Ubuntu error with apache: (98)Address already in use - apache

Question

I am getting this error when I try to start Apache in Ubuntu.
(98)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
Action 'start' failed.
I have this in my ports.conf
NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80
This is my vhost file
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin example#example.com
ServerName rails.server.com
# ServerAlias
DocumentRoot /var/www/sample_app/current/public
ErrorLog /var/www/sample_app/error.log
RailsEnv production
<Directory "/var/www/sample_app/current/public">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
What am I missing?

Answer 1

netstat -ltnp | grep :80
This would return the following:
tcp6 0 0 :::80 :::* LISTEN 1047/apache2
Then run the following command:
sudo kill -9 1047
(1047 - pid no)
(the pid that appears on your particular instance.)
Restart Apache.
sudo service apache2 restart
Reference to Ubuntu Forums.

Answer 2

It seems port 80 is already taken. Use another port or try netstat (grep the result to select only the row with value 80 in it), ps and kill to see what application occupies the port and shut it down.

Answer 3

In all cases killing the process may not work, as the process using the port 80 will get restarted and doesn't allow to use the port. So what can be done is to change the port for apache, if that doesn't matter.
Two things are to be changed for that:
Open /etc/apache2/ports.conf with any text editor and change the value of the entry Listen 80 to the desired port (e.g. Listen 8080).
Change the entry for <virtualhost 80> to the same port number you gave in the /etc/apache2/ports.conf file in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default (e.g. <virtualhost 8080>).

Answer 4

Make sure that you don't have the command Listen 80 in more than one place.
In my case, I was getting the same error and the reason was that this command was both in ports.conf and sites-enabled/000-default.

Answer 5

In my case it was nginx ('cause I have it on my server).
sudo service nginx stop
sudo service apache2 start

Answer 6

sudo netstat -tulpn| grep :80
pkill the process (nginx?)
Disable whatever virtualhost is binding to port 80 that you don't want to (nginx?). It's in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled or /etc/apache2/sites-enabled

Answer 7

sudo kill -9 -2321 (pid)
Restart BT
Done.....
no need to make changes in conf. file.

Answer 8

This is due to port 80 is shifted used by other service.
sudo killall httpd
Check any service is using 80 still
sudo netstat -tulpn| grep :80
and restart the server
sudo service httpd start

Answer 9

When you restart or start your server via terminal you might have forgot to add sudo before the command.
Use sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload instead of /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Answer 10

I had the same issue with a very different cause. I am running Apache 2.4.7 with PHP 5.5.6 on CentOS 6.5.
I messed up php.ini by having BOTH output_handler=ob_gzhandler AND zlib.output_compression=On (either one, not both, can be set).
So on restarting Apache, it binds to port 80 but nothing else happens. It looks like it is running but php's error locked it up somewhere.
The clue was to check "php -v" ... when I saw it not returning anything (it wrote the error to error_log), I fixed php.ini and Apache was happy again.
Maybe this helps someone...

Answer 11

I got this error on a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.10 when starting apache2.
It's a bug in the apache2. It gets hung in the background. Here is my walkthrough to where the bugs might be in the software.
Here's the error I got:
el#titan:~$ sudo service apache2 start
* Starting web server apache2
(98)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
Action 'start' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
[fail]
Address already in Use? What could be using it? Check it out:
el#titan:~$ grep -ri listen /etc/apache2
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf:# supposed to determine listening ports for incoming connections, and which
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf:# Include list of ports to listen on and which to use for name based vhosts
/etc/apache2/ports.conf:Listen 80
/etc/apache2/ports.conf: Listen 443
/etc/apache2/ports.conf: Listen 443
That means apache2 is preventing apache2 from starting. Bizarre. This will confirm:
el#titan:~$ ps -ef | grep apache2
root 1146 954 0 15:51 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /etc/rc2.d/S91apache2 start
root 1172 1146 0 15:51 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/sbin/apache2ctl start
root 1181 1172 0 15:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root 1193 1181 0 15:51 ? 00:00:00 /bin/bash /usr/share/apache2/ask-for-passphrase 127.0.1.1:443 RSA
el 5439 5326 0 16:23 pts/2 00:00:00 grep --color=auto apache2
Yes, in this case apache2 is running, I was trying to start apache2 a second time on the same port.
What confuses me is that service reports that apache2 is NOT running:
el#titan:~$ sudo service apache2 status
Apache2 is NOT running.
And when you query apache2ctl for its status, it hangs.
root#titan:~# /usr/sbin/apache2ctl status
**hangs until Ctrl-C is pressed.
So Ubuntu seems to be having trouble managing apache2 on bootup. Time to stop apache2:
root#titan:~# /usr/sbin/apache2ctl stop
httpd (no pid file) not running
A big clue! You try to stop apache2 and it lost the process id! So Ubuntu can't stop apache2 because it doesn't know where it is!
You would think a reboot would fix it, but it doesn't because apache2 starts on boot and hangs. The normal boot process for apache2 is not working right.
So How to fix it?
I was able to fix this by analyzing the ps command output. Notice that the ps command tells us that that process was started by "/etc/rc2.d/S91apache2 start".
That is the offending program that needs a swift kick.
/etc/rc2.d/S91apache2 is the symbolic link used to start apache2 for you when the computer starts. For some reason it seems to be starting apache2 and then hangs. So we'll have to tell it to not do that.
So go take a look at that /etc/rc2.d/S91apache2.
el#titan:/etc/rc2.d$ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Nov 7 21:45 S91apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2*
It's a symbolic link that we don't want it to be there. Do this to prevent apache2 from starting on boot:
root#titan:~# sudo update-rc.d -f apache2 remove
Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K09apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K09apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S91apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S91apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S91apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S91apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K09apache2
Reboot the computer to make sure apache2 doesn't start and hang. Ok good. Now you COULD put apache2 back the way it was, but that would make it fail again.
root#titan:~$ sudo update-rc.d apache2 defaults //(don't do this)
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/apache2 ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc1.d/K20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc6.d/K20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc2.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc3.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc4.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
/etc/rc5.d/S20apache2 -> ../init.d/apache2
Instead, start the apache2 like this:
sudo service apache2 start
And the apache2 is back up and serving pages again. There seems to be some serious bugs with apache2/Ubuntu 12.10 that causes apache2 to start and hang. This is a workaround, I suppose the fix is to get newer versions of apache2 and Ubuntu and hope for the best.

Answer 12

In my case, I had removed the default ssl.conf file (renamed to ssl.conf.bak), and had my own ssl config file.
Then I did a yum update and it updated apache... Which also reintroduced the file ssl.conf, which means how I had 2 conf files with Listen 443.
Solution (generic - CentOS): go to /etc/httpd/conf.d, do a grep -r 'Listen' ., see if you have duplicate Listen XXX statements, remove them as required.

Answer 13

List of currently running services,
$ sudo netstat -tulpn
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:8069 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 6399/python
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:53670 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 6681/Brackets-node
....
....
Find only specific services,
$ sudo netstat -tulpn| grep python
jpa#jpa-dell:~/odoo/master-hr-holidays-newapi-jpa$ sudo netstat -tulpn| grep python
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:8069 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 6399/python
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:41974 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 3123/python
Did you notice above result PID (6399) running python.
Kill that service using following command,
$ sudo kill -9 -6399
Now services is completely stop, you can start again normally.
Extra command for finding running srrvices,
$ ps -ef
$ ps -ef | grep python

Answer 14

Except the solution find process running on :80 and kill, then start again,
This error might have if you have multiple "Listen" entries in apache conf file or in any .conf files Included in apache conf file. Hope this helps to someone..!!

Answer 15

Try these commands:
Stop and then restart service.
sudo service apache2 stop sudo service apache2 restart