3.2.50 install completely fubar

[dbang 0]

So Emby kept nagging me to update.

I went to update (using apt) and it couldn't download.  So I downloaded and installed the .deb from the website.  So far, so good...emby came back up fine.

 

After doing some maintenance on apt, I found that the problem it was having was that the key for the repo had expired.  I pulled the new key and now it was able to download again.

 

On my next update of apps, it seems to have re-installed emby-server.  So this is an install over the manually dpkg install of 3.2.50.

I didn't think anything about it until I heard the CPU fan going nuts and checked top to find a lot of 'find' processes going on.  I suspected emby for that.  And emby wouldn't load the webpage.  So I stopped the emby service and sure enough the 'find' craziness ended.

 

I decided a reboot was in order.  I see the emby-server process running (2 of them...is that normal?) and no hammering of my cpu for 'find' yet (maybe waiting for it to autoscan).

 

However, I still cannot access the emby webpage.  I get ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.

 

Where do I start?

 

I do not want to tear out emby and start all over from scratch.  There is too much fixing-up I had to do over the past 2 years to my media library.

So if I do need to uninstall and re-install emby, how can I backup the database and settings?

[dcrdev 251]

Can you post the full output of the following commands:

systemctl status emby-server
journalctl -xe

[dbang 0]

 

Can you post the full output of the following commands:

systemctl status emby-server
journalctl -xe

 

Thanks for looking at this with me.

 

Hmmm...Ubuntu 14.04 doesn't use systemd, it uses Upstart.

 

So, I will attempt to translate it...

In lieu of "systemctl status emby-server", I tried "initctl list | grep emby-server" and get:

emby-server start/post-stop, process 11305

 

But I have no idea how to do the equivalent of journalctl in upstart.

 

I will eventually upgrade to 16.04 LTS, but I don't have the time to get into that right now.

[dbang 0]

Continuing the saga...

 

Looked in /var/lib/emby-server/logs

The last log was Dec 7, when I last had a sucessfully running emby

Backed up my /var/lib/emby-server directory

apt-get purge emby-server

Verified emby-server and all config files were gone

Did an apt-get clean to clear the cache and an autoremove to clean out any unused dependencies

apt-get install emby-server

Installed, started.

Checked if /var/lib/emby-server existed.  It does, but it completely empty.

Tried to hit localhost:8096

Connection Refused

Same for 127.0.0.1:8096 and for 192.168.1.59:8096

Nothing relevant in syslog

Nothing relevant in dmesg

 

ps -ef | grep emby

10811     1 0 16:03 ? 00:00:00 /bin/bash /usr/bin/emby-server clear

10820 10811 0 16:03 ? 00:00:00 /bin/bash /usr/bin/emby-server clear

 

sudo service emby-server stop

stop: Job failed while stopping

(however, ps shows it is not running, so it did stop)

 

Nothing is working.  Absolutely nothing.  Emby is dead.

[Luke 37196]

Try running the install process from the website again, only this time avoid using apt-get update to update the old mono-based package. If I'm understanding correctly, it sounds like everything was fine initially until you ran apt-get update and that's when the problems started. thanks.

[dbang 0]

Yep.  I downloaded the .deb file again from the website & purged from apt.  Installed with dpkg -i and it came up again.  About to migrate my settings.

 

So why is apt-based install all hosed up now and we have to manually do it through dpkg?

[Luke 37196]

Well, there's only a problem when you mix the two install methods together. The standalone and dependency-free .debs are our new way of doing things.

 

Since you originally installed our older mono-based package, our intention was that you would just continue to stay on that as it is still being updated. I suppose we should have made an announcement but we were just trying to keep it as seamless and disruption-free as possible. Thanks.

[dbang 0]

I copied back my settings directory.  It came back up & knows the users & looks like it knows the paths.  So far, nothing showing in the web interfaces as far as content.  Waiting for it to scan & hopefully it will be back.

[dbang 0]

Well, it was pretty disruptive.  Emby tells you to go do an update, but at the same time the apt system's key expired and there was no notice on the download page (which, by the way reads "Emby for Mac" in the title bar on the Linux download page) to inform users to update their key and continue along using apt.  The only thing there was a .deb.  Honestly, the key having expired didn't occur to me as the only message I got from apt was something along the lines of "unable to download file."

 

So my assumption was that y'all quit maintaining apt & expected everyone to use dpkg going forward.

 

It was only later while trying to fix the fact that apt was constantly complaining that I discovered I needed to refresh the key.  Then all hell broke loose.

[mastrmind11 717]

So are you sorted

 

Well, it was pretty disruptive.  Emby tells you to go do an update, but at the same time the apt system's key expired and there was no notice on the download page (which, by the way reads "Emby for Mac" in the title bar on the Linux download page) to inform users to update their key and continue along using apt.  The only thing there was a .deb.  Honestly, the key having expired didn't occur to me as the only message I got from apt was something along the lines of "unable to download file."

 

So my assumption was that y'all quit maintaining apt & expected everyone to use dpkg going forward.

 

It was only later while trying to fix the fact that apt was constantly complaining that I discovered I needed to refresh the key.  Then all hell broke loose.

So are you sorted? btw, and not that I'd expect you to know this, but the apt error is documented in several threads regarding the key... perhaps that should show up on the legacy download instructions...?

[dbang 0]

I'm still waiting for the Media Scan to complete to know if all my media comes back.  If not, I suppose I will try to setup from scratch.

 

I would recommend that you put a notice about the apt error and a link to legacy instructions somewhere noticeable on the main download page for the Linux version of emby server.  The reason being, if Emby tells somebody to upgrade, it just says "See emby.media for details."  The natural thing to do once you go to emby.media is to hit the download tab...NOT to go scanning through forums to see if something changed that you need to be aware of.

 

At present, that download page for Linux gives you a link to a .deb file and instructions to run dpkg.  That's it.  It doesn't say anything at all about using apt for legacy installs, the key for the apt version expiring, etc.

 

I'll come back and update on status once the media scan finishes.

[dbang 0]

No joy on any of my metadata.  The media scan finished and everything is empty.

Looks like maybe I need to use a db editor to migrate data manually?

[gsnerf 26]

The standalone and dependency-free .debs are our new way of doing things.

 

So you actually started providing packages that pack in every external dependency inside the single package? On Linux?... Beside all the stuff that can horribly go wrong, and possible license conflicts, this is really not how software is supposed to be provided on linux systems. There are reasons for package management systems and dependencies. Emby should accept that and do it like everyone else.

[dbang 0]

Actually, in their defense, this is coming to be the path forward for Linux.  It is getting popular to go dependency-free and for good reason:

a) It makes it much more like Mac or Windows, where one does not generally have to worry about what libraries (and what versions of them) exist on the system.

It allows multiple versions of libraries to co-exist on the system in a painless way & each application can use the version it needs.

 

I'm fine with it, I just wish I'd have known beforehand (without having to surf forums) that this change was afoot.

 

Anyway, I'm mostly sorted now.  For some reason, it kind of half-read my library.db file.  Stuff existed, but didn't exist & nothing really worked.  I had to force it to re-scan all my media completely.  I have some fixing of things to do, but it seems I'm operational now.

[Luke 37196]

So you actually started providing packages that pack in every external dependency inside the single package? On Linux?... Beside all the stuff that can horribly go wrong, and possible license conflicts, this is really not how software is supposed to be provided on linux systems. There are reasons for package management systems and dependencies. Emby should accept that and do it like everyone else.

 

Yes and it has relieved a world of troubleshooting off of our shoulders. It has actually made everything more stable because we can control the versions we want. That means no more dealing with situations like this when we get blindsided by library versions we haven't tested yet:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/53967-library-scan-failed-sqlitepclprettysqliteexception/?p=522153

 

And no more dealing with installation failures due to dependency conflicts:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/53164-cant-install-ubuntu-1604-arm/

 

It's not the bundling that i care about, it's eliminating the troubleshooting. If you have a solution to the above two situations then I'll unbundle and give you what you want, but I don't think you do because that's just the nature of things when you rely on external dependencies. It just eats up so much of our time troubleshooting these basic things that it pulls us away from regular development activities.