in the future for us people behind firewalls?

 

As suspected... when I removed the network check it worked fine... Maybe revise this in the future please?

Great write up, my only suggestion would be to put the the latest version number next to each plugin on your other thread.  I know it would be a pain but that way if someone has issues they could at least see what the latest version is incase the plugin doesn't update.

 

Great work and much appreciated.

Good idea, I'll do that

 

I really want to try these plugins but I am having an issue with installing them.  It looks like you are doing a ping to test network connectivity?  However it hangs up there for me probably because of my firewall.  The unplugged ones work fine but they don't have the network check.  I am guessing I can just remove it from your but anyway you would add a skip or continue anyway in the future for us people behind firewalls?

 

As suspected... when I removed the network check it worked fine... Maybe revise this in the future please?

I'll have a look, i know it also has problems with VPN also. Pinging the gateway should work unless you have ICMP blocked internally also.

Great write up, my only suggestion would be to put the the latest version number next to each plugin on your other thread.  I know it would be a pain but that way if someone has issues they could at least see what the latest version is incase the plugin doesn't update.

 

Great work and much appreciated.

Good idea, I'll do that

 

I really want to try these plugins but I am having an issue with installing them.  It looks like you are doing a ping to test network connectivity?  However it hangs up there for me probably because of my firewall.  The unplugged ones work fine but they don't have the network check.  I am guessing I can just remove it from your but anyway you would add a skip or continue anyway in the future for us people behind firewalls?

 

As suspected... when I removed the network check it worked fine... Maybe revise this in the future please?

I'll have a look, i know it also has problems with VPN also. Pinging the gateway should work unless you have ICMP blocked internally also.

 

Sorry I am not good with anything Linux... What exactly are you trying to ping?  When you say gateway you mean the firewall?  Why not just remove the ping all together link the unplugged plugins?  Just wondering why its even necessary?  Removing the lines for each plugin made all of them work.

 

Ok found one more issue for you.  I had the change my plexpass password because it was 22 characters long with special characters.  Had issues like this with the PMS updater plugin until bionel updated to escape the characters I think... I had to change to a longer password with no more special characters for the plugin to work.  Can you also try and fix this well when you get a chance?

 

Thanks!

Great write up, my only suggestion would be to put the the latest version number next to each plugin on your other thread.  I know it would be a pain but that way if someone has issues they could at least see what the latest version is incase the plugin doesn't update.

 

Great work and much appreciated.

Good idea, I'll do that

 

I really want to try these plugins but I am having an issue with installing them.  It looks like you are doing a ping to test network connectivity?  However it hangs up there for me probably because of my firewall.  The unplugged ones work fine but they don't have the network check.  I am guessing I can just remove it from your but anyway you would add a skip or continue anyway in the future for us people behind firewalls?

 

As suspected... when I removed the network check it worked fine... Maybe revise this in the future please?

I'll have a look, i know it also has problems with VPN also. Pinging the gateway should work unless you have ICMP blocked internally also.

 

Sorry I am not good with anything Linux... What exactly are you trying to ping?  When you say gateway you mean the firewall?  Why not just remove the ping all together link the unplugged plugins?  Just wondering why its even necessary?  Removing the lines for each plugin made all of them work.

 

Ok found one more issue for you.  I had the change my plexpass password because it was 22 characters long with special characters.  Had issues like this with the PMS updater plugin until bionel updated to escape the characters I think... I had to change to a longer password with no more special characters for the plugin to work.  Can you also try and fix this well when you get a chance?

 

Thanks!

The reason the network check is there is because some users found that the plugin tried to download the dependencies before their network had come up, thus it would fail and the apps wouldn't install/start.  The check pings your gateway, so the first connected router it is attached to. In most homes, that router is also your firewall.  Typically ping is allows on the internal ports of a firewall, and blocked on external ports. 

 

As for the plexpass password, i'm still looking for a solution, since it is being passed from php to bash, there are some limitations.

 

Edit: Rather than removing all the code, set TIMER=0 and it should just skip it. Alternatively, you can enable PING on your firewall for your unraid server (via firewall rule).

Are you using openVPN by chance?

I am using Sophos Home UTM.  I am not using openVPN on the server itself.  I already removed the code completely but I assuming if it stays as is I will have to do it every plugin upgrade?  Any way to make it timeout and just try an run anyway if it cannot connect?

 

Bionel may be able to help with how he fixed his PMS updater for the password issue?

 

Thanks for the help!  I like these plugins better

I am using Sophos Home UTM.  I am not using openVPN on the server itself.  I already removed the code completely but I assuming if it stays as is I will have to do it every plugin upgrade?  Any way to make it timeout and just try an run anyway if it cannot connect?

 

Bionel may be able to help with how he fixed his PMS updater for the password issue?

 

Thanks for the help!  I like these plugins better

I've solved the password issue, it will be in the next update. 

 

The code counts down for 30 seconds then continues on, but if you set TIMER=0 the countdown will be instant.   I'm adding a few other updates before I release it, but shouldn't be too long.

Thanks!!  When I ran it tho it never started.  I left it running for 5 minutes and it just sat on the check.  Not sure what happened but it didnt continue.

Thanks!!  When I ran it tho it never started.  I left it running for 5 minutes and it just sat on the check.  Not sure what happened but it didnt continue.

from your unraid console, and tell me how many entries come up?

 

route -n | grep -v 'tun' | awk '/^0.0.0.0/ {print $2}'

 

This will show your default gateway IP, if you have more than one it will hang.  If there's more than one entry, post them and i'll see if I can edit the code to detect the problem and bypass it.

Thanks!!  When I ran it tho it never started.  I left it running for 5 minutes and it just sat on the check.  Not sure what happened but it didnt continue.

from your unraid console, and tell me how many entries come up?

 

route -n | grep -v 'tun' | awk '/^0.0.0.0/ {print $2}'

 

This will show your default gateway IP, if you have more than one it will hang.  If there's more than one entry, post them and i'll see if I can edit the code to detect the problem and bypass it.

 

There is only 1 which is my firewall: 192.168.0.1

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks!!  When I ran it tho it never started.  I left it running for 5 minutes and it just sat on the check.  Not sure what happened but it didnt continue.

from your unraid console, and tell me how many entries come up?

 

route -n | grep -v 'tun' | awk '/^0.0.0.0/ {print $2}'

 

This will show your default gateway IP, if you have more than one it will hang.  If there's more than one entry, post them and i'll see if I can edit the code to detect the problem and bypass it.

 

There is only 1 which is my firewall: 192.168.0.1

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

ok, and when you do ping 192.168.0.1 does it work or timeout?

Thanks!!  When I ran it tho it never started.  I left it running for 5 minutes and it just sat on the check.  Not sure what happened but it didnt continue.

from your unraid console, and tell me how many entries come up?

 

route -n | grep -v 'tun' | awk '/^0.0.0.0/ {print $2}'

 

This will show your default gateway IP, if you have more than one it will hang.  If there's more than one entry, post them and i'll see if I can edit the code to detect the problem and bypass it.

 

There is only 1 which is my firewall: 192.168.0.1

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

ok, and when you do ping 192.168.0.1 does it work or timeout?

 

When I ping from a Windows box I get no response like it should and it stops.  From the unraid box it just sits there. It does not time out for some reason. It's still sitting there after 5 minutes. Like it's stuck. Sorry I know all about Windows just don't deal with Linux.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

OK I just made it easy and allowed ping from the unraid box and now it pings fine. So I am guessing when the plug-ins are updated and the code goes back in it should work for me now.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

OK I just made it easy and allowed ping from the unraid box and now it pings fine. So I am guessing when the plug-ins are updated and the code goes back in it should work for me now.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Yup they will.

Thanks! I will keep my eyes open for the updates

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks! I will keep my eyes open for the updates

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Updates are live

OK I updated couchpotato so far. Haven't got to check if it works now because it's already installed and running. However before and after update it shows the status as stopped even tho its running and I can get to it just fine. Any ideas?

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

It just seems to be couch potato. Everything else is fine

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

Any chance you can redo this btsync plugin? I can't seem to get it to work and you actively maintain your plugins

 

https://github.com/overbyrn/unraid-v5-plugins/blob/master/btsync.plg

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

It just seems to be couch potato. Everything else is fine

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

That's really strange.  It's likely somehow started without creating the PID.

 

Try this from the unraid console:

kill $(cat /var/run/couchpotato/couchpotato.pid)

rm -f  /var/run/couchpotato/couchpotato.pid

 

That should kill any current session, you can do a "ps -aux" to see if you find any processes running for couchpotato.  If you see any, do "kill" and the process number (second column).  Then go to the plugin and hit start.  Otherwise, try a reboot.  I had no issue doing my CP last night besides the clone process taking forever.  Let me know if that helps.

 

Any chance you can redo this btsync plugin? I can't seem to get it to work and you actively maintain your plugins

 

https://github.com/overbyrn/unraid-v5-plugins/blob/master/btsync.plg

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

I would also like to see a PhAze btsync plugin for ver 6, but I have used btsync without a plugin. Since unRAID version 5.0 I have had it installed and manually stopping and starting it whenever necessary. I simply installed btsync in one of my preferred folders, /mnt/user/apps/btsync (your install location may be different), and from the command line I simply type /mnt/user/apps/btysnc/btsync , wait a few minutes for btsync to index files and access the btsync webgui via port 8888 (tower:8888. your subnet or unraid server may be named differently).

 

 

It just seems to be couch potato. Everything else is fine

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

That's really strange.  It's likely somehow started without creating the PID.

 

Try this from the unraid console:

kill $(cat /var/run/couchpotato/couchpotato.pid)

rm -f  /var/run/couchpotato/couchpotato.pid

 

That should kill any current session, you can do a "ps -aux" to see if you find any processes running for couchpotato.  If you see any, do "kill" and the process number (second column).  Then go to the plugin and hit start.  Otherwise, try a reboot.  I had no issue doing my CP last night besides the clone process taking forever.  Let me know if that helps.

 

That did the trick thanks! I will keep an eye on it to see if it goes back to stopped for some reason

Any chance you can redo this btsync plugin? I can't seem to get it to work and you actively maintain your plugins

 

https://github.com/overbyrn/unraid-v5-plugins/blob/master/btsync.plg

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

I would also like to see a PhAze btsync plugin for ver 6, but I have used btsync without a plugin. Since unRAID version 5.0 I have had it installed and manually stopping and starting it whenever necessary. I simply installed btsync in one of my preferred folders, /mnt/user/apps/btsync (your install location may be different), and from the command line I simply type /mnt/user/apps/btysnc/btsync , wait a few minutes for btsync to index files and access the btsync webgui via port 8888 (tower:8888. your subnet or unraid server may be named differently).

which download do you use?