Newbie: mt-daapd installed but wont start

[JaronSenna]

Hi All,

I have had a go and tried to install firefly/mt-daapd using the hints and tips from the qiki (the tarball install). I am installing it on ClarkConnect 3.2 Home (http://www.clarkconnect.org), which is based on redhat.

I did not encounter many issues when installing, but when I want to start, I only get 2 error messages:

[root@tango html]# /usr/local/sbin/mt-daapd -f

Invalid web_root

Error reading config file (/etc/mt-daapd.conf)

Now, I have used the RPM to install, so the config file should have specified the correct webroot, and it did:

/usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root

And the conf file is located at the right spot as well:

20693812 8 -rwxrwxrwx  1 root root 6568 Jan 21 22:12 /etc/mt-daapd.conf

Finally, I have tried to start it with different parameters (-f and -c to specify the path to the .conf file).

Maybe it helps if I paste the mt-daapd.conf file contents:

# $Id: mt-daapd.conf,v 1.15 2004/12/29 06:20:26 rpedde Exp $

#

# This is the mt-daapd config file.

#

# If you have problems or questions with the format of this file,

# direct your questions to rpedde at users.sourceforge.net.

#

# You can also check the website at http://mt-daapd.sourceforge.net,

# as there is a growing documentation library there, peer-supported

# forums and possibly more.

#





#

# web_root (required)

#

# Location of the admin web pages.

#

# If you installed from .RPM, .deb, or tarball with --prefix=/usr, then

# this is correct.

#

# If you installed from tarball without --prefix=/usr, then the correct

# path is probably /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root.

#



web_root	/usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root/



#

# port (required)

#

# What port to listen on.  It is possible to use a different

# port, but this is the default iTunes port

#



port		3689



#

# admin_pw (required)

#

# This is the password to the administrative pages

#



admin_pw	********



#

# db_dir (required)

#

# This is where mt-daapd stores its database of song information.

#

# If you installed from .RPM or .deb, then this directory already

# exists.  If not, then YOU MUST CREATE THIS DIRECTORY!

#



db_dir		/var/cache/mt-daapd



#

# mp3_dir (required)

#

# Location of the mp3 files to share.  Note that because the

# files are stored in the database by inode, these must be

# in the same physical filesystem.

#



mp3_dir		/home/shared/Audio



#

# servername (required)

#

# This is both the name of the server as advertised

# via rendezvous, and the name of the database

# exported via DAAP.  Also know as "What shows up in iTunes".

#



servername	Tango



#

# runas (required)

#

# This is the user to drop privs to if running as

# root.  If mt-daapd is not started as root, this

# configuration option is ignored.  Notice that this

# must be specified whether the server is running

# as root or not.

#



runas	nobody



#

# playlist (optional)

#

# This is the location of a playlist file.

# This is for Apple-style "Smart Playlists"

# See the mt-daapd.playlist file in the

# contrib directory for syntax and examples

#

# This doesn't control static playlists... these

# are controlled with the "process_m3u" directive

# below.

#



playlist	/etc/mt-daapd.playlist



#

# password (optional)

#

# This is the password required to listen to MP3 files

# i.e. the password that iTunes prompts for

#



password	********



#

# extensions (optional)

#

# These are the file extensions that the daap server will

# try to index and serve.  By default, it only indexes and

# serves .mp3 files.  It can also server .m4a and .m4p files,

# and just about any other files, really.  Unfortunately, while

# it can *attempt* to serve other files (.ogg?), iTunes won't

# play them.  Perhaps this would be useful on Linux with

# Rhythmbox, once it understands daap.  (hurry up!)

#

#



extensions .mp3,.m4a,.m4p



#

# logfile (optional)

#

# This is the file to log to.  If this is not configured,

# then it will log to the syslog.

#

# Not that the -d  switch will control the log verbosity.

# By default, it runs at log level 1.  Log level 9 will churn

# out scads of useless debugging information.  Values in between

# will vary the amount of logging you get.

#



logfile /var/log/mt-daapd.log



#

# art_filename (optional)

#

# There is experimental support thanks to Hiren Joshi

# (hirenj at mooh.org) for dynamically adding art to the id3v2

# header as it is streamed (!!).  If you were using a music system

# like zina or andromeda, for example, with cover art called

# "_folderOpenImage.jpg", you could use the parameter

# art_file _folderOpenImage.jpg and if the file _folderOpenImage.jpg

# was located in the same folder as the .mp3 file, it would appear

# in iTunes.  Cool, eh?

#



#art_filename _folderOpenImage.jpg



#

# rescan_interval

#

# How often to check the file system to see if any mp3 files

# have been added or removed.

#

# if not specified, the default is 0, which disables background scanning.

#

# If background rescanning is disabled, a scan can still be forced from the

# "status" page of the administrative web interface

#

# Setting a rescan_interval lower than the time it takes to rescan

# won't hurt anything, it will just waste CPU, and make connect times

# to the daap server longer.

#

#



rescan_interval 3600



# always_scan

#

# The default behavior is not not do background rescans of the

# filesystem unless there are clients connected.  The thought is to

# allow the drives to spin down unless they are in use.  This might be

# of more importance in IDE drives that aren't designed to be run

# 24x7.  Forcing a scan through the web interface will always work

# though, even if no users are connected.



# always_scan 0



#

# process_m3u

#

# By default m3u processing is turned off, since most m3u files

# sitting around in peoples mp3 directories have bad paths, and

# I hear about it.  :)

#

# If you are sure your m3u files have good paths (i.e. unixly pathed,

# with relative paths relative to the directory the m3u is in), then

# you can turn on m3u processing by setting this directive to 1.

#

# I'm not sure "unixly" is a word, but you get the idea.

#



# process_m3u 0



#

# scan_type

#

#

# This sets how aggressively mp3 files should be scanned to find out

# file length.  There are three values:

#

# 0 (Normal)

#   Just scan the first mp3 frame to try and calculate size.  This will

#   be accurate for most files, but VBR files without an Xing tag will

#   probably have wildly inaccurate file times.  This is the default.

#

# 1 (Aggressive)

#   This checks the bitrates of 10 frames in the middle of the song.

#   This will still be inaccurate for VBR files without an Xing tag,

#   but they probably won't be quite as inaccurate as 0.  This takes

#   more time, obviously, although the time hit will only happen the

#   first time you scan a particular file.

#

# 2 (Painfully aggressive)

#   This walks through the entire song, counting the number of frames.

#   This should result in accurate song times, but will take the most

#   time.  Again, this will only have to be incurred the first time

#   the file is indexed.

#



# scan_type  0



#

# compress

#

# Whether to use gzip content-encoding when transferring playlists etc.

# This was contributed as a patch by Ciamac Moallemi just prior to the 0.2.1

# release, and as such, hasn't gotten as much testing as other features.

#

# This feature should substantially speed up transfers of large databases

# and playlists.

#

# It will eventually default to 1, but currently it defaults to 0.

#



# compress 0

Can anybody offer some hints as to what I may be doing wrong?

Best,
Jaron

[rpedde]

@JaronSenna wrote:

[root@tango html]# /usr/local/sbin/mt-daapd -f

Invalid web_root

Error reading config file (/etc/mt-daapd.conf)

Now, I have used the RPM to install, so the config file should have specified the correct webroot, and it did:

/usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root

And the conf file is located at the right spot as well:

An RPM install should have put the web rrot in /usr/share/mt-daapd/admin-root, not /usr/local/share…

Check to see that there really is a /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root. The error message says that there isn’t (or that the default web page isn’t readable).

— Ron

[JaronSenna]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the reply. i messed around with a tarball install and a RPM and probably made an error there. I just cleaned all mt-daapd related files and did a clean install from the tarball and the server is working!

The only problem I have with it is that i have set a password to access the shared files. If you tick “remember password” in itunes and you have typed in the incorrect password, there seems to be no way to re-enter the correct password.

Thanks!
Ron

[Author]

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