# InfoBeamer stand alone: watchdog startup error **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [May 7, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491 "2019-05-07T13:41:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/walter/32/25_2.png) [@walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/walter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/1 "2019-05-07T13:41:11Z")
Hello, I’ve built an SD with Raspbian Stretch lite and made it read only file system (see as a starting point this post [Pi Read Only](https://hallard.me/raspberry-pi-read-only/)), then I’ve bought from Info-beamer a license to a stand alone player and installed. It works. Then I’ve added the watchdog ability by following the README.txt and adding to `/boot/config.txt` this line ```auto dtparam=watchdog=on ``` and then exporting this env variable: ```auto ``` as per [https://info-beamer.com/blog/running-info-beamer-in-production](https://info-beamer.com/blog/running-info-beamer-in-production) When I start info beamer I can see this error ```auto modprobe: FATAL: Module bcm2708_wdog not found in directory /lib/modules/4.14.98-v7+ ``` but then it starts normally. Since my custom raspbian installation has already a watchdog abilty I was wondering what gives this error. On Raspbian, prior to installing info-beamer, I had ```auto sudo modprobe bcm2835_wdt apt-get update; apt-get install watchdog ``` and edited accordingly its conf files, for example in `/lib/systemd/system/watchdog.service` I have `WantedBy=multi-user.target` what is the difference in name `bcm2708_wdog` and `bcm2835_wdt` ? Any idea if the two setups conflicts? How can I test that the watchdog is installed correctly and working? ---
**Author:** ![walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/walter/32/25_2.png) [@walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/walter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/2 "2019-05-07T13:45:21Z")
Ok. This error was from the suggested line in `run` of the info beamer service ```auto modprobe bcm2708_wdog ``` If we comment this out, no error. But again, how can I test that the watchdog is up and running? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/infobeamer-fw/32/3_2.png) [@infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/infobeamer-fw)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/3 "2019-05-07T14:44:12Z")
Running info-beamer with `INFOBEAMER_LOG_LEVEL=3` should provide more output. I suggest running it manually, then hitting Ctrl-Z to stop it. If the watchdog is active, if should reboot after a couple of seconds as no output progress can be made. ---
**Author:** ![walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/walter/32/25_2.png) [@walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/walter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/4 "2019-05-07T14:52:35Z")
Thanks. I’ve started manually with this env ```auto set | grep INFO INFOBEAMER_LOG_LEVEL=3 INFOBEAMER_WATCHDOG=15 ``` but hitting `Ctrl-Z` just hangs everything. No reboot. How can I easyly check if everything regarding watchdog is in place? As far as I can tell some of the info in your page are not up to date with the latest Stretch distro (i.e. `modprobe bcm2708_wdog` is supposed to be an error in Stretch, from Googling around). Thanks W ---
**Author:** ![infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/infobeamer-fw/32/3_2.png) [@infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/infobeamer-fw)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/5 "2019-05-07T14:56:57Z")
There should be a line: ```nohighlight [watchdog.c] hardware watchdog installed. 15 seconds timeout ``` in the output. If the top level loop hangs for 15 seconds, as forced by Ctrl-Z, the device should reboot. But you’ll have to wait 15 seconds obviously. Edit: You’re correct w.r.t. the module name. I think in stretch that’s different or no longer needed as the module is built in the Raspbian default kernel. The documentation is wrong. I’ll fix that eventually. Can you check if /dev/watchdog exists? ---
**Author:** ![walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/walter/32/25_2.png) [@walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/walter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/6 "2019-05-07T15:49:00Z")
As per your docs I’ve added ` dtparam=watchdog=on` to `/boot/config.txt` and yes I heve devices ```auto root@raspberrypi(rw):~# ls -l /dev/w* crw------- 1 root root 10, 130 May 7 15:43 /dev/watchdog crw------- 1 root root 252, 0 May 7 15:43 /dev/watchdog0 ``` but now relaunching from command line gives ```auto root@raspberrypi(rw):/home/pi# export INFOBEAMER_WATCHDOG=15 root@raspberrypi(rw):/home/pi# export INFOBEAMER_LOG_LEVEL=3 root@raspberrypi(rw):/home/pi# info-beamer-pi/info-beamer node/ Info Beamer PI 0.9.9-beta.132ee8~stretch (https://info-beamer.com) Copyright (c) 2012-2018, Florian Wesch Thank you for supporting this software and its development. A single license allows you to use this software on a single device. Learn more on https://info-beamer.com/lnk/license CRITICAL ERROR: cannot open /dev/watchdog: Device or resource busy. is the bcm2708_wdog kernel module loaded? ``` Why? ---
**Author:** ![infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/infobeamer-fw/32/3_2.png) [@infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/infobeamer-fw)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/7 "2019-05-07T15:54:31Z")
Probably because some other program already has the watchdog device open. By design it can only be opened by one program. I guess a watchdog daemon is already running? Or does systemd somehow include that as well? Not sure. `lsof` can probably help finding the culprit. ---
**Author:** ![walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/walter/32/25_2.png) [@walter](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/walter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/8 "2019-05-07T16:03:56Z")
Ok… my ignorance. Yes i think so, I’ve already added the watchdog and configured some system files to use it (notably this `/lib/systemd/system/watchdog.service`). In fact after I’ve done ```auto systemctl disable watchdog.service ``` and after a reboot, I did the same test and it works! Perfect. After 15 seconds it rebooted! Thanks as always ---
**Author:** ![infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/user_avatar/community.info-beamer.com/infobeamer-fw/32/3_2.png) [@infobeamer-fw](https://community.info-beamer.com/u/infobeamer-fw)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.info-beamer.com/t/infobeamer-stand-alone-watchdog-startup-error/491/9 "2019-05-07T16:10:17Z")
Nice. Apparently for systemd integration, info-beamer would have to use [`sd_notify`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/sd_notify.html) with `WATCHDOG=1` argument. That way it could probably be started as a systemd service. I don’t think I’ll pull in the massive systemd dependency for that though.