Lemmy Support @lemmy.ml notdeadyet @lemmy.ml 1y ago

Can’t subscribe to lemmy.ml communities

Hey everyone,

I finally figured out how to get my Lemmy instance up and running. Everything seems to work great except for the fact that I can’t subscribe to any lemmy.ml communities; it just stays stuck at pending. All other communities on other instances subscribe successfully.

Is this an issue on my end or is there an issue with lemmy.ml?

18 comments

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.
- @[email protected] 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

@[email protected]

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; }

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
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

18 comments