System.Exception: Unable to load bundles (HTTP 500 on initial load web UI)

After successful installation and startup of BTCPay server, an error occurs the first time I try to access the web UI on port 23001. HTTP 500 is returned to the web client and a System Exception occurs in the btcpay logs (logs at the end of this issue)

• Version of BTCPay Server: v1.0.3.88 (also failing for several other 1.0.3.xx versions tested)
• Deployment method: Manual Build
• Other relevant environment details: Ubuntu 16.04

To Reproduce

• Build and run BTCPay from systemctl startup script
• BTCPay uccessfully connects to NBXplorer and sees new blocks
• BTCPay starts HTTP server on 23001
• On initial HTTP get of localhost:23001, HTTP500 is returned.
• Logs show system exception in LoadBundles()

Additional details:

• BTCPay server is running as a non-administrative user.
• daemon user and group have full access to the btcpayserver build and launch directory
• It worked before “bundles”
• Crash happens even when bundlejscss is set to false
• Additional logging added to the code shows that bundlejscss is correctly read as “false” in the daemon execution.
• Daemon user has full file access to bundleconfig.json
• Even when setting 777 permisions on bundleconfig.json, it still crashes

 System.Exception: Unable to load bundles.
    at Meziantou.AspNetCore.BundleTagHelpers.BundleProvider.LoadBundles()
    at Meziantou.AspNetCore.BundleTagHelpers.BundleProvider.GetBundle(String name)
    at Meziantou.AspNetCore.BundleTagHelpers.BundleTagHelper.Process(TagHelperContext context, TagHelperOutput output)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.TagHelpers.TagHelper.ProcessAsync(TagHelperContext context, TagHelperOutput output)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Runtime.TagHelpers.TagHelperRunner.RunAsync(TagHelperExecutionContext executionContext)
    at AspNetCore.Views_Shared__Layout.<ExecuteAsync>b__44_0() in /usr/local/src/BTCPayServer/btcpayserver/BTCPayServer/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml:line 27
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Runtime.TagHelpers.TagHelperExecutionContext.SetOutputContentAsync()
    at AspNetCore.Views_Shared__Layout.ExecuteAsync()
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderPageCoreAsync(IRazorPage page, ViewContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderPageAsync(IRazorPage page, ViewContext context, Boolean invokeViewStarts)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderLayoutAsync(ViewContext context, ViewBufferTextWriter bodyWriter)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderAsync(ViewContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.ViewExecutor.ExecuteAsync(ViewContext viewContext, String contentType, Nullable`1 statusCode)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.ViewExecutor.ExecuteAsync(ActionContext actionContext, IView view, ViewDataDictionary viewData, ITempDataDictionary tempData, String contentType, Nullable`1 statusCode)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.ViewResultExecutor.ExecuteAsync(ActionContext context, ViewResult result)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewResult.ExecuteResultAsync(ActionContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.InvokeResultAsync(IActionResult result)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.InvokeNextResultFilterAsync[TFilter,TFilterAsync]()
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.Rethrow(ResultExecutedContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.ResultNext[TFilter,TFilterAsync](State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.InvokeResultFilters()
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.InvokeNextResourceFilter()
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.Rethrow(ResourceExecutedContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.InvokeFilterPipelineAsync()
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Internal.ResourceInvoker.InvokeAsync()
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.RouterMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.StatusCodePagesMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.RouterMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.AuthenticationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles.StaticFileMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
    at BTCPayServer.Hosting.BTCPayMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext) in /usr/local/src/BTCPayServer/btcpayserver/BTCPayServer/Hosting/BTCpayMiddleware.cs:line 55
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Cors.Infrastructure.CorsMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel.Core.Internal.Http.HttpProtocol.ProcessRequests[TContext](IHttpApplication`1 application)

[aantonop]

I managed to isolate the problem to the systemd start script. I copied from the run.sh contents and this command line worked:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/dotnet run --no-launch-profile --no-build -c Release -p "BTCPayServer/BTCPayServer.csproj" --conf /data/btcpayserver/btcpayserver.conf --datadir /data/btcpayserver/

The problem was all in how I launched BTCPay from systemd. I had copied the systemd from one of the tutorials, and it didn’t work.

[NicolasDorier]

Yep, I confirm it works for me now. 😃 @aantonop if you use bundlejscss to true (as it should be normally), you won’t have permission issue as I read the bundle.config directly from the resources of the assembly.