PROFTPD

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 3:36pm

Hello
I have a fresh instalation, of Ubuntu 10.04.1 on a virtual machine
installed Virtualmin, with no other issues, except the proftpd was stopped, and not starting

when i tried to start it via virtualmin

I get this :

Failed to start FTP server :

Starting ftp server proftpd
Illegal instruction
…fail!

no changes were made in config file it is defaut configuration, and log is empty.

PS I am new, to linux normaly i would reinstall whole server, but i have migrated some websites there, via ssh. ftp is needed for some website services

Eric · August 2, 2011, 3:49pm

Howdy,

Hmm, that’s an unusual error!

Do you know what kind of Virtual Machine you’re using?

Also, what is the output of this command (which you can run by logging into your server as root over SSH):

free -m

Also, what output do you receive if you try running the proftpd command manually:

proftpd -n

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 3:58pm

It is a www.intovps.com provided service
forgot to mention that ubuntu is 64bit
i do not think it has anything to do with provider, otherwise it would affect other services

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 4:00pm

proftpd -n --> Illegal instruction

free -m outputs
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4096 1371 2724 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 1371 2724
Swap: 0 0 0

Eric · August 2, 2011, 4:08pm

We see a lot of strange issues occur on OpenVZ based VPS’s… the way it handles memory management can lead to things not working as expected.

That may or may not be the case here

It doesn’t usually manifest itself as one command not working such as what you’re seeing, it tends to be a bit more random.

If you run the command “cat /proc/user_beancounters”, what output do you receive?

-Eric

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 4:32pm

I have never expierienced problems like this on fresh install, this is first time

cat /proc/user_beancounters outputs


Version: 2.5
       uid  resource                     held              maxheld              barrier                limit              failcnt
    75002:  kmemsize                 25591138             36543510             54525952             54525952                    0
            lockedpages                     0                  949                 1024                 1024                    0
            privvmpages                355396               495226              1048576              1048576                    0
            shmpages                    13045                15710               102400               102400                    0
            dummy                           0                    0                    0                    0                    0
            numproc                        89                  640                  640                  640                    7
            physpages                  227750               324234                    0  9223372036854775807                    0
            vmguarpages                     0                    0               524288  9223372036854775807                    0
            oomguarpages               227755               324239               104857  9223372036854775807                    0
            numtcpsock                     21                   87                 1024                 1024                    0
            numflock                        8                   14                 2048                 2048                    0
            numpty                          1                    4                   64                   64                    0
            numsiginfo                      0                   33                 1024                 1024                    0
            tcpsndbuf                  308928              2293664              5368709             10737418                    0
            tcprcvbuf                  322464              4162592              5368709             10737418                    0
            othersockbuf               238944              1434800              5368709             10737418                    0
            dgramrcvbuf                     0                21880              1342177              2684354                    0
            numothersock                  154                  178                 1024                 1024                    0
            dcachesize                      0                    0              8053063             12582912                    0
            numfile                      3382                 6283                32768                32768                    0
            dummy                           0                    0                    0                    0                    0
            dummy                           0                    0                    0                    0                    0
            dummy                           0                    0                    0                    0                    0
            numiptent                      60                   60                 1536                 1536                    0

Eric · August 2, 2011, 4:41pm

Howdy,

Yeah, I’ve never experienced errors such as that on a default install either, except on OpenVZ installs

That user_beancountesr file a list of memory parameters on OpenVZ-based systems.

It looks like the “numproc” has a “failcnt” of 7 – that means that your provider is limiting the number of processes you can run at once, and on 7 different occasions, a process attempted to start, and was rejected due to the constaints.

Out of curiosity, if you run “proftpd -n” again, does that “failcnt” column for “numproc” go up to 8?

-Eric

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 7:29pm

Eric
No the failcount stays the same…

Eric · August 2, 2011, 7:36pm

Well, that’s good, though it’s unclear why you’re getting that error.

Something strange is going on

You said you checked the logs – I just wanted to verify that /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log was one of the logfiles you had looked at.

Also, what output do you get if you run this command:

dmesg | tail -15

That should show if there’s any recent kernel errors.

Also, could you attach your /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf file? I can try using your config on one of my test systems, and see if I’m able to provoke that error.

-Eric

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 7:43pm

/var/log/proftpd is an empty directory
dmesg | tail -15 has no output at the moment
atached my proftpd.conf file, it is the default config that came with virtualmin - have some fun (just change extension)

Eric · August 2, 2011, 7:48pm

Howdy,

Well, Virtualmin doesn’t provide the ProFTPd package, that’s pulled down from apt… so there’s room for something to go awry if something were unusual about the repository, or during the package installation.

Now, all that is all really unlikely, but you’re also the first person to post here about this particular problem, so we’re already within the “unlikely” realm of things

I’ll test that config and see if any issues stand out.

-Eric

Eric · August 2, 2011, 8:05pm

Okay, as you predicted, I’m not seeing anything unusual with your config file. When I place it on my test Ubuntu system, ProFTPd starts up just fine.

I’m running out of ideas as to what to suggest… there’s nothing unusual about ProFTPd on a Virtualmin system, it’s simply pulled down from the Ubuntu apt repository during Virtualmin installation. No additional configuration is done to that.

So, we should be dealing with an Ubuntu default.

When a default such as that doesn’t work, it starts to point to the unusual… corrupt packages, disk errors, memory problems… and other yucky things

Perhaps we ought to verify the package that you have… can you run this command:

dpkg -l ‘proftpd*’

That should show what version of ProFTPd you have, as well as where it came from.

Also, the tool “debsums” can help in determining if something somehow became corrupt. You can install that by running this command:

apt-get install debsums

Then, try running it like this:

debsums -ca

When you run that, what output do you get?

-Eric

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 8:11pm

Hmm what can go wrong, if the only comands and configs during instalation was

after set up i loged in as root
apt-get install wget mc htop
wget http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh
sh install.sh
after the instalation scp -rp remoteuser@server.com/dir /localdir got backups from remote server
extracted backups (virtual minbackups)
stoped dovecot, clam, postgres, spam
so no configuration or anything else to mess up, didnt had a chance yet…

dpkg -l ‘proftpd*’ gives us this outpot

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
++±==============-==============-============================================
un proftpd (no description available)
un proftpd-abi-1. (no description available)
ii proftpd-basic 1.3.2c-1ubuntu Versatile, virtual-hosting FTP daemon - bina
un proftpd-doc (no description available)
un proftpd-mod-ld (no description available)
un proftpd-mod-my (no description available)
un proftpd-mod-od (no description available)
un proftpd-mod-pg (no description available)
un proftpd-mod-sq (no description available)

and output of debsums

root@vh11:~# apt-get install debsums
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
debsums
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 48.2kB of archives.
After this operation, 274kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/universe debsums 2.0.48 [48.2kB]
Fetched 48.2kB in 0s (506kB/s)
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 75, <> line 1.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Preconfiguring packages …
Selecting previously deselected package debsums.
(Reading database … 65176 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking debsums (from …/debsums_2.0.48_all.deb) …
Setting up debsums (2.0.48) …
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 75.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline

root@vh11:~# debsums -ca
/etc/apache2/suexec/www-data
/etc/default/apache2
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf
/etc/apache2/ports.conf
/usr/share/bind9/bind9-default.md5sum
/etc/bind/named.conf.local
debsums: no md5sums for binutils
debsums: missing file /etc/init/console-setup.conf (from console-setup package)
/etc/init/networking.conf
/etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf
/etc/logrotate.conf
debsums: missing file /etc/init/module-init-tools.conf (from module-init-tools package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mountall-net.conf (from mountall package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mountall-shell.conf (from mountall package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mountall.conf (from mountall package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mounted-varrun.conf (from mountall package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mounted-dev.conf (from mountall package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mounted-tmp.conf (from mountall package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/mountall-reboot.conf (from mountall package)
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
debsums: no md5sums for netbase
/etc/init/ssh.conf
debsums: no md5sums for php5
debsums: missing file /etc/init/plymouth-log.conf (from plymouth package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/plymouth.conf (from plymouth package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/plymouth-stop.conf (from plymouth package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/plymouth-splash.conf (from plymouth package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/procps.conf (from procps package)
/etc/default/saslauthd
debsums: missing file /etc/init/udev.conf (from udev package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/udevtrigger.conf (from udev package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/udevmonitor.conf (from udev package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/udev-finish.conf (from udev package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/tty3.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/tty2.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/tty6.conf (from upstart package)
/etc/init/rc.conf
debsums: missing file /etc/init/tty1.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/upstart-udev-bridge.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/tty4.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/tty5.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/control-alt-delete.conf (from upstart package)
debsums: no md5sums for usermin
debsums: no md5sums for usermin-virtual-server-theme
debsums: missing file /etc/init/hwclock.conf (from util-linux package)
debsums: missing file /etc/init/hwclock-save.conf (from util-linux package)
debsums: no md5sums for webmin
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-security-updates
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtual-server
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtual-server-theme
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtualmin-awstats
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtualmin-dav
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtualmin-htpasswd
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtualmin-mailman
debsums: no md5sums for webmin-virtualmin-svn

Eric · August 2, 2011, 8:26pm

Hmm what can go wrong, if the only comands and configs during instalation was … no configuration or anything else to mess up, didnt had a chance yet…

I completely understand, and I don’t think you did anything wrong

I don’t see anything suspicious in your debsums output.

So, I’m fresh out of ideas as to what we can look at on your system.

I think the next step is to talk to your provider, tell them you receive an “Illegal instruction” error anytime you attempt to start your default ProFTPd install, and ask them if they’re seeing any memory disk, or other errors related to your installation.

I suppose another alternative is that some security system could be running on your setup that’s causing problems… things like SELinux, grsecurity, and the like are capable of causing that.

It shouldn’t be a problem on a default Ubuntu installation – but it’s difficult to know what all a provider setup with their distribution images. You may want to ask if they’re aware of any security settings that could cause that.

-Eric

Locutus · August 2, 2011, 10:26pm

Since you’re using Ubuntu 10.04 x64, just like me: Do you also get an error for proftpd -v? If not, what version is installed? You can check that in aptitude too.

What output do you get for:

which proftpd cat \`which proftpd\` | md5sum

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 10:31pm

I get output = dc86cf09005b764e32ea6191e6ed6d0f

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 10:33pm

Got reply from vps support, and they are sugesting to reinstall, and likley I am doing so.

mr.veiss · August 2, 2011, 10:33pm

ProFTPD Version 1.3.2c

Locutus · August 3, 2011, 8:52am

Okay, I have the same version and am getting a different checksum. So it’s possible the binary (or maybe further files too) are corrupted… Maybe try reinstalling only the ProFTPD package first?

What’s your output for uname -a ?

Mine is: Linux lyra 2.6.32-33-server #71-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 20 17:42:25 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

mr.veiss · August 3, 2011, 12:24pm

Ok, as i got advice from vps support to reinstall, and they also could not find anything wrong.
I did the rinstall multiple times last night, just to check

And run in to more intresting issues…

did the clean install of Ubuntu 10.04 x64, apt update then upgrade, clean virtualmin install via script, same problem apeared.
did the second reinstall with just same OS , just apt update and no upgrade, clean virtualmin install via script - same problem
took Ubuntu 10.04 x32 same scenario
Debian 6 x64 - install script ran for an frustrating 1 hour, i just reinstalled server to x32
Debian 6 x32 - Everything went fine, everyting works

by the way, before taking ubuntu, I tried Debian 5 which works perfect, but it did not fit with the subversion version, It has subversion 1.5.5 or something like that i had to have 1.6.6 or higher.

So thanks all of you, your help is apriciated, hope this discussion will solve some this problem to other people.