Troubleshooting (“GRR server doesn’t seem to run”)

This page describes common issues encountered when installing the GRR server components.

OperationalError: Access denied; you need (at least one of) the SUPER privilege(s) for this operation

MySQL server used by GRR has max_allowed_packet setting that’s too low. It has to be at least 20971520. If the setting is lower, GRR tries to execute SET GLOBAL max_allowed_packet=20971520; statement and fails if it doesn’t have enough privileges. To mitigate the issue, change the MySQL server’s max_allowed_packet setting (by executing the statement above by a user with enough privileges, for example).

ImportError: cannot import name jobs_pb2 or similar

If you see “ImportError: cannot import name jobs_pb2” or a similar error for any other _pb2 file, you need to regenerate the protobuf files. Just run

python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install

The upstart/init.d scripts show no output

When I run an init.d script e.g. “/etc/init.d/grr-http-server start” it does not show me any output.

Make sure that the “START” parameter in the corresponding default file, e.g. “/etc/default/grr-http-server”, has been changed to “yes”.

I cannot start any/some of the GRR services using the init.d scripts

When I run an init.d script e.g. “/etc/init.d/grr-http-server start” it indicates it started the service although when I check with “/etc/init.d/grr-http-server status” it says it is not running.

You can troubleshoot by running the services in the foreground, e.g. to run the HTTP Front-end server in the foreground:

sudo grr_server --start_http_server --verbose

Any/some of the GRR services are not running correctly

Check if the logs contain an indication of what is going wrong.

Troubleshoot by running the services in the foreground, e.g. to run the UI in the foreground:

sudo grr_server --verbose --start_ui

Cannot open libtsk3.so.3

error while loading shared libraries: libtsk3.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The libtsk3 library cannot be found in the ld cache. Check if the path to libtsk3.so.3 is in /etc/ld.so.conf (or equivalent) and update the cache:

sudo ldconfig

Protobuf

Travis jobs for GRR’s github repository use this script to install protobuf. Older versions of protobuf may not be compatible with the GRR version you are trying to install.

System-wide Python packages

To avoid version conflicts with the GRR server’s Python environment (such as this one), we recommend using virtualenvs wherever possible on machines where GRR server components are to be installed.