Install BookStack on Fedora 27

AdamF

Spoke too soon. I was only able to get to the home page. Clicking anything else like Settings, or books, give mes:

Not Found
The requested URL /books was not found on this server.

JaredBusch

It is certainly a problem with the ssl.conf. Make sure the options match the bookstack.conf

JaredBusch

Also you have to update the .env file

AdamF

@jaredbusch said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

It is certainly a problem with the ssl.conf. Make sure the options match the bookstack.conf

My frustrations got in the way, and I forgot to put in the Directory lines.

<Directory /var/www/html/bookstack/public>
        Require all granted
        AllowOverride All
        #Options +Indexes
</Directory>

Good to go! Can't wait to start populating content in this to see how I really like it.

JaredBusch

Log file path in the bookstack.conf updated to keep SELinux happy.
Here is the fix if you have a problem after a reboot and followed these instructions originally prior to the date of this post.

https://mangolassi.it/topic/16587/fedora-update-breaks-httpd/12

Cherryman

Hi everyone,

i just registered here to say thank you for this awesome step-by-step tutorial!
I use bookstack in my virtualbox VM with NAT network settings and i just had to use "#" for "APP_URL" in order to use http://localhost inside of the VM.

One big problem i have is the maintenance. In order to backup the database i have to use the MariaDB root password, which somehow isn't the one i used to install bookstack. Whenever i try to change the root password my database gets wrecked so hard that i have to restore old snapshots in order to systemctl start mariadb again.

i stoped mariadb then used mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables & and then connected to mysql and changed the root password with SQL statements. After that the database is unusable.

Any idea?

scottalanmiller

@cherryman said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

Any idea?

When installing BookStack, you don't want to use the root account for it to run, that would be the underlying issue. You'll want to make a new user that is dedicated to BookStack, set it with its own password and give it access only to the BookStack database. Then once the app is talking to the database using that account, you are free to use that account as well to make your backups, to make a separate account for backups, or to use the root account for backups. But you'll want to make sure that root is not the one being used by the application.

Cherryman

@scottalanmiller
Thank you for clarifying.
Just following the tutorial from @JaredBusch there is already a dedicated database_user just for the application.
So there is no security issue for me. Luckily the Bookstack_db_user works when I try to export the database. It's just odd that the root password i used for mysql doesn't work at all. aslong as the bookstack DB_user is enough as DB_Backup then i am happy with it.

Thanks alot!

JaredBusch

@cherryman If you used the above, the first variable is the root password.

# Root password for MariaDB
export DB_ROOT_PASS='somesecurepassword'

That said, if you cannot get in with it, the bookstack user bs_user should also work to backup the bookstack database. The password for that user can be found in the .env file. It is generated randomly during install.

JaredBusch

@scottalanmiller He was not running the applicaiton with the root user. but trying to make a backup from the CLI.

JaredBusch

@cherryman you can reset your root password like this.

https://websiteforstudents.com/reset-mysql-mariadb-root-password/

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-reset-your-mysql-or-mariadb-root-password

Cherryman

Yes i used DB_ROOT_PASS for the root database password, but maybe i used some symbols which mysql didn't liked and switched them somehow.
I will follow the instructions on the websites you posted. They look a little different. Maybe they work.
Wish me luck Thanks for all the help!

scottalanmiller

@cherryman said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

Yes i used DB_ROOT_PASS for the root database password, but maybe i used some symbols which mysql didn't liked and switched them somehow.
I will follow the instructions on the websites you posted. They look a little different. Maybe they work.
Wish me luck Thanks for all the help!

For databases, I keep passwords to standard numbers and letters, avoiding symbols. Some databases don't like those things and they can get squirely.

scottalanmiller

That was supposed to be squiirely. Squirely is totally different.

Cherryman

It worked! I have access to my root user for the DB again. I could not kill the process the way it was described on the website, but i could search with ps -auxww and found the PID to use kill for.

I am not really sure if i did "composer install" as root or not. Just in case i made the mistake to install with the root user, is there any way to fix that or is it worth the time to reinstall everything just with a normal account without sudo and without root?

JaredBusch

@cherryman said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

It worked! I have access to my root user for the DB again. I could not kill the process the way it was described on the website, but i could search with ps -auxww and found the PID to use kill for.

I am not really sure if i did "composer install" as root or not. Just in case i made the mistake to install with the root user, is there any way to fix that or is it worth the time to reinstall everything just with a normal account without sudo and without root?

I always install after su - to root. I do not know enough about composer to answer your question though.

Cherryman

Okay thanks alot. I am just scared about some "major" mistakes, since bookstack will end up being my private documentation for... well... everything.

scottalanmiller

@cherryman said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

Okay thanks alot. I am just scared about some "major" mistakes, since bookstack will end up being my private documentation for... well... everything.

Good backups and the rest doesn't matter so much. You can always get back to working with a good backup.

FiyaFly

@jaredbusch said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

@nashbrydges said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

@hobbit666 said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

Woop installed and ready to use.

(Does it matter i have no idea what half those commands did, but yet i have a working system )

I guess that was the point of the post, was to make it crazy simple. I suppose whether it matters if you have no idea or not depends on whether you want to learn what those commands do or not

That is the point of my guides. They are for both education and getting a working system. ...

On that, you do a fantastic job. Though the main point here being installing BookStack (Which I plan to do today), I've also been meaning to understand a bit more on the proper ways to add exceptions to firewalld and selinux, and this may give me just enough to actually understand how to do so. Since I've just been running sandboxes and testing apps, I've just disabled both of them since my VM's don't really last longer than a week. However, one of my projects in mind is better locking down Linux (CentOS/Fedora), and providing a use/security case to TPTB to tell them that Linux isn't the devil, when done right. lol.

black3dynamite

@fiyafly said in Install BookStack on Fedora 27:

However, one of my projects in mind is better locking down Linux (CentOS/Fedora), and providing a use/security case to TPTB to tell them that Linux isn't the devil, when done right.

Maybe FreeBSD is the lol.