FTL on XBian Pi

FYI, on my XBian Pi:

$ cat /etc/debian_version
8.0

$ uname -r
4.9.24+

I experienced below error:

$ /usr/bin/pihole-FTL
-bash: /usr/bin/pihole-FTL: No such file or directory

Seems it needs "/lib/ld-linux.so.3":

$ strings /usr/bin/pihole-FTL | head -1
/lib/ld-linux.so.3

That lib "/lib/ld-linux.so.3" was missing so I symlinked it:

sudo ln -s /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/ld-linux.so.3 /lib/ld-linux.so.3

And now I got FTL on my XBian Pi too:

$ /usr/bin/pihole-FTL
Found pihole-FTL process with PID 14282 (my PID 18644) - killing it ...
FTL started!

EDIT: FYI, below posting describes a more refined way:

1 Like

That should no happen ... what is the output of

uname -m

and

ldd /bin/ls | grep -E '^\s*/lib' | awk '{ print $1 }'

on this system?

That seems to indicate that is was already running before?

I did not post that bit did I ?

Now I'm confused...

See here:

root@pi ~ # uname -m
armv6l

root@pi ~ # ldd /bin/ls | grep -E '^\s*/lib' | awk '{ print $1 }'
/lib/libarmmem.so
/lib/ld-linux-armhf.so.3

Ps.this is an "upstart" init system.

I think the detection algorithm failed because it found

/lib/libarmmem.so
/lib/ld-linux-armhf.so.3

whereas it expects only one line. Anyhow ... glad that you found a way to get it working. I and @DanSchaper will think about how to incorporate this in a future version of our installer.

Maybe bc of upstart, FTL was not setup to start at boot:

update-rc.d pihole-FTL defaults

And the web GUI is not displaying stats yet except for "104,740 Domains Being BLocked".
But have to look into this later as my eyes are becoming square.
At least its resolving and displaying blank ad page after install on XBian.
EDIT: On a Pi B+
:slight_smile:

Aha, "log-queries" was hashed from "/etc/dnsmasq.d/01-pihole.conf".
Unhashed it, restarted dnsmasq and now have full stats.

And I was sleeping.
Yes it was, I should have posted with it not running but doesnt make a difference for this issue.

I have the same problem on a fresh installation of pihole on a Raspberry Pi 2 with xbian. Debug log vgms91pny2
pihole-FTL doesn't want to be found and started, neither as a service nor as a program/script. pihole -r, reinstalling and changing permissions on /usr/bin/pihole-FTL didn't work. Do you have another suggestion about how I can get it to work, or does xbian miss some crucial parts which prevent FTL to start? Pihole does seem to start, but I'm not sure it's working correctly since the webinterface isn't telling me anything but "connection to api lost"

xbian appears to use a different init system than we are designed for. This is what is preventing FTL from starting, and preventing the debugger from collecting crucial information about the installation. It appears that dnsmasq is not using the Pi-hole configuration as well.

When we have the other issues with FTL resolved, we can take a look at the xbian platform, but you may want to open a feature request post with the request to support this platform.

Excellent, this works! Now I'll try the other hints below to get it started after a restart of the Raspberry Pi (sometimes needed when Kodi crashes or locks up)

I believe I have a working XBian setup running Pi-Hole now but waiting for the cron jobs and other issues to popup.
And cant test "pihole -up" yet as I already run latest.
But now it is reboot persistent, resolves ads to the blank page, shows graphs/stats/status and above all, its got FTL.
I believe below is what it needs:

  1. Make sure everything is configured properly with:

sudo xbian-config

  1. I had to manually set static IP in "/etc/network/interfaces" as XBian doesnt have "/etc/dhcpcd.conf".

  2. Apply network changes:

sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0

  1. Install curl:

sudo apt-get install curl

  1. Install Pi-Hole:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

  1. I had to run below to have the "/etc/pihole/local.list" file etc created as was missing:

pihole -g

  1. I also set the IP in "/etc/pihole/setupVars.conf" but not sure if necessary.

  2. Binary "/usr/bin/pihole-FTL" gave troubles because depending on missing "/lib/ld-linux.so.3" so had to do:

sudo ln -s /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/ld-linux.so.3 /lib/ld-linux.so.3

  1. Not sure if helped but did a:

cd /etc/.pihole
sudo git stash --all
sudo git clean --force -d
sudo git pull

  1. Un-hashed the "log-queries" line in "/etc/dnsmasq.d/01-pihole.conf" and:

service dnsmasq restart

  1. Start FTL at boot as it wasnt:

sudo update-rc.d pihole-FTL defaults

12) And as this Pi is a new install and intended for some other household lacking a proper cabling system, I had to kill WiFi power saver for the r8188eu driver:

echo 'options r8188eu rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=0' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/r8188eu.conf

I believe that covers it at least for now.

I did the first part the same. I already had a static IP set up before installing pihole because that was/is convenient for remote controlling Kodi, so I skipped that step in pihole setup and just left it the same.
I also had to install curl, then use that to install pihole.
I didn't do steps 6 and 7, but step 8 helped to get FTL running. I didn't do steps 9 and 10, but did step 11.

I installed a fresh copy of XBian, the Debian Stretch test version, and it seems only these steps are needed to get Pi-Hole running ontop of XBian.
At first I tried running it on a Pi B but noticed it OOMing allot.
Now I am trying it out on a Pi B+ with only one client, my own main PC.
The old B switched place and is now doing dedicated Pi-Holing for my network.
I tried browsing to the admin page with the "Web Viewer" Kodi add on but was missing lots of details probably because of missing javascript :neutral_face:

$ cat /etc/debian_version
9.0

$ uname -r -m
4.9.20+ armv6l

  1. Stop Kodi(former XBMC):
    sudo stop xbmc

  2. Configure a static IP address using below one because XBian is not using "/etc/dhcpcd.conf":
    *Might need a reboot so after, stop Kodi again(step 1) to continue.
    sudo xbian-config

  3. Create missing symlink needed by the pihole-FTL daemon:
    sudo ln -s /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/ld-linux.so.3 /lib/ld-linux.so.3

  4. Install curl:
    sudo apt install curl

  5. Run the Pi-Hole installer:
    curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

  6. Have the "pihole-FTL" daemon start at boot as XBian uses "Upstart" as init:
    sudo update-rc.d pihole-FTL defaults

  7. Reboot:
    sudo reboot

To make matters worse, I now have it piggybacking an old HP monitor using only Wifi.
So far so good playing media and blocking ads at same time.
If only there was a way of getting the admin page to display properly in Kodi :slight_smile:

Running command #5 gives me a lot of

"The script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an Upstart
job, but lsb-header is not supported for Upstart jobs."

errors

Those messages are harmless.
Just check to make sure FTL is running after a reboot:

service pihole-FTL status

ps -e | grep 'PID\|pihole-FTL'

sudo netstat -nltp | grep 'Prot\|pihole-FTL'

It was not started after boot. I added a cron job like @reboot sudo service pihole-FTL start to fix it.

Running service pihole-FTP status I get:

● pihole-FTL.service
Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
Active: inactive (dead)

but I can see the service running when I visit the pihole admin interface