[Bug 1946521] Re: [SRU] motion fails to start after install: Permission denied creating log file

[Dave Jones]

This looks good, thanks -- sponsoring!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1946521

Title:
  [SRU] motion fails to start after install: Permission denied creating
  log file

Status in motion package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in motion source package in Jammy:
  Confirmed
Status in motion source package in Mantic:
  Confirmed
Status in motion source package in Noble:
  Confirmed
Status in motion package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

  motion will fail to start after installing with the error:

  motion[4536]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion,
  cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied

  Also, service status will show:

  $ systemctl status motion.service
  ○ motion.service - Motion detection video capture daemon
       Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/motion.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
       Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2024-03-05 21:47:35 GMT; 1min 16s ago
     Duration: 91ms
         Docs: man:motion(1)
      Process: 4536 ExecStart=/usr/bin/motion (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Main PID: 4536 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
          CPU: 49ms

  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 systemd[1]: Started motion.service - Motion detection video capture daemon.
  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 motion[4536]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file /etc/motion/motion.conf
  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 motion[4536]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file /etc/motion/motion.conf
  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 motion[4536]: [0:motion] [ERR] [ALL] mycreate_path: Problem creating directory /var/log/motion: Permission denied
  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 motion[4536]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion, cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied
  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 motion[4536]: [0:motion] [ERR] [ALL] mycreate_path: Problem creating directory /var/log/motion: Permission denied
  Mar 05 21:47:34 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 motion[4536]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion, cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied
  Mar 05 21:47:35 sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 systemd[1]: motion.service: Deactivated successfully.

  Any attempt to start or restart the service will still fail.

  $ sudo systemctl start motion.service

  Broadcast message from systemd-journald at sudip-pc-i440fx-7-2 (Tue
  2024-03-05 21:49:44 GMT):

  motion[4621]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion,
  cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied

  The problem will be there until the /var/log/motion directory is
  created. A non-technical user will see "motion" is not working.

  [ Test Plan ]

  1. Install motion
  2. Check motion service status and confirm its started

  With the fixed package, motion service status will shows it has
  started.

  [ Where problems could occur ]

  It does not change any part of the code, only change is in the
  postinst script to create the log folder if it does not exist. There
  should not be any regression in the software for this change.

  [ Other Info ]

  The log folder creation was part of the init scripts at https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/motion/tree/debian/motion.init?h=ubuntu/focal#n60
  I guess it was missed while updating the package to use systemd services.

  The error will not be seen by users upgrading from Focal.

  [ Original Bug Description ]

  I installed motion for the first time on a reasonably fresh Kubuntu
  21.04 release. I installed this system in April 2021. It immediately
  fails and spams "emergency" log messages all over my terminals. (See
  dpkg log below)

  The problem seems to be that the default config
  /etc/motion/motion.conf specifies:

  log_file /var/log/motion/motion.log

  but there is nothing to create that directory. I'm not sure whether
  this should be a job for postinst, or a systemd ExecStartPre, but I
  would argue that not logging to a file at all and letting systemd-
  journald hoover up the stderr/syslog messages would be better.

  Indeed, if I remove the log_file line from /etc/motion/motion.conf,
  motion starts and runs perfectly well, and I get log messages in
  systemctl status.

  Thanks,
  Bruce

  Dpkg log:

  Setting up motion (4.3.2-1) ...
  Adding group `motion' (GID 134) ...
  Done.
  Warning: The home dir /var/lib/motion you specified already exists.
  Adding system user `motion' (UID 127) ...
  Adding new user `motion' (UID 127) with group `motion' ...
  The home directory `/var/lib/motion' already exists.  Not copying from `/etc/skel'.
  adduser: Warning: The home directory `/var/lib/motion' does not belong to the user you are currently creating.
  Adding user `motion' to group `video' ...
  Adding user motion to group video
  Done.
  Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/motion.service → /lib/systemd/system/motion.service.
  Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.4-2) ...

  Broadcast message from systemd-journald at w7700 (Fri 2021-10-08 01:05:54
  BST):

  motion[1372993]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion,
  cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied

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