General Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

My arm won't start when I insert a disc ?

When a disc is inserted, udev rules should launch a script (scripts/arm_wrapper.sh) that will launch ARM. Here are some basic troubleshooting steps:

• Look for empty.log.

  • Every time you eject the CD-ROM, an entry should be entered in empty.log like:

  [2018-08-05 11:39:45] INFO ARM: main.<module> Drive appears to be empty or is not ready.  Exiting ARM.
  

  • Empty.log should be in your logs directory, as defined in your arm.yaml file. If there is no empty.log file, or entries are not being entered when you eject the CD-ROM drive, then udev is not launching ARM correctly. Check the instructions and make sure the symlink to 51-automedia.rules is set up right. I've you've changed the link or the file contents you need to reload your udev rules with:

  sudo udevadm control --reload-rules 
  

• Make sure the user arm has write permission to the locations you have set in your arm.yaml You can test these permissions by inserting a disc and running (remember to replace sr0 with the name of your own device)

  sudo -u arm /usr/bin/python3 /opt/arm/arm/ripper/main.py -d sr0

• Make sure the db file and folder is writeable by the arm user.

  The default location is /home/arm/db/

Disk Tray Opens then Immediately Closes

This can cause a disk to get ripped multiple times in a row, especially if ALLOW_DUPLICATES is True (which may be the case for ripping TV shows).

To fix this issue (on systems that use sysctl), you can run the following command. This will create a settings file that disables autoclose on the disk tray, and reloads sysctl with that settings file. It requires root privileges via sudo, and will persist across reboots.

printf "# Fix issue with DVD tray being autoclosed after rip is complete\ndev.cdrom.autoclose=0\n" | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/arm-uneject-fix.conf >/dev/null && \
  sudo sysctl --load=/etc/sysctl.d/arm-uneject-fix.conf

Other problems

• Check ARM log files

  • The default location is /home/arm/logs/ (unless this is changed in your arm.yaml file) and is named after the dvd. These are very verbose. You can filter them a little by piping the log through grep. Something like

  cat /home/arm/logs/John_Wick.log | grep ARM:
  

  This will filter out the MakeMKV and HandBrake entries and only output the ARM log entries.

  • You can change the verbosity in the arm.yaml file. DEBUG will give you more information about what ARM is trying to do. Note: please run a rip in DEBUG mode if you want to post to an issue for assistance.
  • Ideally, if you are going to post a log for help, please delete the log file, and re-run the disc in DEBUG mode. This ensures we get the most information possible and don't have to parse the file for multiple rips.

• If you have no logs, try running sudo -u arm /usr/bin/python3 /opt/arm/arm/ripper/main.py -d sr0 from a terminal/ssh sometimes this gives information that can't be put into a log (Python coding errors, etc)

If you need any help feel free to open an issue. Please see the wiki about posting a DEBUG log.

Changing logging to DEBUG mode

• Debugging mode is not enabled by default, but it offers a lot more information. If you're experiencing problems the first thing you should do is change logging to DEBUG

• You can enable Debugging by changing LOGLEVEL in your arm.yaml to LOGLEVEL: "DEBUG"

• This gives a lot more information to help track down any problems.

Email notifications

A lot of random problems are found in the sysmail, email alerting is a most effective method for debugging and monitoring.

I recommend you install postfix from here:http://mhawthorne.net/posts/2011-postfix-configuring-gmail-as-relay/

Then configure /etc/aliases e.g.:

root: [email protected]
arm: [email protected]
userAccount: [email protected]

Run below to pick up the aliases

sudo newaliases

UDF support - For users who built their own kernel

If you have built your own kernel, you must add UDF support when compiling or ARM will fail to work.

If you think you have experienced a new bug, please open an issue.