Why can't I enable Transmission on FreeNAS 9.2? I keep getting an error

Question

I have installed the plugin correctly, but every time I try and start it either using service transmission start, or trying to flip the on switch from the plugins page, I get this error:

            

I also have tried creating a new standard jail and using portsnap to get transmission, but same error.

Solution

Lead #1

It would seem to be something that you have to configure through the Web GUI in FreeNAS. From the sound of this blog post titled: "Freenas 9.2.0 with Transmission and Couchpotato/Sickbeard as a DLNA-Server" you need to make changes through several GUIs in order to configure/enable Transmission so that it will work correctly.

             

That blog post goes on to caution you if you're using Transmission in a jail.

excerpt

The "watch"-directory where Transmission looks for torrent-files is normally:

   /usr/pbi/transmission-amd64/etc/transmission/Downloads

That’s 50 characters and if you add the jail-directory to it, it exceeds Freenas’ directory-length limit of 88 characters, so you have to change this. Open up the Transmission-settings in the Plugins-tab of Freenas and edit the “Watch Directory” to “/media/torrentfiles” and the Download-Directory to “/media/downloads”.

Lead #2

I found this thread that sounds like your issue, titled: "plugins wont start, in openpam_check_desc_owner_perms(): /etc/pam.d/su: insecure ownership or permis...".

This thread seemed to conclude with there was a permissions problem with /etc/pam.d/*. Changing the permissions to 755, applied to /etc/pam.d/* was reported to fix the issue.

Comments

[Marco]

The settings in the GUI affect the behaviour when transmission has started, but they should not prevent it from starting. Furthermore, there is no such concept of a chrooted jail. Either you use chroot or a jail (which is the only supported variant on FreeNAS).

[Marco]

You can't use Transmission in a chroot on FreeNAS. You have to install it in a jail. Either by using a manual jail install or the plugin mechanism, which also uses jails. Chroot environments are not supported in FreeNAS, only jails.

[slm]

@Marco - OK, I've edited the post removing the references to chroot, it now says just jail. Also added another lead to a solution.

[slm]

@Marco - fixed URL, thanks for keeping me honest 8-)

[slm]

@Marco - also I've always heard it referred to as a chroot jail: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroot. Wikipedia also has that phrasing. I understand the distinction you're making with splitting those apart, but when I wrote "chrooted jail" I meant the way it's used in theWikipedia article, though I think when I said "chrooted jail" you took that as a verb, when I meant it as a noun in "chroot jail".