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Troubleshooting

This page covers common troubleshooting steps for Canasta installations.

Contents

Checking container status

To see if your Canasta containers are running: 

cd /path/to/installation
docker compose ps

Viewing container logs

To view logs from the web container: 

cd /path/to/installation
docker compose logs web

To follow logs in real-time: 

docker compose logs -f web

To view logs from all containers: 

docker compose logs

Log file locations

For more detailed debugging, you can access log files inside the container:

Log Description Command
MediaWiki debug Application debug log (see below) docker compose exec web tail -f /var/log/mediawiki/debug.log
Apache error PHP errors and Apache warnings docker compose exec web tail -f /var/log/apache2/error_log.current
Apache access HTTP request log docker compose exec web tail -f /var/log/apache2/access_log.current

Enabling the MediaWiki debug log

The MediaWiki debug log is the most useful log for debugging application issues, but it requires explicit configuration. Add this to a settings file (e.g., config/settings/global/Debug.php):

<?php
$wgDebugLogFile = '/var/log/mediawiki/debug.log';

Then restart the container:

canasta restart -i myinstance

Accessing the database

To connect to the MySQL database directly: 

cd /path/to/installation
docker compose exec db mysql -u root -p
Enter the root database password from your .env file when prompted.

Running commands inside containers

To run arbitrary commands inside the web container: 

cd /path/to/installation
docker compose exec web <command>

For example, to check PHP version: 

docker compose exec web php -v

To get a shell inside the container: 

docker compose exec web bash

Common issues

Installation fails with "Canasta installation with the ID already exists" - An installation with that ID is already registered. Use canasta list to see existing installations, or choose a different ID.

Cannot connect to Docker - Ensure Docker is running: systemctl status docker - Ensure your user has Docker access (on Linux: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER, then log out and back in)

Wiki not accessible after creation - Check that containers are running: docker compose ps - Verify the domain/URL configuration in config/wikis.yaml - Check container logs for errors: docker compose logs web

Wiki not accessible on non-standard ports - When using non-standard ports, the port must be included in the URL you use to access the wiki in your browser (e.g., https://localhost:8443, not https://localhost) - The port must also appear in the URL in config/wikis.yaml (e.g., localhost:8443 or localhost:8443/wiki2) - This applies to both path-based and subdomain-based wikis

SSL/TLS errors when running behind a reverse proxy or load balancer - If your server is already behind something that terminates SSL (e.g. Cloudflare, nginx, a cloud load balancer), Caddy's automatic HTTPS will conflict with it. Add CADDY_AUTO_HTTPS=off to .env and restart. See Deploying behind a reverse proxy for details.

Permission denied errors - Ensure your user is in the docker and www-data groups (on Linux: sudo usermod -aG docker,www-data $USER, then log out and back in) - The docker group is needed for Docker access; the www-data group is needed because the web container runs as www-data and shares the config/ directory - Ensure the installation directory has proper ownership