Hmm guess we'll have to wait for someone who knows their stuff to show up

I don't think I have. If you don't mind, please do show me how.

@AOKP Thanks so much. I was able to do both, and I don't think I'll need the AV software. This is a small private forum for <200 users with no real valuable (personal) info, just stuff that we don't want to be on Facebook and whatnot, so I doubt the added security is worth the trouble.

The only issue I had was with the service commands to restart the services, both fail with the same error: "Failed to restart xxxx.service: The name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 was not provided by any .service files". I believe this may be because that verbage is for Upstart, and since I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 I should be using systemd? In fact, that's the next thing I wanted to fix with my forum, getting a reliable autostart/autorestart solution going. I tried to configure systemd but it won't work.

Here's what currently happens after booting the server and running nodebb log (no other commands):

29/6 01:42 [1006] - info: Time: Mon Jun 29 2015 01:42:44 GMT-0400 (EDT)
29/6 01:42 [1006] - info: Initializing NodeBB v0.7.0
29/6 01:42 [1006] - error: Error: Redis connection to 127.0.0.1:6379 failed - co nnect ECONNREFUSED
at RedisClient.on_error (/home/campadmin/nodebb/node_modules/redis/index.js: 185:24)
at Socket.<anonymous> (/home/campadmin/nodebb/node_modules/redis/index.js:95 :14)
at Socket.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at net.js:441:14
at process._tickCallback (node.js:415:13)
3 restarts in 10 seconds, most likely an error on startup. Halting.

And if I run campadmin@camp-friendship:~/nodebb$ ./nodebb start
I get:

Starting NodeBB
"./nodebb stop" to stop the NodeBB server
"./nodebb log" to view server output
campadmin@camp-friendship:~/nodebb$ ./nodebb log
NodeBB v0.7.0 Copyright (C) 2013-2014 NodeBB Inc.
Clustering enabled: Spinning up 1 process(es).
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: Time: Mon Jun 29 2015 01:43:42 GMT-0400 (EDT)
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: Initializing NodeBB v0.7.0
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-calendar] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-calendar] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -calendar".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-soundpack-default] This plugin m ay not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended beha viour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-soundpack-default] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="node bb-plugin-soundpack-default".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-assign-newuser-to-group] This pl ugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintende d behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-assign-newuser-to-group] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin ="nodebb-plugin-assign-newuser-to-group".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-dbsearch] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-dbsearch] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -dbsearch".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-mentions] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-mentions] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -mentions".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-widget-essentials] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour o r crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-widget-essentials] In the event of an u nresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-widg et-essentials".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-buttons-galore] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behavio ur or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-buttons-galore] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb- plugin-buttons-galore".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-markdown] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-markdown] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -markdown".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji-extended] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behavio ur or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji-extended] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb- plugin-emoji-extended".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-theme-persona] This plugin may not be c ompatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or cr ashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-theme-persona] In the event of an unres ponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-theme-pe rsona".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins.reload] Library not found for plugin: nodebb-t heme-persona
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: NodeBB Ready
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: Enabling 'trust proxy'
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: NodeBB is now listening on: 0.0.0.0:3000

@BDHarrington7 said:

Can you run anything on nodejs as a non-root user? it might be how you installed node...

You'll have to give me a little more detail on how to test this or fix it, since I'm not 100% sure what you mean. I followed the Wiki's guide for Ubuntu Server I believe.

And can someone give me 3 reputation points please? I have a 10 minute limit between posts, and with my lack of knowledge, I won't be able to help people enough to actually earn them anytime soon haha.

So image uploads are enabled by default, but not file uploads, correct?

Maybe you made the director y belong to root or something?

You mean like use the ls command from the command prompt? What do you mean by "in forum"?

I think it'd be simple to transfer the files, but not so much the database, so if you don't have users you could just zip your install and upload it, and set up the backend (node, etc.) on the server. It would at least preserve your plugins I think.

@BDHarrington7 said:

have you experienced something like this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16151018/npm-throws-error-without-sudo

I wish I could remember the steps that caused the same issue where I couldn't run things on node unless I was root, I'm sure somewhere along the way I tried to fix it by changing permissions (which isn't something you should have to do unless you really know what you're doing). In the end I re-installed node and npm making sure I did not use sudo

No I don't think so. I think the problem was that node wasn't being allowed to bind to port 80. I solved it by binding to 3000 and redirecting via iptables. I can now start it without root

@Ali said:

@julian @psychobunny help.

I was able to start it as non root by:

1. creating an iptables route from 80 to 3000

2. changing my nodebb config to start from 3000

3. reapplying permissions (some files had become root because it had been started as root)

4. is done by:
   sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3000
   apt-get install iptables-persistent

It'll ask you to save your current rules, say yes.

2. edit your config.json
3. chown, chmod

@BDHarrington7 said:

Can you run anything on nodejs as a non-root user? it might be how you installed node...

You'll have to give me a little more detail on how to test this or fix it, since I'm not 100% sure what you mean. I followed the Wiki's guide for Ubuntu Server I believe.

And can someone give me 3 reputation points please? I have a 10 minute limit between posts, and with my lack of knowledge, I won't be able to help people enough to actually earn them anytime soon haha.

@AOKP Thanks so much. I was able to do both, and I don't think I'll need the AV software. This is a small private forum for <200 users with no real valuable (personal) info, just stuff that we don't want to be on Facebook and whatnot, so I doubt the added security is worth the trouble.

The only issue I had was with the service commands to restart the services, both fail with the same error: "Failed to restart xxxx.service: The name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 was not provided by any .service files". I believe this may be because that verbage is for Upstart, and since I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 I should be using systemd? In fact, that's the next thing I wanted to fix with my forum, getting a reliable autostart/autorestart solution going. I tried to configure systemd but it won't work.

Here's what currently happens after booting the server and running nodebb log (no other commands):

29/6 01:42 [1006] - info: Time: Mon Jun 29 2015 01:42:44 GMT-0400 (EDT)
29/6 01:42 [1006] - info: Initializing NodeBB v0.7.0
29/6 01:42 [1006] - error: Error: Redis connection to 127.0.0.1:6379 failed - co nnect ECONNREFUSED
at RedisClient.on_error (/home/campadmin/nodebb/node_modules/redis/index.js: 185:24)
at Socket.<anonymous> (/home/campadmin/nodebb/node_modules/redis/index.js:95 :14)
at Socket.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at net.js:441:14
at process._tickCallback (node.js:415:13)
3 restarts in 10 seconds, most likely an error on startup. Halting.

And if I run campadmin@camp-friendship:~/nodebb$ ./nodebb start
I get:

Starting NodeBB
"./nodebb stop" to stop the NodeBB server
"./nodebb log" to view server output
campadmin@camp-friendship:~/nodebb$ ./nodebb log
NodeBB v0.7.0 Copyright (C) 2013-2014 NodeBB Inc.
Clustering enabled: Spinning up 1 process(es).
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: Time: Mon Jun 29 2015 01:43:42 GMT-0400 (EDT)
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: Initializing NodeBB v0.7.0
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-calendar] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-calendar] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -calendar".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-soundpack-default] This plugin m ay not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended beha viour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-soundpack-default] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="node bb-plugin-soundpack-default".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-assign-newuser-to-group] This pl ugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintende d behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-assign-newuser-to-group] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin ="nodebb-plugin-assign-newuser-to-group".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-dbsearch] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-dbsearch] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -dbsearch".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-mentions] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-mentions] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -mentions".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-widget-essentials] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour o r crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-widget-essentials] In the event of an u nresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-widg et-essentials".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-buttons-galore] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behavio ur or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-buttons-galore] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb- plugin-buttons-galore".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-markdown] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-markdown] In the event of an unr esponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-plugin -markdown".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji-extended] This plugin may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behavio ur or crashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji-extended] In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb- plugin-emoji-extended".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-theme-persona] This plugin may not be c ompatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or cr ashing.
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins/nodebb-theme-persona] In the event of an unres ponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset plugin="nodebb-theme-pe rsona".
29/6 01:43 [781] - warn: [plugins.reload] Library not found for plugin: nodebb-t heme-persona
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: NodeBB Ready
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: Enabling 'trust proxy'
29/6 01:43 [781] - info: NodeBB is now listening on: 0.0.0.0:3000

I don't think I have. If you don't mind, please do show me how.

I was under the impression that running it as root was a bad idea. It's the only thing on the server so I do agree it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I'm not sure which of those security settings are implemented, but I'll check and try to get them all in. HTML in Markdown settings is disabled, is this what you were referring to?