Public bug reported:

I just did a fresh install of fail2ban on Ubuntu Oneiric.
When using fail2ban-client without sudo, the given error messages are 
misleading, or don't point out that you need admin privileges to do what you 
want.

For example,  "fail2ban-client status" gives 
"ERROR  Unable to contact server. Is it running?" even if the server is 
actually running.
If, as a new user, you react to that message by starting the server with 
"fail2ban-client status", you get, after some other logging messages,
"ERROR  Could not start server. Maybe an old socket file is still present. Try 
to remove /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock. If you used fail2ban-client to start 
the server, adding the -x option will do it"
but neither the -x option not manually removing /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock 
will solve this error - very confusing.

Interestingly, I haven't found this requirement anywhere in the docs
(though in hindsight, it's logical that privileges would be needed >.<).
I'm also not the only one with this problem, as I finally found the
solution here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1682296

** Affects: fail2ban (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Description changed:

  I just did a fresh install of fail2ban on Ubuntu Oneiric.
  When using fail2ban-client without sudo, the given error messages are 
misleading, or don't point out that you need admin privileges to do what you 
want.
  
- For example,  "fail2ban-client status" gives "ERROR  Unable to contact 
server. Is it running?" even if the server is indeed running.
- If, as a new user, you react to that message by starting the server with 
"fail2ban-client status", you get, after some other logging messages, 
+ For example,  "fail2ban-client status" gives 
+ "ERROR  Unable to contact server. Is it running?" even if the server is 
actually running.
+ If, as a new user, you react to that message by starting the server with 
"fail2ban-client status", you get, after some other logging messages,
  "ERROR  Could not start server. Maybe an old socket file is still present. 
Try to remove /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock. If you used fail2ban-client to 
start the server, adding the -x option will do it"
  but neither the -x option not manually removing 
/var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock will solve this error - very confusing.
  
  Interestingly, I haven't found this requirement anywhere in the docs
  (though in hindsight, it's logical that privileges would be needed >.<).
  I'm also not the only one with this problem, as I finally found the
  solution here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1682296

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/903647

Title:
  Misleading error message when not using sudo

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