v1.6.0 permission problems after upgrade/update

Adam Poniatowski

Hi there,

I am experiencing an issue where I get an error on nodebb after updating it to v1.6.0 from 1.5.x (can't remember the last patch number)

I get Internal Server Error when going to my site and this is the log output in systemctl status nodebb:

Sep 15 19:16:00 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: 15/9 19:16:00 [1962] - info: [plugins/spam-be-gone] Settings loaded
Sep 15 19:16:00 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: 15/9 19:16:00 [1962] - info: Routes added
Sep 15 19:16:00 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: 15/9 19:16:00 [1962] - info: NodeBB Ready
Sep 15 19:16:00 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: 15/9 19:16:00 [1962] - info: Enabling 'trust proxy'
Sep 15 19:16:00 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: 15/9 19:16:00 [1962] - info: NodeBB is now listening on: 0.0.0.0:4567
Sep 15 19:16:13 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: 15/9 19:16:13 [1962] - error: /
Sep 15 19:16:13 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/opt/nodebb/build/public/templates/categories.jst'
Sep 15 19:16:13 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: at Error (native)
Sep 15 19:16:14 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/opt/nodebb/build/public/templates/500.jst'
Sep 15 19:16:14 [HOSTNAME] nodebb[1952]: at Error (native)

Whats the workaround/solution to this issue?

Nothing was changed, besides updating it.

Thanks and kind regards,

PitaJ

Did you run it with sudo? That would mean those files are owned by root.

Adam Poniatowski

I did it with root, yes.

After checking file permissions... I see the permissions/ownerships are all mixed between my nodebb account and root. I assume they should all be owned by my nodebb account, right?

Adam Poniatowski

yup... that fixed it.

Thanks @PitaJ

Adam Poniatowski

interesting... after running ./nodebb build (as some plugins don't want to open, it gets stuck at 3/4 of the way usually, but /build fixes it)... it gave me internal server error again.

I have to run "chown -hR account:group /nodebb" again to fix it... weird

Adam Poniatowski

hmmm... I'm in a catch 22... I run build, to make my plugins work (calendar being one of them), but I have to chown them again... which brings me back to forcing to restart nodebb and my plugins don't work...

This is a tough one lol

**Edit: nevermind... everything doesn't work (top navbar, plugins settings, plugins, topics, posts, etc), unless I manually refresh my browser. ACP works normally, funny enough lol

Adam Poniatowski

hmmm... lots of errors in the console. @PitaJ / @julian feel free to check if you can see something in the console...

(uppingthegame.com)

julian

How are you running build? Everything in the nodebb folder should not be owned by root. You don't need to run build with root...

Adam Poniatowski

@julian usually I run it as root (I know the consequences of using root, I have a specific way of logging into my machine, akin to freebsd style of working), as my nodebb account is a nologin account

The only change I made was to update nodebb, and everything stopped working. Also, login works and register works... I don't need to refresh the page to open it. The console (browser dev tools) still has ~17 errors when the page opens and when one tries to access something (from navbar or admin panel)

**Edit: I ran it as the nodebb account, and still the same issue.

PitaJ

If you run ./nodebb build and ./nodebb start as root, you shouldn't have a problem. You need to run all of the commands as the same user.

julian

@adam-poniatowski said in v1.6.0 permission problems after upgrade/update:

as my nodebb account is a nologin account

Which is fine, but the files themselves should ideally not be owned by root either, and that goes for the dependencies in node_modules/ as well.

Can you not run ./nodebb start as your unprivileged user? su - nodebb -c "./nodebb start"?

Adam Poniatowski

@PitaJ That's what normally worked without any problems. Now it starts without any issues (after chown'ing everything back to my nodebb account, for some weird reason)

@julian I tried running it as my nodebb account... it doesn't start, this is the output:

Starting NodeBB
  "./nodebb stop" to stop the NodeBB server
  "./nodebb log" to view server output
  "./nodebb restart" to restart NodeBB

internal/child_process.js:319
    throw errnoException(err, 'spawn');
    ^

Error: spawn EACCES
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:1018:11)
    at ChildProcess.spawn (internal/child_process.js:319:11)
    at Object.exports.spawn (child_process.js:378:9)
    at Function.module.exports.daemon (/opt/nodebb/node_modules/daemon/index.js:50:31)
    at module.exports (/opt/nodebb/node_modules/daemon/index.js:25:20)
    at /opt/nodebb/loader.js:228:21
    at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:123:15)

All files are owned by the nodebb account. Starting it up as root (with ./nodebb start and systemctl start nodebb) works... but having the odd issue of browsing between routes (/popular, /users, /categories, etc), but certain ones work without an issue like /login, /register and /admin. but the same issues are inside of the ACP.

I'm bummed out on this one... it worked before upgrading to v1.6.0 . I also updated my server, which might/might not have an impact

PitaJ

What did you chown? Did you everything in nodebb or just everything in nodebb/build?

Adam Poniatowski

@pitaj everything lol... let me guess... I shouldn't have done that?

PitaJ

No that should work. The error you have here is related to file permissions.

Adam Poniatowski

@pitaj should I try chmod -R 755 /nodebb ? just for shits and giggles?

PitaJ

I'd just try backing up your db and uploaded files, and reinstalling nodebb fresh.

But if you wanna try other things first, go ahead.

Adam Poniatowski

reverted to my last snapshot... unfortunately a little old and an older version. oh well... I will wait for the next patch before updating

**Edit: I forgot that my snapshot is a little bit older than I thought. v1.4.6 lol

Adam Poniatowski

update to v1.5.3 had no issues. I'll try updating it to v1.6.0 and report back what happens.

Adam Poniatowski

yup... updating to v1.6.0 causes the same issues... ownership is changed to root, changing it back to the rightful owner starts it back up (internal server error is gone):

Sep 17 19:28:58 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/opt/nodebb/build/public/templates/footer.jst' Sep 17 19:28:58 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: at Error (native) Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/opt/nodebb/build/public/templates/footer.jst' Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: at Error (native) Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: 17/9 19:28:59 [4058] - error: / Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/opt/nodebb/build/public/templates/categories.jst' Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: at Error (native) Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/opt/nodebb/build/public/templates/500.jst' Sep 17 19:28:59 [HOSTNAME] [ACCOUNT][4048]: at Error (native)

Bummer... reverting back to my snapshot yeah... I will have to wait for the next patch.

For anyone having the same issues... reinstalling it with v1.6.0 is the best option... unless I am the unlucky one XD