#1061790 gerbera: Missing files JS files prevent UI from working

Package:
gerbera
Source:
gerbera
Description:
UPnP MediaServer
Submitter:
Wesley Schwengle
Date:
2025-08-13 06:41:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1061790#5
Date:
2024-01-29 19:01:14 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

I was trying to see how gerbera does m3u playlist support so I installed it
from the repo and tried to access the web UI. What happens is that you only get
to see a login button. Once you click that you get an 404 Not Found error on
http://my.ip:49152/?

When you open http://my.ip:49152 with a developer tool the following files seem
to be missing:

* vendor/tether/tether.min.js
* vendor/md5.min.js
* vendor/font-awesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff2?v=4.7.0
* vendor/font-awesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff?v=4.7.0
* vendor/font-awesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.ttf?v=4.7.0

I compiled Gerbera from source in $HOME/.local/gerbera and with the same
configuration (abeit a minor change to reflect the change of webroot) the app
works as intented: When enabling the UI and the account you get the
user/password textblocks and you can login.

It seems that the build is not placing the files where one expects them to be.
#1061790#10
Date:
2024-02-10 15:55:46 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

I use Gerbera rarely and have been running an old version.
I upgraded to 2.0.0+dfsg-1 and now see the same problem.

Note: in my case, I do not run Gerbera from systemd - I just invoke
it from my user terminal session.

Please let me know if I can provide any further information.

Graham
#1061790#15
Date:
2024-07-23 17:40:00 UTC
From:
To:
I have same issue here.
#1061790#20
Date:
2024-09-28 17:35:53 UTC
From:
To:
Just to confirm that this still exists in 2.2.0+dfsg-1+b2
#1061790#25
Date:
2024-11-19 23:21:19 UTC
From:
To:
I have found a workround for this problem. The following hack makes gerbera work again for me.

As root:

  cd /usr/share/gerbera/web/vendor/jquery
  ln -s jquery-3.6.0.min.js jquery-3.7.1.min.js
  ln -s jquery-3.6.0.min.map jquery-3.7.1.min.map

  cd /usr/share/gerbera/web/vendor
  ln -s bootstrap bootstrap-4.6.2

If it doesn't work for you, look in the gerbera log for lines which say things like:

2024-11-19 22:50:49.252  error: [server.cc:667] operator()(): Exception: [./src/util/grb_fs.cc:166] FILE* GrbFile::open(const char*, bool) Error: Could not open /usr/share/gerbera/web/vendor/bootstrap-4.6.2/css/bootstrap.min.css: No such file or directory

Then work out which file or directory is present on *your* system that might be the missing file, and
create a softlink to it. Of course, there is no guarantee that making an old file pretend to be
a newer file will work properly but it seems to be working for me.

I have made no attempt to analyse how or why my system has different files in /usr/share/gerbera/web/vendor.
I will note that my version of gerbera has been updated over *many* years (using the debian packages, installed
and upgraded using apt) so maybe the upgrade process is buggy on older installations.

So, not a solution, but maybe a workround for someone needing this to work again.

Graham
#1061790#30
Date:
2024-11-19 23:49:06 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Graham,

Graham Cobb <g+debian@cobb.uk.net> writes:
[snip analysis]

Good analysis.

I didn't investigate if upgrade cruft was implicated because if what
works for you is a hack (that will later break) then:

1. Sid/unstable and testing/trixie have an old copy of node-jquery
(3.6.1+dfsg+~3.5.14-1) and need to be updated, because Debian packages
are supposed to unvendor bundled copies and use ones that have security
support, so node-jquery needs to be updated.

2. Gerbera needs to be fixed to use bootstrap 5.2.3

Alternatively, if what works for you is in fact a workaround, without
negative side-effects, then it won't later break, because Gerbera
doesn't require these specific versions of these javascript libraries.
If that's the case then Gerbera should probably be patched to use
whatever version of jquery and bootstrap that Debian provides; in this
case, Debian's gerbera package shouldn't be updated each time either
jquery or bootstrap change.

If you care about this package then I'd encourage you to Contact Debian
Mentors about getting your fix into the package.  This bug might even
qualify for an NMU if it truly totally breaks the UI, and if you didn't
want to become the new maintainer.

Regards,
Nicholas
#1061790#35
Date:
2025-08-13 06:38:18 UTC
From:
To:
Dead Maintainer,

I applied the workaround proposed by Graham, but I also had to install the `node-blueimp-md5` package and create the following symbolic link:

    cd /usr/share/gerbera/web/vendor
    ln -s ../../../javascript/blueimp-md5/md5.min.js

Without that link, I would get an authentication error when trying to log in to the web UI.