Unable to change system configurations in GUI

Install/Maintain/Configure
1

Debian 9.9 w/Gitea 1.8.3 running as user git and Nginx 1.10.3

Installation, for the most part, was straight-forward and without incident as per:
https://golb.hplar.ch/2018/06/self-hosted-git-server.html

Gitea is listening on TCP port 666 and Gitea’s SSH server is listening on TCP port 22 with the following lines in gitea.service uncommented in order to achieve this:

#CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
#AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

Site Administration ==> Configuration:

I’m unable to affect any changes in this section, specifically, any of the checkboxes. app.ini was chmod’d 644 with ownership git:git

I thought that maybe if I changed it to 646 or 666 it would be, then restarted the service, but still, I’m unable to make any changes unless I edit app.ini directly in a shell.

I initially noticed this because I was unable to connect or affect a clone via:

$ git clone -vv git@host.sld.tld:username/testrepo_1.git

So I added checked the cheat sheet at https://docs.gitea.io/en-us/config-cheat-sheet/ which indicated that, by default, Gitea’s SSH server is disabled from starting up (Not what the install script at the website indicated when installing Gitea and asked if I wanted it):

From the Config Cheat Sheet page at Github:
START_SSH_SERVER: false:

This line wasn’t even in app.ini, so I added it, setting it thus:

[server]
LOCAL_ROOT_URL   = http://localhost:666/
START_SSH_SERVER = true
SSH_DOMAIN       = localhost
DOMAIN           = localhost
HTTP_PORT        = 666
ROOT_URL         = http://hostname.sld.tld/
DISABLE_SSH      = false
SSH_PORT         = 22

Everything else was already there. I also have questions about LOCAL_ROOT_URL, SSH_DOMAIN, and DOMAIN, as they are set to localhost. Shouldn’t they be reflect otherwise? Especially the latter two, with a value of 0.0.0.0 or something else besides just localhost?

after stopping and starting Gitea, I saw port 22 showing up in netstat and was able to connect via ssh and effect a clone and a push back to the repo.

Why did Gitea behave in this way?

Did I do something wrong during installation?

Why can’t I still affect any changes via the GUI?

Any thoughts, suggestions, are appreciated.

2

Okay… UPDATE:

Here’s the skinny on gui. you simply can’t affect such changes there. I understand they’re working on doing just that, but I can’t say with any certainty it’s on the roadmap now.

So that’s a good thing to know, and the docs over at Github should perhaps reflect that better.

Now, lot’s of misperceptions about the SSH server on my part. In the GUI, where it says SSH Port during the setup, the installation program is asking you what particular port YOUR OpenSSH server is running on - NOT which port you want Gitea’s SSH server to listen on.

That’s technically on me, coz the graphic says so, if you don’t read it too quickly. Anyway, there’s no reason for most folks to consider using Gitea to provide SSH services. You’ve already got an SSH server and the installation program is asking what port it is at so it can redirect there.

The Gitea Devs have gone out of their way to accommodate those who may be installing on something that only has a local terminal and therefore no SSH server, for example.

In my case, If I was going to have a daemon listening on port 22, then a limited SSH server that is confined to performing git operations is actually appealing to me - at least there’s something there :slight_smile:

I got some pretty direct feedback the Config Cheat Sheet HERE might should be considered as required reading. See how I worded that? I wanted to be a little ambiguous there while emphasising how important that page is. - All settings in the GUI, that can’t be changed there, and more, are ALL affected in app.ini and merely reflected as such in the GUI.

Bottom line, Issue solved :wink:

And a very big thank you to such a responsive and dedicated Development Team.

P.S. I am told that Gitea’s SSH services in the upcoming version 1.10 are going to provide a noticeably faster experience.

I hope that helps :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

Thanks for your help. We have discussed move most configurations in an admin UI. That should be on the roadmap. You can find them on https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/issues/6998 .