Pmacct and pmacct.cgi don`t really start

Networking
1

Hi, I stumbled across this topic and wanted to create a nice overview for myself, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work that easy way.
I downloaded the package via Pakfire and loaded the configuration you linked here and installed it with the three specified commands.
Unfortunately, the module does not start, or at least I do not get an overview page displayed. Neither in the web GUI nor when entering the link manually.

Did I miss sonething or have to configure any file?

Greetz

P.s.

Happy new year to the community :smiley:

So like your advice i opend a new topic.

As I wrote I install the pakage and your cgi but the the log tells me that the plugin lost his connection and the pmacct prizess stopped.

I tried to configure the pmacct.conf as mentioned in the ipfire doku, but still same problem.

2

Happy new year,

Could you post the steps to reproduce. I could try to see if I can figure it out during the weekend and I am sure there will be others as well.

3

I went through the install and troubleshooting steps but pmacct.cgi did not work for me. Since my issue may be different than @mumpitz , I didn’t want to start posting my issues.

This is what I did to install:
https://deepwiki.com/ummeegge/IPFire-Pmacct-Web-Interface/3-installation-and-setup

And then I did these troubleshooting steps: https://deepwiki.com/ummeegge/IPFire-Pmacct-Web-Interface/3-installation-and-setup#troubleshooting-common-issues

@mumpitz - what responses do you get from troubleshooting section?

4

Hi all, may you try this version https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ummeegge/IPFire-Pmacct-Web-Interface/f816fe4f1b88ae936ada45ffe4d9e39f6677e760/srv_cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi (one before the last commit) . If i place it under /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin in a file called pmacct.cgi it should work…

Permissions are:

chmod 755 /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi
chown root:root /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi

You can find potential problems under /var/log/httpd/error_log may or via browser console.

Have currently a lot of development stuff on the machine, may i miss something ?!

Best,

Erik

1 Like
5

I see these issues with the new cgi:

[root@ipfire ~] # tail -50 /var/log/httpd/error_log
. . .
[Fri Jan  2 14:27:35 2026] pmacct.cgi: Pipe/socket for plugin1 does not exist: /var/spool/pmacct/plugin1.pipe – skipping at /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi line 69.
[Fri Jan  2 14:27:35 2026] pmacct.cgi: No valid pipes/sockets found after checks at /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi line 58.

my config:

[root@ipfire ~] # cat /etc/pmacct/pmacct.conf
!
! Pmacctd configuration file for IPFire environment
!

!-----------------------------------  global  --------------------------------------------

syslog: daemon
!logfile: /var/log/pmacct.log
daemonize: true
debug: false
promisc: true
pcap_interface: green0

imt_mem_pools_number: 256

!pcap_interfaces_map: /etc/pmacct/pcap_interfaces.map
!pcap_ifindex: map

plugins: memory[plugin1], sqlite3[plugin3]


!-----------------------------------  memory  --------------------------------------------

!
! "plugin1" plugin configuration
!
!plugins: memory[plugin1]

plugin_buffer_size[plugin1]: 10240
plugin_pipe_size[plugin1]:   10240000

aggregate[plugin1]: src_host, dst_host

imt_path[plugin1]: /var/spool/pmacct/plugin1.pipe


!-----------------------------------  sqlite3  -------------------------------------------

!
! "plugin3" plugin configuration
!
!plugins: sqlite3[plugin3]
!	small DB - 4 million row/line - 9.7 MB
!	since 2021-05-20
!   save once day
!	refresh save every 15 minutes / 900 sec
!	ignore LAN-to-LAN

plugin_buffer_size[plugin3]: 102400
plugin_pipe_size[plugin3]: 10240000

sql_db[plugin3]: /var/spool/pmacct/pmacct_sqlitev1p3_copy_copy.db
sql_table_version[plugin3]: 1
sql_history[plugin3]: 1d
sql_refresh_time[plugin3]: 900
sql_history_roundoff[plugin3]: h

aggregate[plugin3]: src_host, src_mac, dst_host, dst_mac
aggregate_filter[plugin3]: ip and not (dst and src net 192.168.0.0/16)
[root@ipfire ~] #
6

sure,

installed package pmacct with pakfire.

follow this instructions https://github.com/ummeegge/IPFire-Pmacct-Web-Interface

sudo cp pmacct.cgi /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi
sudo chmod 755 /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi
sudo chown nobody:nobody /srv/web/ipfire/cgi-bin/pmacct.cgi

After restart it doesn’t work

then i follow this instructions www.ipfire.org - pmacct using SQLite3

and complete the pmccat.conf with plugin2

etc/pmacct/pmacct.conf

! Pmacctd configuration file for IPFire environment
!

!----------------------------------- global -----------------------------------

syslog: daemon
daemonize: true
debug: false
promisc: true
pcap_interface: green0

imt_mem_pools_number: 256

plugins: memory[plugin1], sqlite3[plugin2]

!----------------------------------- memory -----------------------------------

!
! “plugin1” plugin configuration
!

plugin_buffer_size[plugin1]: 102400
plugin_pipe_size[plugin1]: 10240000

imt_path[plugin1]: /var/spool/pmacct/plugin1.pipe

aggregate[plugin1]: src_host, src_port, src_mac, dst_host, dst_port, dst_mac, proto
aggregate_filter[plugin1]: ip

!----------------------------------- sqlite3 ----------------------------------

!
! “plugin2” plugin configuration
!

sql_db[plugin2]: /var/spool/pmacct/pmacct_sqlitev1.db
sql_table_version[plugin2]: 1
sql_history[plugin2]: 60m
sql_refresh_time[plugin2]: 900
sql_history_roundoff[plugin2]: m

aggregate[plugin2]: src_host, src_port, src_mac, dst_host, dst_port, dst_mac, proto
aggregate_filter[plugin2]: ip

Error message when starting the module:

cat /var/log/messages | grep pmacct

WARN ( default/core ): connection lost to ‘plugin2-sqlite3’; closing connection.
WARN ( default/core ): connection lost to ‘plugin1-memory’; closing connection.
WARN ( default/core ): no more plugins active. Shutting down.
INFO ( default/core ): Start logging …
INFO ( default/core ): Promiscuous Mode Accounting Daemon, pmacctd 1.7.9 (RELEASE)
INFO ( default/core ): ‘–prefix=/usr’ ‘–sysconfdir=/etc/pmacct’ ‘–enable-sqlite3’ ‘–enable-l2’ ‘–enable-jansson’ ‘CFLAGS=-O2 -g0 -pipe -Wall -fexceptions -fPIC -Wp,-U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -m64 -mtune=generic -fcf-protection=full -std=gnu17’ ‘CXXFLAGS=-O2 -g0 -pipe -Wall -fexceptions -fPIC -Wp,-U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -m64 -mtune=generic -fcf-protection=full’ ‘–enable-traffic-bins’ ‘–enable-bgp-bins’ ‘–enable-bmp-bins’ ‘–enable-st-bins’
INFO ( default/core ): Reading configuration file ‘/etc/pmacct/pmacct.conf’.
INFO ( default/core ): [green0,0] link type is: 1
INFO ( plugin2/sqlite3 ): cache entries=32771 base cache memory=12975392 bytes
OK ( plugin1/memory ): waiting for data on: ‘/var/spool/pmacct/plugin1.pipe’
INFO ( plugin2/sqlite3 ): *** Purging cache - START (PID: 8557) ***
INFO ( plugin2/sqlite3 ): *** Purging cache - END (PID: 8557, QN: 92/92, ET: 0) ***

@ummeegge Instead of the first github source i downloaded now the new source

@jon My troubleshooting is not listed because the module is not loaded due to missing plugins. This is probably why the settings page is not working either.

tail -50 /var/log/httpd/error_log

This gives only me a lot of errors for conections.cgi, but not for pmacct.cgi.

reboot but no difference in the log messages.

Greetz

7

Good morning,
this CGI works currently only with the memory plugin (standart installation from Pakfire How to see which connection uses bandwith - #8 by ummeegge ) not with sqlite. If it doesn´t work with standart installations it might be great to get some logs to become an idea what´s happening on your systems since it works here.

Best,

Erik

1 Like
8

Hi,

i changed the pamcct.conf file and delete the sqlite plugin.

/etc/pmacct/pmacct.conf

!
! Pmacctd configuration file for IPFire environment
!

!----------------------------------- global -----------------------------------

syslog: daemon
daemonize: true
debug: false
promisc: true
pcap_interface: green0

imt_mem_pools_number: 256

plugins: memory[plugin1]

!----------------------------------- memory -----------------------------------

!
! “plugin1” plugin configuration
!

plugin_buffer_size[plugin1]: 102400
plugin_pipe_size[plugin1]: 10240000

imt_path[plugin1]: /var/spool/pmacct/plugin1.pipe

aggregate[plugin1]: src_host, src_port, src_mac, dst_host, dst_port, dst_mac, proto
aggregate_filter[plugin1]: ip

But the message doesn’t really change in the log:

WARN ( default/core ): connection lost to ‘plugin1-memory’; closing connection.
WARN ( default/core ): no more plugins active. Shutting down.
INFO ( default/core ): Start logging …
INFO ( default/core ): Promiscuous Mode Accounting Daemon, pmacctd 1.7.9 (RELEASE)
INFO ( default/core ): ‘–prefix=/usr’ ‘–sysconfdir=/etc/pmacct’ ‘–enable-sqlite3’ ‘–enable-l2’ ‘–enable-jansson’ ‘CFLAGS=-O2 -g0 -pipe -Wall -fexceptions -fPIC -Wp,-U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -m64 -mtune=generic -fcf-protection=full -std=gnu17’ ‘CXXFLAGS=-O2 -g0 -pipe -Wall -fexceptions -fPIC -Wp,-U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -m64 -mtune=generic -fcf-protection=full’ ‘–enable-traffic-bins’ ‘–enable-bgp-bins’ ‘–enable-bmp-bins’ ‘–enable-st-bins’
INFO ( default/core ): Reading configuration file ‘/etc/pmacct/pmacct.conf’.
INFO ( default/core ): [green0,0] link type is: 1
OK ( plugin1/memory ): waiting for data on: ‘/var/spool/pmacct/plugin1.pipe’

But why isn’t the CGI page loading? Do I have to add it to the additional sidebar function in IE somehow?