agnos.is Forums

@julian Updated to nodejs 22.x and nodebb 4.0.5. Still no joy with Federation. Did you manage to have a look at my Nginx settings? I have quite a few people subscribed, but not a piece of new ever showed from them. Otherwise the forum is working fine.

@julian Please find attached a summary of my nginx settings.
The back-end installation of NodeBB was done manually in a home directory, while the reverse proxy is part of on automated server solution called Webinoly. It is typically used for self-hosting WordPress, but not only. It worked pretty well before the advent of Federation capabilities, so I wasn't bothered. I just uncommented some proxy headers in /etc/nginx/apps.d/forum.n66.pl-proxy.conf and added "X-NginX-Proxy true" as per documentation. Mongodb (7.0) is provided from a deb repository as is nodejs.
I'm not sure why the web root directory as mentioned in /etc/nginx/sites-available/forum.n66.pl does not exist (root /var/www/forum.n66.pl/htdocs). I don't even have /var/www/forum.n66.pl/.
Thank you for helping me.

@julian just a moment; it's a bit complex, because configuration is divided into several files.

I am afraid I hit a wall, No idea what else I could do short of reinstalling the whole thing.

@julian I am now unable to import threads using the search area. It worked a few days ago (before 4.0.4) and maybe before changing http to https in config.json. Now I can only follow users without actually following their content (no following is operational). While importing threads worked, it was still useless, because I couldn't join in on conversations.
Yesterday I experimented with different proxy_pass values in my nginx proxy.conf file:

• proxy_pass http://forum_n66_pl; – original configuration
• proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567; – no effect on AP behaviour, nodebb's admin privileges affected
• proxy_pass https://forum_n66_pl; – resulted in a "Bad Gateway" error.
  I attach the recent log file: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZun2L5Zy2PaNwGjuh72kxKbh6Wl9jEb4FmX

Please tell me you know how to fix it.

@julian That and upgrading to 4.0.4 helped a little – at least direct messages are coming through, but following still not working in either direction. Following seems to be set up correctly and confirmed on both the forum and other AP instances. Testing with Friendica and Mastodon. Only the messages are stopped somewhere.

My forum.n66.pl-proxy.conf is now very similar to official recommendations and doesn't seem to have any effect on AP following/sharing capabilities.
I am unaware of server tweaks to facilitate AP following/sharing.

@julian
Here you are some AP errors from a few days ago, before I made any changes.

2025-02-13T06:25:09.462Z [4567/24115] - error: [activitypub/api] Error
Error: [[error:activitypub.invalid-id]]
    at /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:42:9
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Object.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:30:5)
    at async Categories.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/controllers/write/categories.js:117:2)
    at async /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/routes/helpers.js:80:5
2025-02-13T06:28:56.552Z [4567/24115] - error: [activitypub/api] Error
Error: [[error:activitypub.invalid-id]]
    at /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:42:9
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Object.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:30:5)
    at async Categories.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/controllers/write/categories.js:117:2)
    at async /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/routes/helpers.js:80:5
2025-02-13T06:33:19.290Z [4567/24115] - error: [activitypub/api] Error
TypeError: Invalid URL
    at new URL (node:internal/url:804:36)
    at /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/activitypub/index.js:100:25
    at Array.filter ()
    at ActivityPub.resolveInboxes (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/activitypub/index.js:99:13)
    at ActivityPub.send (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/activitypub/index.js:373:36)
    at /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:51:21
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Object.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:30:5)
    at async Categories.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/controllers/write/categories.js:117:2)
    at async /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/routes/helpers.js:80:5
2025-02-13T06:37:05.361Z [4567/24115] - error: [activitypub/api] Error
Error: [[error:activitypub.invalid-id]]
    at /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:42:9
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Object.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:30:5)
    at async Categories.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/controllers/write/categories.js:117:2)
    at async /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/routes/helpers.js:80:5
2025-02-13T06:37:20.692Z [4567/24115] - error: [activitypub/api] Error
Error: [[error:activitypub.invalid-id]]
    at /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:42:9
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Object.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/api/activitypub.js:30:5)
    at async Categories.follow (/home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/controllers/write/categories.js:117:2)
    at async /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/routes/helpers.js:80:5
[cluster] Restarting...

@julian Some of the users I am following (or so it reads on each user's page):

@[email protected] (Mastodon)
@[email protected] (Friendica)
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@julian@community.nodebb.org
https://community.nodebb.org/post/102755 – imported by link (can't post remotely)

Nothing special happens when running dev mode. Just some plugin incompatibilities get printed:

2025-02-15T05:36:53.950Z [4567/3360] - warn: [plugins/load] The following plugins may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing. In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run ./nodebb reset -p PLUGINNAME to disable it.

• nodebb-plugin-soundpack-default
• nodebb-plugin-emoji-android
• nodebb-widget-essentials
• nodebb-rewards-essentials
• nodebb-plugin-who-read-it
• nodebb-plugin-question-and-answer
• nodebb-plugin-poll
• nodebb-plugin-dbsearch
• nodebb-plugin-custom-pages
• nodebb-plugin-composer-default

I've been able to npm unl / npm i nodebb-theme-harmony, but I wasn't successful with plugin-composer-default or plugin-custom-pages, so I gave up on the rest of them. Every time I ran npm I saw a warning that my nodejs was outside requirements (probably too new, if I got it right).

./nodebb log

    ../../../bootstrap/scss/forms/_form-control.scss 40:7  @import
    bootstrap/scss/_forms.scss 3:9                         @import
    - 19:9                                                 root stylesheet

WARNING: The keyword 'none' must be used as a single argument.
    ../../../bootstrap/scss/mixins/_box-shadow.scss 10:9  box-shadow()
    ../../../bootstrap/scss/forms/_form-select.scss 32:7  @import
    bootstrap/scss/_forms.scss 4:9                        @import
    - 19:9                                                root stylesheet

./nodebb build
  started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.136Z [4567/2898] - info: [build] Building in parallel mode
2025-02-15T05:33:08.138Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]         plugin static dirs  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.139Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]          requirejs modules  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.139Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]           client js bundle  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.140Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]            admin js bundle  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.140Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]         client side styles  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.140Z [4567/2898] - info: [build] admin control panel styles  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.142Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]                  templates  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.142Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]                  languages  build started
2025-02-15T05:33:08.665Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]         plugin static dirs  build completed in 0.527sec
2025-02-15T05:33:09.350Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]           client js bundle  build completed in 1.211sec
2025-02-15T05:33:09.368Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]            admin js bundle  build completed in 1.228sec
2025-02-15T05:33:11.753Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]                  languages  build completed in 3.611sec
2025-02-15T05:33:11.807Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]          requirejs modules  build completed in 3.668sec
2025-02-15T05:33:11.807Z [4567/2898] - info: [build] Bundling with Webpack.
[10%] building (0/0 modules)
2025-02-15T05:33:13.983Z [4567/2898] - info: [build]         client side styles  build completed in 5.842sec
[10%] building (398/608 modules)
2025-02-15T05:33:25.087Z [4567/2898] - info: [build] Bundling took 10113 ms
2025-02-15T05:33:25.089Z [4567/2898] - info: [build] Asset compilation successful. Completed in 16.951sec.

sudo systemctl status nodebb
● nodebb.service - NodeBB
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/nodebb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-02-15 06:39:50 CET; 12s ago
       Docs: https://docs.nodebb.org
    Process: 3477 ExecStart=/usr/bin/node loader.js (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 3488 (node)
      Tasks: 36 (limit: 9348)
     Memory: 375.1M
        CPU: 20.494s
     CGroup: /system.slice/nodebb.service
             ├─3488 /usr/bin/node /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/loader.js
             ├─3499 /usr/bin/node /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/app.js
             └─3527 /usr/bin/node /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/src/meta/minifier.js

Feb 15 06:39:50 sv systemd[1]: Starting NodeBB...
Feb 15 06:39:50 sv systemd[1]: nodebb.service: Can't open PID file /home/xxxxxxxx/nodebb/pidfile (yet?) after start: Operation not permitted
Feb 15 06:39:50 sv systemd[1]: Started NodeBB.

In trying to fix things I have made changes to nginx reverse proxy configuration, but I seem to have made things even worse, which is not a bad thing, because in that may lie the solution.
I'll be happy to provide log and config files by a secure channel of your choosing.

@julian Can you give me some ideas what to do next?

Good Idea to give federation issues a separate topic. I have made the changes on your list resulting in posts and chat messages coming out of the forum, but still nothing can be pulled into it, no matter how many people or sites I follow or try to follow. Funny, I couldn't find how to access AP users that I am apparently following other than by re-following them. They are not listed among local forum users.

@julian I've been unable to get AP following to work in either direction. I mean it is sometimes possible to follow somebody and get followed by other sites, but no actual posts ever come into or out of my nodebb instance (forum.n66.pl). The only thing that works is importing posts directly by entering their URL in the search area, which is also temperamental – sometimes the same post can be imported and sometimes it can't. I also tried following people from individual categories. It never worked except for one instance where it seems to have been stuck with a "pending" message, but I have no way of accepting or rejecting the follow request on the other side (it should be accepted automatically). Sometimes the same happens when entering followed people's URLs in the search panel. Looking forward to fixes.