Error: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt

[torstesu]

I can't seem to wrap my head around an error occurring while installing plugins.

I have followed the guides to install the jail, and have also successfully installed Transmission. However, the first time i installed transmission, the jail was misconfigured (wrong IP-settings) and the plugin wouldn't activate. I then uninstalled the transmission plugin, and tried to reinstall it. After this procedure, i received the error message "Error: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt". After searching forums and the web in general, I read a tip to completely remove the jail and all mount points and try again. This time the installation was successful, as well as the installation of transmission.

This is when the problem starts. Although transmission is up and running smoothly, I am not able to install any other plugins at all. In every attempt, the installation is unsuccessful generating the same error as received in the previously mentioned first attempts installing transmission.

"Error: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt"

Do anybody have any suggestion on how to overcome this issue? Please note that I am pretty much a noob.

Edit: Sorry, i posted the thread in the wrong subsection...

 

[ben]

Thread moved to correct forum.

 

[Foonus]

I can't seem to wrap my head around an error occurring while installing plugins.

I have followed the guides to install the jail, and have also successfully installed Transmission. However, the first time i installed transmission, the jail was misconfigured (wrong IP-settings) and the plugin wouldn't activate. I then uninstalled the transmission plugin, and tried to reinstall it. After this procedure, i received the error message "Error: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt". After searching forums and the web in general, I read a tip to completely remove the jail and all mount points and try again. This time the installation was successful, as well as the installation of transmission.

This is when the problem starts. Although transmission is up and running smoothly, I am not able to install any other plugins at all. In every attempt, the installation is unsuccessful generating the same error as received in the previously mentioned first attempts installing transmission.

"Error: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt"

Do anybody have any suggestion on how to overcome this issue? Please note that I am pretty much a noob.

Edit: Sorry, i posted the thread in the wrong subsection...

Issue remains with current FreeNAS-8.3.0-BETA2-x64 (r12317M), one plugin (transmission) installed and running after a lot of trial and error, but it gives the same problem you described when trying to load any others, specifically even the right ones for that revision listed on the download site.

 

[TravisT]

I'm running into this same problem. Had transmission installed once when I was testing my new server. Wiped everything, and transmission wouldn't correctly install (probably error on my part). I've read and re-read, but now I'm getting the above error also.

One thing I noticed is that it seems that each time I start the plugin service, the Jail ID increments one. Also, no IP is shown for the jail listed in the "jls"command, however if I type jexec <jail ID> ifconfig -a things display correctly. Not sure if this is normal behavior or not.

If anyone could tell me how to get this working again (completely remove jail/start over), that would be appreciated. Removing it in the GUI doesn't seem to be enough.

 

[ProtoSD]

One thing I noticed is that it seems that each time I start the plugin service, the Jail ID increments one. Also, no IP is shown for the jail listed in the "jls"command, however if I type jexec <jail ID> ifconfig -a things display correctly. Not sure if this is normal behavior or not.

This is normal. Sorry I don't have any ideas about your error at the moment though.

 

[TravisT]

Just tried something and it seemed to work.

I cleared all mount points and it let me install and configure transmission. Try clearing your mount points, install new pbi, then re-add your mount points.

 

[VoodooFX]

Sorry for bumping the thread - just made a fresh install of FN 8.3.0, after hanging onto 8.0.x for way too long.
Anyways, even in the release build this is problem is still present. Thankfully TravisT's solution worked for me as well, so for anyone suffering similar fate, follow TravisT's advice.

 

[ozzyman778]

I am getting the exact same error except I am simply trying to install the actual jail plugin just to get started with plugins. Any idea what I could do to fix this?

I am running a fresh install of FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-x64 (r12701M) 4 500g hard drives in raidz. I can't figure this out for the life of me. Perhaps I could export my pool, reinstall, import and try to install the jail plugin again?

 

[VoodooFX]

Hi ozzyman, since I'm fresh out of battle myself, so to speak and I am basically running same configuration as you (same architecture, array type and disk sizes) I will try to help you.
Now, I'm no expert by any means and sure as hell don't want you to think I have you for a noob, but there can be really few things to consider:
1. Your jail plugin file may indeed be corrupted, if you haven't done this already - try to re-download it.
2. Your jail plugin may be for 32bit version (albeit highly unlikely) - never actually tested what error, if any, would 32 bit jail plugin raise on a 64bit FN.

I'm assuming you went through this tutorial: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Plugins, if not, try it, although it doesn't really touch any error topics one might get in the process of installing jail and plugins.

If you did all of the above already, then explain in detail what steps you did, what values you entered in Settings (IP, Netmask, etc) under Plugins->Management; since FN is really picky here and won't give you any errors to which of the entered values is wrong.

 

[ozzyman778]

1. Yes I re-downloaded it several times just to make sure it was good, I am running 64 bit version of FN and retrieved the jail PBI from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenas/files/FreeNAS-8.3.0/RELEASE/x64/plugins/

2. 64 bit for sure.

I first clicked on the wrench next to "Plugins"

Step 1 of 3 Place to temporarily place PBI file: /mnt/Storage

Step 2 of 3
Plugins Jail Path: /mnt/Storage/jail
Jail Name: jail
Jail IP Adress: 192.168.1.250
Jail IP Netmask: /24 255.255.255.0
Plugins Archive Path: /mnt/Storage/plugins

I then click upload jail PBI, find it (FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-x64.Plugins_Jail.pbi.sha256) on my laptop and click "upload jail PBI"

I then get a: Error: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt.

I am unsure of what I may have done wrong here.

 

[ozzyman778]

Interesting though if I simply click to turn on plugins it gives me an error saying "please configure a default gateway" Should I set a value for ipv4 default gateway in global network settings?

Entered my routers IP as the default gateway and same error as before hmmmm

 

[VoodooFX]

This is the problem: "FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-x64.Plugins_Jail.pbi.sha256" is not the right file, this is a hash file so that's why it's not working. The correct file is almost 100mb in size. Here's the direct link --> click here <--

Try it and report back.

 

[ozzyman778]

Well while you were right, the files I was using were not correct. I downloaded the 94mb pbi and after the progress bar reached 100% uploaded same error

Just to be on the safe side I re-downloaded it and same error

If I just do a zpool export, fresh install, zpool import I could eliminate any odd settings issues I guess

 

[VoodooFX]

Just to be sure:
The Jail IP Adress you entered: 192.168.1.250 is not the same as that of a FreeNAS, by any chance is it? Because it needs to be different.
Also make 100% sure, that you've selected the right netmask.

If you gave the jail an unique IP and your netmask is correct, can you successfully ping this IP from another computer?

 

[ozzyman778]

Net mask is the same as FreeNAS /24 255.255.255.0

FreeNAS IP is 192.168.1.200 and is pingable by all computers on network

I can not ping the Jail IP address as it is not in use by anything on the network, It is outside of my routers DHCP range so I shouldn't need to worry about one of our computers receiving that IP either.

I will probably be trying a fresh install tonight when folks aren't using the storage for streaming movies.

I am currently running SAB, CP and SB on my laptop and just post processing everything to my Samba share but would be nice to not have my laptop running all the time.

 

[ozzyman778]

Problem solved, I set google as my name servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and install worked fine

Any idea why not having name servers would have caused this?

 

[VoodooFX]

No idea, to be honest, my nameservers are all empty and it worked just fine without them.

But in the end you've got it to work, and that's all that matters.

I must admit, I've expected the whole jail plugin setup to be a much smoother ride - but it turns out there are many unexplained thing that can go wrong. I doubt everyday people, that are not computer savvy, and are just looking for a simple NAS solution with a few extra functions, will be able to wrap their heads around this.

 

[Ploynog]

Is there any news on this? I get the same error and deleting all mountpoints did not help at all. I've also deleted the jail and reinstalled it, following the guide by the letter. However, everytime I get the error that the archive is not recognized as a PBI file. I've also verified the SHA256-sums.

I am running FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-x64 and am using the jail and the transmission PBI for that specific version, I doublechecked that. I've been poking around in the logfiles a bit and for each attempt to install the software, the following three lines are added to /var/log/messages

Jan 2 16:50:18 freenas notifier: rm: /var/tmp/firmware: Device busy
Jan 2 16:50:29 freenas notifier: rm: /var/tmp/firmware: Device busy
Jan 2 16:50:29 freenas manage.py: [middleware.exceptions:38] [MiddlewareError: This file was not identified as in PBI format, it might as well be corrupt.]

The folder "/var/tmp/firmware" contains the PBI-file I tried to install and a link to the .freenas-folder within the software-dataset. It indeed cannot be deleted since a device is mounted there ("/dev/ufs/FreeNASmdu on /var/tmp/firmware (ufs, local)" is what mount says).

That is what I could dig up until now. Hints are greatly appreciated. If I find out more, I let you know.

EDIT: Ok, that was easier than expected. After finding out that /dev/ufs/FreeNASmdu is actually a memory device (Sorry, I'm more a Linux user and less FreeBSD) and unmounting it, the installation suddenly worked. However, this does not explain why the error occured in the first place. A clearer error message would be good, too. Apparently there was absolutely nothing wrong with the PBI-file, yet the error message indicated the opposite.

 

[rm-r]

Just tried something and it seemed to work.

I cleared all mount points and it let me install and configure transmission. Try clearing your mount points, install new pbi, then re-add your mount points.

+1 for this - i deleted my jail mount points, installed all the same PBIs without a problem, then recreated the mount points and away she went!! Thanks - was pulling my hair out on this!

Build FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-p1-x64 (r12825)

 

[Jahava]

+1 for this - i deleted my jail mount points, installed all the same PBIs without a problem, then recreated the mount points and away she went!! Thanks - was pulling my hair out on this!

Build FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-p1-x64 (r12825)

Alright, so I think I know what's going on, maybe?

I just followed the FreeNAS "Plugins" Wiki Page and encountered this error after successfully installing my jail. All of the network information checked out, and, like several posters above, I also found that removing all of my mounts seemed to allow me to install plugins. I have, therefore, semi-positive results, as my plugins are installed. However, it shouldn't have been this hard.

I believe the issue has to do with the instructions in the "Plugins" page, namely that they suggest the example destination mount:
Destination: is the mount point within the jail. An example would be /mnt/volume1/jail/plugins/mnt

Following this verbatim causes the newly-added mount to overlap the entire "mnt" directory in the jail, obscuring the default "<jail>/mnt/plugins" mount. As such, if these instructions are followed (paraphrased for your own respective volume named), the jail's "plugins" mount will no longer be accessible, and plugin installation will fail.

Recommend updating the Wiki instructions with an alternative path (e.g., "Create a directory under your jail's mnt and map to that). Someone confirm before moving forward?

Thanks!