GUI troubleshooting

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Revision as of 23:41, 9 January 2026 by Admin (talk | contribs) (Add Firefox extension troubleshooting for GUI login hangs)

GUI Troubleshooting

This guide covers common VoIPmonitor GUI issues organized by symptom category.

Quick Navigation

Category Common Issues
Access Issues HTTP 500, blank screen, single user cannot access
No Data Issues No CDR for today, empty dashboard, missing calls
Database Issues Timeouts, corruption, connections, schema errors
GUI Upgrade Issues Cannot login, blank screen, VM Binary error
Permission Issues Ownership errors, NAS access, binary execution
IonCube/PHP Issues Loader errors, temp directory, PHP version
Other Issues Timezone, fax, attachments, RRD graphs

Access Issues

HTTP 500 Error

Client-side steps (try first):

  1. Different browser or incognito mode
  2. Clear browser cache (Ctrl+Shift+Delete)
  3. Disable browser extensions
  4. Try from a different network

Server-side diagnosis: 

# Check Apache error log
tail -100 /var/log/apache2/error.log    # Debian/Ubuntu
tail -100 /var/log/httpd/error_log      # RHEL/CentOS

# Check PHP-FPM log
tail -100 /var/log/php-fpm/www-error.log

# Check SELinux
getenforce
# If "Enforcing", try temporarily: setenforce 0

💡 Tip:


Firefox/Waterfox: Blank Page or Hang on Login

Firefox/Waterfox: Blank Page or Hang on Login

If the Web GUI shows a blank page or hangs during login, but works correctly in Chrome/Edge, the cause is typically a browser extension conflict.

Diagnosis:

  • Issue occurs in Firefox/Waterfox but not Chrome/Edge
  • Works when Developer Tools (F12) is open
  • Persists in private mode and through SSH tunnels

Solution:

  1. In Firefox, navigate to about:addons
  2. Select Extensions tab and disable all extensions
  3. Close and reopen Firefox completely
  4. Attempt to log in to the GUI
  5. If successful, one extension is the cause. Re-enable extensions one by one (or in pairs) restarting Firefox and testing after each change to identify the specific culprit

Single User Cannot Access

If one user cannot access GUI while others can:

  1. Check IP whitelist: User Management > edit user > "Access from IPs" field
  2. Check network path: Compare user's route vs working users
  3. Capture traffic: tcpdump -i eth0 host USER_IP -w /tmp/debug.pcap

Blank Screen After Upgrade

# Check for conflicting PEAR file
ls -la /usr/share/pear/constants.php
# If exists, remove it:
rm /usr/share/pear/constants.php

# Check SELinux
getenforce
# If Enforcing, temporarily disable: setenforce 0

# Clear browser cache
# Press Ctrl+F5 in browser

No Data Issues

No CDR or Dashboard Data for Current Day

Step 1: Check sensor status

Navigate to Settings > Sensors in GUI:

  • Status UP - Sensor connected, proceed to Step 2
  • Status Down - Sensor disconnected, see Sensor Down below

Step 2: Generate debug log (if sensor UP)

Navigate to Tools > Generate Debug Log and share the link with VoIPmonitor support.

Step 3: Check common causes

Cause Diagnosis Solution
Missing partition SHOW CREATE TABLE cdr; - check partition for today's date ALTER TABLE cdr ADD PARTITION (PARTITION pYYYYMMDD VALUES LESS THAN (UNIX_TIMESTAMP('YYYY-MM-DD')));
Timezone mismatch GUI shows different time than DB Settings > System Configuration > National > Timezone
CDR disabled Check voipmonitor.conf Ensure cdr = yes
Spool directory Check spooldir path Verify path exists and has correct permissions

ℹ️ Note: If GUI shows yesterday's data but not today's, the most common cause is a missing database partition.

Sensor Down

# Check sensor service
systemctl status voipmonitor

# View recent logs
journalctl -u voipmonitor -n 500

# Check database connectivity
mysql -h DB_HOST -u voipmonitor -p -e "SELECT 1"

# Restart if needed
systemctl restart voipmonitor

No Audio Playback

If QoS data is visible but no audio: 

# Check voipmonitor.conf
grep -E "^savertp|^savegraph" /etc/voipmonitor.conf

# Should show:
# savertp = yes
# savegraph = yes (optional)

See RTP and Audio Recording for detailed configuration.

Database Issues

GUI Queries Timeout (40-50 seconds)

MySQL/MariaDB tuning: 

# /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf or /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

[mysqld]
# Set to 50-70% of available RAM
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 4G

# Reduce disk I/O (slight durability tradeoff)
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2

# Increase connection timeout
wait_timeout = 28800
interactive_timeout = 28800

Apache mod_fcgid timeout:

If you see "server side error - check your http server error log. - connection to the web server was lost / interrupted": 

# In httpd.conf or apache2.conf
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
    FcgidIdleTimeout 900
    FcgidProcessLifeTime 7200
    FcgidConnectTimeout 300
    FcgidIOTimeout 900
</IfModule>

systemctl restart apache2  # or httpd

Too Many Connections

-- Check current connections
SHOW STATUS LIKE 'Threads_connected';
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'max_connections';

-- Increase limit (temporary)
SET GLOBAL max_connections = 500;

-- Permanent: add to my.cnf
-- max_connections = 500

MySQL Swap Memory Warning

If you see swap memory warning on GUI login:

  • Less than 50 MB swap - Safe to ignore, minor performance impact
  • Hundreds of MB or GB - Investigate memory usage, consider increasing RAM or reducing innodb_buffer_pool_size
# Check MySQL memory usage
ps aux | grep mysqld
free -h

Unknown Column in Field List

If GUI shows "Unknown column [table].[column] in 'field list'": 

# Method 1: URL parameter (fastest)
# Add ?check_tables=1 to GUI URL:
# http://your-gui-ip/admin.php?check_tables=1

# Method 2: Command line
cd /var/www/html
php php/run.php dbcheck

# Method 3: Restart sensor (if disable_dbupgradecheck=no)
systemctl restart voipmonitor

Database Corruption

Recovery methods (try in order):

Method 1: Table repair 

mysqlcheck -u root -p --auto-repair voipmonitor

Method 2: Drop and recreate specific table 

-- Backup structure first
SHOW CREATE TABLE problematic_table;

-- Drop and let sensor recreate
DROP TABLE problematic_table;
-- Restart sensor: systemctl restart voipmonitor

Method 3: InnoDB force recovery 

# Add to my.cnf [mysqld] section:
innodb_force_recovery = 1
# Restart MySQL, export data, remove option, reimport

⚠️ Warning: After using innodb_force_recovery, remove the option before resuming normal operations. The database is read-only while this option is set.

Method 4: PCAP restore

If PCAPs are preserved, drop database and let sensor reindex: 

# Edit voipmonitor.conf
reindex_all = yes  # (temporary)

systemctl restart voipmonitor
# Wait for reindexing to complete, then remove reindex_all

See Database_troubleshooting for detailed recovery procedures.

MySQL 8.0 Issues

SYSTEM_USER privilege error: 

GRANT SYSTEM_USER ON *.* TO 'voipmonitor'@'localhost';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'voipmonitor'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

-- Also set:
SET GLOBAL log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1;

MySQL 8.0.42 crashes:

⚠️ Warning: MySQL 8.0.42 has known bugs causing VoIPmonitor crashes. Upgrade to 8.0.43 or later. 

mysql --version
# If 8.0.42:
sudo apt install --only-upgrade mysql-server-8.0  # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf update mysql-server                       # RHEL

Managed Database: Primary Key Error

For DigitalOcean, AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL: 

-- Disable in managed DB console or parameter group:
sql_require_primary_key = OFF

GUI Upgrade Issues

Cannot Login After Upgrade

Reset password via database: 

UPDATE users SET password = MD5('newpassword') WHERE username = 'admin';

Redis session issue (login loop): 

redis-cli FLUSHALL
systemctl restart php-fpm

VM Binary Error

cd /var/www/html
php php/run.php upgrade -f

Invalid Compressed Data

Usually caused by incorrect web root ownership: 

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html  # Debian/Ubuntu
chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html       # RHEL/CentOS

Unable to Remove Old Files

# Fix tshark ownership
chown www-data:www-data /var/www/html/bin/tshark*

# Retry upgrade from GUI

Upgrade Not Visible

Check internet connectivity from GUI server: 

curl -I https://www.voipmonitor.org
ping www.voipmonitor.org

Permission Issues

Incorrect Ownership Error

Often caused by missing execute permissions on binaries: 

# Fix bin directory
chmod +x /var/www/html/bin/*

# Verify
ls -la /var/www/html/bin/

NAS Spool Permission Denied

# Use ACLs (recommended)
setfacl -R -m u:www-data:rwx /path/to/nas/spool

# CRITICAL: Set on ALL parent directories too
setfacl -m u:www-data:rx /NAS
setfacl -m u:www-data:rx /NAS/voipmonitor

# Verify
sudo -u www-data ls /path/to/nas/spool

SELinux Blocking mscgen (SIP Call Flow Diagrams)

If SIP call flow diagram shows "convert msc to svg (mscgen): unknown error": 

# Check SELinux denials
ausearch -m avc -ts recent | grep mscgen

# Create policy module
grep mscgen /var/log/audit/audit.log | audit2allow -M mscgen_local
semodule -i mscgen_local.pp

IonCube and PHP Issues

Temp Directory Not Writable

# Check and fix /tmp permissions
ls -ld /tmp
chmod 1777 /tmp

# Check SELinux
getenforce
# If Enforcing, try: setenforce 0

# Check systemd PrivateTmp
systemctl show httpd | grep PrivateTmp
# If true, create override:
# /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/privatetmp.conf
# [Service]
# PrivateTmp=false

PHP CLI vs Web Server Mismatch

# Test as web server user
sudo -u www-data php -r 'echo extension_loaded("ionCube Loader")?"yes":"no";'

# Compare configs
php --ini                    # CLI config
# Create phpinfo: echo '<?php phpinfo();' > /var/www/html/info.php
# Check "Loaded Configuration File" in browser
# Remove after: rm /var/www/html/info.php

License Activation: Server Side Error - Forbidden

This indicates ionCube PHP version incompatibility:

GUI Version PHP Version
v26.37+ PHP 8.3 supported
Older PHP 8.2 or earlier required 
# Check Apache error log
tail -50 /var/log/apache2/error.log | grep -i ioncube

# Solution: Either upgrade GUI to v26.37+ or downgrade PHP to 8.2

Other Issues

Invalid Timezone (GUI Inaccessible)

# Edit directly
nano /var/www/html/config/configuration.php

# Find and fix:
define('TIMEZONE', 'UTC');  # Use valid timezone
define('SENSORS_TIMEZONE', 'UTC');

systemctl restart php-fpm

Valid timezones: UTC, Europe/London, America/New_York, Europe/Berlin, etc.

Faxes Not Displayed

# Install libtiff-tools
apt-get install libtiff-tools    # Debian/Ubuntu
yum install libtiff-tools        # RHEL/CentOS

# Verify
which tiff2pdf

File Attachment Blocked

Files like .xlsx, .docx are blocked for security. Compress to .zip or .gz: 

zip archive.zip your_file.xlsx

RRD Graph Errors After Hardware Change

# Delete corrupted RRD files
rm -rf /var/spool/voipmonitor/rrd/*

# Sensor will recreate them
systemctl restart voipmonitor

/dev/shm Full (Session Logout Issues)

# Check usage
df -h /dev/shm

# Temporary increase
mount -o remount,size=1G /dev/shm

# Permanent: edit /etc/fstab
# tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,size=1G 0 0

Concurrent Calls Stats Error

Usually caused by duplicate cron entries: 

# Check for duplicates
grep "voipmonitor\|run.php" /etc/crontab

# Comment out duplicates, keep only one

TShark CVE Security Updates

The bundled tshark may have known CVEs. To update: 

cd /var/www/html/bin

# Download updated binary from Wireshark
wget https://www.wireshark.org/download/automated/linux64/tshark
chmod +x tshark
chown www-data:www-data tshark

Dashboard Edit Icon Grayed Out

User lacks edit permission. Grant via User Management > edit user > enable "Edit Dashboard" permission.


AI Summary for RAG

Summary: VoIPmonitor GUI troubleshooting guide covering: (1) HTTP 500 errors - try client-side steps first (different browser, incognito, clear cache), then check Apache/PHP error logs and SELinux; (2) No CDR for current day - check sensor status in Settings > Sensors, generate debug log if UP, check partitions/timezone/cdr config if Down; (3) GUI debug mode - add ?debug=31415 to URL; (4) Database timeouts - tune innodb_buffer_pool_size (50-70% RAM), increase mod_fcgid timeouts; (5) Database corruption - use mysqlcheck, drop/recreate tables, or innodb_force_recovery; (6) GUI upgrade issues - reset password via database, fix ownership, run php php/run.php upgrade -f; (7) Permission errors - chmod +x bin/*, use setfacl for NAS; (8) IonCube errors - check SELinux, PHP version compatibility (GUI v26.37+ for PHP 8.3); (9) Schema errors - use ?check_tables=1 URL parameter.

Keywords: HTTP 500, no CDR, sensor status, debug mode, ?debug=31415, innodb_buffer_pool_size, MySQL tuning, database corruption, mysqlcheck, innodb_force_recovery, GUI upgrade, password reset, IonCube, SELinux, PHP 8.3, ?check_tables=1, NAS permissions, setfacl, mod_fcgid timeout, FcgidIOTimeout, mscgen, SIP call flow, tshark CVE, MySQL 8.0.42, SYSTEM_USER privilege, /dev/shm, timezone error, libtiff-tools, file attachment blocked

Key Questions:

  • HTTP 500 error on GUI - what to try first?
  • No CDR or dashboard data for current day - how to diagnose?
  • How to enable GUI debug mode?
  • GUI queries timeout - how to tune MySQL?
  • Database corrupted - which recovery method to use?
  • Cannot login after GUI upgrade - how to reset password?
  • Permission errors with NAS spool - how to fix?
  • IonCube temp directory errors - what causes them?
  • GUI shows "Unknown column in field list" - how to fix?
  • SIP call flow diagram shows error - how to fix SELinux blocking?
  • MySQL 8.0.42 causing crashes - what to do?
  • License activation fails with Forbidden error - what causes it?
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