# Please help: blocking works, but console shows "FTL offline"

**URL:** <https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 12, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850 "2018-09-12T21:09:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/1 "2018-09-12T21:09:48Z")

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Hello there,  
since a couple of days I noticed admin console showing "Active" and "FTL offline".  
I still have data on web interface and blocking still works.

Here the output of "systemctl status pihole-FTL"  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS systemd[1]: Starting LSB: pihole-FTL daemon...  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS pihole-FTL[28317]: Not running  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS pihole-FTL[28317]: chown: cannot access '/etc/pihole/dhcp.leases': No such file or directory  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS su[28355]: Successful su for pihole by root  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS su[28355]: + ??? root:pihole  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS su[28355]: pam\_unix(su:session): session opened for user pihole by (uid=0)  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS su[28355]: pam\_systemd(su:session): Failed to create session: Start job for unit user@999.service failed with 'failed'  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS pihole-FTL[28317]: FTL started!  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS su[28355]: pam\_unix(su:session): session closed for user pihole  
Sep 12 21:43:17 NAS systemd[1]: Started LSB: pihole-FTL daemon.

I am still at the beginning of understanding linux. Could pleease someone help?

ty

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tntdruid](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/tntdruid/32/773_2.png) [@Tntdruid](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Tntdruid)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/2 "2018-09-12T21:41:04Z")

</div>

try sudo touch /etc/pihole/dhcp.leases  
sudo service pihole-FTL restart

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 11:08am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/3 "2018-09-13T11:08:15Z")

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Hello and thank you for your answer. I just did "sudo touch /etc/pihole/dhcp.leases" and "sudo service pihole-FTL restart", but "sudo service pihole-FTL status" still shows:

Sep 13 13:03:36 NAS su[7136]: pam\_systemd(su:session): Failed to create session: Start job for unit user@999.service failed with 'failed'

What is "pam\_systemd(su:session)"???

Thank you for your help!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/4 "2018-09-13T13:24:44Z")

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Hi, as I wrote I still learn linux, but I get better fron day to day...  
"systemctl status user@999.service" showed permission-problems with "system.d"...user/group was "urbackup" and not "root". So I corrected all files owned by "urbackup" to "root". Now output is:

user@999.service - User Manager for UID 999  
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/user@.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)  
Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/user@.service.d  
└─timeout.conf  
Active: active (running) since Thu 2018-09-13 14:20:27 CEST; 1h 0min ago  
Main PID: 532 (systemd)  
Status: "Startup finished in 967ms."  
CGroup: /user.slice/user-999.slice/user@999.service  
└─init.scope  
├─532 /lib/systemd/systemd --user  
└─533 (sd-pam)

Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Starting D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Listening on GnuPG network certificate management daemon.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Listening on D-Bus User Message Bus Socket.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Reached target Sockets.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Reached target Basic System.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Reached target Default.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[532]: Startup finished in 967ms.  
Sep 13 14:20:27 NAS systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 999.

which looks better... "service pihole-FTL status" shows now:

● pihole-FTL.service - LSB: pihole-FTL daemon  
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL; generated)  
Active: active (exited) since Thu 2018-09-13 14:20:28 CEST; 1h 1min ago  
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)  
Process: 404 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Sep 13 14:20:24 NAS systemd[1]: Starting LSB: pihole-FTL daemon...  
Sep 13 14:20:25 NAS pihole-FTL[404]: Not running  
Sep 13 14:20:26 NAS su[519]: Successful su for pihole by root  
Sep 13 14:20:26 NAS su[519]: + ??? root:pihole  
Sep 13 14:20:26 NAS su[519]: pam\_unix(su:session): session opened for user pihole by (uid=0)  
Sep 13 14:20:28 NAS pihole-FTL[404]: FTL started!  
Sep 13 14:20:28 NAS systemd[1]: Started LSB: pihole-FTL daemon.

But on Admin console still "FTL offline". Any ideas?

Thank you for help!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/5 "2018-09-13T15:36:32Z")

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Run `pihole -d` for a debug token. Also share the output of this command:

```auto
echo ">stats" | nc localhost 4711

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/6 "2018-09-13T18:46:58Z")

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Hello Mcat12 and thank you for your reply!  
The output of " echo "\>stats" | nc localhost 4711" is:

domains\_being\_blocked 133209  
dns\_queries\_today 7034  
ads\_blocked\_today 2206  
ads\_percentage\_today 31.361956  
unique\_domains 902  
queries\_forwarded 4048  
queries\_cached 780  
clients\_ever\_seen 16  
unique\_clients 16  
dns\_queries\_all\_types 7137  
reply\_NODATA 287  
reply\_NXDOMAIN 106  
reply\_CNAME 1007  
reply\_IP 2948  
status enabled  
---EOM---

The debug token is: 7ap897qzgs

Bye

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/7 "2018-09-15T22:28:08Z")

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It looks like the web interface should be working. What is the output of `curl http://pi.hole/admin/api.php?summary`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 8:52am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/8 "2018-09-16T08:52:23Z")

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Hello, the output of "curl [http://pi.hole/admin/api.php?summary](http://pi.hole/admin/api.php?summary)" is:

{"domains\_being\_blocked":"132,397","dns\_queries\_today":"2,855","ads\_blocked\_today":"228","ads\_percentage\_today":"8.0","unique\_domains":"588","queries\_forwarded":"2,030","queries\_cached":"597","clients\_ever\_seen":"10","unique\_clients":"8","dns\_queries\_all\_types":"2,934","reply\_NODATA":"85","reply\_NXDOMAIN":"18","reply\_CNAME":"171","reply\_IP":"492","status":"enabled","gravity\_last\_updated":{"file\_exists":true,"absolute":1537064826,"relative":{"days":"0","hours":"06","minutes":"18"}}}

Maybe it is something wrong in a cache...?!  
I have the same "wrong" view on every Windows-client...working with three different browsers...

Thank you and bye.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/10 "2018-09-16T18:37:16Z")

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Hi,  
I did that "curl [http://pi.hole/admin/api.php?summary](http://pi.hole/admin/api.php?summary)" on my NAS via putty...

Bye

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/11 "2018-09-16T20:14:20Z")

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Hello, just found something runnning "service lighttpd status -l":

Sep 16 22:05:54 NAS lighttpd[524]: sh: 1: pidof: Permission denied  
Sep 16 22:05:54 NAS sudo[23945]: www-data : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/var/www/html/admin ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/local/bin/pihole status web  
Sep 16 22:05:54 NAS sudo[23945]: pam\_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)  
Sep 16 22:05:54 NAS sudo[23945]: pam\_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root  
Sep 16 22:05:58 NAS lighttpd[524]: sh: 1: pidof: Permission denied  
Sep 16 22:05:58 NAS sudo[23968]: www-data : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/var/www/html/admin ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/local/bin/pihole status web  
Sep 16 22:05:58 NAS sudo[23968]: pam\_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)  
Sep 16 22:05:58 NAS sudo[23968]: pam\_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root

What are the correct permission-setting (user:group) for "/usr/local/bin/pihole"? Now it is root:root...  
I think the unsuccesfully install of "urbackup" totally borked my pihole...

Thank you very much for your help.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 3:39am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/12 "2018-09-17T03:39:49Z")

</div>

Those are fine permissions for the `pihole` file. Check `/etc/sudoers.d/pihole` for its permissions and contents.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/13 "2018-09-17T13:22:00Z")

</div>

Hello,  
the permissions of "/etc/sudoers.d/pihole" is root:root 0440 (read-only even for root...is that correct...?!), its content:

```
# Pi-hole: A black hole for Internet advertisements
# (c) 2017 Pi-hole, LLC (https://pi-hole.net)
# Network-wide ad blocking via your own hardware.
#
# Allows the WebUI to use Pi-hole commands
#
# This file is copyright under the latest version of the EUPL.
# Please see LICENSE file for your rights under this license.
#
www-data ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/pihole

```

Thank you and bye.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/15 "2018-09-17T13:48:59Z")

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Me again... What are the right permissions for "/var/www/html/admin"? Here everything belongs to root:root 0755... Permissions of "var/www/html" are www-data:www-data 0775...

Because of that " sh: 1: pidof: Permission denied" I think it must be a permission-problem somewhere...

Bye

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:11am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/17 "2018-09-20T03:11:39Z")

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Those are the correct permissions for the sudoers file (any other permissions would cause it to not work).  
What are the permissions of `/usr/bin/pidof` and `/usr/bin/pihole-FTL`?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/18 "2018-09-20T18:46:25Z")

</div>

Hi Mcat, permission of "/usr/bin/pihole-FTL" are root:root 755, "/usr/bin/pidof" doesnt even exist, but I was able to find it in /bin/ with permissions root:root 777...

Should user "pihole" be a member of group "sudo"? Now it is only "pihole" and "www-data"...

Thank you and bye

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/19 "2018-09-20T19:30:08Z")

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No, neither `pihole` nor `www-data` should not be in `sudo`. Are you able to run `pidof pihole-FTL`?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/20 "2018-09-20T19:33:20Z")

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Hello,  
"pidof pihole-FTL" returns 12946... No I meant: has user "pihole" to be member of groups "pihole" and "www-data" and even "sudo"?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/21 "2018-09-20T20:33:57Z")

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`pihole` should only be in the `pihole` and `www-data` groups. However, this is not relevant for this thread. PHP uses the `www-data` user, and does not interact with the `pihole` user except through FTL.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MogRuith](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dfb087/32.png) [@MogRuith](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/MogRuith)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2018, 9:20am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/22 "2018-09-22T09:20:10Z")

</div>

Thank you very much for your explanation!!!  
As I already mentioned, I still learn linux and the learning curve is very steep for me...  
Any other ideas how to fix "my" problem?

Bye

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850/23 "2018-09-22T20:23:27Z")

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Your backup system seems to have messed up a lot of things. Try setting up Pi-hole on a fresh system.

[Next page](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/please-help-blocking-works-but-console-shows-ftl-offline/12850.md?page=2)