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Thu, 04 Feb 2021 15:51:08 +0100

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

shimon wrote the following post Thu, 04 Feb 2021 15:51:08 +0100

Initial setup database connection help

Hi,
I'm trying to setup a hub and I've been getting a 'Database Connect failed: ' error over and over again using various combinations of credentials.
What do I put in the login name, login password, and Database name fields?
I tried 'root' as login and used the password I saved in the zotserver-config.txt file along with 'hubzilla' in the database name field, as well as leaving some of the fields blank or all of them blank. Screenshot: #^https://zotum.net/photos/shimon/image/ad08db0e-7e6c-42df-87f3-9dd48bcc54be . Any help much appreciated.

show all 20 comments

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 18:28:14 +0100

Aksel Kies Linc @Hz

aksel@social.aksel.at

What says your .htconfig.php in the root dir of the installation (db_user, db_pass, db_data)?

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 20:06:07 +0100

Tanja

tanja@hz.lazyteddy.eu

Did you create the empty database first? Hubzilla won't create a database, it already needs to exist.

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 23:07:27 +0100

Aksel Kies Linc @Hz

aksel@social.aksel.at

@Tanja Is there a reason why the script does not create the database, too?

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 23:51:20 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Aksel Kies Linc @Hz I can imagine that that is by design. You may not like to give your installer an admin account on a database so that it can create its own database. I know I wouldn't like it.

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 10:42:44 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Aksel Kies Linc @Hz @Tanja @Hans van Zijst @Papa Dragon

[Solved] I entered 'hubzilla' in the login name field and setup completed. Yes, I'm using the 'homeinstall procedure' on a fresh Debian 10 install. Thanks for all the replies.

Another issue though is that HTTPS isn't enabled. I'm wondering if I need to enable HTTPS manually prior to setup....

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 11:11:13 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

Also, registration email isn't coming through. It's been about twenty minutes already and nothing in inbox or spam....

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 11:54:15 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@shimon Could be anything, but check your domain settings. If things like SPF, DKIM and DMARC are configured, there's a big chance your e-mail will be rejected and thus never even reach a spamfolder.

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 14:21:49 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Hans van Zijst Where do I configure them? Are they server or hubzilla related?

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 14:31:05 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@shimon No, those are configured in DNS and have nothing to do with Hubzilla, only with e-mail. They are meant as means for receiving mailservers to determine if mail is forged, spam or otherwise unacceptable.

https://www.smartertools.com/blog/2019/04/09-understanding-spf-dkim-dmarc

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 14:47:25 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@shimon I configured my Hubzilla to use a "real" mailserver, so all it has to do is login and deliver the message to the server. The mailserver (which "does" SPF, DKIM, DMARC and a lot of other stuff) will take care of the final delivery.

This is what I have in my .htconfig.php:

App::$config['phpmailer']['mailer'] = 'smtp';
App::$config['phpmailer']['host'] = 'mailserver.example.com';
App::$config['phpmailer']['port'] = '587';
App::$config['phpmailer']['smtpauth'] = 1;
App::$config['phpmailer']['smtpsecure'] = 1;
App::$config['phpmailer']['username'] = 'hubzilla';
App::$config['phpmailer']['password'] = 'secret password';

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 19:03:51 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Einer von Vielen I tried that but oddly enough, it won't let me login (also after registering again with the same email). I enter email and password and screen stays on login page. Also, I tried registering with a different email and it also won't log me in and I don't even get any type of confirmation notice after registration....I also tried logging in with a remote user and nada...

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 19:07:59 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@shimon Yes, you can simply add those lines to .htconfig.php. You might have to restart your webserver, depending on how it processes PHP code.

You'd have to fill in the address of the mailserver you're going to use. I use my own server, and if you're not sure if you have a mailserver installed, I can guarantee you haven't. Installing a full-fledged mailserver is quite a project ;-)

You would have to use your ISP's mailserver, or even GMail. I can't help you with that, but your ISP should be able to tell you what you should configure there, including the port. Port 587 (STARTTLS) is very common, but you might have to use 465 (SSL, like STARTTLS but older) or even 25.

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 19:24:53 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Hans van Zijst Ok. So you're saying unless I have a mail server installed I can't verify user registration by email (or send them notifications via email if e.g. someone comments on their post etc.)? That seems odd to me as I'd want to get email notifications from Hubzilla. I see that DO actually recommends using mail relay:

I#^How to Set Up a Mail Relay with Postfix and Mailgun on Ubuntu 16.04 | DigitalOcean

I'm wondering what the downside to using a service like 'mailgun' is in terms of privacy...

Use Postfix and Mailgun to create a closed mail relay for bulk emails or your internal communications.

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 19:27:19 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Hans van Zijst My hub won't let me login even after I've registered (and have disabled email login). Any ideas?

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 19:45:27 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@shimon Not exactly.

I mean that e-mail is quite complex these days. It takes a bit of work to create an e-mailserver that can reliably deliver e-mail to the world. If it doesn't conform to standards or doesn't implement techniques that are de facto required by the big guys nowadays, like SPF, a correct PTR record in DNS or a DKIM signature, many servers will reject your e-mail. Simply having a machine that can connect to a mailserver to deliver mail is probably not going to work anymore, because it would trigger too many "spam" or "forged" flags. I know Google is quite picky when it comes to accepting e-mail. Exactly what the intro in that Digital Ocean article says:

Ensuring high deliverability of email from a home grown SMTP server without being marked as spam is not very feasible due to the high degree of spam protection provided by most email providers today.

So, what you should do is let a "professional" mailserver take care of delivering e-mail, you shouldn't let Hubzilla do that. Installing your own is fun, but is "not a task for the faint of heart". Chances are that your ISP is operating a mailserver (probably even a cluster of mailserver) that you can use, that would be the relay server you can use. What you need for that is a username and a password, your ISP can give you those. Or you can use a Mailgun account, the settings for that should be easily retrieved from there.

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 22:43:03 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Hans van Zijst Ok. Sounds good. Thanks. Will look into that. Have any idea why I can't login?

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 23:14:01 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@shimon First of all: are you absolutely sure you're using the correct login/password? That may sound like pointing out the obvious, but believe me...

If you are, then switch on logging and see what happens there. Login as admin, bottom left there's "Logs". Make sure the webserver can write to the file you configure.

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 23:30:33 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Hans van Zijst Yes, using correct login and password...

Where do I switch on 'logging'? I can't login as admin....that's the problem.

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 09:36:02 +0100

shimon

shimon@zotum.net

@Jeremy Thanks. That worked. Any idea what that does and why it needs to be manually changed?

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 10:03:36 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

@shimon it appears this issue araises if php mail is not configured correctly and thus the registration email is sent to void...