Fixing Searx after Debian 10 to Debian 11 upgrade
I have recently upgraded my Searx server instance from Debian 10 to Debian 11. Apart from not being able to boot on the first try due to a backported kernel, all of my services also stopped working. Today we will look at Searx which currently responds with the following message:
TLDR; It was a Python version issue, reinstalled Searx while keeping settings.
Troubleshooting
Just like always when we have a problem, we need to start troubleshooting somewhere. Each person approahes troubleshooting differently, here's what I will do in this case.
By the way – it may be written and sound like a tutorial, but its mostly me listing out things I did to fix it, even though some of them did not work or were completely useless + my setup is sometimes a bit specific and the same things may not apply for your environment. Just keep that in mind.
Restart Searx
Who doesn't know the phrase "have you tried turning it off and on again?". Most of you probably do. Sometimes a quick restart is all that's needed. However we first need to figure out what to restart by listing all services on the system. There are a couple of ways to do this, since Debian uses SystemD as its init system, we can issue the following command:
$ systemctl --type=service
or
$ systemctl list-units --type=serviceBoth should give you the same output, similar to this:
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION
● apache2.service loaded failed failed The Apache HTTP Server
● certbot.service loaded failed failed Certbot
console-getty.service loaded active running Console Getty
dbus.service loaded active running D-Bus System Message Bus
filtron.service loaded active running filtron
ifupdown-pre.service loaded active exited Helper to synchronize boot up for ifupdown
networking.service loaded active exited Raise network interfaces
nginx.service loaded active running nginx - high performance web server
ssh.service loaded active running OpenBSD Secure Shell server
systemd-journal-flush.service loaded active exited Flush Journal to Persistent Storage
systemd-journald.service loaded active running Journal Service
systemd-logind.service loaded active running User Login Management
systemd-modules-load.service loaded active exited Load Kernel Modules
systemd-networkd.service loaded active running Network Service
systemd-remount-fs.service loaded active exited Remount Root and Kernel File Systems
systemd-resolved.service loaded active running Network Name Resolution
systemd-sysctl.service loaded active exited Apply Kernel Variables
systemd-sysusers.service loaded active exited Create System Users
systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service loaded active exited Create Static Device Nodes in /dev
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service loaded active exited Create Volatile Files and Directories
systemd-update-utmp.service loaded active exited Update UTMP about System Boot/Shutdown
systemd-user-sessions.service loaded active exited Permit User Sessions
user-runtime-dir@1000.service loaded active exited User Runtime Directory /run/user/1000
user@1000.service loaded active running User Manager for UID 1000
uwsgi.service loaded active running LSB: Start/stop uWSGI server instance(s)
whoogle.service loaded activating auto-restart WhoogleSearx runs on uWSGI, which is, as its creators call it "Swiss Army Knife for your network applications". I only have one service running on uWSGI, which means I can restart the entire server without worrying.
However, ifIf there are other working services depending on uWSGI, they will be restarted as well.
Firstly, check status of the uWSGI service.
$ systemctl status uwsgiAs we can see, it is active and running and has loaded /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/searx.ini
● uwsgi.service - LSB: Start/stop uWSGI server instance(s)
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/uwsgi; generated)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-09-10 10:42:33 CEST; 4 days ago
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 2837 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/uwsgi start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CPU: 48.725s
CGroup: /system.slice/uwsgi.service
├─2938 /usr/bin/uwsgi --ini /usr/share/uwsgi/conf/default.ini --ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/searx.ini --daemoni>
├─2941 /usr/bin/uwsgi --ini /usr/share/uwsgi/conf/default.ini --ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/searx.ini --daemoni>
├─2942 /usr/bin/uwsgi --ini /usr/share/uwsgi/conf/default.ini --ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/searx.ini --daemoni>
└─2944 /usr/bin/uwsgi --ini /usr/share/uwsgi/conf/default.ini --ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/searx.ini --daemoni>
Warning: some journal files were not opened due to insufficient permissions.To restart, we need to elevate using sudo.
$ sudo systemctl restart uwsgiCheck if the service is running like before with systemctl status. Unfortunately in my case, the restart didn't help. Let's finally dig deeper.
Consult Logs
Logs for uWSGI are located in /var/log/uwsgi/app. We are looking for searx.log which should be present within this folder. Open it using your favorite method, I will use less and jump to end. Heads up – this file requires elevated privileges to be opened.
$ sudo less searx.logThe log is fairly verbose and understandable. This part describes the killing and initialization process of uWSGI and also the attempted start of Searx.
Tue Sep 14 23:12:10 2021 - SIGINT/SIGQUIT received...killing workers...
Tue Sep 14 23:12:10 2021 - gateway "uWSGI http 1" has been buried (pid: 2944)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:11 2021 - worker 1 buried after 1 seconds
Tue Sep 14 23:12:11 2021 - worker 2 buried after 1 seconds
Tue Sep 14 23:12:11 2021 - goodbye to uWSGI.
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - *** Starting uWSGI 2.0.19.1-debian (64bit) on [Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021] ***
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - compiled with version: 10.2.1 20210110 on 11 June 2021 09:08:33
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - os: Linux-5.4.0-74-generic #83~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue May 11 16:01:00 UTC 2021
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - nodename: hledej.nl01
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - machine: x86_64
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - clock source: unix
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - pcre jit disabled
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - detected number of CPU cores: 8
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - current working directory: /
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - writing pidfile to /run/uwsgi/app/searx/pid
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - detected binary path: /usr/bin/uwsgi-core
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - chdir() to /var/www/searx/searx
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - your memory page size is 4096 bytes
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - detected max file descriptor number: 1024
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - lock engine: pthread robust mutexes
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - thunder lock: disabled (you can enable it with --thunder-lock)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - *** Cache "searxcache" initialized: 11MB (key: 2136 bytes, keys: 4272000 bytes, data: 8192000 bytes, bitmap: 250 bytes) preallocated ***
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - uWSGI http bound on 127.0.0.1:8888 fd 5
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - uwsgi socket 0 bound to UNIX address /run/uwsgi/app/searx/socket fd 8
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - setgid() to 1002
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - setuid() to 1002
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - Python version: 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - PEP 405 virtualenv detected: /var/www/searx/searx-pyenv
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - Set PythonHome to /var/www/searx/searx-pyenv
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - Python main interpreter initialized at 0x564252505c10
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - python threads support enabled
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - your server socket listen backlog is limited to 100 connections
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - your mercy for graceful operations on workers is 60 seconds
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - mapped 218808 bytes (213 KB) for 2 cores
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - *** Operational MODE: preforking ***
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - added /var/www/searx/searx/ to pythonpath.
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - spawned uWSGI master process (pid: 136045)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - spawned uWSGI worker 1 (pid: 136048, cores: 1)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - spawned uWSGI worker 2 (pid: 136049, cores: 1)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - cache sweeper thread enabled
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - spawned uWSGI http 1 (pid: 136051)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'searx'
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - unable to load app 0 (mountpoint='') (callable not found or import error)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - *** no app loaded. going in full dynamic mode ***
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'searx'
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - unable to load app 0 (mountpoint='') (callable not found or import error)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - *** no app loaded. going in full dynamic mode ***
Tue Sep 14 23:12:24 2021 - --- no python application found, check your startup logs for errors ---It is all looking fine until these lines:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'searx'
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - unable to load app 0 (mountpoint='') (callable not found or import error)
Tue Sep 14 23:12:12 2021 - *** no app loaded. going in full dynamic mode ***Searx also includes helpful utilities and debug scripts. Try running:
$ sudo /var/www/searx/utils/searx.sh inspect serviceservice status & log
====================
sourced .config.sh :
PUBLIC_URL : http://hledej.nl01/searx
SEARX_URL_PATH : /searx
SEARX_INSTANCE_NAME : searx@hledej.nl01
SEARX_INTERNAL_HTTP : 127.0.0.1:8888
ERROR: Service account searx does not exists!
ERROR: ~searx: python environment is not available!
ERROR: ~searx: Missing searx software!
INFO: uWSGI app searx.ini is enabled.
INFO: public URL --> http://hledej.nl01/searx
INFO: internal URL --> http://127.0.0.1:8888
INFO: got 500 from http://127.0.0.1:8888
INFO: got 301 from http://hledej.nl01/searx
Enable searx debug mode? [NO/yes]
No
Unit searx.service could not be found.
// use CTRL-C to stop monitoring the log
Wed Sep 15 00:01:07 2021 - spawned uWSGI http 1 (pid: 137252)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'searx'
Wed Sep 15 00:01:07 2021 - unable to load app 0 (mountpoint='') (callable not found or import error)
Wed Sep 15 00:01:07 2021 - *** no app loaded. going in full dynamic mode ***
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'searx'
Wed Sep 15 00:01:07 2021 - unable to load app 0 (mountpoint='') (callable not found or import error)
Wed Sep 15 00:01:07 2021 - *** no app loaded. going in full dynamic mode ***
Wed Sep 15 00:01:21 2021 - --- no python application found, check your startup logs for errors ---
Wed Sep 15 00:01:21 2021 - --- no python application found, check your startup logs for errors ---
Wed Sep 15 00:04:03 2021 - --- no python application found, check your startup logs for errors ---The errors at the bottom are identical to what we got from the uWSGI log, however there is more information at the top of the command output. Apparently, there is not searx service account, which is false, because there is one. Confirm by looking at /etc/passwd file:
$ cat /etc/passwd
...
searx:x:1002:1002:,,,:/home/searx:/usr/sbin/nologin
...You could argue that it is indeed not a service account, because it has UID over 1000, but keep in mind that the official install guide works with the idea of having a HOME directory for this user, which itself goes against the general idea of service account. What is more important is the fact that the user doesn't have access to shell.
It is clear to me as of now, that it has something to do with Python. The previous Debian version came with Python 3.7.3, while this comes with 3.9.2. This shouldn't be a problem however, since has Searx supported Python 3.9 for a while now.
Temporarily add shell to Searx user
We will be using the Searx's account to do the next steps, since I don't want to mess up some permissions by running the commands as a different user and because everything is owned by searx account. If you don't want to do that, you can still issue command under searx account, but specify bash manually in each command like this:
$ su - searx -s /bin/bash -c 'command'Modify /etc/passwd with your favorite editor. And replace /usr/sbin/nologin with /bin/bash on the searx line.
$ sudo vi /etc/passwd
searx:x:1002:1002:,,,:/home/searx:/usr/sbin/nologin
to
searx:x:1002:1002:,,,:/home/searx:/bin/bashUpdate packages and add to PATH
Run the following script to update Searx's packages, just in case.
$ sudo -u searx ./manage.sh update_packagesIt will warn you about some location not being in the path, we can try that and see
WARNING: The scripts pip, pip3 and pip3.9 are installed in '/home/searx/.local/bin' which is not on PATH.
Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.Add /home/searx/.local/bin to PATH
Assuming you are still under the searx user, open /home/searx/.bashrc in your favorite editor.
$ vi /home/searx/.bashrcand add this at the end of the file:
export PATH=/home/searx/.local/bin:$PATHNow exit and sudo su to searx again and confirm that the new location is in PATH
$ echo $PATH
/home/searx/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/binCreate Python virtualenv
Switch to searx user.
$ sudo su searxCheck python version.
$ python3 --version
Python 3.9.2Create virtualenv in searx source folder.
$ python3 -m venv /var/www/searx/searxaaand...it did literally nothing. No output and by checking, we can see that the binary isn't sourced from virtualenv...
$ command -v python3
/usr/bin/python3After a brief moment, I figured I need to activate the virtualenv, make sure you are still under searx user.
$ cd /var/www/searx/searx-pyenv$ source bin/activateThere should now be (searx-pyenv) before your username@server.
(searx-pyenv) searx@hledej:/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv$Now check again
$ command -v python3
/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv/bin/python3
$ python3 --version
Python 3.9.2Keep the terminal with searx-pyenv open and run the rest of the commands in it!
Install pip boilerplate
Now that we are at least in the virtualenv, reinstall pip boilerplate packages which are the following:
searx$ pip install -U pip
searx$ pip install -U setuptools
searx$ pip install -U wheel
searx$ pip install -U pyyamlSome packages will be reinstalled to the same version while some may be upgraded.
Move to the root directory of searx (/var/www/searx) in my case.
searx$ cd /var/www/searxand install Searx into the virtualenv (notice the dot at the end)
searx$ pip install -e .That should spit out output similar to this:
Obtaining file:///var/www/searx
Collecting certifi==2020.12.05
Using cached certifi-2020.12.5-py2.py3-none-any.whl (147 kB)
Collecting babel==2.9.0
Using cached Babel-2.9.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (8.8 MB)
Collecting flask-babel==2.0.0
Using cached Flask_Babel-2.0.0-py3-none-any.whl (9.3 kB)
Collecting flask==1.1.2
Using cached Flask-1.1.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (94 kB)
Collecting idna==2.10
Using cached idna-2.10-py2.py3-none-any.whl (58 kB)
Collecting jinja2==2.11.3
Using cached Jinja2-2.11.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl (125 kB)
Collecting lxml==4.6.3
Using cached lxml-4.6.3-cp39-cp39-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (6.9 MB)
Collecting pygments==2.8.0
Using cached Pygments-2.8.0-py3-none-any.whl (983 kB)
Collecting python-dateutil==2.8.1
Using cached python_dateutil-2.8.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (227 kB)
Requirement already satisfied: pyyaml==5.4.1 in ./searx-pyenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages (from searx==1.0.0) (5.4.1)
Collecting requests[socks]==2.25.1
Using cached requests-2.25.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (61 kB)
Collecting langdetect==1.0.8
Using cached langdetect-1.0.8-py3-none-any.whl
Collecting pytz>=2015.7
Using cached pytz-2021.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (510 kB)
Collecting itsdangerous>=0.24
Using cached itsdangerous-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl (18 kB)
Collecting Werkzeug>=0.15
Using cached Werkzeug-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl (288 kB)
Collecting click>=5.1
Using cached click-8.0.1-py3-none-any.whl (97 kB)
Collecting MarkupSafe>=0.23
Using cached MarkupSafe-2.0.1-cp39-cp39-manylinux_2_5_x86_64.manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_12_x86_64.manylinux2010_x86_64.whl (30 kB)
Collecting six
Downloading six-1.16.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (11 kB)
Collecting chardet<5,>=3.0.2
Using cached chardet-4.0.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (178 kB)
Collecting urllib3<1.27,>=1.21.1
Downloading urllib3-1.26.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl (138 kB)
|████████████████████████████████| 138 kB 3.6 MB/s
Collecting PySocks!=1.5.7,>=1.5.6
Using cached PySocks-1.7.1-py3-none-any.whl (16 kB)
Installing collected packages: MarkupSafe, Werkzeug, urllib3, pytz, jinja2, itsdangerous, idna, click, chardet, certifi, six, requests, PySocks, flask, babel, python-dateutil, pygments, lxml, langdetect, flask-babel, searx
Running setup.py develop for searx
Successfully installed MarkupSafe-2.0.1 PySocks-1.7.1 Werkzeug-2.0.1 babel-2.9.0 certifi-2020.12.5 chardet-4.0.0 click-8.0.1 flask-1.1.2 flask-babel-2.0.0 idna-2.10 itsdangerous-2.0.1 jinja2-2.11.3 langdetect-1.0.8 lxml-4.6.3 pygments-2.8.0 python-dateutil-2.8.1 pytz-2021.1 requests-2.25.1 searx-1.0.0 six-1.16.0 urllib3-1.26.6Test the development server
Make sure you are still in the searx-pyenv terminal and root searx folder /var/www/searx and try running the development server.
searx$ python searx/webapp.py* Serving Flask app "webapp" (lazy loading)
* Environment: production
WARNING: This is a development server. Do not use it in a production deployment.
Use a production WSGI server instead.
* Debug mode: off
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/var/www/searx/searx/webapp.py", line 1155, in <module>
run()
File "/var/www/searx/searx/webapp.py", line 1104, in run
app.run(
File "/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/flask/app.py", line 990, in run
run_simple(host, port, self, **options)
File "/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/werkzeug/serving.py", line 1008, in run_simple
inner()
File "/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/werkzeug/serving.py", line 948, in inner
srv = make_server(
File "/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/werkzeug/serving.py", line 780, in make_server
return ThreadedWSGIServer(
File "/var/www/searx/searx-pyenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/werkzeug/serving.py", line 686, in __init__
super().__init__(server_address, handler) # type: ignore
File "/usr/lib/python3.9/socketserver.py", line 452, in __init__
self.server_bind()
File "/usr/lib/python3.9/http/server.py", line 138, in server_bind
socketserver.TCPServer.server_bind(self)
File "/usr/lib/python3.9/socketserver.py", line 466, in server_bind
self.socket.bind(self.server_address)
OSError: [Errno 98] Address already in useOkay, something happened, but we have an error at the end Address already in use. Of course! We have uWSGI running at it might have already started Searx in production mode. To test this kill uWSGI.
$ sudo systemctl stop uwsgiStart the development server again.
searx$ python searx/webapp.pyThis time, it starts sucessfully on port 8888 and when we navigate to the website, we can see it working and logging:
* Serving Flask app "webapp" (lazy loading)
* Environment: production
WARNING: This is a development server. Do not use it in a production deployment.
Use a production WSGI server instead.
* Debug mode: off
INFO:werkzeug: * Running on http://127.0.0.1:8888/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/css/bootstrap.min.css HTTP/1.0" 200 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/css/logicodev-dark.min.css HTTP/1.0" 200 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/img/logo_searx_a.png HTTP/1.0" 200 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/js/jquery.min.js HTTP/1.0" 304 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/js/bootstrap.min.js HTTP/1.0" 304 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/js/searx.min.js HTTP/1.0" 304 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/plugins/js/search_on_category_select.js HTTP/1.0" 304 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2 HTTP/1.0" 200 -
INFO:werkzeug:your_ip - - [15/Sep/2021 01:22:43] "GET /static/themes/oscar/img/favicon.png HTTP/1.0" 200 -Revert changes to the Searx user
This is important, before returning Searx into production, change the shell of searx account back to /usr/sbin/nologin in /etc/passwd
searx:x:1002:1002:,,,:/home/searx:/usr/sbin/nologinMove to production
Now that we have confirmed that it's working, kill the development server with Ctrl+C and restart uWSGI service.
$ sudo systemctl restart uWSGIConfirm that everything is working properly
Look into the log file in /var/log/uwsgi/app and if you don't see any errors, it should be okay.