Hey I just had a question on this exact thing this morning for my new account on mander. So the trick for getting communities active on a new instance is that you first need to search for the whole url (such as https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy_support). It will of course fail, but then you can immediately search for "lemmy_support" and that will now be found.
@Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz Thanks for the reply. I have done that and can successfully see the community. However, when I try to subscribe it is stuck at pending. Cancelling and trying again doesn't seem to fix it.
I only have this issue with communities on lemmy.ml from my instance lemmy.notdead.net
Sorry to hear that. From the other replies it sounds like it's going to be a configuration issue but I didn't set up my own instance so that's as much advice as I can offer. Good luck!
A few times I've had to click "pending" to cancel it, then try again. Usually worked second try.
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, no luck doing that. I also noticed, I can't see my meta community from the lemmy.ml search, but I can find it from other instances. ( https://lemmy.notdead.net/c/meta )
I seem to only have issues federating with lemmy.ml
I've had the same issue with my instance.
If you've used the official Docker setup, add "lemmyexternalproxy" as a network to the lemmy
service.
Just tried that, same issue unfortunately. Do I add that only to the lemmy service?
I've only added it to the lemmy service in the docker-compose.yml and that fixed it for me.
At least it looks like it fixed everything for me, I'm posting from the instance.
Had the same issue, you have a problem with federation. Post your nginx conf file and maybe we can see something
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
I'm just using the default one from the instructions, pasted it below. It may also be worth noting that I am using Nginx Proxy Manager on top of all this for ssl. I have set all custom locations (api, feeds, nodeinfo, pictrs) but I have left the advanced section blank.
worker_processes 1; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { upstream lemmy { # this needs to map to the lemmy (server) docker service hostname server "lemmy:8536"; } upstream lemmy-ui { # this needs to map to the lemmy-ui docker service hostname server "lemmy-ui:1234"; }
server {
# this is the port inside docker, not the public one yet
listen 80;
# change if needed, this is facing the public web
server_name localhost;
server_tokens off;
gzip on;
gzip_types text/css application/javascript image/svg+xml;
gzip_vary on;
# Upload limit, relevant for pictrs
client_max_body_size 20M;
add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
# frontend general requests
location / {
# distinguish between ui requests and backend
# don't change lemmy-ui or lemmy here, they refer to the upstream definitions on top
set $proxpass "http://lemmy-ui";
if ($http_accept = "application/activity+json") {
set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
}
if ($http_accept = "application/ld+json; profile=\"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\"") {
set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
}
if ($request_method = POST) {
set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
}
proxy_pass $proxpass;
rewrite ^(.+)/+$ $1 permanent;
# Send actual client IP upstream
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
# backend
location ~ ^/(api|pictrs|feeds|nodeinfo|.well-known) {
proxy_pass "http://lemmy";
# proxy common stuff
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
# Send actual client IP upstream
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}
}
So first off, yeah their nginx is not the greatest example. Most of it is fine but check out their ansible example
So first off, I don't see HTTPS. Federation will not work without HTTPS, that's in the troubleshooting guide. You'll need to get https up and running and have a valid cert. Certbot is very easy to get up and running, I followed this guide
I don't know if it matters, but add all of the extra security items from the example guide around HTTPS, I believe Lemmy does depend on some of the extra parameters like ssl_ciphers and protocols to make sure requests are using the correct ones.
One key nugget of information is that in your http
block you should add resolver 127.0.0.11 ipv6=off;
, which tells nginx to use 127.0.0.11
as it's DNS, which is imperative if you are using docker host names. That IP is Docker's internal DNS, so things like http://lemmy
and http://lemmy-ui
work.
server_name
should be the external tld. For example, mine is poptalk.scrubbles.tech
.
My entire proxypass for /
is as follows, I think yours should work, but this is known working:
location / {
# The default ports:
# lemmy_ui_port: 1235
# lemmy_port: 8536
set $proxpass "http://lemmy-ui:1234";
if ($http_accept ~ "^application/.*$") {
set $proxpass "http://lemmy:8536";
}
if ($request_method = POST) {
set $proxpass "http://lemmy:8536";
}
proxy_pass $proxpass;
rewrite ^(.+)/+$ $1 permanent;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
}
Make sure you're also redirecting pictshare (which I believe is deprecated, but if you have issues with pictures:
location ~ /pictshare/(.*)$ {
return 301 /pictrs/image/$1;
}
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
Thanks for that info! Unfortunately, trying to get my instance up using that config is proving to be quite difficult with my setup. I found another user with a similar setup to me that posted a guide and even that gives me the same problem with ONLY communities on lemmy.ml
https://lemmy.dcrich.net/post/1150
I am using the nginx posted on there, as well as nginx proxy manager on top of it which manages my HTTPS / SSL.
According to everyone that followed that guide, there are zero issues for them, but for me, nothing works on lemmy.ml which is unfortunate as there are a lot of communities I want to subscribe to on here.
I had to restart the lemmy container after setting it up to get federation to work correctly
Thanks for the idea. Tried it and no luck unfortunately
I whitelisted them in settings, but not sure if that is necessary? Only had my instance for a day.
And for me it worked to subscribe.
Tried that, made no difference. Thank you though
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