> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://kb.rport.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://kb.rport.io/need-help/troubleshoot-common-problems/rport-server-not-starting.md).

# RPort Server not starting

### Inspect the log file

If your server doesn't start, look at the main server log file `/var/log/rport/rportd.log` first. This can be done with a text editor or with the tail command. For example, \
`tail -n 200 /var/log/rport/rportd.log` shows the last 200 lines.

Sometimes critical errors occur before the rport server can write log to its log file. These errors are usually logged through systemd. Use `journalctl -u rportd.service -e --no-pager` to inspect them. 

If the above doesn't provide you enough information to understand why your server is not starting, try to run `rportd` without systemd in the foreground, which will print errors directly on your console. 

```
# Run rportd in foreground
su - rport -s /bin/bash -c "/usr/local/bin/rportd -c /etc/rport/rportd.conf"
```

### Share diagnostic data with the support

If you want to share diagnostic data with the RealVNC support, add the relevant files to an encrypted ZIP file and upload for later download.

```
# Share diagnostic data
journalctl -u rportd.service -e --no-pager > /tmp/rportd.journal.log
zip -r -e /tmp/rportd-diagnostic.zip /tmp/rportd.journal.log /etc/rport/ /var/log/rport/
curl --upload-file /tmp/rportd-diagnostic.zip https://transfer.sh/rportd-diagnostic.zip
```

The above command will ask for an encryption password. Provide a secure password and confirm. After the upload is completed, a download URL staring with <https://transfer.sh> is printed on the console. Share this URL and the password with the support engineer.


---

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