Firefly dies with "Unable to open database file"

[fatveg]

Hi there,
I’ve just installed Firefly on my WinXP machine. Got the RC4 release linked from Roku site. I have configured it using the iTunes database (which is in the My Documents forlder for a user ‘iTunes’, and which points to mp3s on another disk).

Server works fine, except that every few hours it dies with an ‘unable to open database file’.

At the time it dies, I am doing nothing on either the PC or the Roku. Both of the examples below happened when it was playing a preset which does a random play through all songs in the library.

Here is my set-up:

Firefly Service	1.0 svn-1313	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverfirefly.exe

FireflyShell	1.0 svn-1313	C:Program FilesFirefly Media ServerFireflyShell.exe

RSP Output Plugin	1.0 svn-1313	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsrsp.dll

FFMPEG Transcoder Plugin	1.0 svn-1313	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsssc-ffmpeg.dll

WMA Transcoder Plugin	1.0 svn-1313	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsssc-wma.dll

Win32 Event Plugin	1.0 svn-1313	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsw32-event.dll

And here are two examples of the failure:

snip

snip

In the above I have scanning set to ‘0 – Normal’ with a frequency of once every two hours. I am running BitDefender, but apart from that a normal XP SP2 set-up.

Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks, Chris.

[fatveg]

For more info: Here’s a log of it failing while it’s NOT streaming, so it seems to be a problem just while scanning. I’m not sure why its trying to do the update as nothing will have changed.

Log file: firefly.log



2006-08-13 11:42:47 (47a075f8): Starting with debuglevel 0

2006-08-13 11:42:47 (47a075f8): Starting rendezvous daemon

2006-08-13 11:42:47 (47a075f8): Initializing database

2006-08-13 11:42:53 (47a075f8): Starting web server from C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serveradmin-root on port 9999

2006-08-13 11:42:54 (47a075f8): Registering rendezvous names

2006-08-13 11:42:54 (47a075f8): Serving 5145 songs.  Startup complete in 7 seconds

2006-08-13 11:42:54 (47a075f8): Rescanning database

2006-08-13 11:42:54 (47a075f8): Scanning C:Documents and SettingsiTunesMy DocumentsMy MusiciTunesiTunes Music Library.xml



2006-08-13 11:47:49 (47a075f8): Error: unable to open database file

2006-08-13 11:47:49 (47a075f8): Error updating file: ae10380c_0f2b411d_12.mp3

2006-08-13 11:47:49: Aborting

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I really like this server and would love to be able to use it.

‘veg

[rpedde]

@fatveg wrote:

For more info: Here’s a log of it failing while it’s NOT streaming, so it seems to be a problem just while scanning. I’m not sure why its trying to do the update as nothing will have changed.

could you try latest nightlies at http://nightlies.mt-daapd.org?

[fatveg]

@rpedde wrote:

@fatveg wrote:

For more info: Here’s a log of it failing while it’s NOT streaming, so it seems to be a problem just while scanning. I’m not sure why its trying to do the update as nothing will have changed.

could you try latest nightlies at http://nightlies.mt-daapd.org?

Just installed that — will let you know what happens. Thanks!

[fatveg]

Hi there — I re-installed nightlies, same thing happening. Again, it seems to be that during the rescan it tries to do an UPDATE and fails. Not sure why it would be trying to update, as nothing would have changed in the library. Here’s the info:

Firefly Service	1.0 svn-1340	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverfirefly.exe

FireflyShell	1.0 svn-1340	C:Program FilesFirefly Media ServerFireflyShell.exe

RSP Output Plugin	1.0 svn-1340	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsrsp.dll

FFMPEG Transcoder Plugin	1.0 svn-1340	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsssc-ffmpeg.dll

WMA Transcoder Plugin	1.0 svn-1340	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsssc-wma.dll

Win32 Event Plugin	1.0 svn-1340	C:Program FilesFirefly Media Serverpluginsw32-event.dll

snip

FF was installed and run from an administrator account. The iTunes db is set up from a different account than the one I used to install FF — don’t know if that’s pertinant. Any ideas? Thanks!

[rpedde]

@fatveg wrote:

Hi there — I re-installed nightlies, same thing happening.

Do you have any anti-virus software installed? Is it possible to exclude the firefly directory from scanning for viruses? The way sqlite works, it connects and disconnects from the database whenever it does something (an insert, an update, whatever). I’m wondering if an AV product is scanning the database and causing sqlite to have a problem opening it.

[fatveg]

OK, might be on to something. Yes, I had BitDefender running. I switched it off completely, and firefly has stayed up for a day. I have now re-started BitDefender, but with Shield settings “scan prog files only/Exclude xml”. I’ll let you know if it still stays up and running.

Thanks, ‘veg

[fatveg]

Well, I thought it was better, but it still died after trying an update. My final work-around was to no-longer point to the iTunes database but to the folders containing the mp3s — has now been working with no problems for a couple of weeks, but I can’t access iTunes playlists of course.

Doing a search it seems like a few people have had this problem. I’m guessing it is a conflict with BitDefender, but still don’t understand why FF was trying to do the Update in the first place.

People elsewhere with the same problem have recommended setting ‘Always Scan’ to ‘No’ — what does that do?

thanks, ‘veg

[rpedde]

@fatveg wrote:

Well, I thought it was better, but it still died after trying an update. My final work-around was to no-longer point to the iTunes database but to the folders containing the mp3s — has now been working with no problems for a couple of weeks, but I can’t access iTunes playlists of course.

Doing a search it seems like a few people have had this problem. I’m guessing it is a conflict with BitDefender, but still don’t understand why FF was trying to do the Update in the first place.

People elsewhere with the same problem have recommended setting ‘Always Scan’ to ‘No’ — what does that do?

thanks, ‘veg

It only does rescans when someone is connected to the server. It’s like turning down the scanning interval — it makes the problem occur less frequently, not disappear.

— Ron

[diablodale]

The first scan when the firefly service starts up works, but the 2nd scan fails with can’t open database.

1. If I disable mcafee virus, then it stays running fine.
2. If I run firefly in debug mode, then it stays running fine.

Mcafee doesn’t allow customers to define directory exclusions or specific extensions to ignore. Argh.

Perhaps the firefly codebase can do a retry or have a longer timeout for the db file i/o to return while virus protection is scanning? Or would this happen so many time to make firefly non performant?

–Dale

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