Minimserver start process

[lafuente]

Hello Simon,

Recently I change my setup from "Linux to Disk" to "Linux to RAM". The whole system is far more reactive and I got a speed increase in all parts of it.

Since this moment, I noticed at boot that Minimserver start in "Starter Mode" and then switch to "Full Mode" a few moment after.

Is this the normal behaviour of Minimserver ?

Best regards,
Manu

[simoncn]

Some RAMdisk systems switch the filesystem from disk to RAM after MinimServer has started. This can cause unexpected behaviour. What Linux RAMdisk system are you using to run MinimServer?

[lafuente]

A custom debian from my own.

Is there a way to check this ?

Or maybe is there a way to delay Miniserver start ?

Thank you

[simoncn]

You can use the delayStart property to delay MinimServer startup. This probably won't help with a license issue because license checking happens before the startup delay.

What exactly are you seeing and where are you seeing this when the license status changes from starter to full?

[lafuente]

Hi Simon,

In fact I have an licence error :

License error 13: 0194c0805f10 0194c0805fa6; resetting to Starter Edition

When I look at the licence tab using webserver it show "Full licence"

At this time I can either do :

1. restart miniserver per hand (systemctl restart miniserver" (simplest method)
2. Desactivate the full licence in webpage, then activate it again (long method because I have to enter all credentials again
   

Thanks,
Manu

[simoncn]

The problem might be caused by an update by MinimServer to the minimserver.license file while you are running from RAM not being saved to disk storage when you reboot Linux. This would cause the next startup of Minimserver to be running with an outdated minimserver.license file.

What does your custom RAM system do about updates to files on the RAM disk while the system is running from RAM?

[lafuente]

My custom RAM system is just a normal install (that work fine from HDD).

When I use it from RAM, it first load the kernel than mount all the filesystem in a tmpfs file system.

Before the RAM system is loaded, I had set all minimserver things in the HDD system to be sure to have the latest files loaded in RAM (libraries, configurations, licence, etc).

I deactivated minim updates in the configuration to be sure that it won't update while in RAM.

Is minimserver rely on syslog ? I haven't this.

Thanks,
Manu

[simoncn]

MinimServer doesn't use syslog.

The update I mentioned isn't installing a new MinimServer update. It is a change that MinimServer makes to the contents of the minimserver.license file. This change could happen in the background and not be visible to the user. It sounds like any change to this file would be written to the RAM disk and lost when the system is rebooted.

The same thing could happen with changes made by MinimServer to other configuration files such as added-dates.txt and played-files.txt. These changes could be lost on a reboot but this wouldn't be as obvious as the license error.

This might not be the reason for the error you are seeing but it is where I would look first.

[lafuente]

Hello Simon,

(27-02-2025 22:17)simoncn Wrote:  The update I mentioned isn't installing a new MinimServer update. It is a change that MinimServer makes to the contents of the minimserver.license file.

That's what I understood from the first time ;-)

I really don't know where the problem can stand. I'll have a look at this this week-end.

Anyway, this lead me to an possible enhancement in the web interface :

You already have a "restart" button in the licence tab, but it's not always visible/useable.

In my case, I have to log in ssh first, then restart the minimserserver service, and at this time only the button is displayed, not before.

Before I restart the service, minimserver is not operate : red flag in the webinterface

If this button can be used anytime, in any situation, to relaunch the service, this will avoid to have ssh acces to do it per hand.

Here is the first lines from minimserver.log at this morning boot up :

Code:

Package 'minimstreamer-2.0.13' conflicts with license type 'starter'
Your MinimStreamer license could not be verified
MinimServer 2.2 update 258, Copyright (c) 2012-2025 Simon Nash. All rights reserved.
MinimStreamer 2.0.13, Copyright (c) 2012-2024 Simon Nash. All rights reserved.
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.6+7-Debian-1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.6+7-Debian-1, mixed mode, sharing)
Platform default charset is UTF-8
System platform is linux-x64
UPnP port 9791 has been selected
Using platform default language French (fr-FR)

Thank you,
Manu

[lafuente]

(27-02-2025 22:17)simoncn Wrote:  The update I mentioned isn't installing a new MinimServer update. It is a change that MinimServer makes to the contents of the minimserver.license file. This change could happen in the background and not be visible to the user. It sounds like any change to this file would be written to the RAM disk and lost when the system is rebooted.

If this is the way Minimserver operate, it is a problem for RAM systems, always. There is 2 ways to solve this :

1. Put Miniserver repertory on a consistent drive. This is absolutely not the purpose of a RAM system
2. Have a possibility to put only "minimserver.licence" file on a consistent drive that will remain between each boot.
   

Is there a way to do second point ?
Maybe make an symbolic link for this file and put the real file on a consistent partition ?

Thank you,
Manu