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

Question

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?

Answer 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.

Answer 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
  

Answer 3

In my case the error was due to the process was running.

Try the next:

$ sudo service vsftpd restart

The service should restart with the new configuration parameters, if any.

Answer 4

If above solutions did not worked then you are in the same situation as I was in. Now let's resolve it.

First make sure to do listen=NO or comment the line that contain listen=YES and must set the port to either 8081 or standard ports. Then type ps -ef then a whole bunch of things appear like :

Then you extract the file in which you are interested in by typing the command :

ps -ef | grep vsftpd

Now, remember the PID number is in second column. Now, copy that number. Now you need to kill the vsftpd beacause it contains previous log and you just modified something into the vsftpd.conf file. Kill command is :

sudo kill <PID>

Ex. sudo kill 5392

Now, You are done with it.Now restart the server it will run perfectly.

Answer 5

In my case, uncommentting the following line in vsftpd.conf solved the problem:

write_enable=YES

Answer 6

Maybe in the standalone mode,you have started the vsftpd service.And you just need to kill the vsftpd process,not need to change the config file.

Answer 7

The error means your system already have a vsftpd runing.It seems like that vsftpd start from inetd.You should find out the pid of vsftpd with this command:

netstat -tulpn | grep vsftpd

And then kill the process:

kill <pid>

And restart vsftpd:

/usr/local/sbin/vsftpd &

That may work.I solved the problem in my case.