Running Slackware 9 and ProFTP 1.2.9 installed from source.

I've gotten this far,
(Apache, PHP, MySQL, SSH, etc. from source)
I just can't get ProFTP working no matter what I do. I've been working on it off and on for the past 2 weeks so it's time to post.

Compiled and installed ProFTP from source, only 2 things I added were --prefix=/www/proftpd and the proftpd.conf file should be located in /etc

When I change directories to /www/proftpd/sbin and ./proftpd it returns me to a comand prompt, but ps -A | more shows that no proftpd is running which is confirmed by the fact that I can't connect to it via ftp.

I've been over my proftpd.conf file and have gone back to the original with no results. Any suggestions?

if your config file is good and workable I might suggest trying to start proftpd like this...

from terminal do a 'cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/' and then type './proftpd start' to start the application and use './proftpd stop' to shut the software down,, never fails for me..

good luck, lemme know....

Vid

I'm having the same exact problem. It was working and then suddenly stopped.

> cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
> ./proftpd start
Starting proftpd: [ OK ]
ps -e yields that it is not running.
I don't get it.

so I do just to make sure it's not running:
> ./proftpd stop
Shutting down proftpd: [FAILED]

I don't have /etc/rc.d/init.d/ on my slackware distro, but I do have /etc/rc.d/

Nothing in /etc/rc.d/ has proftpd

Tried /www/proftpd/sbin/
./proftpd start

nothing.

I'll keep working and possibly re-compiling and installing. If you have any more ideas, please post. Also, if I un-install it, do I just 'rm -R proftpd' and delete the proftpd.conf file in /etc ???

Thanks,
Eric
Walls FD

I checked my /var/log/syslog and found these from everytime I've tried to start it.

Feb 1 05:00:44 battlechest proftpd[32166]:xxx.com - Failed binding to 0.0.0.0, port 21: Address already in use
Feb 1 05:00:44 battlechest proftpd[32166]: xxx.com - Check the ServerType directive to ensure you are configured correctly.

Same here, I didn't know such a file existed so I got curious and found the same error messages you did.


As a side note when I was trying to run samba (and failed) this appeared :
I actually think I may have figured out the Samba thing, but I'm experiencing the same issue you are with ProFTPd


I'm also seeing this:
Which I am not sure about

'netstat -an' showed that something was running on port 21 before I started ProFTPd which explains why it wouldn't run.

A closer examination of inetd.conf showed that it was trying to start an earlier installation ( Default from when I installed the Slackware Distro )

I commented this out and was able to get ProFTPd to run.

Now I am experiencing a problem with connecting. 'ps -A | grep proftpd' shows it running but when I try to connect via 'ftp localhost' from the command line or from another machine on my lan I get this message:
Not sure why...

I had the same problem.

Apr 1 19:02:25 sun proftpd[3802]: sun.xxxx.be - Failed binding to 0.0.0.0, port 21: Address already in use
Apr 1 19:02:25 sun proftpd[3802]: sun.xxxx.be - Check the ServerType directive to ensure you are configured correctly.

[root@sun xinetd.d]# netstat -tanp
Connexions Internet actives (serveurs et établies)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Adresse locale Adresse distante Etat PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:32768 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3001/fam
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32769 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:2049 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN -
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2471/mysqld
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:139 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2493/smbd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:683 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1350/ypserv
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:685 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2201/rpc.mountd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:654 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2170/rpc.rquotad
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:783 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2384/spamd -d -c -a
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1269/portmap
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2656/httpd2
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:10000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2475/perl
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1940/X
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:785 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1878/rpc.ypxfrd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:21 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3973/xinetd
tcp 0 0 192.168.1.100:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1961/named
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1961/named
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1985/sshd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:23 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3973/xinetd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2078/cupsd
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2364/master
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:953 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1961/named
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:443 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2656/httpd2
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:668 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1334/rpc.statd
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:7741 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2696/lisa

The problem was due to the fact that inetd was listening of port 21, which is precisely the port use by proftp.

Here is the content of my the proftpd.conf file:

[root@sun etc]# more /etc/proftpd.conf
# This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file (rename it to
# 'proftpd.conf' for actual use. It establishes a single server
# and a single anonymous login. It assumes that you have a user/group
# "nobody" and "ftp" for normal operation and anon.

ServerName "ProFTPD Default Installation"
ServerType inetd
DefaultServer on

# Allow FTP resuming.
# Remember to set to off if you have an incoming ftp for upload.
AllowStoreRestart on

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port 21

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new dirs and files
# from being group and world writable.
Umask 022

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30. If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value. Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd).
MaxInstances 30

# Set the user and group under which the server will run.
User nobody
Group nogroup

# To cause every FTP user to be "jailed" (chrooted) into their home
# directory, uncomment this line.
#DefaultRoot ~

# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
<Directory />
AllowOverwrite on
</Directory>

# Needed for NIS.

PersistentPasswd off

# Default root can be used to put users in a chroot environment.
# As an example if you have a user foo and you want to put foo in /home/foo
# chroot environment you would do this:
#
# DefaultRoot /home/foo foo
Include /etc/proftpd-anonymous.conf

My problem came from Servertype which was Standalone and which should have been inetd (as I use inetd and do not run proftpd as daemon)

Finally, my proftpd-xinetd file looks like this:

[root@sun etc]# more /etc/xinetd.d/proftpd-xinetd
# default: off
# description: proftpd server, xinetd version. \
# Don't run the standalone version if you run \
# this!
service ftp
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.ftpd
log_on_success += DURATION USERID
log_on_failure += USERID
nice = 10
}

I have also deleted the FTP file from that directory.
Now you just have to adapt proftpd.conf file in order to grant / deny access to users.
I have spent evenings during 2 weeks trying to solve this. Hope this will also work fine for you with those indications.

Regards,
Vincent

It's been a while since I got this to work but if I remember correctly.


Change proftp to run as standalone

edit your /etc/inetd.conf and comment out the ftp line.

Again, it's been a while so I hope it helps...

I'm trying to get a dedicated server to do it's thing, but I'm experiencing the same problems too. And this is from a homemade configuration file too. I was starting to think it was the file being all whack, but it's very simple and clean, being less than a page long. I gotta fix this! If any proftpd genius is generous enough to share his brains for a moment, it would be greatly appreciated

I think I found the answer, but I'm not sure. Try executing proftpd with the -n option.

Double check your /etc/inetd.conf and verify that nothing is set to run as ftp. Run proftpd as standalone.