Proftpd Won't Start After Update

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#1 Tue, 05/22/2012 - 08:14
Mobius1

Proftpd Won't Start After Update

I logged into Webmin yesterday to be greeted by a message that said there was an update for a few modules, including proftpd. I applied the updates and since then proftpd refuses to start.

I tried looking in the logs for errors, but /var/log/proftpd is empty.

I also tried removing proftpd and reinstalling, but the same thing happens. Running command service proftpd start returns Starting proftpd: [ OK ], but the server isn't running.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 09:56
andreychek

Howdy,

Which distribution/version are you using?

And do you see any messages in /var/log/messages during the proftpd startup?

-Eric

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 13:20
Mobius1

Hiya,

Virtualmin version: 3.92.gpl GPL

Output of tail -f /var/log/messages when starting proftpd:

proftpd[15072]: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx - Failed bindi
ng to ::, port 21: Address already in use.

[15072]: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx - Check the Se
rverType directive to ensure you are configured correctly.
Tue, 05/22/2012 - 11:06
andreychek

Howdy,

I'm actually interested in your Linux distribution and version -- it's usually something like CentOS, Ubuntu, or Debian.

-Eric

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 12:58
Mobius1

Ah, sorry, it's CentOS 5 (32-bit).

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 13:42
Mobius1

I found the problem. I installed Centova Cast, but it kept spitting out errors so I removed it. It uses FTP integration to upload your radio files.

The error Failed binding to ::, port 21: Address already in use. lead me to check what was using port 21, so I ran fuser -n tcp 21 which gave:

21/tcp: 5325

Then I ran ps -ef | grep 5325, which showed the process was cc-ftpd, which is Centova Cast's FTP. I killed the process and now proftpd works.

Is there a way of stopping cc-ftpd from running so this doesn't happen again?

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 16:41
andreychek

I'm glad you figured it out!

You can stop a service from starting in Webmin -> System -> Bootup and Shutdown.

-Eric

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 21:55
katir

First let me ask some basic questions: if we add an additional ftp user via VirtualMin, for a given domain, one who has FTP access only and is assigned a user name such as "magic.mydomain"

1) Why can't we force him to use SFTP and why if the FTP client tries to use SFTP, he will not be allowed in, but admin can use SFTP?

2) Something happened ProFTPD failed to started and I found two offending lines relating to VRootEngine which I commented out. Now ProFTPD will start already,

VRootEngine on

DefaultRoot ~ !adm

VRootAlias /etc/security/pam_env.conf etc/security/pam_env.conf

3) but the user I had added to a domain is not allowed in. the FTP client reports:

220 FTP Server ready. AUTH TLS 500 AUTH not understood USER magic.mydomain 331 Password required for magic.mydomain PASS ***** 530 Login incorrect. QUIT

4) Now first question: is this kind of user FTP log in handled by the virtual server or by ProFTPD?

5) what is wrong? and how can I fix it... any other logs I need to tail for info?

Sun, 12/09/2012 - 23:07
andreychek

1) Why can't we force him to use SFTP and why if the FTP client tries to use SFTP, he will not be allowed in, but admin can use SFTP?

You can control what users can login to FTP by changing the shells in /etc/shells. Any shell that exists in there may log in via FTP.

If you want users to login via SFTP, but not FTP, set them to use the /bin/bash shell, and remove /bin/bash from your /etc/shells file.

2) Something happened ProFTPD failed to started and I found two offending lines relating to VRootEngine which I commented out. Now ProFTPD will start already,

What distro/version are you using? And are you by chance using any third party repositories?

Now first question: is this kind of user FTP log in handled by the virtual server or by ProFTPD?

FTP logins are all handled by ProFTPd.

The answers to question #2 may be relatent to your other questions -- we've sometimes seen that folks using ProFTPd from third party repos can have syntax errors and problems logging in.

-Eric

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