Troubleshooting

Installation

If you want to update from a version that was provided by another package source (like ubuntu main -> jfrog) perform the following steps - back up your configuration and database - uninstall the old version completely (look for left-over files under /usr/local/share) - install the new version - generate config file with --create-config - merge your old settings into the new file and copy it into the right place - copy the database file to the right place (depending on version differences it is even recommended to create a new database) - start gerbera and check the log for migration errors in the database (if you migrate)

Network

If you get startup errors like INVALID_INTERFACE try to add the interface and the port to the command line or config file. Make sure your network device is configured correctly (multicasting).

IP Address

The UPnP library tries to identify the correct network connection automatically. This may fail if there are multiple interfaces (including local loopback) or the configuration of the interface is not as required (see Network Setup). In that case either specify the correct IP address or the network interface.

--ip or -i

The server will bind to the given IP address, currently we can not bind to multiple interfaces so binding to 0.0.0.0 is not be possible.

Network Interface

--interface or -e

Interface to bind to, for example eth0, this can be specified instead of the IP address.

Port

If multiple instances of Gerbera or other UPnP media servers are running at the same time the port may be blocked.

--port or -p

Specify the server port that will be used for the web user interface, for serving media and for UPnP requests, minimum allowed value is 49152. If this option is omitted a default port will be chosen, however, in this case it is possible that the port will change upon server restart.

Debugging

If you experience unexpected behaviour, you can run gerbera with --debug for a full log output or --debug-mode for specific parts of gerbera.

Log To File

Normally gerbera writes all messages to the system log (via standard output). Writing to your own log file helps to search the logs for particular messages. Make sure you backup the file before restarting gerbera.

--logfile or -l

Do not output log messages to stdout, but redirect everything to a specified file.

Debug Output

Full debug output produces a large amount of text in order to analyse problems. Enabling all messages is the fastest way to start debugging but it may be hard to find the right message in the output.

--debug or -D

Enable full debug log output.

Debug Mode

--debug-mode "subsystem[|subsystem2|...]"

Activate debugging messages only for certain subsystems. The following subsystems are available: thread, sqlite3, cds, server, content, update, mysql, sqldatabase, proc, autoscan, script, web, layout, exif, transcoding, taglib, ffmpeg, wavpack, requests, connmgr, mrregistrar, xml, clients, iohandler, online, metadata, matroska.

Multiple subsystems can be combined with a |. Names are not case sensitive. This is for developers and testers mostly and has to be activted in cmake options at compile time (-DWITH_DEBUG_OPTIONS=YES).

Check Config

If you have startup problems or unexpected behaviour you can check the configuration to verify that all your settings have been accepted.

--check-config

Check the current configuration and exit. Useful to check new settings before running gerbera as a service. Best use with –debug in case of problems.

Compile Info

Gerbera has some compile options regarding support for media file formats. If your media files are not scanned at all or metadata is not detected completely the compile info may help to look at the right place.

--compile-info

Print the configuration summary (used libraries and enabled features) and exit.

Version Information

--version

Print version information and exit.