Stuck on an error message I don't understand

Installation Issues
1

Checklist
[Y] I have read intro post: About the Installation Issues category
[Y] I have read the tutorials, help and searched for similar issues
[Y] I provide relevant information about my server (component names and versions, etc.)
[Y] I provide a copy of my logs and healthcheck
[Y] I describe the steps I have taken to trouble shoot the problem
[Y] I describe the steps on how to reproduce the issue

I’m attempting to install passbolt from scratch – not a clean installation. There are older versions of PHP on the VM I’m using and the db will be external on another vm.

I’m only trying to get passbolt setup at the moment.

When running this command:

sudo -u www-data composer install --no-dev

I also ran this command to temporarily bypass the errors about extensions:

sudo -u www-data composer install --no-dev --ignore-platform-req=ext-gnupg --ignore-platform-req=ext-curl --ignore-platform-req=ext-simplexml --ignore-platform-req=ext-curl --ignore-platform-req=ext-simplexml

I get the following output:

Installing dependencies from lock file
Verifying lock file contents can be installed on current platform.
Nothing to install, update or remove
Generating optimized autoload files
23 packages you are using are looking for funding.
Use the composer fund command to find out more!
App\Console\Installer::postInstall
Set Folder Permissions ? (Default to Y) [Y,n]?
No Security.salt placeholder to replace.

That’s it.

The last line seems to be most important part but I’m not sure where to begin:

No Security.salt placeholder to replace.

Prior to this I was enabling php extensions since the output was giving me ‘problems’ to solve.

Above is the most recent output. I’m not upgrading, I’m just trying to install passbolt.

I haven’t changed any versions of anything. The one or two threads I can find is others that are upgrading Passbolt and other dependencies. That’s not my situation.

I’m installing this on Ubuntu:

PRETTY_NAME=“Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS”
NAME=“Ubuntu”
VERSION_ID=“22.04”
VERSION=“22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)”
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

Here’s the guide I’m using:

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Hi @cubiclemonkey

Welcome to the Community :grinning:

I am a big fan of LinuxBabe but you really should following the instructions provided from Passbolt

On the details you provided. You need to select “yes” per LinuxBabe instructions or Try running composer fund for more details on how to handle the 23 packages.

composer fund

You can also try:

cd /var/www/passbolt

sudo su -s /bin/bash -c “composer install --no-dev -n” www-data

or

sudo su -s /bin/bash -c “/var/www/passbolt/bin/cake migrations migrate --no-lock” www-data

Clear Passbolt Cache

sudo su -s /bin/bash -c “./bin/cake cache clear_all” www-data

If you have further LinuxBabe questions, please use the LinuxBabe Forum

3

Hey @cubiclemonkey,

I see you are trying to install passbolt directly from the source, which is not recommended way as there are lots of things to take care of. Having said that, as you mentioned you are bypassing the extensions which is however the core requirements in order for passbolt to work.

What I would suggest is if you are very versed in system administration(web servers, database management, background process, etc.) and really have unique requirements to install passbolt then you should check official document on how to install passbolt API from source. Otherwise just go with guides to install passbolt on your distribution here, but it will require to have fresh OS install with no web server or database, etc. pre installed & configured. Another option would be to use passbolt in containerized environment using docker, here is the guide on how to do that as well.

4

Thanks, Duff. I used those instructions for my first setup but this time I’m rearranging some of my internal virtual machines. I’m using a reverse proxy for everything I selfhost. Passbolt was originally behind that but I couldn’t get the mobile app working since the cert wasn’t on the passbolt vm itself.

So I’m installing it on my reverse proxy to give it directly web access and cert renewal via certbox/letsencrypt.

I’ll try the steps you provided but wanted to give more context as to why I’m not using the basic install steps. Thanks.

Update: Your commands didn’t work. It didn’t like “–no-lock” or your double quotes.

5

Thanks, Ishan. I started out at Step 6 of the instructions you provided and received the same error message.

No Security.salt placeholder to replace.

That seems to be as far as I can get. Thanks though.

Edit:

Oddly, composer warns when running as root but I get a permissions error on the [/var/www/passbolt/vendor/cakephp-plugins.php] file if I don’t.

6

Regarding “No Security.salt placeholder to replace.” error, it’s not an error just a warning as the replacing of salt is already done. So no need to worry about that.

Oddly, composer warns when running as root but I get a permissions error on the [/var/www/passbolt/vendor/cakephp-plugins.php] file if I don’t.

This warning from composer running root is fine also, just after composer dependencies are installed properly run below command to give permission web-server user.
For example:

$ cd /var/www/passbolt
$ chown -R www-data:www-data .

Then you can follow the instruction from where you left off.