Service terminates on Ubuntu 20.04

[ToastyMarshmallow]

Hi all, I’ve just installed NoMachine server on an Ubuntu 20.04 server (using KDE). The service status shows “stopped”, if I try to start it it shows as running for 5-10 seconds then goes back to “stopped”. I’m unable to telnet to the server from my windows machine (on the same LAN) whether or not it shows “running” or “stopped”.

Here’s what I get in the log:

Info: Server started with pid 675140 on Sat Jan  8 13:03:28 2022.
Info: Listening for connections on any interface on port 4000.
Info: Accepting connections from any host with encryption enabled.
Info: Server with pid 675140 terminated on Sat Jan  8 13:03:28 2022.

Thanks 🙂

[Bilbotine]

Hi ToastyMarshmallow,

We need more information to help you; can you please send us a full set of server logs to forum[at]nomachine[dot]com, making sure to reference the topic in subject.

The procedure to collect NoMachine logs is explained here, if needed: https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/DT11R00181

Thanks!

[ToastyMarshmallow]

Hi, I’ve sent through the server logs on the 12th of January, sorry I should have posted here when I sent the email.

[Britgirl]

Got them thank you!

[fra81]

Hi ToastyMarshmallow,

it looks like you have another service listening on port 4000, the same used by the NoMachine server by default, and that’s why the server can’t start up. To check what is the service that is keeping port 4000 busy, you could run:

sudo netstat -l -p | grep 4000

You can then stop that service or change its port. Alternatively, you can change the port the NoMachine server is listening on. You can do that in the Server settings -> Ports panel.

That said, we noted that the problem is not reported clearly in the logs. We’ll have that fixed. Thanks!

[ToastyMarshmallow]

Thanks, I’m now able to connect, however I get a black screen when I do. Note: this is not a headless machine, when I searched for this issue I got a lot of results talking about headlesss machines.

[fra81]

We would need to see the logs again to investigate this new problem. We would need them from both server (https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/DT11R00182) and client side (https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/DT11R00181#2). Thanks!

[ToastyMarshmallow]

Ok, I’ve sent them through. For the client I tested from my Windows machine.

[fra81]

We received the logs, but the .nx directory in the user’s home is missing and it is needed to proceed with the investigation. Did you follow the automatic procedure linked above to gather server side logs or did you gather them manually? In case you prefer to do it manually, please send us the ‘.nx’ directory from the home of the user who is owning the desktop you are connecting to.

[ToastyMarshmallow]

My bad, I’ve sent it through now. I’ve put a link to the file in my Google Drive rather than an attachment, Gmail doesn’t like me sending a .tar.gz file.

[fra81]

I checked the logs and they look clean. This is very strange. Is it possible that there is more than one X session running on that server machine? What is the output of the ‘ps -ef | grep X’ command run on the server? Do you have physical (local) access to that machine? Is everything normal if you use it locally?

[ToastyMarshmallow]

I have local access to the machine. By “use it locally” do you mean connect to my server PC from my server PC? (connecting a device to itself)

Here’s the command output:

ps -ef | grep X

tony        1404    1399  0 Jan15 tty2     01:18:03 /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg vt2 -displayfd 3 -auth /run/user/1001/gdm/Xauthority -background none -noreset -keeptty -verbose 3

tony        5460    5321  0 Jan15 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-run-session /etc/x2go/Xsession

tony       17664       1  1 Jan15 ?        10:25:16 x2goagent -nolisten tcp -nolisten tcp -dpi 144 -D -auth /home/tony/.Xauthority -name X2GO-tony-50-1642224262_stDstartplasma-x11_dp32 :50

tony       17944   17818  0 Jan15 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-run-session /etc/x2go/Xsession

root      912884 1979284  0 Feb05 ?        00:50:13 /usr/NX/bin/nxclient.bin --update ask --background --root /var/NX/nx/.nx

[a couple of big but irrelevant lines omitted here]

tony     1943767   18172  0 Jan22 ?        01:02:24 /usr/NX/bin/nxplayer.bin --dialog status

tony     1943813       1  0 Jan22 ?        00:02:50 /usr/NX/bin/nxclient.bin --monitor --tray

nx       1979121       1  0 Jan22 ?        01:34:23 /usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin --daemon

nx       1979241 1979121  0 Jan22 ?        00:00:00 /usr/NX/bin/nxd

root     1979281 1979121  0 Jan22 ?        00:00:00 /usr/NX/bin/nxexec --node --user tony --priority realtime --mode 0 --pid 42

tony     1979284 1979281  3 Jan22 ?        17:07:47 /usr/NX/bin/nxnode.bin

tony     1979303 1979284  0 Jan22 ?        00:18:38 /usr/NX/bin/nxclient.bin --monitor --pid 1711

tony     2349261       1  0 16:51 ?        00:00:00 sshfs -o idmap=user,uid=1001,gid=1001,default_permissions,ServerAliveInterval=300,IdentityFile=/home/tony/.x2go/ssh/key.m12428,UserKnownHostsFile=/home/tony/.x2go/ssh/key.m12428.ident oob@127.0.0.1:/cygdrive/C/Users/oob/X2GO~1/S-7FE5~1/spool /tmp/.x2go-tony/spool/C-tony-50-1642224262_stDstartplasma-x11_dp32 -p 47824

tony     2350721 2350677  0 16:53 pts/3    00:00:00 grep --color=auto X

[Britgirl]

Here I can see in the log excerpt that you are using an nx derivative which could be interfering with NoMachine. Uninstall it and then try using NoMachine. If you reproduce the same issue, we can continue this thread, with fresh logs being submitted.

Update: user confirmed that on the remote host there is no NoMachine package installed. This topic is therefore closed.

Further reference:

Supporting earlier versions of NoMachine and NX
https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/AR07O00933

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