Problem with BigBlueButton reinstall

[rogerdg]

Hi,

I was using BigBlueButton on my computer which frequently changes IP address as I move it between 2 networks.  I use a dynamic IP address on each network.  I attempted to name my computer in /etc/hosts

 127.0.0.1 rdgcomputer.com
and used bbb-conf --setip rdgcomputer.com
to set the computer name for bigbluebutton to use.  This somehow broke my system, and I can no longer link to bigbluebutton by either http://localhost or http://rdgcomputer.com I attempted to upgrade to 0.71a in hopes this would resolve my problem.  It did not help so I uninstalled bbb following the instructions I found posted by Fred.  I then reinstalled bbb, but it still doesn't work.  When I execute bbb-conf --stop; bbb-conf --start I get the following message:

Waiting for BigBlueButton to finish starting up (this may take a minute): ...Startup unsuccessful: could not connect to http://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api

If I change it to use an ip address I get the same message except showing http://192.168.0.15/bigbluebutton/api

Checking the setup with bbb-conf --check does not report any errors.

Can anyone help, or would you need any additional information?

I see great possibilities for this software if I can get it to run reliably.

Thanks,

Roger D G.

[Fred Dixon]

Hi Roger,

Can you change your /etc/hosts to show

192.168.0.15 rdgcomputer.com

and try

sudo bbb-conf --clean
sudo bbb-conf --check

Regards,... Fred

> --
> 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.
>

[rogerdg]

Hi, Fred,

I changed /etc/hosts as you requested, then ran bbb-conf --clean
followed by bbb-conf --check. Here's the results from --check option:

root@laptop1:/etc/nginx/sites-enabled# bbb-conf --check

BigBlueButton Server 0.71a
Kernel version: 2.6.32-30-generic-pae
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS (32-bit)
Memory: 992 MB

/var/www/bigbluebutton/client/conf/config.xml
Port test (tunnel): rdgcomputer.com
Red5: rdgcomputer.com

/etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton
server name: rdgcomputer.com
port: 80 default
bbb-client dir: /var/www/bigbluebutton

/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/bigbluebutton/WEB-INF/classes/
bigbluebutton.properties (bbb-web)
bbb-web host: rdgcomputer.com

/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/bigbluebutton/demo/bbb_api_conf.jsp (API
demos)
bbb-web-api host: rdgcomputer.com

/usr/share/red5/webapps/bigbluebutton/WEB-INF/red5-web.xml
voice conference: FreeSWITCH


** Potential problems described below **
# IP does not match:
# IP from ifconfig: 192.168.0.15
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton: rdgcomputer.com

# This server could not connect to BigBlueButton through http://rdgcomputer.com/
#
# If you are setting up BigBlueButton behind a firewall, see the FAQ
# for steps to setup BigBlueButton behind a firewall.
# http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ

root@laptop1:/etc/nginx/sites-enabled#

Hope this helps to identify my configuration problem. By the way, I
am using Apache on port 81.

Thanks, Roger

On Mar 11, 1:56 pm, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Roger,
>
> Can you change your /etc/hosts to show
>
> 192.168.0.15 rdgcomputer.com
>
> and try
>
>    sudo bbb-conf --clean
>    sudo bbb-conf --check
>
> Regards,... Fred
>

> On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 1:51 PM, rogerdg <rgreen...@myfairpoint.net> wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > I was using BigBlueButton on my computer which frequently changes IP address
> > as I move it between 2 networks.  I use a dynamic IP address on each
> > network.  I attempted to name my computer in /etc/hosts
>
> >  127.0.0.1 rdgcomputer.com
> > and used bbb-conf --setip rdgcomputer.com
> > to set the computer name for bigbluebutton to use.  This somehow broke my
> > system, and I can no longer link to bigbluebutton by eitherhttp://localhost

> > orhttp://rdgcomputer.comI attempted to upgrade to 0.71a in hopes this

[rogerdg]

Fred,

I just thought that I should try to run it even though I received the
error message when the app started. It's amazing, even with the
error, BBB is now running on my web server!

Thanks for your help. I hope it continues to run.

Roger

> #  This server could not connect to BigBlueButton throughhttp://rdgcomputer.com/

> > > orhttp://rdgcomputer.comIattempted to upgrade to 0.71a in hopes this

[Fred Dixon]

Hi Roger,

It's looking like rdgcomputer.com is not resolving to 192.168.0.15,
but it should with the given entry in /etc/hosts.

Can you try ping rdgcomputer.com and confirm it pings 192.168.0.15.
Can you then do

netstat -ant | grep 8080

and confirm that tomcat is listening on the port. Next, can you try

wget -O - --quiet http://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api

and confirm you get back

<response><returncode>SUCCESS</returncode><version>0.7</version></response>

If any of the above are not true, it will help us narrow down the
source of the problems.

Regards,... Fred

[rogerdg]

Hi Fred,

ping rdgcomputer.com results in

64 bytes from rdgcomputer.com (192.168.0.15): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64
time=0.054 ms
64 bytes from rdgcomputer.com (192.168.0.15): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64
time=0.047 ms

0% packet loss is reported when I press CTRL-C to exit ping.

netstat -ant | grep 8080 results in
tcp6 0 0 :::8080 :::* LISTEN

wget -O - --quiet http://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api results in
the return of the prompt with nothing displayed between the command
entered and the prompt returned. I omitted --quiet and received the
following

- - 2011-03-12 19:32:28- - http://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api
Resolving rdgcomputer.com... 192.168.0.15
Connecting to rdgcomputer.com|192.168.0.15|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
2011-03-12 19:32:28 ERROR 404: Not Found.

Hope this helps discover my difficulties...

Roger

On Mar 11, 10:57 pm, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Roger,
>

> It's looking like rdgcomputer.com is not resolving to 192.168.0.15,
> but it should with the given entry in /etc/hosts.
>
> Can you try ping rdgcomputer.com and confirm it pings 192.168.0.15.
> Can you then do
>
>     netstat -ant | grep 8080
>
> and confirm that tomcat is listening on the port.  Next, can you try
>

>    wget -O - --quiethttp://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api

>
> and confirm you get back
>
>    <response><returncode>SUCCESS</returncode><version>0.7</version></response>
>
> If any of the above are not true, it will help us narrow down the
> source of the problems.
>
> Regards,... Fred
>

> > #  This server could not connect to BigBlueButton throughhttp://rdgcomputer.com/

> >> > orhttp://rdgcomputer.comIattempted to upgrade to 0.71a in hopes this

[Fred Dixon]

Hi Roger,

It looks like you have something listening on port 8080, but it's not
responding. Can you tell us the output of

sudo apt-get install lsof
sudo lsof -i :8080

Regards,... Fred

[rogerdg]

Hi, Fred,

lsof is already installed - results of lsof -i :8080 is

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
java 20135 tomcat6 32u IPv6 696426 0t0 TCP *:http-alt
(LISTEN)

Looks like tomcat is running but something is still not right.

Roger

[rogerdg]

After a couple of hours on the telephone and internet Fred Dixon was
able to help me get Big Blue Button working again on my computer.
Apparently I had damaged one or more of the original files and needed
to reload them. The files were located in the tomcat6 applications
directory and were not being automatically removed. Through much
patience Fred and I resolved the problem.

Much thanks to Fred and BigBlueButton team for helping me solve this
problem.

Roger

On Mar 12, 7:43 pm, rogerdg <rgreen...@myfairpoint.net> wrote:
> Hi Fred,
>
> ping rdgcomputer.com results in
>
> 64 bytes from rdgcomputer.com (192.168.0.15): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64
> time=0.054 ms
> 64 bytes from rdgcomputer.com (192.168.0.15): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64
> time=0.047 ms
>
> 0% packet loss is reported when I press CTRL-C to exit ping.
>
> netstat -ant | grep 8080 results in
> tcp6  0  0 :::8080 :::* LISTEN
>

> wget -O - --quiethttp://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/apiresults in

> the return of the prompt with nothing displayed between the command
> entered and the prompt returned.  I omitted --quiet and received the
> following
>

> - - 2011-03-12 19:32:28- -http://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api

> Resolving rdgcomputer.com... 192.168.0.15
> Connecting to rdgcomputer.com|192.168.0.15|:80... connected.
> HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
> 2011-03-12 19:32:28 ERROR 404: Not Found.
>
> Hope this helps discover my difficulties...
>
> Roger
>
> On Mar 11, 10:57 pm, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Roger,
>
> > It's looking like rdgcomputer.com is not resolving to 192.168.0.15,
> > but it should with the given entry in /etc/hosts.
>
> > Can you try ping rdgcomputer.com and confirm it pings 192.168.0.15.
> > Can you then do
>
> >     netstat -ant | grep 8080
>
> > and confirm that tomcat is listening on the port.  Next, can you try
>
> >    wget -O - --quiethttp://rdgcomputer.com/bigbluebutton/api
>
> > and confirm you get back
>
> >    <response><returncode>SUCCESS</returncode><version>0.7</version></response>
>
> > If any of the above are not true, it will help us narrow down the
> > source of the problems.
>
> > Regards,... Fred
>

> > >> On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 1:51 PM,rogerdg<rgreen...@myfairpoint.net> wrote:
> > >> > Hi,
>
> > >> > I was using BigBlueButton on my computer which frequently changes IP address
> > >> > as I move it between 2 networks.  I use a dynamic IP address on each
> > >> > network.  I attempted to name my computer in /etc/hosts
>
> > >> >  127.0.0.1 rdgcomputer.com
> > >> > and used bbb-conf --setip rdgcomputer.com
> > >> > to set the computer name for bigbluebutton to use.  This somehow broke my
> > >> > system, and I can no longer link to bigbluebutton by eitherhttp://localhost

> > >> > orhttp://rdgcomputer.comIattemptedto upgrade to 0.71a in hopes this

[rogerdg]

Fred, This info may help other users with Dynamic IP Addressing

Because of the way conferencing configuration works users with dynamic
addressing should use Asterisk for conferencing by installing bbb-
voice-conference since it links to local host ip address 127.0.0.1 and
it is not easy to reconfigure freeswitch to use a different ip address
if the address changes. Also, I wrote a script to reconfigure bbb-
conf --setip without looking up the ip address first. This script
will make it easier for people with dynamic addresses to reconfigure
bbb. It obtains the ip address, configures bbb and then displays the
ip address it is configured to use so you know what address to use in
the web browser. The code is as follows:

#!/bin/bash

# bbb-ipconfig
#
# Configures BBB to use first IP Address displayed by ifconfig.
#
# To force the ip address of a specific ethernet device put the
ethernet name in as `ifconfig eth0 | grep
# replace eth0 with your ethernet device name
#
# This allows a computer which changes IP Address dynamically to be
able to automatically configure based on the
# current IP Address in use.
#
# 2011-03-13 Roger D. Greenlaw

echo "Setting dynamic IP Address in Big Blue Button configuration files
\n"
bbb-conf --setip `ifconfig | grep "inet addr" | awk 'sub(/addr:/,"")
{print $2}' | head -1`
bbb-conf --clean
echo "--- End of potential problem list ---"
echo "IP Address set to `ifconfig | grep "inet addr" | awk 'sub(/
addr:/,"") {print $2}' | head -1`"

# End of bbb-ipconfig

I hope this will help others to successfully use Big Blue Button on
systems with dynamic IP addressing.

Roger

> > > >> > orhttp://rdgcomputer.comIattemptedtoupgrade to 0.71a in hopes this