BBB Port Conflict

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Jerry Hobbs

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Dec 12, 2010, 12:47:22 PM12/12/10
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Hi All,
Every once in a while, I come across a great Opensource application and BBB is one of those apps - thank you all; furthermore any help anyone can give me is much appreciated.

I successfully installed BBB v0.71 on a dedicated Ubuntu 10.04 server and it works great running through my firewall on port 80. However, I have a web server that also uses port 80 on the same gateway which needs to stay on port 80.

I've sent a couple of days looking for ways to fix this port conflict and I tried two solutions: firstly, changing the port in BigBlueButton as per BBB Frequently Asked Questions, and secondly, port redirect through the firewall (external port 81 redirected to internal port 80).

This is what happened:

Change port in BBB
I carefully followed the directions in the FAQ by editing the two files in sites-available and running bbb-conf --setip. However, when I run the bbb-conf --check command it starts Asterisk, Red5 and Tomcat OK then displays "waiting for BigBlueButton to finish starting up (this may take a minute): Startup unsuccessful".

Port Redirect
After setting the external port to 81 and the internal port to 80 on my firewall, I get the following results:

if I type http://IP:81/, I get "Welcome to Nginx"

if I type http://IP:81/index.html, I get the BBB welcome screen, but after adding a name and clicking Join, I get this:

An Error has occured:

Status Code 500
Exception Type null
Message null
Exception 
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.apache.jsp.demo.demo1_jsp.getJoinURL(demo1_jsp.java:168)
	at org.apache.jsp.demo.demo1_jsp._jspService(demo1_jsp.java:624)
	at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:377)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:313)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:260)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.mapping.filter.UrlMappingsFilter.processFilterChain(UrlMappingsFilter.java:263)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.mapping.filter.UrlMappingsFilter.doFilterInternal(UrlMappingsFilter.java:205)
	at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.sitemesh.GrailsPageFilter.obtainContent(GrailsPageFilter.java:221)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.sitemesh.GrailsPageFilter.doFilter(GrailsPageFilter.java:126)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.jsecurity.web.servlet.JSecurityFilter.doFilterInternal(JSecurityFilter.java:384)
	at org.jsecurity.web.servlet.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:183)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.servlet.mvc.GrailsWebRequestFilter.doFilterInternal(GrailsWebRequestFilter.java:65)
	at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:96)
	at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
	at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:236)
	at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:167)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
	at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:298)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:859)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:588)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:636)
Root Cause
Header List
Name Value
x-forwarded-for 15x.15x.15x.15x
host 127.0.0.1:8080
connection close
user-agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Ant.com Toolbar 2.0.1 Firefox/3.0.10, (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
accept text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
accept-language en-us,en;q=0.5
accept-encoding gzip,deflate
accept-charset ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
referer http://15x.15x.15x.15x:81/index.html
cookie ASP.NET_SessionId=xxx
Attribute List
javax.servlet.forward.request_uri /bigbluebutton/demo/demo1.jsp
javax.servlet.forward.context_path /bigbluebutton
javax.servlet.forward.servlet_path /demo/demo1.jsp
javax.servlet.forward.query_string username=Joe&action=create
javax.servlet.jsp.jspException java.lang.NullPointerException
javax.servlet.error.status_code 500
javax.servlet.error.servlet_name jsp
org.codehaus.groovy.grails.ACTION_NAME_ATTRIBUTE demo1.jsp
com.opensymphony.sitemesh.APPLIED_ONCE true
urlMapping.FILTERED true
charEncodingFilter.FILTERED true
org.codehaus.groovy.grails.FLASH_SCOPE org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.servlet.GrailsFlashScope@cf99e8
javax.servlet.error.exception java.lang.NullPointerException
org.codehaus.groovy.grails.CONTROLLER_NAME_ATTRIBUTE demo
javax.servlet.error.request_uri /bigbluebutton/demo/demo1.jsp
securityContextFilter.FILTERED true
org.codehaus.groovy.grails.WEB_REQUEST ServletWebRequest: uri=/bigbluebutton/demo/demo1.jsp;client=127.0.0.1;session=xxx
grailsWebRequest.FILTERED true

Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 1:39:52 PM12/12/10
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Hi Jerry,

In 0.71, bbb-conf isn't properly checking when the port has been set to something other than 80.  I've opened an issue to track this


And I just committed a fix.  See



To use this fix now, download the updated  bbb-conf from 


and save it to

   /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf


With this fix, if you do 

   sudo bbb-conf --setip host:port

it should now properly report that BigBlueButton has started up after updating the configuration files with host:port.

Let us know if you have any further problems.

Regards,... Fred

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Jerry Hobbs

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Dec 12, 2010, 10:05:05 PM12/12/10
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Thank you so much for your help, Fred.

I installed the file in /usr/local/bin as you suggested. I set the permissions to -rwxr-xr-x to match the old bbb-conf file; however, when I run the command I get "No such file or directory". Did I miss something?

Regards,
Jerry

Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 10:11:15 PM12/12/10
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Can you just double-check using the following command (after the $).

$ ls -al /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 56598 2010-12-13 01:10 /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf


The size may be different, but you should similar output.  

Regards,... Fred

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Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 10:22:18 PM12/12/10
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Hmmm... can you try

sudo /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf --check

Regards,... Fred

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 10:17 PM, Jerry Hobbs <jho...@cbasetech.com> wrote:
> the command you requested returned:
>
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 58581 2010-12-12 15:47 bbb-conf
>
> Regards,

>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "BigBlueButton-Setup" group.
>> To post to this group, send email to bigbluebu...@googlegroups.com.
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>> bigbluebutton-s...@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit this group at
>> http://groups.google.com/group/bigbluebutton-setup?hl=en.
>
> --

> Jerry Hobbs
> Commercial Base Software Ltd.
> (403)532-4404 Ext 200

Message has been deleted

Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 10:31:55 PM12/12/10
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OK. Can you do the following

cd /usr/local/bin
ls

and you should see bbb-conf. If not, you haven't placed it in
/usr/local/bin. Do that, and everything should work.

Regards,... Fred

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Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 10:36:51 PM12/12/10
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Hmmm ... I think the problem is with your PATH environment variable.
Can you try the following command

$ echo $PATH
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games

You should see '/usr/local/bin' in the path.

Regards,... Fred

Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 10:39:21 PM12/12/10
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Hi Jerry,

I think your are saying that bbb-conf is returning an error, not there
is an error running bbb-conf. Correct?

I've been doing more work on it. Can you install this version

https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/raw/master/bigbluebutton-config/bin/bbb-conf

and let me know if you still get an error.

Regards,... Fred

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Fred Dixon

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Dec 12, 2010, 11:09:55 PM12/12/10
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If you type

ls /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf

and see a file, then it must be there.

It's not quite clear yet whether your getting the error because your
shell can't find bbb-conf, or it's actually running bbb-conf and
bbb-conf itself is returning the error 'No file or directory'.

Is it clear to you what is happening ... is bbb-conf actually running?

Regards,... Fred

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 10:57 PM, Jerry Hobbs <jho...@cbasetech.com> wrote:
> hmm, not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I still get the same error. If I run
> sudo /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf --check, I get "No file or directory"
>
> Regards,

Message has been deleted
Message has been deleted

Fred Dixon

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Dec 13, 2010, 11:55:30 AM12/13/10
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Hi Jerry,

I'm going to take a shot at this ... did you copy the script using a
Windows editor? If so, can you make sure you save it a unix file
format. The errors you gave suggest that you saved bbb-conf in DOS
format, with '\r' and '\n' characters at the end of each line, but you
really want to save it in UNIX format with only '\n' as the
end-of-line delimiters.

Regards,... Fred

On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 10:55 AM, Jerry Hobbs <jho...@cbasetech.com> wrote:
> Hi Fred,
> I stepped through the scripts and here are the results:
>
> + $ '\r'
> : command not foundconf: line 41:
> + $ '\r'
> : command not foundconf: line 43:
> + $ '\r'
> : command not foundconf: line 44
> + BBB_VERSION=$'0.71a-dev\r'
> + $ '\r'
> : command not foundconf: line 46:
> /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf : line 52: syntax error near unexpected token 'elif'
> /usr/local/bin/bbb-conf : line 52: 'elif cat
> /usr/share/red5/webapps/bigbluebutton/WEB-INF/red5-web.xml | grep -v '<!--'
> \ grep -q 'bbb-voice-freeswitch.xml'' th'n
>
> I don't know anything about bash scripting so not sure if this helps?
>
> Regards and thank you for the help
> Jerry
>
> On 12/12/2010 9:16 PM, Jerry Hobbs wrote:
>>
>> I re-installed the original bbb-conf file (the one that came with the 0.71
>> install) and it ran as expected. The only problem is with the final "waiting


>> for BigBlueButton to finish starting up (this may take a minute): Startup
>> unsuccessful".
>>

>> This tells me that the shell is OK, doesn't it?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jerry

Jerry Hobbs

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Dec 13, 2010, 12:32:19 PM12/13/10
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Hi Fred,
My mistake. That did it and everything is now working. Thank you so much
for your help, Fred.

Regards,
Jerry

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