ntop Install Fix for CentOS 5.3

If you happen to install ntop and gets this error:

Default RPM install (from rpmforge)
CentOS 5.3
ntop 3.3.8-2.el5.rf
Works runs fine when executed from the command line, however, the following happens when service ntop start is ran.

Starting ntop:    Processing file /etc/ntop.conf for parameters...
Mon Aug  3 19:49:38 2009  NOTE: Interface merge enabled by default
Mon Aug  3 19:49:38 2009  Initializing gdbm databases
FATAL ERROR: Unrecognized/unprocessed ntop options...
 --user=ntop, --db-file-path=/var/ntop, --use-syslog=local3, --daemon,

run ntop --help for usage information

    Common problems:
        -B "filter expressions" (quotes are required)
        --use-syslog=facilty (the = is required)

FAILED]

Here is the fix for it:

The fix was orignally posted here, all credit goes to them, I’m reposting it here for my own convenience.
The Fix
Edit /etc/init.d/ntop
start () { echo -n $"Starting $prog: " # daemon $prog -d -L @/etc/ntop.conf daemon 
$prog @/etc/ntop.conf -d -L -M In addition to this, /etc/ntop.conf needs to be edited and any spaces in the options should be replaced with =.

### Sets the user that ntop runs as. ### NOTE: This should not be root unless you really understand the security risks. --user=ntop ### Sets the directory that ntop runs from. --db-file-path=/var/ntop
 
and

[root@Neptune ~]# service ntop start Starting ntop: Processing file /etc/ntop.conf for parameters... Fri Dec 10 11:09:11 2010  NOTE: Interface merge enabled by default
Fri Dec 10 11:09:11 2010  Initializing gdbm databases [ OK ]

Note:  There is a pesky error (**ERROR** RRD: Disabled - unable to create directory (err 13, /var/ntop/rrd/graphics), when trying to view network load page. To fix this problem you have to do the following:

#cd /var/ntop
#chown -R ntop.nobody rrd