Admin user itself needs to be approved on fresh installed v4.2.8 instance

[coreice]

Steps to reproduce the problem

1. Install Mastodon v4.2.8 on a fresh server
2. Run the installation scripts like the documentation
3. Log into the instance when the installation procedure is finished
4. Run into the issue where the admin user needs to be validated by... an admin.

(Sorry for the Dutch screenshot, but the yellow message bar says the account needs to be validated by one of 'our employees'.)

Expected behaviour

The first user created during install should not have an activation requirement.

Actual behaviour

The admin user needed to be activated, being unable to use a new install of Mastodon as the unactivated user cannot access or change the server related settings in the Web UI.

Detailed description

When logging in after the installation script and procedure has been finished, most server admin related pages redirect to /auth/edit. Mastodon comes with the message that the account needs to be judged cq. approved by the administrator.

But actually your are put into a vicious circle. As the admin user is the newly created and only user on a fresh Mastodon instance, you cannot approve yourself because the server keeps redirecting you to /auth/edit.

To validate this is an issue inside the newly released v4.2.8, I have done an installation with v4.2.7. Here I experienced no issues with the administration account after finishing installation.

Mastodon instance

A non-public instance for testing purposes.

Mastodon version

v4.2.8

Browser name and version

Safari v17.3.1

Operating system

macOS 14.3.1

Technical details

Server is running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, PostgresSQL 16.2.

[renchap]

This has been fixed by #29379 and a note has been added to the release notes about a workaround (using tootctl modify <username> --approved)

[cavuugroup]

This has been fixed by #29379 and a note has been added to the release notes about a workaround (using tootctl modify <username> --approved)

for my fresh installation it was:
bin/tootctl accounts approve admin