What's new

Merlin WRT on Asus AX88U - boot mount issue?

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Sabbath81

Regular Contributor
Hello guys,
i have latest stable Merlin WRT on my AX88U, but im experiencing some strange behaviour during boot.
I have USB flash with the OS and external HDD for media and etc.
Also i have installed Transmission using the guides here.
During router boot, Transmission reports it cannot see the watchdir , which i checked is correct.
Is it possible that Transmission is loaded before the HDD mount point?

I remember there was a script that to load Transmission after all external drives are mounted, but cannot find it.

Thank you!
 
Tying the start of *any* app to the availability of a mounted flash drive is usually problematic. There's simply no guarantee when (or even if) a USB drive will be mounted. That's why you're generally better off to run the app from a script, where you monitor the availability of the USB drive and don't start the app until it's mounted. That's why most routers provide a means to perform post-mounting actions in response to mounting the USB drive. But if you just blindly assume the USB drive will be mounted by the time your app needs it, well yeah, you're probably going to have problems (maybe not all the time, but at least sometimes).
 
Tying the start of *any* app to the availability of a mounted flash drive is usually problematic. There's simply no guarantee when (or even if) a USB drive will be mounted. That's why you're generally better off to run the app from a script, where you monitor the availability of the USB drive and don't start the app until it's mounted. That's why most routers provide a means to perform post-mounting actions in response to mounting the USB drive. But if you just blindly assume the USB drive will be mounted by the time your app needs it, well yeah, you're probably going to have problems (maybe not all the time, but at least sometimes).
okay, how can i fix this in this scenario with a script?
Usually besides the 2 entries in the log, the program runs just fine.
 
okay, how can i fix this in this scenario with a script?
Usually besides the 2 entries in the log, the program runs just fine.

If you're saying Transmission is still fully functional, despite the warnings (maybe it's capable of recovering from the situation once the USB drive is finally mounted), then it doesn't matter, right?
 
If you're saying Transmission is still fully functional, despite the warnings (maybe it's capable of recovering from the situation once the USB drive is finally mounted), then it doesn't matter, right?
yep, its working flawlessly, just wanted to avoid these logs, but anyway....

i remember there was a script to check if HDD is mounted and then to start the app.
 
Sep 29 17:51:02 transmission-daemon[5600]: watchdir:inotify Failed to setup watchdir "/tmp/mnt/WDHDD/Torrents/watchdir": No such file or directory (2) (watchdir-inotify.c:171)
Sep 29 17:51:02 transmission-daemon[5600]: watchdir Failed to open directory "/tmp/mnt/WDHDD/Torrents/watchdir" (2): No such file or directory (watchdir.c:358)
 
Anything set up in /tmp directory will not survive a reboot. That is likely the source of your issue. Likely setup that way during initial install. You may want to re-install or modify the conf files to use /opt/tmp, which is on the USB HDD
 
Anything set up in /tmp directory will not survive a reboot. That is likely the source of your issue. Likely setup that way during initial install. You may want to re-install or modify the conf files to use /opt/tmp, which is on the USB HDD

The USB drive is necessarily mounted to /tmp (e.g., /tmp/mnt/sda), And by extension, so is /opt since it's typically bound to somewhere on the USB drive. IOW, unless you're using JFFS, the use of /tmp is inescapable for just about anything not directly supported in the firmware.
 
Last edited:
Guys,

so what so u suggest?

merlin is installed using atmt and transmission afterwards.
As i know mount is always on tmp?

jffs is enabled.

As mentioned , transmission is working normally, but i want to resolve these logging problem.
 
The USB drive is necessarily mounted to /tmp (e.g., /tmp/mnt/sda1), And by extension, so is /opt since it's typically bound to somewhere on the USB drive. IOW, unless you're using JFFS, the use of /tmp is inescapable for just about anything not directly supported in the firmware.
Yes, you are correct. That is what get for commenting when sick. Sorry
 
How did you install Entware? Based on what I'm seeing, if you use AMTM, then it will necessarily create a USB post-mount script that symbolically links the Entware directory on the USB drive to the /opt directory, and only then starts any installed Entware services (e.g., transmission). IOW, the proper timing is taken into consideration *provided* you install Entware via AMTM (assuming the watchdir is on that same USB drive). I suspect you didn't do that.
 
Last edited:
How did you install Entware? Based on what I'm seeing, if you use AMTM, then it will necessarily create a USB post-mount script that symbolically links the Entware directory on the USB drive to the /opt directory, and only then starts any installed Entware services (e.g., transmission). IOW, the proper timing is taken into consideration *provided* you install Entware via AMTM (assuming the watchdir is on that same USB drive). I suspect you didn't do that.
Correct guess, amtm installation. Nothing else changed. If u are correct, then why this timing for starting services isnt working properly?
Im also running diversion and skynet , no issues there.
Why transmission isnt logging problems for the other folders, and only this watchdir?
 
Normally the USB drive is mounted to either sda (without a swap partition), or sda1 (w/ a swap partition). But your watchdir is NOT referencing either. Why?

Code:
/tmp/mnt/WDHDD/Torrents/watchdir

If you labeled that partition WDHDD, and are expecting it to use that label once mounted, it won't (at least it didn't for me).

IOW, seems to me it should be ...

Code:
/tmp/mnt/sda1/Torrents/watchdir

Which is consistent w/ the following link.

 
If you labeled that partition WDHDD, and are expecting it to use that label once mounted, it won't (at least it didn't for me).

I take that back. I must have made a mistake in labeling. Now it's working w/ the label.
 
I have merlin wrt and entware on usb drive which is sda. Wdhdd is sdb only for media. Both are labeled correctly. Still i cannot figure out how to avoid these annoying logs.
 
Sep 29 17:51:02 transmission-daemon[5600]: watchdir:inotify Failed to setup watchdir "/tmp/mnt/WDHDD/Torrents/watchdir": No such file or directory (2) (watchdir-inotify.c:171)
Sep 29 17:51:02 transmission-daemon[5600]: watchdir Failed to open directory "/tmp/mnt/WDHDD/Torrents/watchdir" (2): No such file or directory (watchdir.c:358)

I noticed you have "Torrents" (plural), whereas the documentation has "Torrent" (singular). Could it be just a simple typo?
 
Something else to keep in mind if you're storing files (media) on a different USB drive from where Entware and Transmission is installed. From what I can see, the timing is only guaranteed when they are on the *same* USB drive. But if they are different USB drives, then at least it's possible the media USB drive is being mounted after the Entware USB drive, and then it's possible the watchdir may NOT be available at the time transmission is started.

FWIW, I just did a complete install and configuration here, using a *single* USB drive, and it all worked fine.
 
Something else to keep in mind if you're storing files (media) on a different USB drive from where Entware and Transmission is installed. From what I can see, the timing is only guaranteed when they are on the *same* USB drive. But if they are different USB drives, then at least it's possible the media USB drive is being mounted after the Entware USB drive, and then it's possible the watchdir may NOT be available at the time transmission is started.

FWIW, I just did a complete install and configuration here, using a *single* USB drive, and it all worked fine.
M
aybe this is the reason, im not sure, ive never experienced such issue so far, since this is the setup for years.
 

Similar threads

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top