Etherpad admin access failed

[Benoit]

Hi,

I can't seem to log in as an admin on Etherpad, whether it's a fresh installation or an updated one. Can you confirm if you're experiencing the same issue on your end?

My setup : Cloudron v8.2.3 (Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS)

[nebulon]

Indeed, it seems bits of the usermanagent have changed with openid. We have to update the docs. But to make a user admin, first login via openid, then edit the settings.json in the app:

{
  "users": {
    "<username>": {
      "is_admin": true
    }
}

The password field needs to be removed if it is there. Then restart the app.

[Benoit]

@nebulon i have tried on 2 Cloudron here but it failed, with different users and new users...

I have an error when i stop the app but the app can restart

Jan 22 16:55:43 box:apptask run: startTask installationState: pending_stop runState: stopped
Jan 22 16:55:43 box:tasks update 10367: {"percent":20,"message":"Stopping container"}
Jan 22 16:55:43 box:shell reverseproxy /usr/bin/sudo -S /home/yellowtent/box/src/scripts/restartservice.sh nginx
Jan 22 16:55:44 box:shell 2025/01/22 15:55:43 [notice] 65744#65744: signal process started
Jan 22 16:55:44 Command failed with signal "SIGTERM"
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.241] [INFO] server - Exiting...
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.241] [INFO] server - Received SIGTERM signal
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.242] [INFO] http - Closing HTTP server...
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.242] [INFO] server - Stopping Etherpad...
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.243] [INFO] socket.io - All socket.io clients have disconnected
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.243] [INFO] socket.io - Closing socket.io engine...
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.245] [INFO] http - HTTP server closed
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.245] [INFO] server - Etherpad stopped
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.245] [INFO] ueberDB - Database closed
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.246] [INFO] server - Received SIGTERM signal
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.246] [INFO] server - Waiting for Node.js to exit...
Jan 22 16:55:44 [2025-01-22T15:55:44.245] [DEBUG] secret-rotation expressSessionSecrets - stopping secret rotation
Jan 22 16:55:44  ELIFECYCLE  Command failed.
Jan 22 16:55:44  ERR_PNPM_RECURSIVE_RUN_FIRST_FAIL  ep_etherpad-lite@2.2.7 dev: `cross-env NODE_ENV=development node --require tsx/cjs node/server.ts "--settings" "/run/etherpad-lite/settings.json" "--credentials" "/app/data/settings.json"`
Jan 22 16:55:44 /run/etherpad-lite/src:
Jan 22 16:55:45 box:tasks update 10367: {"percent":50,"message":"Stopping app services"}
Jan 22 16:55:45 box:tasks update 10367: {"percent":100,"message":"Done"}
Jan 22 16:55:46 box:tasks setCompleted - 10367: {"result":null,"error":null}
Jan 22 16:55:46 box:tasks update 10367: {"percent":100,"result":null,"error":null}
Jan 22 16:55:46 box:taskworker Task took 2.241 seconds

[nebulon]

Just tried again and looks like you have to relogin after app restart after adding that user in the settings.json and provide the admin flag.

[Benoit]

@nebulon I just retried, but it failed. I tried logging out of Cloudron after restarting Etherpad, and it still failed.

[nebulon]

I fixed up the docs at https://docs.cloudron.io/apps/etherpad/ this works reliably for me. Quite possibly the different login views were the issue?

[Benoit]

@nebulon it works ! The "or createing a new pad works" part in the documentation was important

Thanks for your lights !

[LoudLemur]

I was unable to login as admin, too.
Even after following the amended docs and looking at this thread, I still can't manage it.

Is this the procedure?

• install/launch Etherpad (it is not called etherpad Lite anymore, is it?)
• Try to create a document as an ordinary user
• In the field there at the top right, try and login, which takes you to Cloudron
• From Cloudron, attempt to login to Etherpad using the default credentials? (didn't work)
• Use Cloudron's file manager to navigate to the settings.json and change the admin username and passphrase.
• Save/restart the instance
• login again somewhere (?)

[nebulon]

Just went through the steps at https://docs.cloudron.io/packages/etherpad/#admin-user on a new instance and it worked as mentioned.

So the normal login with Cloudron when you try to create a document (that odd sign-in button in the top-right in etherpad) does not work?

[perelin]

Just almost tripped over this myself. It seems that "requireAuthentication": false hides the login button, and so the whole login /admin situation gets confusing. Might be worth adding that to the docs.