Troubleshooting¶

Solutions to common issues with rewget.

Installation Issues¶

"command not found: rewget"¶

The rewget binary is not in your PATH.

Solution:

brew link rewget

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin"

"wget not found"¶

rewget requires wget to be installed.

Solution:

sudo apt install wget

sudo dnf install wget

brew install wget

Build Errors¶

If building from source fails:

# Ensure Rust is up to date
rustup update

# Install build dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config libssl-dev

# Try clean build
cargo clean
cargo build --release

Connection Issues¶

"Connection refused" or "Network error"¶

Possible causes:

1. Network connectivity issues
2. Firewall blocking connections
3. VPN/proxy interference

Solutions:

# Test basic connectivity
curl -v https://example.com/

# Try without proxy
unset http_proxy https_proxy

# Check firewall
sudo iptables -L

"SSL certificate problem"¶

Solution:

# Skip certificate verification (not recommended for production)
rewget --no-check-certificate https://example.com/

# Or update CA certificates
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ca-certificates

Timeout Errors¶

Solution:

Increase timeouts:

rewget --rewget-timeout-stage1=60000 \
      --rewget-timeout-stage2=60000 \
      --rewget-timeout-stage3=120000 \
      https://slow-site.com/

Fallback Issues¶

"403 Forbidden" Despite Fallback¶

Some sites have very aggressive bot detection that even Stage 3 can't bypass.

Solutions:

1. Try a different profile:

   rewget --rewget-profile=firefox_136 https://example.com/
   

2. Force Stage 3 with wait:

   rewget --rewget-js --rewget-js-wait=delay:10000 https://example.com/
   

3. Check if the site actually allows access (some block all automated access)

"Stage 2 failed, trying Stage 3..."¶

This is normal behavior - Stage 2 (impersonation) didn't work, so rewget tries Stage 3 (browser).

If Stage 3 also fails, the site may have additional protections.

Fallback Not Triggering¶

rewget only retries on specific status codes. Check your fallback codes:

# See what codes trigger fallback (default: 403,429,503,520-529)
rewget --rewget-debug https://example.com/

# Add additional codes
rewget --rewget-fallback-codes=403,429,503,500 https://example.com/

Cache Issues¶

If a site starts blocking after previously working:

# Clear the domain cache
rewget --rewget-clear-cache

# Disable caching for this request
rewget --rewget-no-cache https://example.com/

Daemon Issues¶

"Failed to connect to daemon"¶

The daemon isn't running or crashed.

Solutions:

# Check if daemon is running
pgrep rewgetd

# Restart by killing and letting rewget respawn
pkill rewgetd
rewget https://example.com/

# Check daemon logs
rewget --rewget-debug https://example.com/

"Daemon startup timeout"¶

The daemon is taking too long to start.

Solutions:

# Kill any stale daemon
pkill -9 rewgetd

# Remove socket file
rm ~/.cache/rewget/rewgetd.sock

# Try again
rewget https://example.com/

High Memory Usage¶

The daemon caches browser sessions which can use memory.

Solution:

# Kill daemon to free memory
pkill rewgetd

# It will restart automatically when needed

Chromium Issues¶

"Chromium download failed"¶

Solutions:

1. Check internet connectivity
2. Ensure ~150MB disk space is available
3. Try manual download:

   rewget --rewget-download-chromium
   

"Chromium not found" After Download¶

Solution:

# Check installation path
rewget --rewget-chromium-path

# Re-download if needed
rm -rf ~/.local/share/rewget/chromium/
rewget --rewget-download-chromium

Stage 3 Hangs¶

The browser might be stuck on a page.

Solutions:

# Use a specific wait condition
rewget --rewget-js --rewget-js-wait=delay:5000 https://example.com/

# Reduce timeout
rewget --rewget-js --rewget-timeout-stage3=15000 https://example.com/

"Chrome failed to start"¶

Possible causes:

1. Missing system dependencies
2. Sandbox issues on Linux

Solutions:

# Install Chrome dependencies
sudo apt install libnss3 libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 \
                 libcups2 libdrm2 libxkbcommon0 libxcomposite1 \
                 libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxrandr2 libgbm1 \
                 libasound2

# This is a workaround - not recommended for security
export CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--no-sandbox"

Profile Issues¶

"Profile not found"¶

Solution:

# List available profiles
rewget --rewget-list-profiles

# Use exact profile name
rewget --rewget-profile=chrome_131 https://example.com/

"Profile update failed"¶

Solutions:

# Check network connectivity
curl -v https://rewget.dev/profiles/v1/index.json

# Reset to built-in defaults
rewget --rewget-update-profiles
# (Falls back to defaults on failure)

"Signature verification failed"¶

The profile source may be compromised or the file is corrupted.

Solutions:

1. Try updating again:

   rewget --rewget-update-profiles
   

2. If using custom URL, verify the source is trustworthy

3. Skip verification (only if you trust the source):

   rewget --rewget-no-verify --rewget-update-profiles
   

Debug Mode¶

When reporting issues, include debug output:

rewget --rewget-debug https://example.com/ 2>&1 | tee rewget-debug.log

This shows:

• Which stage is being attempted
• HTTP status codes received
• Profile being used
• Timing information
• Error details

Getting Help¶

If you can't resolve an issue:

1. Check existing GitHub Issues

2. Create a new issue with:

3. rewget version (rewget --rewget-version)
4. Operating system
5. Debug output (--rewget-debug)

6. Steps to reproduce

7. For security issues, email [email protected] instead of creating a public issue.