Installing vsftpd - 500 OOPS: could not bind listening IPv4 socket?

ftp socket vsftpd ipv4

39,382

Solution 1

Remember to comment out

listen=YES

in your vsftpd.conf file so that you don't run your vsftpd in standalone mode

It fixed the problem in my case.

Solution 2

You are getting this error probably because of xinetd ftp is running.

The procedure mentioned below will resolve the following errors:

A) 500 OOPS: could not bind listening IPv4 socket, for vsftpd

B) Server hangup immediately after connect, for ncftpget

Follow the procedure mentioned below to rectify the error:

To View which ftp service is running use:

$ lsof -i | grep ftp (Become root and run this command)

To stop xinetd:
```
$ sudo service xinetd stop
```

After stoping xinetd restart your vsftpd service by typing :

$ /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart  (Become root and run this command)

Also check the vsftpd.conf with this one:

listen=YES
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
use_localtime=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty
pam_service_name=vsftpd
rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem

39,382

gskierk

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

gskierk over 1 year
I have to set up a FTP server on my machine. I have installed vsftpd using the command:
```
sudo apt-get install vsftpd
```
I then edited the configuration file vsftpd.conf in the location /etc. The file contains:
```
#Set the server to run in standalone mode
listen=YES

#Enable anonymous access
local_enable=NO
anonymous_enable=YES

#Disable write access
write_enable=NO

#Set root directory for anon connections
anon_root=/var/ftp

#Limit retrieval rate
anon_max_rate=2048000

#Enable logging user login and file transfers. /var/log/vsftpd.log
xferlog_enable=YES

#Set interface and port
listen_address=192.120.43.250
listen_port=21
```
The IP address 192.120.43.250 is the eth0 for my server. When I run the command
```
sudo vsftpd /etc/vsftpd.conf
```
I get the error:
```
500 OOPS: could not bind listening IPv4 socket
```
To check to see what was running on port 21, I ran the command:
```
sudo netstat -tulpn
```
And saw that vsftpd process id was 29383 so I issued the command:
```
sudo killserver 29383
```
And checked again. The vsftpd was still there, but with a different PID. Running the command:
```
sudo killall vsftpd
```
and
```
sudo killall -9 vsftpd
```
Does the same thing. I have already tried reinstalling. Anyone know what is going on and how to fix it?
- goldilocks about 9 years
  
  An init service was probably installed along with this, and that's what keeps respawning the process. If this is ubuntu or some other upstart based system, check with initctl list | grep vsftp; if it is debian wheezy try grep vsftp /etc/init.d/* (try this with upstart as well in case it used a sysv style script). If you get something, you either need to disable the init service, or use service (debian/sysv) or initctl (ubuntu/upstart) to control it.
把友情留在无盐 over 3 years

By the way, hi and welcome to Unix Stackexchange. I see you are new to this site. If you want to share your experience, you can always start a new thread, describe your problem in the question, and add an answer for that yourself.
Kiopwias over 3 years

Thanks for your welcome and reminding.Maybe it was a different case with another solution. @把友情留在无盐
Diwakar SHARMA over 3 years

this was my issue xinedtd was occypying ftp port 21