New accounts not working

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:14:04 +0100

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

Crow wrote the following post Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:14:04 +0100

New accounts not working

I created invites for new accounts, sent them, and when one of the invited people tries to create an account, they just get returned to the login page.

This happened exactly the same way when I pre- or post-approve their accounts at #^https://commonworlds.org/admin/accounts?get_all= and "all registrations." I can select the accounts, approve them all, but then if I refresh the page, they show as unapproved as before.

Any help?

Wow, Hubzilla is complicated and unfriendly.

show all 44 comments

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 06:57:22 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

What is your registration configuration in /admin/site?

Wow, Hubzilla is complicated and unfriendly.

Wondering how software could be unfriendly :thinking:

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 07:38:32 +0100

Mark Nowiasz

buckaroo@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Have they ticked the checkbox(es) where they accept the TOS and/or state that they over the required age? One of my users had similar problems until he noticed his mistake.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 15:45:02 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Mario Vavti This seems a flippant reply, but I'll give it a go, since so many people here have spent their lives working with unfriendly software:

Friendly software rewards naive experimentation, and suggests through its design ways to begin that experimentation. Friendly software either starts off configured in a way that the majority of users will want, or has an extremely straightforward way to get there.

Unfriendly software requires you install addons at the command line to just enable basic functionality that differentiates that software from a hundred other similar types of software.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 15:46:13 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Witcraft Thanks. Is there possibly some interaction between "this is not a public forum" setting and registration?

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 17:06:19 +0100

Scott M. Stolz

scott@hubzilla.monster

@Mario Vavti

Wondering how software could be unfriendly :thinking:

Hal comes to mind.

HAL: The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 19:24:37 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Crow

Is there possibly some interaction between "this is not a public forum" setting and registration?

Most likely not.

But as requested before: The exact steps, menus and menu options that lead to the problem would help better to reproduce a problem than paraphrased indications like "the this is not a public forum setting". I can only guess, but if you mean the "group actor" switch in the channel role custom settings - the one after the explicit warning that one should not mess with it unless one has advanced knowledge as to what it does - should have nothing to do with account approval via admin>accounts-menu not working. Neither should the standard channel role "community forum" (a channelfor others to posti to, like this support channel).

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:00:32 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Witcraft Happy to lay it out, though as far as I can tell, I did:

Create invites using #^https://commonworlds.org/invite

Approve those invites in advance at #^https://commonworlds.org/admin/accounts/

Check that approving those accounts at #^https://commonworlds.org/admin/accounts/ worked by reloading the page.
the invites show as NOT approved.

When one of the invited email accounts attempts to accept the invite using the invite code (or NOT using the invite code--either way) on submitting the form at #^https://commonworlds.org/register, the page just reloads as if something happened, but nothing does.

And it is then impossible to use the theoretically created login credentials, because they were not created.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:10:09 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

@Crow i do not think you can approve in advance. IIRC the invitees have to verify first.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:13:57 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Mario Vavti well, the interface sure LOOKS like you can approve in advance. Which is problematic in itself if you can't.

If the problem isn't at the approval process, then something more opaque is wrong with registration.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:15:07 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

Just to assure: I've shoulder surfed one of the people trying to register, and I've tried it myself via an alternate email address, and in neither case do I see any particular errors taking place from the user end of this process.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:40:05 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

Well, now that you posted how you got there i can have a look and investigate...

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:46:22 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

Still it would be good if you post your registration settings as metioned above...

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 21:11:39 +0100

𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

chris@im.allmendenetz.de

"I created invites for new accounts, sent them, and when one of the invited people tries to create an account, they just get returned to the login page."

just tested the process with a invitation code if regular registrations are allowed

and i get the same error...

after entering the invitation code
channel name
email
password
accept the TOS and/or state that they over the required age
send

no approving code is sent to the email address

it will just reloads the registration page...
if you do the registration without invitation code it works fine than

actually an invitation code just makes sense if normal registration is closed by the admin
but even than the registration has to be approved always by the new user its self - i think

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 21:14:46 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Mario Vavti Please let me know what registration settings are and where.In #^https://commonworlds.org/admin/accounts/ there's nothing labeled "registration settings." Do you mean "registration" in #^https://commonworlds.org/admin/site/ ? If so there's almost nothing there and it's all default:

Register Text: blank
Default permission role for new accounts: Personal
Does this site allow new member registration: Yes
Configure the registration open hours: -:- (24/7)
Max accounts per day 50 (I've only tried to get 6 more accounts)
Max account registrations from same IP: 3
Register verification delay: 0
Register verification expiration time: 3 days
Auto channel create: ON
Require invite code: OFF
Allow invite code: ON
Require email address: ON
Minimum Age:18
Page to display after creating new channel: profiles

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 22:37:16 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼 pretty sure we tried not using the invite code, and it still didn't work, but I'll try again.

If invite codes are broken, then that's really problematic for a typical use case of spinning up a server for a specific hobby or interest group without wanting to end up with hundreds of strangers on your server.

Of course, that does not seem like a worry given the low user count of Hubzilla across all servers.

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 23:04:48 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Mark Nowiasz Yes. multiple times. Multiple attempts. Also the UI there needs some help, but that's a different topic!

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 23:06:02 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼 when I try to create a "cold" registration, it does not propagate to /admin/accounts under "show all registrations."

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 10:00:44 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

Well, i recreated your registration config at my hub, sent an invitation and everything appears to work out fine here:

- Invitee received an email with the invitation code
- Invitee copied the invitation code from the email to the clipboard and went to /register
- Invitee at the registration form clicked "i have an invite code" and pasted the code from the clipboard
- Invitee fills in the rest of the form and submits it (the provided email address must be the same as the address the invitation went to iirc)
- New channel is created, and already connected with the inviter

New registrations do not need to be approved by the admin since you did not configure your registration to need approval.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 10:23:04 +0100

𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼

chris@im.allmendenetz.de

@Mario Vavti You are right - it does work... just tried the process with an other webbrowser.

so it seams to be a webbrowseraddon which blocked functions yesterday on my system.

@Crow so if even a "cold" registration does not work - there seams to be something broken on your hub - and as @Witcraft said the PHP settings are quid imported.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 12:13:51 +0100

Hilmar R (u-zapalot)

hi-u@zapalot.in-eu.net

@Mario Vavti
Yes, invitations work well
@Crow
At least one of the config
Require invite code or Allow invite code need to be set to On. While trying this, I'm sure both are Off. Thus, I will suggest to set Allow invite code to On and @{hilmar-test@commonworlds.org} can retry and ckeck.
@Witcraft
Sorry, but you are on the wrong side of the road :-). If php would be misconfigured on the server, nothing would function (no login, register, admin site etc) and because most functions interact with the DB, it is to assume also this may be well also.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 13:01:47 +0100

Hilmar Runge

hilmar@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Scott M. Stolz
Yes, HAL, unforgotten and just 2001 in the future :-)
H+1=I,A+1=B,L+1=M, oops, its not microsoft.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:59:49 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Hilmar R (u-zapalot)

Sorry, but you are on the wrong side of the road :-). If php would be misconfigured on the server, nothing would function (no login, register, admin site etc) and because most functions interact with the DB, it is to assume also this may be well also.

I mentioned that because in the beginning of my days here, my server functioned seemingly well, with a misconfigured php path - except that it did not send out posts, comments, and contact requests - i.e. interactions with other servers. Maybe there was a not-well-working secondary mechanism involved, but why I was irritated was that all the things you mentioned above actually worked...

Bottom line, my insight into web server tech is very limited, so I would suggest anyone to follow rather your experienced guidance than mine :thumbsup: And it actually does sound more like a DB problem.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:19:55 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Hilmar R (u-zapalot) Thanks for the tip. Pretty sure I've tried every combination of allow/require and nothing has made a difference, but I'll make sure Allow is on.

Devs: Sure would be great if the UI mentioned (or forced) this requirement!

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:24:01 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Mario Vavti Any suggestion on how to troubleshoot my setup? Because I still get failed registrations at /register and attempting to approve someone in /admin/accounts still fails--it SEEMS to work, but on refresh the account is back to unapproved.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:26:54 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Witcraft I'm on a web hosted setup. My host did virtually all of the install, and I'm pretty sure that they had zero previous hubzilla experience. I installed the addons that enabled ActivityPub.

As for things not being "windows like" I don't mind... I'm a lifelong Mac guy :D. And I'm comfortable, more or less, at a bash or zsh prompt.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:53:10 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

tried yet another attempt to create an account from scratch. Invite codes are turned off.

I can submit, but it never shows up in /admin/accounts and the moment I submit I'm returned to the login screen. Trying to use /login after that fails.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:53:18 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Crow

My host did virtually all of the install, and I'm pretty sure that they had zero previous hubzilla experience.

That, carefully put, is a sub-optimal combination...

I installed the addons that enabled ActivityPub. ... And I'm comfortable, more or less, at a bash or zsh prompt.

That is a much better combination :slight_smile:

My experience is: If you are on generic webhosting, do stuff yourself (which means research in basic web tech). If you want a working setup, look for app hosting that actually has tested whether the software runs on their host and ( :wave_tone1: @ Softaculous) actually is updateable by the mechanisms they provide. Be aware, the list of the latter is short. Or rent a single account (not ideal to start a community, though, and it would not be my cup of tea because of a lack of control - You might as well use a public host).

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:56:32 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Witcraft

sometimes, webhosters have settings in php or the webserver that do not support active apps like Hubzilla.

Also, it's important that Hubzilla knows the correct path to PHP, otherwise, scripts are not executed properly or at all. The default PHP path in the Hubzilla setup is not necessarily the one your webhoster uses. So you might want to double-check the php path of your webhosting package, as well as your DB credentials. They can be found in the {Hubzilla_webdir}/.htconfig.php (open in a text editor like nano, or in the file manager of your hoster, if your hoster offers one (e.g. Plesk allows file management and GUI based editing):
values $db_...
and App::$config['system']['php_path'].

I can't say for absolutely sure, but these values in htconfig seem to be correct. when I do "which php" the answer matches the config.

I've got a ticket in with my host, who has been opaquely helpful before. That is--they ask some questions, then turn around and say "it's fixed now" rather than explaining what the problem was. In fact, this all started with me trying to use the Softalicious auto-installer for Hubzilla, but that errored out several times, and my ticket about that was ultimately resolved by the host saying "we installed the software for you."

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:21:14 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

Hmmm. Hubzilla can't create log files. I may be able to touch a file using terminal, but I don't know where to create it. Where does Hubzilla expect the file to be?

PHP logs show some problems:

[26-Nov-2022 14:21:18 America/Detroit] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: count(): Argument #1 ($value) must be of type Countable|array, bool given in /home/myname/public_html/commonworlds.org/include/items.php:4163 Stack trace:
0 /home/myname/public_html/commonworlds.org/include/items.php(4544): fetch_post_tags()
1 /home/myname/public_html/commonworlds.org/Zotlabs/Module/Outbox.php(97): items_fetch()

and similar continuing

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:22:11 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Crow

In fact, this all started with me trying to use the Softalicious auto-installer for Hubzilla, but that errored out several times

Be thankful for that.... Others could do it, but learned afterwards with a fully established hub that it Softacolous does use the update process provided by the Hubzilla repo (a very simple udall command (="update all"), using an installation via git - btw. installing Hubzilla yourself via git, making sure all settings are entered as expected, is really simple for someone who has basic CLI experience).

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:26:48 +0100

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

@Crow you do not need to approve registrations because you do not have enabled registrations with approval.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:47:13 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@Crow

Where does Hubzilla expect the file to be?

Where you want them (relative from the Hubzilla webdir), w.g. /logs/hubzilla.log. You can enter the log files relative path in the log settings (admin menu).

PHP logs show some problems:

Others might be able to tell more. But for me as a non-pro, it look like the specific fetch function (I suppose it fetches tag and item entries from the DB) receives data of a wrong type (boolean instead of a Countable value array), so the DB has a different format than it should have. If your DB is wrong or corrupted, Hubzilla of course has not chance to run (much less to run "friendly"). How this happened is a forensic job, but it's not the result you get after a Hubzilla installation done correctly if all prerequisites are fulfilled by the webserver, see /help/de/admin/administrator_guide#Requirements

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:05:16 +0100

Hilmar R (u-zapalot)

hi-u@zapalot.in-eu.net

The titel of the post can be changed to

New accounts work as expected

As to assume, also invitations work well:

Invite App:

Wrong ist the link in the template. An email client treates it as an email address. An the shown invite code is only a dummy / placeholder. The real invite code is not shown in the UI, but sent with the email.

The email

Registration

It is important to take the same email address to register as the invitation was send to.

Image/photo

Profile

If the registration was successfull, the journey leads to the profile of the invited user. The message here is not an error. Instead, it shows the profile will now be created and if wanted extented with a photo or sth else.

Image/photo

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:20:32 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

Except they don’t. Yes I can send invites, but trying to register does not work. I don’t know how you got it to work.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:25:22 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Mario Vavti Yet even without approvals required, registrations don't work.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:35:34 +0100

Hilmar R (u-zapalot)

hi-u@zapalot.in-eu.net

@Mario Vavti
As mentioned earlier, I registered an account on that hub and today sent an invitation that also lead to a registration.

Just now, I had deleted my two accounts on that hub and see no need to continue this story.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:41:05 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Witcraft when I'm at /admin/logs and try to create a log, it gives me the noted error. my hubzilla folder has no /logs folder. When you say relative to, do you mean it should be:

main-install-folder
> logs

Or is it
main-install-folder
logs

I don't see it in either place.

[me@odawa commonworlds.org]$ ls -lah
total 600K
drwxr-x--- 17 me nobody  4.0K Nov 26 14:21 .
drwxr-x--- 37 me nobody  4.0K Nov 16 19:14 ..
drwxrwxr-x  2 me me 4.0K Nov 26 14:10 addon
drwxrwxr-x  2 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 app
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me  77K Nov 14 00:49 boot.php
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 146K Nov 14 00:49 CHANGELOG
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 2.3K Nov 14 00:49 CHANGELOG.air
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 2.5K Nov 14 00:49 composer.json
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 252K Nov 14 00:49 composer.lock
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 1.4K Nov 14 00:49 DEVELOPERS
drwxrwxr-x 22 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 doc
-rw-r--r--  1 me me  11K Nov 29 22:50 error_log
drwxrwxr-x  3 me me   19 Nov 26 14:09 extend
-rw-------  1 me me    4 Nov 14 17:33 .ftpquota
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me   49 Nov 14 00:49 .gitattributes
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 1.6K Nov 14 00:49 .gitignore
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 4.9K Nov 14 00:49 .gitlab-ci.yml
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 1.2K Nov 25 07:05 .htaccess
-rw-r--r--  1 me me 4.5K Nov 30 09:39 .htconfig.php
drwxrwxr-x  8 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 images
drwxrwxr-x  4 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 include
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me  201 Nov 14 00:49 index.php
drwxrwxr-x  2 me me  231 Nov 14 00:49 install
drwxrwxr-x 35 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 library
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 1.1K Nov 14 00:49 LICENSE
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 2.1K Nov 14 00:49 README.md
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me 2.8K Nov 14 00:49 SBOM.md
-rw-rw-r--  1 me me  271 Nov 14 00:49 ServiceWorker.js
drwxrwxr-x  5 me me   75 Nov 14 00:49 spec
drwxrwx--- 10 me me  172 Nov 30 12:23 store
drwxrwxr-x  5 me me  198 Nov 14 00:49 tests
drwxrwxr-x  7 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 util
drwxrwxr-x 24 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 vendor
drwxrwxr-x 25 me me 4.0K Nov 14 00:49 view
drwxrwxr-x 17 me me  272 Nov 14 00:49 Zotlabs

I've looked at error_log and it's those same, day old errors about booleans. Nothing since yesterday.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:49:37 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, registrations are working.

I'm waiting to hear back from my hosting support to see if they made some sort of change.

Thank you everyone.

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 19:24:30 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

aaand the web host they made no changes. I made no changes. It just started working. Federvoodoo?

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 19:25:18 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

But hey! got a 403 trying to edit a typo in the above!

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 21:21:25 +0100

Grouchy

grouchy@hub.grouchysysadmin.com

@Crow

But hey! got a 403 trying to edit a typo in the above!

Mod_security might be getting in the way. Is your host using it?

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 01:02:18 +0100

Crow

crow@commonworlds.org

@Grouchy I'll have to find out. Right now it only pops up when attempting to edit a post.

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 15:39:34 +0100

Witcraft (Hubzilla)

witcraft@hubzilla.fediversum.de

@CrowYou can name the logfile, including dir, anyway you want, relatively from your Hubzilla install dir .. So /logs/hubzilka.log assumes you created a subdir logs in the Hubzilla install dir, and will create a logfile named hubzilla.log. Not sure if you can place it outside of the Hubzilla dir, though.

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 15:45:00 +0100

Grouchy

grouchy@hub.grouchysysadmin.com

@Witcraft

Not sure if you can place it outside of the Hubzilla dir, though.

You can. I always do.