Clean Install problem through installer.sh

[v4lt0n]

Hi,
I installed tpot on my debian 11 bulleye I installed it with installer type conf but it is failing without any reason and i cannot see any log only journalctl.

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⚠️ Basic support information (commands are expected to run as root)

• What version of the OS are you currently using lsb_release -a and uname -a?
• Debian 11 bullleye
• What T-Pot version are you currently using?
• last tpot installer
• What edition (Standard, Nextgen, etc.) of T-Pot are you running?
• standard
• What architecture are you running on (i.e. hardware, cloud, VM, etc.)?
• cloud kvm
• Did you have any problems during the install? If yes, please attach /install.log /install.err.
• i cannot find install.log
• How long has your installation been running?
• it finished fast but service of tpot wont run it is ain a loop
• Did you install upgrades, packages or use the update script?
• no
• Did you modify any scripts or configs? If yes, please attach the changes.
• nothing only changes pass and user in conf
• Please provide a screenshot of glances and htop.
• yes please find below
• How much free disk space is available (df -h)?
• i have other 500gb free
• What is the current container status (dps.sh)?
• down
• What is the status of the T-Pot service (systemctl status tpot)?
• DOWN
• What ports are being occupied? Stop T-Pot systemctl stop tpot and run netstat -tulpen
• no open ports clean install
• If a single container shows as DOWN you can run docker logs <container-name> for the latest log entries
  it wont show any containers
  htop :
  

[v4lt0n]

I also ran update.sh but still loophole restarting .

[Ganesh-403]

@v4lt0n
The error:

A dependency job for tpot.service failed.

doesn't identify the root cause by itself—it only means that one of the prerequisites for tpot.service failed, so T-Pot never reached the point of creating its containers.

From your description:

• ✅ Fresh install
• ✅ No containers created (dps.sh shows DOWN)
• ✅ No ports in use
• ✅ update.sh didn't help

this suggests the failure is happening before Docker Compose starts the stack, rather than being caused by an individual honeypot.

I'd recommend checking the following in order:

1. Inspect the systemd logs

Instead of just journalctl -xe, check the service-specific logs:

systemctl status tpot.service
journalctl -xeu tpot.service

These usually show which dependency or command failed.

---

2. Check whether Docker is healthy

Since T-Pot depends entirely on Docker, verify it first:

systemctl status docker
docker info
docker version

If Docker isn't running correctly, tpot.service will fail immediately.

---

3. Try bringing up the compose stack manually

This often produces a much more useful error than systemd:

For newer releases:

cd ~/tpotce
docker compose up

For older releases:

docker-compose -f /opt/tpot/etc/tpot.yml up

If there's a YAML error, missing image, or configuration problem, it should be printed directly.

---

4. Check the installation logs

Although you mentioned you couldn't find install.log, it should normally be generated during installation. If it isn't present, that may indicate the installer exited unexpectedly before completion.

Also check:

cat ~/tpotce/data/tpotinit.log

if the directory exists.

---

5. Verify system requirements

A clean installation failing before any containers start can also be caused by:

• Docker daemon issues
• unsupported kernel features
• storage driver problems
• cloud image restrictions
• network/DNS issues preventing image downloads

For example, there have been reports where Docker images failed to download because the host couldn't resolve Docker Hub, resulting in a seemingly successful installation but no runnable containers. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

---

At this point, the most helpful information would be the output of:

systemctl status tpot.service
journalctl -xeu tpot.service
systemctl status docker
docker info
docker compose up

That should reveal whether this is:

• a Docker issue,
• a Docker Compose/configuration issue,
• an image pull failure,
• or another dependency preventing tpot.service from starting.

If this solves your problem, feel free to mark it as the accepted answer so others can find it easily.