minimwatch on linux: running as daemon vs manual start (can't run multiple instances)

[tarnkappe]

Hello,

I am using minimwatch on linux (ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS) and did choose to not let it start automatically. But after rebooting I see some minimwatch processes running:

Code:

$ ps axu | grep minim
gert      1616  0.0  0.0   8880   688 ?        S    10:14   0:00 tail -n 1 -f /home/gert/bin/minimwatch/data/minimwatch.pipe
gert      1617  0.0  0.0   4508   128 ?        S    10:14   0:00 /bin/sh /home/gert/bin/minimwatch/bin/startd minimexec
gert      1618  0.0  1.2 6428480 100992 ?      Sl   10:14   0:01 java -jar /home/gert/bin/minimwatch/lib/mwatch.jar --set watch.view=console --noprompt --nohup

When I now want to start the minimwatch client manually I get the following error message:

Code:

$ bin/minimwatch/bin/startc
Migrating autostart configuration
Acquiring root privilege for system configuration update...
[sudo] password for gert:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for gert:
MinimWatch 0.8.4 update 52, Copyright (c) 2012-2017 Simon Nash. All rights reserved.
Enter command (? for help):
>MinimWatch: can't run multiple instances with the same configuration file
Selected media server: MinimWatch
MinimWatch failure: now stopped, use 'relaunch' or 'exit'

I have to stop the running daemon to make the client work:

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/minimwatch stop

(I have to use "startc" because the minimwatch-icon in the systray ("startd" if I remember correctly) does still not show me the context menu because of a bug in KDE5.)

No I wonder, what am I doing wrong. I have the feeling that I did not understood the concept how to run minimwatch right.

Also I wonder why minimwatch requires root privileges. This feels a little bit unsafe somehow.

Thank you
Gert

[simoncn]

There was a problem with automatic startup that is fixed in the latest 0.8.4.7 version of MinimWatch (see this page). Please use the minimwatch/bin/update command to update to this version, then try again.

MinimWatch only acquires root privileges to update the automatic startup configuration. It runs as a normal user process (sse the ps output that you posted).

[tarnkappe]

Hello Simon,

I had upgraded to the mentioned new MinimWatch version. But it did not change anything. After rebooting I have tried again to run bin/minimwatch/bin/startc and it did fail again with the message "can't run multiple instances with the same configuration file".

So I tried to uninstall it by running bin/minimwatch/bin/uninstall. This removed the bin/minimwatch directory in my home directory. But it did not ask for root privileges so that the following files were left on the system:

/etc/init.d/minimwatch
/etc/rc0.d/K01minimwatch
/etc/rc1.d/K01minimwatch
/etc/rc2.d/S01minimwatch
/etc/rc3.d/S01minimwatch
/etc/rc4.d/S01minimwatch
/etc/rc5.d/S01minimwatch
/etc/rc6.d/K01minimwatch

I removed them manually. So I could try a new, clean installation with the 0.8.4.7 package.

~/bin$ ./minimwatch/bin/setup

MinimWatch desktop integration is disabled
MinimWatch automatic startup is disabled

Do you want to change these settings (y/n)?
y
Enable desktop integration for MinimWatch (y/n)?
y
MinimWatch desktop integration has been enabled

Enable automatic startup for MinimWatch (y/n)?
n

Now it did not ask for root sudo and the /etc/init.d files are not installed. So I think one have to remove the files once manually?

(What would be the advantages of starting minimwatch automatically at system boot?)

Greetings
Gert

[simoncn]

It sounds like everything is fine now. MinimWatch 0.8.4.7 did not ask for sudo to install the /etc/init.d files because you answered 'n' to the automatic startup question.

The advantage of starting MinimWatch automatically is that it is always there when you login without your needing to start it manually.

[tarnkappe]

The advantage of starting MinimWatch...

Yes, ok. But it only does start as daemon in the background. This requires root and I do not see a GUI of minimwatch.

Wouldn't it be enough to start it automatically in the desktop environment running as a normal user?

[simoncn]

If you have desktop integration enabled, MinimWatch starts initially as a background daemon process (not running under root), then automatically restarts as a foreground GUI process when you login.

The background process was needed in version 0.8.3 to receive commands via the named pipe (now deprecated in favour of command scripting which was added in 0.8.4). The named pipe and background process will be removed in the next release of MinimWatch.

[tarnkappe]

Ah, ok, I see. Thank you for the information!