Arch Linux

DoXer

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 36

[Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

Hi,
I followed the WIKI to install VirtualBox und phpvirtualbox.

But I can't start the vboxwebsrv as user vbox, with user root it's running.

for user vbox (runs into error)

systemctl status vboxweb_mod.service
● vboxweb_mod.service - VirtualBox Web Service
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/vboxweb_mod.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2018-02-24 19:43:33 CET; 4s ago
  Process: 2621 ExecStart=/usr/bin/vboxwebsrv --pidfile /run/vboxweb/vboxweb.pid --background (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 2635 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000052 main     OS Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 15 00:13:49 UTC 2018
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000066 main     DMI Product Name: MS-7994
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000071 main     DMI Product Version: 1.0
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000094 main     Host RAM: 15967MB (15.5GB) total, 12646MB (12.3GB) available
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000097 main     Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxwebsrv
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000097 main     Process ID: 2621
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas vboxwebsrv[2621]: 00:00:00.000097 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC (OSE)
Feb 24 19:43:32 nas systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Web Service.
Feb 24 19:43:33 nas systemd[1]: vboxweb_mod.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 24 19:43:33 nas systemd[1]: vboxweb_mod.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

for user root (it's running)

systemctl status vboxweb.service
● vboxweb.service - VirtualBox Web Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vboxweb.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2018-02-24 19:47:38 CET; 5s ago
  Process: 2672 ExecStart=/usr/bin/vboxwebsrv --pidfile /run/vboxweb.pid --background (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 2687 (vboxwebsrv)
    Tasks: 18 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/vboxweb.service
           ├─2687 /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxwebsrv --pidfile /run/vboxweb.pid --background
           ├─2690 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMIPCD
           └─2696 /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC --auto-shutdown

Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000057 main     OS Product: Linux
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000058 main     OS Release: 4.15.3-2-ARCH
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000059 main     OS Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 15 00:13:49 UTC 2018
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000074 main     DMI Product Name: MS-7994
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000079 main     DMI Product Version: 1.0
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000105 main     Host RAM: 15967MB (15.5GB) total, 12319MB (12.0GB) available
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000108 main     Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxwebsrv
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000109 main     Process ID: 2672
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas vboxwebsrv[2672]: 00:00:00.000109 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC (OSE)
Feb 24 19:47:38 nas systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Web Service.

cat /etc/systemd/system/vboxweb_mod.service
[Unit]
Description=VirtualBox Web Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/run/vboxweb/vboxweb.pid
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vboxwebsrv --pidfile /run/vboxweb/vboxweb.pid  --background
User=vbox
Group=vboxusers

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Any hint to fix it is appreciated. Do you need more info?

Last edited by DoXer (2018-03-02 10:58:11)

---

--
Regards
Michael

robg

Member

Registered: 2015-03-05

Posts: 225

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

Just to confirm, you did follow steps 1 - 6 as outlined here? If so, to have more information to work with, please post the output of `journalctl -xe`.

DoXer

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 36

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

Hi,

journalctl -xe                        
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit vboxweb.service has begun shutting down.
Feb 24 22:06:07 nas systemd[1]: Stopped VirtualBox Web Service.
-- Subject: Unit vboxweb.service has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit vboxweb.service has finished shutting down.
Feb 24 22:06:13 nas systemd[1]: Reloading.
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas systemd[1]: Starting VirtualBox Web Service...
-- Subject: Unit vboxweb_mod.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit vboxweb_mod.service has begun starting up.
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: Oracle VM VirtualBox web service Version 5.2.6
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: (C) 2007-2018 Oracle Corporation
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: All rights reserved.
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: VirtualBox web service 5.2.6 r120293 linux.amd64 (Jan 29 2018 19:54:11) release log
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000048 main     Log opened 2018-02-24T21:06:20.250657000Z
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000049 main     Build Type: release
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000050 main     OS Product: Linux
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000051 main     OS Release: 4.15.3-2-ARCH
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000051 main     OS Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 15 00:13:49 UTC 2018
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000066 main     DMI Product Name: MS-7994
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000070 main     DMI Product Version: 1.0
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000092 main     Host RAM: 15967MB (15.5GB) total, 11075MB (10.8GB) available
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000093 main     Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxwebsrv
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000094 main     Process ID: 3541
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas vboxwebsrv[3541]: 00:00:00.000094 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC (OSE)
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas systemd[1]: vboxweb_mod.service: Supervising process 3555 which is not our child. We'll most likely not notice when it exits.
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Web Service.
-- Subject: Unit vboxweb_mod.service has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit vboxweb_mod.service has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is RESULT.
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas systemd[1]: vboxweb_mod.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 24 22:06:20 nas systemd[1]: vboxweb_mod.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

I followed the wiki.
Step1:

cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd|grep vbox
vbox

groups vbox
daemon vboxusers vbox

Step2 +3: Posted already above

Step4:

cat /etc/tmpfiles.d/vboxweb_mod.conf
d /run/vboxweb 0755 vbox vboxusers

Step5:

ls -l |grep vbox
drwxr-xr-x  2 vbox  vboxusers   40 24. Feb 19:36 vbox
drwxr-xr-x  2 vbox  vboxusers   40 24. Feb 22:06 vboxweb

Step6:
Yes, rebooted and also the deamon is enabled

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--
Regards
Michael

robg

Member

Registered: 2015-03-05

Posts: 225

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

All of this appears to be in accordance with the instructions on the wiki. And the journal doesn't provide any useful information. To investigate this further, could you please provide the following:

  1. The output of `systemctl status vboxweb_mod.service`.

  2. Disable the service for the vbox user and enable it for root. After successfully booting up, post the output of `ls /run` and `ls /run/vboxweb`.

DoXer

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 36

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

Hi,
for 1: See first post
for 2:

ls -l  /run
insgesamt 36
-rw-------  1 root  root         0 24. Feb 18:52 agetty.reload
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        60 24. Feb 18:51 blkid
drwx------  2 root  root        40 24. Feb 18:52 cryptsetup
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        60 24. Feb 18:52 dbus
prw-------  1 root  root         0 24. Feb 18:51 dmeventd-client
prw-------  1 root  root         0 24. Feb 18:51 dmeventd-server
-rw-------  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:52 gssproxy.pid
srw-rw-rw-  1 root  root         0 24. Feb 18:52 gssproxy.sock
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        60 24. Feb 18:52 httpd
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        40 24. Feb 18:51 initramfs
drwxr-xr-x  4 root  root        80 24. Feb 18:52 lock
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        40 24. Feb 18:51 log
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        80 24. Feb 18:51 lvm
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:51 lvmetad.pid
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        60 24. Feb 18:51 mount
drwxr-xr-x  2 mysql mysql       60 24. Feb 18:52 mysqld
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:52 nmbd.pid
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        40 24. Feb 18:52 nscd
-r--r--r--  1 root  root         0 24. Feb 18:52 rpcbind.lock
srw-rw-rw-  1 root  root         0 24. Feb 18:51 rpcbind.sock
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:52 rpc.statd.pid
drwxr-xr-x  4 root  root        80 24. Feb 18:52 samba
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        40 24. Feb 18:52 screens
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:52 smbd.pid
-rw-------  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:52 sm-notify.pid
drwx--x--x  3 root  root        60 24. Feb 18:52 sudo
drwxr-xr-x 19 root  root       460 24. Feb 22:06 systemd
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root        60 24. Feb 18:51 tmpfiles.d
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root         4 24. Feb 18:52 tvheadend.pid
drwxr-xr-x  7 root  root       160 24. Feb 18:52 udev
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  root        60 25. Feb 21:11 user
-rw-rw-r--  1 root  utmp      1536 25. Feb 21:11 utmp
drwxr-xr-x  2 vbox  vboxusers   40 24. Feb 19:36 vbox
drwxr-xr-x  2 vbox  vboxusers   40 25. Feb 21:14 vboxweb
-rw-r--r--  1 root  root         6 25. Feb 21:15 vboxweb.pid

ls -al /run/vboxweb/
insgesamt 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 vbox vboxusers  40 25. Feb 21:14 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root      740 25. Feb 21:15 ..

---

--
Regards
Michael

DoXer

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 36

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

Does anyone else have an idea how to fix it?

Thanx in advance.

Regards
Michael

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--
Regards
Michael

robg

Member

Registered: 2015-03-05

Posts: 225

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

Sorry for getting back to you so late. Given the output you have provided and this, there might be one more possible issue to consider:

2) Some of the problems I had was due to the vboxweb.config file referring to a pid-file in the /run folder, and vbox has no write access to that folder. First I tried to make a subfolder, owned by vbox, in which to store the pid file, but I learned that the /run folder gets wiped at boot time, including all subfolders.

Solution: Created a subfolder in vbox homedir, and updated vboxweb.config file with that location.

You already have the proper subfolder in /run. Now it seems you also need to edit vboxweb.config (if it applies to Arch) to actually make it use that subfolder.

DoXer

Member

Registered: 2017-08-27

Posts: 36

Re: [Solved]vboxwebsrv not starting as user vbox

@robg: Thanx for the reply.

Last night I fixed the problem.

My strategie: Why root is working but not vbox? After rechecking all access-rights, folders... are OK.
Ok, then I checked where the config is stored, it's in the home-dir of the user. I found logs in both folders.

Here I found the error:

00:00:00.106222 nspr-2   VirtualBox: object creation starts
00:00:00.106362 nspr-2   Home directory: '/home/vbox/.config/VirtualBox'
00:00:00.106454 nspr-2   XML error at '/home/vbox/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml' line 1: Document is empty

Solution: I moved /home/vbox/.config/VirtualBox to /home/vbox/.config/VirtualBox_ (to avoid deleting in case of other issues) and now it's working.

Regards
Michael

Last edited by DoXer (2018-03-02 11:00:54)

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Regards
Michael