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

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.