Linux Mint Confluence server installation failing

[Anthony Evans]

Hi,

I am trying to install (Custom or Express) Confluence server on my Linux Mint (17.3) Dell E6530 laptop.  Installation raises a few failures, and I cannot connect to Confluence via the browser.

A log of a typical installation attempt is shown below.

I am a complete newbie to Confluence, and haven't used Linux for about 20 years, so I'm sure it's something pretty simple!  The /confluence (Home) directory was empty, so I set permissions on it to anyone in case I was trtying to do this as the wrong user, but that didn't make any difference.

Thanks

Anthony

anthony@anthony-Latitude-E6530 ~/Downloads $ chmod a+x atlassian-confluence-6.3.1-x64.bin
anthony@anthony-Latitude-E6530 ~/Downloads $ sudo ./atlassian-confluence-6.3.1-x64.bin
[sudo] password for anthony:
Unpacking JRE ...
Starting Installer ...
Aug 01, 2017 2:23:31 PM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences$1 run
INFO: Created user preferences directory.

This will install Confluence 6.3.1 on your computer.
OK [o, Enter], Cancel [c]
o
Choose the appropriate installation or upgrade option.
Please choose one of the following:
Express Install (uses default settings) [1],
Custom Install (recommended for advanced users) [2, Enter],
Upgrade an existing Confluence installation [3]
1
See where Confluence will be installed and the settings that will be used.
Installation Directory:
Home Directory: /var/atlassian/application-data/confluence
HTTP Port: 8090
RMI Port: 8000
Install as service: Yes
Install [i, Enter], Exit [e]
i

Extracting files ...

com.install4j.runtime.beans.actions.misc.RunExecutableAction failed

Ignore [i, Enter], Quit [q]
i

Please wait a few moments while we configure Confluence.
Installation of Confluence 6.3.1 is complete
Start Confluence now?
Yes [y, Enter], No [n]
y

Please wait a few moments while Confluence starts up.
Launching Confluence ...
Installation of Confluence 6.3.1 is complete
Your installation of Confluence 6.3.1 is now ready and can be accessed via
your browser.
Confluence 6.3.1 can be accessed at http://localhost:8090
In action "Write Modz Registry [Run script]" (screen "Custom Finish Screen [Configurable banner form]"), property "Script":
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: appBaseDir '/confluence' is not a readable directory
at com.atlassian.inception.modz.ModificationHelper.checkReadableDir(ModificationHelper.java:242)
at com.atlassian.inception.modz.ModificationHelper.<init>(ModificationHelper.java:77)
at com.atlassian.inception.modz.ConfluenceModificationHelper.<init>(ConfluenceModificationHelper.java:20)
at com.atlassian.inception.modz.ModificationHelper.createConfluenceHelper(ModificationHelper.java:52)
at I4jScript_Internal_125.eval(I4jScript_Internal_125.java:27)
at I4jScript_Internal_125.evaluate(I4jScript_Internal_125.java:35)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.helper.Script.evaluate(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.ContextImpl.runScript(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.ContextImpl.runScript(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.beans.actions.control.RunScriptAction.execute(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.beans.actions.SystemInstallOrUninstallAction.install(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.InstallerContextImpl.performActionInt(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.ContextImpl.performAction(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.controller.Controller.executeActions(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.controller.Controller.handleCommand(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.controller.Controller.start(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.installer.Installer.main(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at com.exe4j.runtime.LauncherEngine.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.install4j.runtime.launcher.Launcher.main(Unknown Source)
Unable to register filesystem for installer modification checking.
Finishing installation ...
anthony@anthony-Latitude-E6530 ~/Downloads $

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It looks like the confluence user does not have full ownership/permissions on the directories it needs.

[Anthony Evans]

It looked like that to me as well, but I installed Mint under the name 'Anthony', was logged in as that when installing and I didn't see any 'sudo' or (for example) su root in the installation instruction so assumed user Anthony would have the appropriate privileges.

Suggestions welcome!  Happy to chmod/own any directories to try and get it to work, but as yet don't know which directories I should investigate because I don't know Confluence.

I did manage to install PostgreSQL beforehand under that user name, and that was relatively trouble free except for needing to change directory references to (as I recall) 9.3 instead of 9.4.

Keen to have a look at Confluence!

Regards

Anthony

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, it's likely to be installed as you, but possibly not configured to run as you!  Look in <install>/bin for the shell scripts that set the user (I think there's only one) and check who is in there.

If it's your account, then everything should be owned by you in the installation and home directories, so check that, and then we'll have to dig deeper.

If it's not you, then either change it, or set up the named user and change the ownership to that (generally, we recommend using a separate user, not a real human who logs in)

[Anthony Evans]

Hi again, well, I wish I could give some better guidance! Apologies, I've been away for some days and so am only now getting back to this (it's for my own personal interest and possible product development).

I checked the installation directory, which is as in the manual - /var/atlassian/application-data/confluence.  All looked OK, did a chmod 777 . to ensure anyone could do anything - but actually that was the same setting as before anyway.  Checked the download directory for my own user - rwxr-xr-x 1 anthony anthony 604450053 Jul 31 19:21 atlassian-confluence-6.3.1-x64.bin

All OK?  Did sudo, (its good for me to be learning all this stuff!) as root, ran through the installation process, with identical results.

The installation directory after 'install' was completely empty, not a single file in it!  I'm assuming the <install>/bin scripts you mention would be in the installation directory?

This seems such an impressive faiure to install that I must be doing very impressively wrong, or looking in the wrong place? 

Apologies for being so new to this, but as I say it is at least getting me back into Unix after many years.  I also wanted to install Confluence/Jira locally so that I could understand what was under the bonnet.  In that I think I shall succeed:)

Regards

Anthony

[Fergal Daly]

Hi,

I am thinking of installing confluence on Linux Mint today.
Did you manage to resolve your issue ?

Does Confluence work on Linux Mint ?

Cheers,
Fergal.