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FAQ for Pod Maintainers

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PaulMorris edited this page Oct 17, 2011 · 24 revisions

We've started adding questions that we see a lot to this page, but it doesn't cover everything. If you have other questions, the best way to get an answer quickly is to visit us in IRC. You might think, "IRC? For real? Is this 1994 again?"

Yes. I mean, no! Just think of IRC as the open-source equivalent of a Campfire room. Links to IRC channels and mailing lists are at the bottom of this page.

Installation FAQ

Do you have a detailed install guide?
Yes. Check it out! It will probably be more up-to-date than this page, in general.

What ports does Diaspora need open for communication?

  • Your server must be on either port 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS. You must forward that port to 3000. Otherwise friend requests may cause lockups on other servers. See the command-line switches below.

  • Your server should also have 8080 available for websockets. Websockets are how the browser talks in 'real time' to the server. They are not required for basic pod operation, nor for inter-pod communication. Since many hosting providers don't allow you to open 8080, you may consider them a nice-to-have.

  • Due to a bug, your server must block, not just filter out (->timeout), port 443.

Can I use Apache to run Diaspora?
Yes. See Installing on Ubuntu Apache or the Unofficial Diaspora with Apache2 guide.

What are the command line options for launching thin (Diaspora's HTTP server)?
There are a couple of helpful command line options for setting the address and port for thin:

bundle exec thin -a <address> -p <port> start

Note: If you are running Diaspora on port 80, the command above needs to be executed as root - i.e., with su or sudo in front of it. For example, on Ubuntu, Arch et al. do sudo bundle exec thin -p 80 start

Use -D to turn on debug mode. Run thin -h to see a complete list.

How do I install on other distros?
Unofficial install script for Ubuntu
There is a AUR package for Arch Linux
and some guides to install it manually:
Unofficial guide for Arch Linux installation 1 (Arch Linux Forums)
Unofficial guide for Arch Linux installation 2

I've got my pod running. How do I disable outside logins?
Change registrations_closed in config/app_config.yml from false to true, and then restart the server.

I'm getting SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv2/v3 read server hello A: unknown protocol!
Close the port, make it do connection refused, not timeout.
(Disclaimer: hopefully this doesn't screw up anyone)
<james_> On Ubuntu: sudo ufw enable, sudo ufw reject 443 (, sudo reboot?)

But I have Apache running already and I want no passengers!
(Disclaimer: Apache noob advice)
Apache config:
http://codepaste.net/yzkngy

How do I back up the database?
From the command line type:
mysqldump -u -p diaspora_development > backup.sql Enter your mysql password when prompted for it. Replace _development with _production if you're running the production environment.

I installed Diaspora on my machine, went to http://localhost:3000 and signed up. But my friends can't add me!
You signed up with "localhost" which is not a valid external address. You first need an externally-accessible address - either a domain name or an IP address. Once you have that working, you need to clear your database and re-register coming in on the outside URL.

bundle install >>> command not found ?
sudo ln -s /var/lib/gems/1.8/bin/bundle /usr/local/bin/bundle though the best solution is ./ubuntu-setup.bash

How do I get past the sign in page to create a new account?
To create a new account, go to http://yourdiasporainstance.com/users/sign_up (replacing yourdiasporainstance.com with the the host name of your pod).

I installed Diaspora on my machine, but when I load the site there are no images and the layout looks horrible!
If you're missing your images in the production environment, change serve_static_assets in config/environments/production.rb to true and restart Diaspora. Or set up a reverse proxy to serve the files directly under public/.

  1. Help, why are there no images on my pod? You are most likely in production mode, or your apache/nginx is not serving static assets. If you want to just run your server from your thin on port 3000, you can set ruby to servce static assets by changing %{the setting}

  2. Webfinger does not seem to be working! Is your resque worker running? Can you see the error in resque web? Does your SSL cert check out?(link for cert checker) We do not support self signed certs, but you can get a free one here and here

  3. Help, I am receiving posts, but nobody is receiving mine! Check your ssl certs!

Is there anything I should do before upgrading my installation?
We have a service (Travis) that builds all our code for each ruby version/database combination that we support. Before you update your Diaspora installation, you should check here to see if your combination is green: http://travis-ci.org/diaspora/diaspora If it's not green, wait to do the update. (Note: Travis is having issues with their SSL cert, so you may get a warning, but it is safe to proceed.)

Will a pod eventually receive federated posts that it misses while being offline/down?
Currently no, there are no retries, though we'd like to add that at some point.

How do I roll back my installation if an update breaks it?
Just do: git checkout [ref] Where [ref] is the identifier of the commit to go back to. It's a long guid-like string of letters and numbers. You can find the ref by doing a git log, eyeballing the commit dates, and figuring out where you were before you pulled. Of course it's best if you keep track of that ref before you update. :)

What if there were database migrations in the code I am rolling back?
Then you also need to roll those back separately. You need to do this BEFORE you roll back the code. Look in the db/migrate directory and figure out which files are new since the last time you pulled - i.e., which migration your db should be on. They are in timestamp order in that directory. Then do: rake db:rollback And look at the output. It will tell you which migration you are now on. It rolls back one each time you run it. Run it until you're on the right migration and then roll back the code as described above.

Also be aware that database rollbacks can fail - they depend on the migration author writing the correct code to roll back. And if they didn't right the correct code to roll forward... :) So really, the best thing you can do to avoid this is check Travis (as described above) before doing an update.

What if my question isn't answered here?

IRC Channels

IRC is the best way to get an answer quickly. Click the link to the join the channel in a new browser window. You can also download and use an IRC client such as Colloquy for OS X or mIRC for Windows.

Mailing lists

We have two mailing lists, both Google groups. They tend to have a slightly different audience than the IRC channels, so if you can't get your question answered in IRC, you can try here.

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