My RPi & DVB stick stopped feeding

[roofer]

My RPi & DVB stick stopped feeding a few days ago. It had been working well (for years).
http://frpi:8754 reports

FR24 Link:	Connected via UDP
FR24 Radar Code:	T-EGLC11
Local IP(s):	192.168.1.220
Aircraft Tracked: (ModeS & ADS-B)	0
Aircraft Uploaded:	N/A
Receiver:	dvbt, Connected
MLAT running:	NO

pi@frrpi:~ $  fr24feed-status 
[ ok ] FR24 Feeder/Decoder Process: running.
[ ok ] FR24 Stats Timestamp: 2019-03-21 15:54:02.
[ ok ] FR24 Link: connected [UDP].
[ ok ] FR24 Radar: T-EGLC11.
[ ok ] FR24 Tracked AC:.
[FAIL] Receiver: down ... failed!
[FAIL] FR24 MLAT: not running ... failed!
pi@frrpi:~ $

dump1090-mutability is not running, but if I run it from the command line, it sees aircraft, and lists them until I abort it with ^C

sudo service fr24feed restart does not help.

pi@frrpi:~ $ cat /etc/fr24feed.ini
receiver="dvbt"
fr24key="xxxxxxx"
host="127.0.0.1:30002"
bs="yes"
raw="yes"
logmode="1"
procargs="--net"
windowmode="0"
logpath="/var/log/fr24feed"
mpx="no"
mlat="yes"
mlat-without-gps="yes"
pi@frrpi:~ $

I am tearing my hair out. Any ideas?
Thanks.

[wiedehopf]

Hmm... that's strange.

Let's check the log:

tail -n50 /var/log/fr24feed/fr24feed.log

[roofer]

Thanks,
Lots of these errors:

2019-03-21 17:07:38 | [feed][n]ping 147
2019-03-21 17:07:39 | [feed][n]syncing stream result: 1
2019-03-21 17:07:42 | [reader][i]Connecting to DVBT receiver via (exe:///usr/bin/dump1090-mutability --net --raw --mlat)
2019-03-21 17:07:42 | [reader][i]Connected to the receiver, configuring
2019-03-21 17:07:42 | [reader][i]Configured, processing messages
2019-03-21 17:07:43 | [reader][i]Connection terminated
2019-03-21 17:07:43 | [main][i]Terminating child process 8244 with SIGTERM
2019-03-21 17:07:49 | [reader][i]Connecting to DVBT receiver via (exe:///usr/bin/dump1090-mutability --net --raw --mlat)
2019-03-21 17:07:49 | [reader][i]Connected to the receiver, configuring
2019-03-21 17:07:49 | [reader][i]Configured, processing messages
2019-03-21 17:07:49 | [reader][i]Connection terminated
2019-03-21 17:07:49 | [main][i]Terminating child process 8248 with SIGTERM
2019-03-21 17:07:55 | [reader][i]Connecting to DVBT receiver via (exe:///usr/bin/dump1090-mutability --net --raw --mlat)
2019-03-21 17:07:55 | [reader][i]Connected to the receiver, configuring
2019-03-21 17:07:55 | [reader][i]Configured, processing messages
2019-03-21 17:07:55 | [reader][i]Connection terminated
2019-03-21 17:07:55 | [main][i]Terminating child process 8252 with SIGTERM
pi@frrpi:~ $

[wiedehopf]

That's really curious that it is working one way and not the other.

Have you tried just rebooting the system?

[roofer]

Yes, I have been through many restarts and reboots, checked for updates, updated the RPi firmware, rebooted etc.

But just now I ran sudo service fr24feed stop

I deleted the file /var/log/fr24feed/fr24feed.log because I was tired of downloading 97MB of data every time I wanted to read it.
Ran sudo service fr24feed start and...
All is good. 75 aircraft tracked.

I have no idea what has been going on here, which annoys me as I have been working on this (part time) for several days, been through countless restarts and reboots, and the next time this happens, I am no better informed as to how to solve this problem.

Sincere thanks for your time and attention though.

If I knew how to, I'd mark this thread as "solved," even though it remains a mystery.

[wiedehopf]

Maybe the sd-card was full?

You can check with

df -h


It should automatically delete the logs after a day but 97MB seems quite large.

After checking some stuff it seems bs and raw should be set to "no" because you have --net under procargs.

That can mean port conflicts between dump1090 and fr24feed.

If you want to change it via the web interface set Raw data (30002) and decoded data(30003) to NO.

[roofer]

Maybe the sd-card was full?

Nice try :-{) but it has 6.5GB free.

I have no idea what has been going on. Maybe a flaky SD card? Deleting that file might have made the OS recreate it somewhere else, where the SD Card memory was better behaving? I can't think of anything else, this card is only about 2 months old, and the last one failed for no particular reason after about 4 years use.

I hate SD cards. Wish I could boot my RPi from an external USB HDD. New RPis tend to be released about this time of year, so I am holding back in case this might be offered as an option soon.

I think if I have this problem again, I will get a new SD card and start with a fresh install. Hoping for the best.

Thanks again.

(and thanks for your edit)

[wiedehopf]

Did you correct your bs and raw settings? They conflict with the --net option:

bs and raw should be set to "no" because you have --net under procargs.

That can mean port conflicts between dump1090 and fr24feed.

If you want to change it via the web interface set Raw data (30002) and decoded data(30003) to NO.


(That may have been the reason for the error. Not sure why it would "sometimes" work though.
But it would fit very nicely with dump1090 running fine when it was standalone.)