Vsmserver.service fails to start

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 11:07

I downloaded thinlinc-4.14.0 and installed on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS server.
After install it fails to start vsmserver:
sudo systemctl status vsmserver
● vsmserver.service - ThinLinc VSM server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vsmserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2022-10-27 09:26:45 +03; 12s ago
Process: 29458 ExecStart=/bin/bash --login -c /opt/thinlinc/sbin/vsmserver (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 29482 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Any suggestion or resolution is appreciated.
Thanks,

martin · 27 October 2022 11:15

Hi @oktayhg, and welcome!

Ouch, let’s try to figure out why…

Does /var/log/vsmserver.log yield any clues to why it fails to start? You could also check your systems journal:

journalctl -u vsmserver.service

Kind regards,
Martin

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 12:56

Hi Martin,

Thank you for such an instant response.

Here is my output. I just installed but couldn’t connect ever.

journalctl -u vsmserver.service

– Logs begin at Wed 2022-10-12 19:31:54 +03, end at Thu 2022-10-27 15:57:38 +03. –

Oct 26 15:42:10 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Starting ThinLinc VSM server…

Oct 26 15:42:10 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Started ThinLinc VSM server.

Oct 26 15:42:10 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: vsmserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

Oct 26 15:42:10 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: vsmserver.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.

Oct 27 09:26:45 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Starting ThinLinc VSM server…

Oct 27 09:26:45 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Started ThinLinc VSM server.

Oct 27 09:26:45 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: vsmserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

Oct 27 09:26:45 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: vsmserver.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.

Oct 27 13:51:15 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Starting ThinLinc VSM server…

Oct 27 13:51:15 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: vsmserver.service: New main PID 1250401 does not exist or is a zombie.

Oct 27 13:51:15 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: vsmserver.service: Failed with result ‘protocol’.

Oct 27 13:51:15 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Failed to start ThinLinc VSM server.

Sınıflandırma: Genel / Kişisel Veri İçermez

martin · 27 October 2022 12:59

Hello again,

No problem. Could you please attach /var/log/vsmserver.log as well?

Kind regards,
Martin

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 13:08

2022-10-26 15:42:10 INFO vsmserver: VSM Server version 4.14.0 build 2408 started
2022-10-26 15:42:10 INFO vsmserver.license: Updating license data from disk to memory
2022-10-26 15:42:10 INFO vsmserver.license: License summary: 10 concurrent users. Hard limit of 10 concurrent users.
2022-10-26 15:42:10 ERROR vsmserver: Unable to bind to (‘’, 9000) - address already in use. Is another VSM Server running?
2022-10-26 15:42:10 ERROR vsmserver: Exiting
2022-10-27 09:26:45 INFO vsmserver: VSM Server version 4.14.0 build 2408 started
2022-10-27 09:26:45 INFO vsmserver.license: Updating license data from disk to memory
2022-10-27 09:26:45 INFO vsmserver.license: License summary: 10 concurrent users. Hard limit of 10 concurrent users.
2022-10-27 09:26:45 ERROR vsmserver: Unable to bind to (‘’, 9000) - address already in use. Is another VSM Server running?
2022-10-27 09:26:45 ERROR vsmserver: Exiting
2022-10-27 13:51:15 INFO vsmserver: VSM Server version 4.14.0 build 2408 started
2022-10-27 13:51:15 INFO vsmserver.license: Updating license data from disk to memory
2022-10-27 13:51:15 INFO vsmserver.license: License summary: 10 concurrent users. Hard limit of 10 concurrent users.
2022-10-27 13:51:15 ERROR vsmserver: Unable to bind to (‘’, 9000) - address already in use. Is another VSM Server running?
2022-10-27 13:51:15 ERROR vsmserver: Exiting

martin · 27 October 2022 13:35

Okay, so there is already something listening on the port that vsmserver wants to bind to.
Could you show the output of

lsof -i | grep 9000

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 14:20

Now I released that port and could startup server. But client still cant’t connect to the server?

journalctl -u vsmagent.service
– Logs begin at Wed 2022-10-12 19:31:54 +03, end at Thu 2022-10-27 17:23:22 +03. –
Oct 26 15:42:09 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Starting ThinLinc VSM agent…
Oct 26 15:42:09 kfmlarge.kocfinans.local systemd[1]: Started ThinLinc VSM agent.

In vsmagent.log:

2022-10-26 15:42:09 INFO vsmagent: VSM Agent version 4.14.0 build 2408 started
2022-10-26 15:42:09 INFO vsmagent: My public hostname is 172.30.34.100
2022-10-27 17:16:12 ERROR vsmagent: Unhandled XMLRPC exception: <class ‘RecursionError’> maximum recursion depth exceeded in comparison Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/asyncbase.py”, line 104, in ooOOOoOO0
obj . handle_read_event ( )

martin · 27 October 2022 14:22

What service did you have installed that was already listening on port 9000 ?

And could you please share a bit more of the traceback you received in vsmagent.log?

Regards,
Martin

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 14:36

It was a jupyter notebook process. I stopped that process and restarted vsmserver.

Sınıflandırma: Genel / Kişisel Veri İçermez

(Attachment vsmagent.log is missing)

martin · 27 October 2022 14:38

Ok thank you.

It seems the vsmagent.log didn’t make it as an attachment, if it’s huge, you could limit it to the first 40-50 lines of the trace back and do an in-line attachment.

Kind regards,
Martin

martin · 27 October 2022 14:40

Just a short follow-up question regarding port 9000 and jupyter notebook.
Did you choose that port yourself, or is it a default / recommended port for deployment?

Regards,
Martin

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 14:48

It was random port allocation from available ports by application.

oktayhg · 27 October 2022 14:50

2022-10-26 15:42:09 INFO vsmagent: VSM Agent version 4.14.0 build 2408 started
2022-10-26 15:42:09 INFO vsmagent: My public hostname is 172.30.34.100
2022-10-27 17:16:12 ERROR vsmagent: Unhandled XMLRPC exception: <class ‘RecursionError’> maximum recursion depth exceeded in comparison Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/asyncbase.py”, line 104, in ooOOOoOO0
obj . handle_read_event ( )
File “/usr/lib/python3.8/asyncore.py”, line 420, in handle_read_event
self.handle_read()
File “/usr/lib/python3.8/asynchat.py”, line 151, in handle_read
self.found_terminator()
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/xmlrpc.py”, line 555, in found_terminator
self . handle_request ( )
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/xmlrpc.py”, line 569, in handle_request
self . handle_method ( )
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/vsmagentchannel.py”, line 119, in handle_method
II1IIiiI ( self . vsmagent , sock = self . socket ) . handle ( self . methodname ,
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/handler_reqsession.py”, line 50, in handle
self . check_old_client ( )
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/handler_reqsession.py”, line 62, in check_old_client
self . check_valid_user ( )
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/handler_reqsession.py”, line 69, in check_valid_user
self . setup_session_info ( )
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/handler_reqsession.py”, line 95, in setup_session_info
self . find_free_display ( )
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/handler_reqsession.py”, line 184, in find_free_display
CheckUnixSocketOpen ( self . parent . log , ii1 ,
File “/opt/thinlinc/modules/thinlinc/vsm/portopencheck.py”, line 39, in init
self . connect ( addr )
File “/usr/lib/python3.8/asyncore.py”, line 338, in connect
self.handle_connect_event()
File “/usr/lib/python3.8/asyncore.py”, line 426, in handle_connect_event

martin · 27 October 2022 14:51

Ok. Do you happen to have other VNC servers running on this system with clients allocating ports? Your issue looks similar to ERROR vsmagent: Unhandled XMLRPC exception: - #2 by CendioOssman

oktayhg · 1 November 2022 07:37

Hi Martin,
Today I restarted my tests with connection.
I stopped xrdp service. Still can’t connect.
It is reported ok, but I get the same error (“No agent server was available”) and also the same XMRPC error.

martin · 1 November 2022 07:57

Hello again @oktayhg

Could you try to adjust display_min=10 to display_min=20 in /opt/thinlinc/etc/conf.d/vsmagent.hconf and then restart vsmagent with systemctl restart vsmagent

The error you got in vsmagent.log is similar to the one in the other thread I pasted, have you had a chance to read through it?

https://community.thinlinc.com/t/error-vsmagent-unhandled-xmlrpc-exception/363/2

oktayhg · 1 November 2022 11:47

Hi,
display_min worked.
Now I get dark screen after the below error:

I added “unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS” in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80mate-environment, but didn’t solve!

martin · 1 November 2022 12:23

Hello,

Please ensure you’re not logged in locally in X with that same user you’re trying to log in with ThinLinc.
That modification to /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80mate-environment is not necessary to get ThinLinc running.

Regards,
Martin

oktayhg · 1 November 2022 12:30

Hi,
display_min worked.
Some users got a dark screen after the below error:

I added “unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS” in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80mate-environment, but it didn’t solve!
I executed “sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind”, now the problem disappeared.
We will continue toe test from now on eventually.
Many thanks for your support!