switch to root first with:
sudo su
and then try again 
(or put sudo in front of every command since the user pi doesn’t have access to several system directories)
I am scratching my head … It should have worked…
Try the following:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade mosquitto
also: check the systemctl status mosquitto to see what it says…
Somehow your mosquitto server is not working…?
it’s broken… It shows “active (exited)” when it should be showing “active (running)”…
Check the /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log for errors
try to apt-get update and then apt-get upgrade mosquitto
If this doesn’t help: apt-get remove mosquitto and then apt-get install mosquitto
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Check the permissions of the /var/lib/mosquitto/ directory.
It should be owned by the user mosquitto.
To fix this: chown -R mosquitto:mosquitto /var/lib/mosquitto
Check if the file mosquitto.db has been created in there.
Otherwise…It may be a problem with your mosquitto.conf file… (some syntax error or something similar)
back it up and remove it from /etc/mosquitto/ folder put in the following simple options in a new one and try to systemctl restart mosquitto
user mosquitto
port 1883
The Broker should become active (running)
If this works, start adding back the other options in your new mosquitto.conf, like:
pid_file /var/run/mosquitto.pid
persistence true
persistence_location /var/lib/mosquitto/
log_dest file /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log
allow_anonymous false
password_file /etc/mosquitto/passfile
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It’s up and running (but without authentication)
So… the problem must be the persistence_location (/var/lib/mosquitto/)
Change the ownership of that directory: chown -R mosquitto:mosquitto /var/lib/mosquitto
and put back the options in your mosquitto.conf and restart the broker
It should work… 
now my conf file is
user mosquitto
port 1883
pid_file /var/run/mosquitto.pid
persistence true
persistence_location /var/lib/mosquitto/
log_dest file /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log
allow_anonymous false
password_file /etc/mosquitto/passfile
and i have run chown
but
disable persistence (set persistence false) and restart the broker. It should become active (running)
check the directory /var/lib/mosquitto/ for the permissions and if any file was created in there
… and start looking for a new SD Card 
(it may have data corruption problems…)
ok… remove both lines that have something to do with persistence:
persistence true
persistence_location /var/lib/mosquitto/
If this doesn’t work… use process of elimination (remove more lines from the config file… the only line that you really need to bring up the broker is the pid_file config option)
now i got
user mosquitto
port 1883
pid_file /var/run/mosquitto.pid
persistence true
allow_anonymous false
password_file /etc/mosquitto/passfile
now it’s running and you can test the sub & pub commands.
It seems to me that something is wrong with your /var/lib/mosquitto/ directory. The Broker could not write (and read?) from the persistence file /var/lib/mosquitto/mosquitto.db
It may be that your SD Card is not very happy and needs a change
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Looks good
You can progress to the next steps
Also, your sonoff should be connecting now to the MQTT Broker… check that also
I would worry about the SD Card if I was you
Maybe it’s better to get a new one and start with a clean openHABian deployment
Also, make sure that you have a good quality USB Power Supply feeding the Raspberry Pi (I use an “official” PSU)
A proper power feed makes a big difference and keeps your rPi stable and your SD Card happy.
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i have a new sd card but how do i move from the old one and to the new one can i do that whitout setting every things up again
the powersupply and sdcard are from raspberry pi and it is only 3 month old