Arch Linux

fluxme

Member

Registered: 2007-12-05

Posts: 36

Fails to create MPD-database

Hello,

I'm trying to setup mpd with Sonata.
I'm following the Arch-wiki and the mpd-wiki on this topic,
It seems I'm having some problems with my configuration-files.

According to the Arch-wiki I should execute the following command to create the database

/etc/rc.d/mpd create-db

If I execute it without sudo I get the following message

/etc/rc.d/mpd: line 30: /var/log/mpd/mpd.db-creation: Permission denied

If I execute the command as root I end up with this message

cannot open playlist_directory "/root/.mpd/playlists/" (config line 3): No such file or directory

I have created both a /etc/mpd.conf and a ~/.mpdconf .
Both are identical and look like this

port                 "6600"
music_directory         "/media/sda1/Downloads"
playlist_directory        "~/.mpd/playlists"
db_file              "~/.mpd/mpd.db"
log_file            "~/.mpd/mpd.log"
error_file            "~/.mpd/mpd.error"

Hope some of you is able to figure it out.

Fluxme

K2712

Member

From: Greenville, SC

Registered: 2006-05-17

Posts: 28

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

In your conf files there is a 'user' line that you need to change to your username.

In my file it was line 46 and looked like:

user                            "mpd"

Just change "mpd" to "your-username", and reload the mpd daemon and you should be good to go.

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

The first error is a permission issue - your user has no writing privileges in /var/log/mpd.  The second error (when you run the command as root) is because mpd translates all "~/" from the config file as the home dir of the user that's executing the command (which, is /root if you're executing the command as root).  The easiest solution is to chown /var/log/mpd as your user.  Alternatively (and this is what I do) you can have something like this in your /etc/mpd.conf instead:

music_directory                 "[your music dir here]"
playlist_directory              "/var/lib/mpd/playlists"
db_file                         "/var/lib/mpd/mpd.db"
log_file                        "/var/log/mpd/mpd.log"
error_file                      "/var/log/mpd/mpd.error"

In which case you can to chown /var/log/mpd as mpd:mpd and comment out the user line in /etc/mpd.conf.

I hope that makes sense.

Last edited by fwojciec (2007-12-17 04:36:02)

RhahkJin

Member

From: Tübingen, Germany

Registered: 2007-12-05

Posts: 13

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

In which case you can to chown /var/log/mpd as mpd:mpd and comment out the user line in /etc/mpd.conf.

I don't think this an good idea..
Commenting out the user line in mpd.conf forces mpd to not fall back to user mode -> it runs as root all the time (And You don't want to have daemon with an port open to run in root-mode).

If /var/log/mpd and /var/lib/mpd (in your example) is owned by user mpd, the user line in mpd.conf could stay as it is (user "mpd") and it should work.

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

In which case you can to chown /var/log/mpd as mpd:mpd and comment out the user line in /etc/mpd.conf.

I don't think this an good idea..
Commenting out the user line in mpd.conf forces mpd to not fall back to user mode -> it runs as root all the time (And You don't want to have daemon with an port open to run in root-mode).

If /var/log/mpd and /var/lib/mpd (in your example) is owned by user mpd, the user line in mpd.conf could stay as it is (user "mpd") and it should work.

Yes, you're right.  I guess I've misread the comment in the conf file - I thought it would drop root privileges regardless...  Thanks for pointing this out.

fluxme

Member

Registered: 2007-12-05

Posts: 36

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

Thanks for all the answers. I tried K2712's approach since it seemed to be the easiest solution. By the way, is there any downside to not using fwojciec's method?

The first solution worked fine. I created the database, allthough I didn't see a [DONE], but rather an empty pair of brackets.
Then I tried to start up mpd, using sudo /etc/rc.d/mpd start
as stated in the wiki. Unfortunately it fails and I don't have the slightest idea why. Allthough there's probably something wrong with my config-file.
Actually I have two files. Don't know if it matters, but I created the ~/.mpdconf also.

/etc/mpd.conf

# An example configuration file for MPD
# See the mpd.conf man page for a more detailed description of each parameter.

######################## REQUIRED PATHS ########################
music_directory                 "/media/sda1/Downloads"
playlist_directory              "~/playlists"
db_file                         "~/mpd.db"
log_file                        "~/mpd.log"
error_file                      "~/mpd.error"

#music_directory                 "path_to_your_music_collection"
#playlist_directory              "/var/lib/mpd/playlists"
#db_file                         "/var/lib/mpd/mpd.db"
#log_file                        "/var/log/mpd/mpd.log"
#error_file                      "/var/log/mpd/mpd.error"

# Note: ~ is the home directory of user set in the "user" option
################################################################


######################## OPTIONAL PATHS ########################
#
# If you wish to use mpd --kill to stop MPD, then you must
# specify a file here in which to store MPD's process ID.
#
#pid_file                        "~/.mpd/mpd.pid"
pid_file                        "/var/run/mpd/mpd.pid"
#
# If specified, MPD will save its current state (playlist,
# current song, playing/paused, etc.) at exit.  This will be
# used to restore the session the next time it is run.
#
#state_file                      "~/.mpd/mpdstate"
state_file                      "/var/lib/mpd/mpdstate"
#
################################################################


######################## DAEMON OPTIONS ########################
#
# If started as root, MPD will drop root privileges and run as
# this user instead.  Otherwise, MPD will run as the user it was
# started by.  If left unspecified, MPD will not drop root
# privileges at all (not recommended).

user                            "daniel"

# The address and port to listen on.
#
bind_to_address                 "192.168.178.1"
#bind_to_address                 "any"
#port                            "6600"
#
# Controls the amount of information that is logged.  Can be
# "default", "secure", or "verbose".
#
#log_level                       "default"
#
################################################################


########################## PERMISSIONS #########################
#
# MPD can require that users specify a password before using it.
# You may specify one ore more here, along with what users who
# log in with that password are allowed to do.
#
#password                        "password@read,add,control,admin"
#
# Specifies what permissions a user who has not logged in with a
# password has.  By default, all users have full access to MPD
# if no password is specified above, or no access if one or
# more passwords are specified.
#
#default_permissions             "read,add,control,admin"
#
################################################################


########################## AUDIO OUTPUT ########################
#
# MPD supports many audio output types, as well as playing
# through multiple audio outputs at the same time.  You can
# specify one or more here.  If you don't specify any, MPD will
# automatically scan for a usable audio output.
#
# See <http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Configuration#Audio_Outputs>
# for examples of other audio outputs.
#
# An example of an ALSA output:
#
#audio_output {
#        type                    "alsa"
#        name                    "My ALSA Device"
#        device                  "hw:0,0"     # optional
#        format                  "44100:16:2" # optional
#}
#
# An example of an OSS output:
#
#audio_output {
#        type                    "oss"
#        name                    "My OSS Device"
#        device                  "/dev/dsp"   # optional
#        format                  "44100:16:2" # optional
#}
#
# An example of a shout output (for streaming to Icecast):
#
#audio_output {
#        type                    "shout"
#        name                    "My Shout Stream"
#        host                    "localhost"
#        port                    "8000"
#        mount                   "/mpd.ogg"
#        password                "hackme"
#        quality                 "5.0"
#        bitrate                 "128"
#        format                  "44100:16:1"
#        user                    "source"                # optional
#        description             "My Stream Description" # optional
#        genre                   "jazz"                  # optional
#        public                  "no"                    # optional
#}
#
# Force all decoded audio to be converted to this format before
# being passed to the audio outputs.
#
#audio_output_format             "44100:16:2"
#
################################################################


############################# MIXER ############################
#
# MPD needs to know what mixer settings to change when you
# adjust the volume.  If you don't specify one here, MPD will
# pick one based on which ones it was compiled with support for.
#
# An example for controlling an ALSA mixer:
#
#mixer_type                      "alsa"
#mixer_device                    "default"
#mixer_control                   "PCM"
#
# An example for controlling an OSS mixer:
#
#mixer_type                      "oss"
#mixer_device                    "/dev/mixer"
#mixer_control                   "PCM"
#
# If you want MPD to adjust the volume of audio sent to the
# audio outputs, you can tell it to use the software mixer:
#
#mixer_type                      "software"
#
################################################################


######################### NORMALIZATION ########################
#
# Specifies the type of ReplayGain to use.  Can be "album" or
# "track".  ReplayGain will not be used if not specified.  See
# <http://www.replaygain.org> for more details.
#
#replaygain                      "album"
#
# Sets the pre-amp used for files that have ReplayGain tags.
#
#replaygain_preamp               "0"
#
# Enable on the fly volume normalization.  This will cause the
# volume of all songs played to be adjusted so that they sound
# as though they are of equal loudness.
#
#volume_normalization            "no"
#
################################################################


########################### BUFFERING ##########################
#
# The size of the buffer containing decoded audio.  You probably
# shouldn't change this.
#
#audio_buffer_size               "2048"
#
# How much of the buffer to fill before beginning to play.
#
#buffer_before_play              "0%"
#
# Similar options for the HTTP stream buffer.  If you hear
# skipping while playing HTTP streams, you may wish to increase
# these.
#
#http_buffer_size                "128"
#http_prebuffer_size             "25%"
#
################################################################


########################### HTTP PROXY #########################
#
# Specifies the HTTP proxy to use for playing HTTP streams.
#
#http_proxy_host                 "proxy.isp.com"
#http_proxy_port                 "8080"
#http_proxy_user                 "user"
#http_proxy_password             "password"
#
################################################################


############################# LIMITS ###########################
#
# These are various limits to prevent MPD from using too many
# resources.  You should only change them if they start
# restricting your usage of MPD.
#
#connection_timeout              "60"
#max_connections                 "5"
#max_playlist_length             "16384"
#max_command_list_size           "2048"
#max_output_buffer_size          "8192"
#
################################################################


###################### CHARACTER ENCODINGS #####################
#
# If file or directory names do not display correctly, then you
# may need to change this.  In most cases it should be either
# "ISO-8859-1" or "UTF-8".  You must recreate your database
# after changing this (use mpd --create-db).
#
#filesystem_charset              "ISO-8859-1"
#
# The encoding that ID3v1 tags should be converted from.
#
#id3v1_encoding                  "ISO-8859-1"
#
################################################################


######################### OTHER OPTIONS ########################
#
# The metadata types MPD will recognize.
#
#metadata_to_use                  "artist,album,title,track,name,genre,date,composer,performer,disc"
#
# Enable this if you wish to use your MPD created playlists in
# other music players.
#
#save_absolute_paths_in_playlists "no"
#
################################################################

~/.mpdconf

port                "6600"
music_directory         "/media/sda1/Downloads"
playlist_directory        "~/playlists"
db_file              "~/.mpd/mpd.db"
log_file            "~/.mpd/mpd.log"
error_file            "~/.mpd/mpd.error"

user                "daniel"

Thanks for helping me out

K2712

Member

From: Greenville, SC

Registered: 2006-05-17

Posts: 28

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

What is the output of:

mpd --verbose

tami

Member

From: Norway, Oslo

Registered: 2007-11-10

Posts: 58

Website

Re: Fails to create MPD-database

Hi fluxme,

First of - I'm a newbie to Arch but I'm not so new to mpd

I'm using this great daemon for quite a long time on different machines and using different distributions - also on Arch.

So, let me share my experience with you.

1. For the first: I have only one configuration file of mpd here on Arch - this at home. I would advise you to move /etc/mpd.conf to /etc/mpd.conf.example.

# mv /etc/mpd.conf /etc/mpd.conf.example

2. Then I would copy the original configuration file (now - /etc/mpd.conf.example) into my home directory  and I would edit it. In your case it should be probably something like this:

$ cp /etc/mpd.conf.example /home/daniel/.mpdconf

3. You took good first steps in creating your .mpdconf file:
   

port                "6600"
music_directory         "/media/sda1/Downloads"
playlist_directory        "~/playlists"
db_file              "~/.mpd/mpd.db"
log_file            "~/.mpd/mpd.log"
error_file            "~/.mpd/mpd.error"

user                "daniel"

Just change the appropriate lines in copied file. In my configuration file I added the line:

pid_file         "/home/tami/.mpd/mpd.pid"

to the required part of .mpdconf. (just change tami -> daniel)

I hope also that you created the .mpd directory at your home.

$ mkdir /home/daniel/.mpd

4. But it seems it's not enough. You should also uncomment and edit the lines concerning Mixer.
For instance - if you use alsa you should uncomment and edit it like this:

# ALSA Mixer
mixer_type "alsa"
mixer_device "default"
mixer_control "PCM"

Then I simply run:

$ mpd --create-db

as a normal user and then also simply:

$ mpd

You can add mpd to crontab afterwards or add it to your deamons (I prefer the first solution).

I hope it will help you and sorry if it was too detailed but from my experience - the most irritating mistakes occur when you omit the small step.
...at least the above steps work in my case. (I just hope I did not omit something )

Best wishes to you and all fantastic Arch Community,

tami

(very new but very glad Arch user)

---

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