[Solved] Unable to create /data/downloads ... folders in SABnzbd

[expulsion6311]

Hello and thanks for this amazing configuration/installation site. I'm so incredibly impressed. But I'm also an amateur and running into some issues.

My setup
I have a mounted media folder on an SMB/CIFS share that is functioning correctly, mounted in my unprivileged LXC at /srv/media. The install.sh script for YAMS was able to create the requisite folders there and it all seems great. It took some doing, and I was really proud to get it working.

I'm also using Mullvad VPN via wireguard and that is also working well. The yams check-vpn command is successfully showing that my VPN is obscuring my IP.

The context
After solving the issues with permissions on the SMB, I was able to successfully install YAMS and get it to write to my SMB drive. The first time it tried to install however, I did have a failure at the step where it attempts to change permissions to /srv/media. But I made some user / group changes and re-ran and it completed successfully. I'm honestly not sure if this detail is important so I'm including here.

The snag
I cheered after successfully completing the installation and started setup. I was able to get through qbittorrent without issue, specifying the data folders in the qbittorrent web ui. Then I moved on to SABnbzd and hit snag when I got to the step where we change the folder locations for the temp and completed downloads folder.

Here is a screenshot of that error, followed by the docker logs for SABnbzd

Error

Docker SABnbzd logs

Additional questions...
I've tried for quite awhile to figure this out on my own and using various forum / internet posts, but I'm here bothering you all because I am still stuck. But, one thing I did notice is that while I was able to complete the similar qbittorrent folder step as mentioned above, I don't actually see the folder in /data/downloads...

I also manually created the /data/downloads/usenet/incomplete and .../complete folders as an attempt, but it seems still not to help.

A remaining question I have is why does YAMS recommend /data for these locations when my installation is /opt/yams and there is no data folder there? And why not store downloads in the media location at /srv/media? Anyways I'm very confident the missing piece is my own misunderstanding and not an error in the guides haha, just asking to learn.

[rogs]

Hey @expulsion6311!

You actually have two different filesystems at play here: your host OS, which is the one running on your machine (either bare metal or in a VM), and the container OS, which is what YAMS runs.

Here’s where the confusion is happening: /data exists inside the SABnzbd container (i.e., the container OS) and is mapped to your /srv/media directory on the host OS.

From what you’re describing, it sounds like there’s still a permission issue with your SMB mount. Make sure the user running YAMS has the right permissions to access your SMB mount—this includes read/write access.

Hope that clears things up a bit!

Cheers!

Roger

[expulsion6311]

This is super helpful context, and I didn’t realize that, but my confusion remains as my user (who I’m calling “yamsuser”) in the LXC can read and write to my SMB as per testing. Hmmmm.

Maybe I should blow the whole thing away and start from the top.

[rogs]

Are you sure that's the user that it's running the containers? Try logging in with that user in your host os and create a file in your SMB mount

[expulsion6311]

So, I may be confused but here's what I do know haha (and thanks for the replies!)

• I have a host PVE (proxmox) with one unprivileged LXC called "YAMS" where I've installed YAMS
• I've installed it with a non-root user named yamsuser
• yamsuser can open, read, and write files on the SMB. I just tested with mkdir in the media folder where YAMS created its initial folder set and I was able to successfully create a directory there and then create a text file there, and then delete them, all from the LXC CLI logged in as yamsuser
• It's from this same user account on the LXC where I'm running yams start and where I installed YAMS.

SO, if YAMS could create its initial folder set there, and I can read/write with the host non-root, yamsuser, I'm really confused why SABnazbd is getting that error. Any other ideas of how I could test?

EDIT: hahaha I solved it (facepalm). I took a peek at the hidden .env file per another post and realized the PUID and PGID were slightly wrong there probably because I didn't have my permissions ironed out when I first tried to install. Seems like it's working now -- successfully created folders with SABnzbd and radarr now. Woohoo! Thanks again.

[rogs]

Excellent! I'm glad you were able to fix it I'll mark this one as solved.

Cheers!

Roger.