Sorter — Operations

Symptom-led entries for install, first-run, and runtime problems. Search this page (Cmd-F) for the error message you are seeing.

Each entry: what you see → cause → fix → how to verify. For the install procedure itself, see Install on a Linux machine.

.onnx files are tiny — backend logs a malformed model error

du -h software/sorter/backend/blob/local_detection_models/*.onnx shows files of a few hundred bytes.

Cause: Git LFS was not initialized before the clone.

Fix: Re-run software/install.sh, or by hand: git lfs install && git lfs pull.

Verify: du -h reports MB, not bytes.

ImportError: libGL.so.1 on backend startup

Cause: libgl1 missing — usually install.sh --skip-apt on a system that didn’t have it.

Fix: sudo apt install -y libgl1 libglib2.0-0 or re-run install.sh without --skip-apt.

Verify: python3 -c "import cv2; print(cv2.__version__)" prints the version.

Address already in use on port 8000 or 5173

Cause: A wedged child from a previous run is still holding the port.

Fix: pkill -f 'uvicorn|vite' && ./dev.sh.

Kills all uvicorn/vite processes on the box — name them more specifically if you run other servers.

Verify: lsof -i :8000 -i :5173 prints nothing before you start ./dev.sh.

UI loads but clicks do nothing

Cause: Backend crashed during import; the SvelteKit app is talking to a dead server.

Fix: Read the [backend] lines in ./dev.sh. The last line before the silence tells you which import failed. Fix that and restart.

Verify: curl -fsS http://localhost:8000/api/health returns JSON.

Pico boards not detected (permission denied on /dev/ttyACM*)

Cause: udev rule not installed, or your user is not in the plugdev group and you are not on the active desktop seat (e.g. headless/SSH session).

Fix: Re-run install.sh, or by hand: sudo cp software/systemd/99-sorter-pico.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/ && sudo usermod -aG plugdev $USER && sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger. Unplug and replug. For headless/SSH, log out and back in so the group takes effect.

Verify: ls -l /dev/ttyACM* shows the device owned by root:plugdev with mode 0660, and id lists plugdev for your user.

Feeder camera sees a part but the MOG2 detector never triggers

Cause: Bootstrap window — each channel needs 24 frames of background before reporting detections, and the counter resets on any image-shape change. Or: the channel was rotating when the part landed (motion blur is suppressed on purpose).

Fix: Wait ~2 seconds after homing or any camera setting change before dropping a part. If detections come in late but never fire, raise var_threshold in mog2_diff_configs.

Verify: A part landing in the dropzone produces feeder: idle -> feeding in the log within ~500 ms.

Carousel keeps rotating past the part — classification never completes

Cause: The classification detector returns found=false every attempt. Two real causes: OpenRouter API key missing or rate-limited, or the classification region polygon is misaligned with where the carousel actually presents parts.

Fix:

• Set OPENROUTER_API_KEY in .env, or lower OPENROUTER_MAX_CONCURRENCY from 10.
• Re-run the classification region calibration in the setup wizard.
• Last resort: switch detection_algorithm for the classification scope to a local algorithm.

Verify: A dropped part advances idle -> detecting -> snapping in under 2 seconds.

Chute drift — parts land in the wrong bin after ~50 parts

Cause: Chute position is open-loop from the homing endstop. Drift comes from a flipped endstop polarity, a stepper skipping under bind, or stale first_bin_center / pillar_width_deg after a hardware change.

Fix:

• Re-home from Hardware → Chute → Home. The chute does not re-home between runs.
• Re-measure first_bin_center and update [chute] in machine.example.toml.
• If steppers skip: lower the move speed or raise [stepper_current_overrides.chute_stepper] irun (max 31).

Verify: Send 50 parts to bin 0 from the test panel — all land in the same physical bin.

Hive uploads pile up and never drain

Cause: Wrong URL/token, or Hive is unreachable from this machine. The uploader keeps samples on disk and backs off — nothing is dropped.

Fix: Test with curl -fsS "$HIVE_URL/api/health". If that fails, fix the network. If it returns but uploads still 401, the token is wrong. Set both under Settings → Hive in the UI (stored via blob_manager, not .env).

Verify: The pending queue drains at roughly one upload per second per worker.

Classification samples all show detection_found=false

Cause: Chamber lighting drifted from the calibration baseline. Gemini in particular is fragile against clipped highlights or strong color casts.

Fix: Restore the lighting, or re-run the setup wizard’s chamber lighting step. If ambient has genuinely changed, recalibrate colour from Settings → Cameras.

Verify: Settings → Detection Test returns detection_found=true with a plausible bbox.

Escalate

If the symptom is not on this page, capture the following and open an issue:

./dev.sh 2>&1 | tee /tmp/sorter.log    # full backend + ui output from clean start
uname -a
git -C <repo> rev-parse HEAD
uv --version && node --version && pnpm --version

Include a one-line description of what you were doing when the symptom appeared.